So you've got a few of the Zoologist range. What's your favourite? Any you don't like?
I have Dragonfly and Civet (Shelly Waddington) and Rhinoceros (Paul Killer). Both of these people are great independent niche perfumers. I can't speak highly enough of their work and the Zoologist releases.
I love their labelling/packaging. I guess part of the question is does the soap scent/performance justify the cost?
Zoologist is a niche perfumery house who invites noses to create the scents that they release, the company embodies the ethos of artisan perfumery and is stocked by specialist retailers around the globe with a majority of their fragrances costing around
$195.00 per bottle in Australia. They are a small concern who releases work from award winning artisan perfumers, outside of the large perfumery corporations. Their ethos and ideals I thoroughly support, they make superb fragrances and are competing with massive entities in the market. They also refuse to use animal derived materials.
Ron who owns and runs Chiseled Face in the US managed to negotiate the release of a handful of the Zoologist releases as shaving soaps, some of the perfumers did not want their work put into a soap base while others agreed. A perfume house agreeing to let their product be put into a shaving soap has the potential be a risky proposition, Zoologist is a small artisan company who could not afford to have it's brand or reputation damaged if the product was not executed in line with their perfumes. They are competing on a very unequal footing with large multinational perfume companies.
The Chiseled Face/Zoologist Soaps retailed for $37.00 USD or thereabouts and the soap base is a great performer. The sets were (presumably) released in the manner they were as to match the perfume bottles, they are simply glass jars with foil printing on them which while expensive in Australia, is far cheaper and more accessible in the US. I have paid $50 AUD + postage for a Eufros release with a single note fragrance so these releases for me didn't require a seconds thought.
I like how a few artisans step out of the standard range to do something special/different which of course means they have to increase pricing to make it worthwhile.
Recently discussion has been focused around the 'singularity of soap base performance' being reached. Simply, there are a number of top tier soap bases with very little room remaining for discernible performance increases to be had. The consensus is that the artisans within the tier who can skilfully design fragrances for their products are the ones who will remain viable and will grow. I have experienced directly as the AP Reserve F2 base ala
@nsavage is widely considered to be in that top tier class along with 7 or 8 other artisan soap bases.
So I am the first to acknowledge AP Reserve is
minuscule in comparison to the leading US Artisans on the metrics of sales numbers, production scale and stockists
however due to my fragrance design we continue to grow, even with the cost of air-freight to the US, exchange rates and the seemingly endless constraints of doing business in Australia.
The folks out there who churn out releases using pre-blended fragrances (someone else has designed and made) it is mostly agreed, are not sustainable in the long term no matter how good their soap is if they continuing pricing their products the way they are, wet-shavers are becoming increasingly more educated about fragrances and how they are made for shaving products. While most forums will edit or censor discussion about specific vendors doing this, there are places where these things can be discussed, including the practice of pitching releases to the market using the language, terminology and notes of perfumery when it's glaringly obvious that it is a complete load of horse shit and a pre-blend or 'dupe' has been used.
However, there is a very healthy and entirely legitimate market segment for pre-blend releases and it thrives for artisans who sell their releases labelled honestly, and at a substantially lower price than an artisan who is designing with the materials of perfumery (and the countless hours of development and material cost) as simply not everyone wants or cares about the authenticity of their perfume. The same applies to pure EO or natural perfumery, it can never compete with the range of compounds available to the perfumer but then it need not, there is a segment of wet-shavers who are happy with something simple and no more.