Shaving Product Review - West Coast Shaving "Oriental"

Value (Cost, Packaging and Performance)

Lather (Density, Glide and Feel)

Post-shave (Healing, Moisture and Feel)

Scent (Quality, Strength and Longevity)

Checking out the new #soap line with Oriental by West Coast Shaving (via Oleo Soapworks) and Chatillon Lux Rose Santal #aftershave (toner) and #EdT!

Maybe you are looking for something a little more exotic. Maybe you live for the dark, mysterious hours when wishing stars begin to wink on and the night gets exciting. Maybe you are looking for an Oriental fragrance. This category of perfume relies on dominate amber notes with musk, vanilla, and resins to give a glimpse of the East. Our Oriental aroma plays well with both its floral and woody neighbors. The blending of smooth, warm, rich exotic woods and vanillic benzoin highlight a lightly spiced rose. This scent must be experienced to be truly understood.

This soap is part of a new line of soaps, creams and aftershaves discussed a while back in West Coast Shaving Introducing New Soap Line. In particular, the soaps are courtesy of #OleoSoapworks and distributed by #WCShaving. You may recall my in-depth review of Pear-brrr Shoppe back in mid-August. A shipping snafu has delayed this review, so apologies for that. Since I didn't have any matching aftershave or scent, I went with none other than Rose Santal by Chatillon Lux. This scent by #ChatillonLux needs no intro, I believe... It's the finest rose scent in shavedom.

Performance wise, there's not much to say - those familiar with the duck fat base by Oleo Soapworks know that it's great stuff. It's not quite top tier (but not far from it, either) that performs well above its price point. Especially with the pre-launch pricing of $17.98 but even at the regular $19.98 (the cream, by comparison, is $14.38 pre-launch and $17.98 regularly). Other than ultimate skin feel, there's not much to complain about. The lather is abundant and creamy with excellent primary and secondary lubrication. Let's take a quick look at the ingredients:

Stearic acid, water, kokum butter, potassium hydroxide, palm kernel oil, duck fat, sodium hydroxide, castor oil, glycerin, jojoba oil and sodium lactate.

The scent of Oriental is described basically as a "spiced rose-woods scent." That does sum it up. Of somewhat slightly more help, Oriental has vague notes of woods, benzoin and a lightly spiced rose listed. As I didn't have an aftershave to properly judge the scent, I don't want to say too much based on a soap... Hardly an accurate representation of the scent, but reflected in the chart above (longevity notwithstanding). Scent strength in the tub and lathered is a lower medium.

True to its billing - it opens with a woodsy, slight spicy rose with a warm, vanillic undertone. You can see how it's classed as an Oriental fragrance, which typically contain one or more of amber, resin, tobacco, spices, exotic woods and animal notes. In fact, there's a sub-category called "spicy/woody" and this falls right in line with that. Instead of the more common citrus note(s), this one features rose. The rose is not overly floral; in fact it's downplayed quite a bit by the spice. Still clearly rose, though it's a drier, dustier one. Less floral even than Rose Santal which I followed up with...

The lack of an aftershave was more than made for by the use of Rose Santal by Chatillon Lux. Luckily, I have both an aftershave (toner) and the EdT. In my opinion, it's the nicest rose-centric scent out there. Enough woods and rose for any man. I get complements every time I wear it; in fact - I got two the first day I wore it! It seriously doesn't get better than this. I encourage you to read my in-depth review of Rose Santal for the full scoop, including the matching soap. I will endeavor to always have this in my den.

The hardware today was the #TimelessRazor #TRBR38 bronze, some parts highly polished, others with a forced patina of my own devising. The brush is a lovely matching piece from #WildWestBrushworks and sports a 24mm BOSS knot while the #GTP scuttle did its thing.

I'll have to see about getting a jug of matching juice for this scent... Best I can tell, it's a fine scent! Again, I hate to judge it by soap alone - so keep an eye out for an updated review. Woodsy, spicy rose. Never a bad combination if you ask me. Especially when followed up with the one that rules them all... Rose Santal! Up next will be an in-depth review of Chypre (another scent in the line up). Stay tuned!