Review: Prairie Creations Doucer de Cando (DdC) Shave Soap
Martin de Candre. Just a whisper of these sacred words is enough to make even the most experienced wet shaver titter deep in his cockles. The scent, the prestige, the feel, the glide. Oh, the glide. Ten-thousand many-paged tomes could burst forth with transcendental verses and florid prose, yet still those few, those happy few, that band of brothers who had felt its caress would name it a travesty that there not ten-thousand more.
I am not one of those men. This review is not to fight the battle of Dark Side of the Moon vs. The Wall, but rather evaluate one on its own merits, by one who's never heard the other. Now that the unnecessarily verbose and blowhardy caveats are out of the way, on to the fun stuff...
Prairie Creations recently came out with a MdC clone/copy/homage/what-have-you called Douceur de Cando (DdC). While I've never tried MdC, those who have never stop singing its praises, and I was already a very big fan of Krissy's work with the tallow and lanolin soaps, I was eager to get my hands on a tub or two. So eager I didn't do it for a month. Then another month. And another. It must be said, however, that the delay was because I was already working through three delightful pucks of her tallow soaps. What a dreadful problem I was saddled with. I finally sent off the order: 1 small tub DdC French Lavender EO, 1 small tub DdC Bay Rum, 1 small jar tallow shaving soap (review coming someday(?)). Time-lapse a week and a half.
Smash cut. I open the tub of lavender and I'm floored by the scent. It's amazing. It feels like traipsing through a field with a lovely spring breeze wafting sunshine and happiness through your nostrils. I could not wait to lather this stuff up. I'm not often anxious during a pre-shave shower, but I was a-titter as I scrubbed up. I was almost jealous of my brush that it would get to touch this soap before me. Towel dry, Proraso white preshave, shake brush, and begin to swirl. The smell is begin to rise to my nostrils with each circle. A dab of water, back to the jar. Swirling, swirling, swirling. As the brush fills up, the aroma of lavender begins to reach out to the corners of the room, wispy tendrils seeping into the hallway, visions of Elysian fields playing in my mind.
Brush, meet face. Face, begin to lose control. Paint, swirl, paint. Suds are exploding all over my face. The feel is that of soft peaks whipped cream. Thick, dense, creamy, and very emollient: my perfect lather. With very little effort, this soap produces an absolutely top-notch lather. The cushion and glide are both superb. On your face, it feels like something you should be eating. I doubt that makes any sense, but it works in my head. The razor just dances over the skin. It's truly a delight.
As you can probably guess, I love this soap. I cannot get enough of it. It performs well in all the spots. Latherability, cushion, glide, smell, feel: all stellar. The face treatment is also fantastic. You're left feeling supple, smooth, and never overly "washed." It's much more of a croap than a hard soap, so it picks up on a brush very easily. I know I may seem overly effusive, but I'm just a big fan. This is after using the soap as my workhorse for a good month and a half. This stuff is great. I will most assuredly be re-ordering. If you're thinking about ordering, GO DO IT; you won't regret it.
One final note about the scent: As you may have noticed, I didn't talk about the bay rum. Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of her bay rum. It smells to my nose more of just a anise festival than a real deep, nuanced bay rum. I go more bay rums along the lines of Clubman Pinaud, Ogallala, and SRD. It also seems to react a little bit to my skin. It is soon to be gift soap to get one of my brothers into wetshaving. Three cheers for repurposing! The good part is that this line can be scented with any of her extensive arsenal of aromas. Those of you who've sampled her wares before, you can get all the ones you love. To those new to her shop, I can't recommend the lavender strongly enough. She does little "sniffy" samples with an order, so you can see what you like before you sink into a whole batch. I'm really looking forward to picking up grapefruit next time.
Thanks for reading this rather long and drawn-out review. I hope it was as much fun to read as it was to write.
