Chatillon Lux

Better late then never...better never late. Some time ago I promised a review of Chatillon Lux aftershaves and while life has contrived to keep me distracted the last several weeks I'm finally here to make good on that promise. The good news for you is that in the interim I've picked up an additional offering from Chatillon Lux, which gives me four varieties from which to form an opinion, and a rather favorable opinion at that.

Chatillon Lux is a one-man operation and that one man is a fine gentleman by the name of Shawn Maher. I've had the opportunity to email back and forth with Shawn a couple of times and he, like many others associated with our hobby, is a good guy who loves both shaving and his hometown. I mention this because it is those two loves that define Chatillon Lux and its fine products.

Chatillon Lux, and many of its products' names, is a reference to St. Louis' South City region and its history. A trip to the Chatillon Lux website can be a peek into St. Louis geography and history with names like Treget de Delor, Colbeck and Taum Sauk, all aftershaves that I'll be discussing in this review.

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Let me begin by stating that each of these handcrafted aftershaves performs beautifully. With ingredients including witch hazel, chamomile extract, calendula extract, aloe vera and cat's claw bark extract, each of these splashes are formulated to care for your skin instead of simply drying it out. As someone with oily skin I love the fact that I'm getting the drying effects of an alcohol-based aftershave while also providing a little TLC for my skin. Simply put, I am very happy with the way these aftershaves feel both when applied and hours later when the alcohol and menthol have dissipated.

First up is the Delor de Treget, named after Clement Delor de Treget, founder of Carondolet. This is the fragrance that brought me to Chatillon Lux after having experienced it in the Chatillon Lux-Sudsy Soapery collaboration soap. The fragrance is of bergamot and cedarwood rounded out with the scent of sweet oranges with a background of labdanum. I am simply in love with this scent and having the matching, limited-run, soap makes every use a delight. Thankfully for those who didn't get a tub of the soap (or who run out) the splash pairs very well with D.R. Harris' Windsor, another of my favorites. If there is a single fault in this splash it is that it seems to fade faster than any other Chatillon Lux scent that I've experienced...a shame that.

The "Meetup Splash" was a limited run AS for the St. Louis Wet Shavers Meetup back on June 10. This was a complimentary gift from Shawn to the community and it was pressed into my hand not long before I was forced to head out. I had a quick email conversation with Shawn about this scent and he informed me that its a blend of neroli, orange, lemon, petitgrain, cedarwood, vetiver, peach, and some floral notes. Unfortunately for those who weren't at the meet, Shawn has no plans to reproduce this scent as it was meant to be a unique offering for those at the meetup. The AS performed as well as its siblings and while I liked the fragrance I PIFed it to a gentleman on the East Coast who was desperate to try it. Sometimes its best to send something you merely like along to someone who will love it, an ideal I see put into practice time and time again among our community.

The Colbeck and Taum Sauk fragrances are part of Shawn's Summertime Chill offerings. Both of these aftershaves feature pared down ingredient lists where witch hazel and aloe vera alone provide the care while alcohol and a healthy dose of menthol provide a cool blast to stave off the St. Louis heat and humidity.

Colbeck is named after one Dint Colbeck, a noted St. Louis gangster and gin smuggler. Appropriate to its namesake, Colbeck is a wonderful melange of botanicals normally found in gin. To be fair, I'm a big fan of gin-based drinks so a splash that pairs well with my favorite tipple is sure to get my attention. A perfect summer shave includes Stirling's Gin & Tonic, a splash of Colbeck and a Collin's glass filled with either its namesake drink or Pinckeny Bend's gin and tonic syrup.

(For those unfamiliar with Pinckeny Bend Distillery, they are another local company well worth checking out. Their gin is one of my favorites and the tonic syrup is simply delightful. If you don't care for gin and tonic I can recommend that you give the syrup a try as it lacks the bitterness of bottled tonic and the botanicals in it reinforce those used in making gin. If you shave like your grandpa I'd suggest trying to drink like him too!)

The most recent addition to my shave den is Chatillon Lux's Taum Sauk. While only attaining an altitude of 1,772 feet, Taum Sauk is not only the highest point in Missouri but geologists believe it and its neighbors are likely the only areas in the US not to have been submerged by ancient seas. The mountain is located in the southeastern region of Missouri as part of the St. Francois range. This area represents a personal connection for me as my grandfather was superintendent at Union Electric's (now Ameren) Taum Sauk pumped storage plant. While not actually located at Taum Sauk (it actually sits atop Proffit Mountain, about five miles away) I still remember spending hours in the region visiting my grandparents.

Shawn's homage to Missouri's highest point includes menthol and cedar, reminiscent of the cold winds one might experience in the area in the heart of winter. Unfortunately the Chatillon Lux website fails to tell me more than that but I can say that I do like it. The menthol kick of both this and the Colbeck aren't overpowering (hey, I like Fine's Snakebite so I may not be the best judge) but do provide a nice chilling finish for a your summer shave.

For those who take a gander at the Chatillon Lux website and aren't excited by any of the offerings it should be noted that Shawn rolls out limited offerings for each season along with other special runs. In fact, on July 21 he will be selling a second run of the Rose Santal he released in celebration of Chatillon Lux's second anniversary. Last but not least, he has also been known to collaborate with a certain soap companies on occasion. This leaves me hoping that he'll either eventually offer his own line of soaps or partner with a soap company to offer his fragrances as part of their line.

As you can tell by now, while I knew nothing of Chatillon Lux a couple of months ago, I've become a big fan of their products. As in almost all things associated with our hobby, YMMV. That said, I hope that at least a few of you give the Chatillon Lux website a visit and come to love their products as much as I have.

I quite like the sample of fourth and pine i have

This morning I linked my review in an email to Shawn over at Chatillon Lux as I wanted to make sure that he knows how much I've been appreciating his products. Shawn was kind enough to reply with some flattering comments along with an accounting of the ingredients he uses in Taum Sauk: cedar, balsam, ozonic notes and juniper.

Shawn mentioned that he doesn't list those ingredients on the website as some of the product testers felt that they gave the impression that Taum Sauk is a heavy, woody scent. I can assure anyone that is interested that while those woody notes exist as an undertone they don't dominate the fragrance of the splash. Somehow Shawn managed to do justice to his inspiration in that the juniper and ozonic scents stand out, bringing to mind a walk in Missouri woods on a winter day. I really wish I could do more justice in describing the scent of this product as even now I can catch a whiff of it after having shaved yesterday afternoon.