SOTD/Review: Southern Witchcrafts Arcane Abyss

• Prep: shower
• Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts Aurora handle with AP Luxury mixed badger/boar knot
• Lather: Southern Witchcrafts Arcane Abyss
• Razor: Ever Ready 1914
• Blade: Gem PTFE coated
• Aftershave: Southern Witchcrafts Arcane Abyss

I sniffed all the Southern Witchcrafts scents at the Maggard meetup this year. They are weird. There wasn't a single one where I was like "oh this smells a lot like some other artisan's scent." Arcane Abyss is their take on an aquatic scent, and the one I liked best, so it's the one I bought a full size set of.

That their aquatic is the one I liked best is itself weird, since I generally hate aquatics. I mean, I like the idea, but there is some aromachemical that they all use that my nose is sensitive to. Arcane Abyss doesn't have that. It's not aquatic as in it smells like standing on a beach breathing in the sea air. No, it's aquatic as in I bet this is what a 400 year old shipwreck would smell like. There's old wood, seaweed, minerals, and decay. That's what I get off the puck.

And then when you lather it-- whoa, it changes. The shipwreck is still there, but then here comes this cool watery wave, and in the water there's something I can't quite put my finger on. Is it blood? Is it that odd smell of wet brass? Squid ink? It's honestly a little upsetting, on a very deep lizard-brain level.

Performance of the soap is very good in terms of lathering, in-shave performance, and post shave feel. It's kind of like the Tour de France though: you have a couple leaders out front, and a whole clump of riders together in the peloton. By Tour de France standards, the peloton riders aren't that remarkable, but just to get on a team they have to be some of the best cyclists in the world. Southern Witchcrafts base is one of those peloton riders. There's nothing bad I can say about it, in fact it's objectively really great. But it's not one of those top few bases that stand out, and I am spoiled a bit I guess.

The aftershave splash is witch hazel based, has some skin goodies in there, and works well.

That scent tho-- there's nothing else like it that I've sniffed. I have no idea how they accomplished it. Not a scent I'm going to reach for everyday, but fascinating.