Razor: Rex Envoy
Blade: Gillette Wilkinson Sword
Brush: That Darn Rob 26mm Brown Synthetic
Soap: Strike Gold Shave Fireside Chat
Aftershave: Strike Gold Shave Fireside Chat Splash
Other: Thirsty Badger lather bowl, Zoha Aroma Campfire, Maison Margiela Replica By The Fireplace decant
I’ve been meaning to post about this setup for a while. It was kind of a work in progress that all started when I ordered a sample pack of fragrances from Zoha Aroma. For those that aren’t familiar, Zoha Aroma is a house that primarily (but not exclusively) offers fragrance homages or dupes of high end designer and niche fragrances. They are located in Canada and they started doing spray fragrances along with their frag oils not that long ago so I pulled the trigger. For about $20 you can get a set of six spray samples and Campfire was one of the frags I got. I really really liked this Maison Margiela Replica By The Fireplace dupe, a fantastic fragrance that is off the beaten cologne path from the typical. Luckily enough I knew someone that could be convinced to move his shaving set Strike Gold Shave Fireside Chat, a dupe of this fragrance, and he was nice enough to include a decant of the real deal Maison Margiela so I could compare. I liked the frag so much I ended up ordering a larger size bottle of the Zoha Dupe. When I received everything the plan was to highlight it all. Fast forward to a few days ago when a friend of mine also picked up and posted about getting the Zoha spray and I was reminded I hadn’t done my post since getting everything in. That changes today.
First off, the frag Maison Margiela Replica By The Fireplace is a slightly gourmand fragrance offering notes of Clove, Pink Pepper, Orange Blossom, Chestnut, Guaiac Wood, Juniper, Vanilla, Peru Balsam and Cashmeran. It is a very warm, slightly woodsy/spicy scent with a sweet vanilla and roasted chestnut vibe to it. It does really give that roasted chestnuts by the fire vibe, perfect for this time of year. You could say it is a perfect holiday scent but this fragrance can be warn pretty much any time the weather is cool. The offering from Zoha is a decent interpretation. I’d say the OG is a bit more full on the opening, bringing out a bit more of the spice and woodsiness while the Zoha offering really leans on the chestnut/vanilla. After a few minutes, once the opening is complete, they are extremely similar. Longevity is great on both but the OG definitely has a bit more staying power. I sprayed one on each arm and 13 hours I can still smell both on my skin with the OG being a bit stronger. But I digress, this is also about the shave…..
Fireside Chat from Strike Gold Shave is their take on this fragrance. I’d say it matches perfectly with the Zoha Aroma interpretation. Warm, inviting, roasted chestnuts and vanilla. Scent strength is on the stronger side of medium. The tallow/goat milk base is on the firmer side and does require a bit of patience to get an adequate load. Once loaded it lathers fairly easily and can take a decent amount of water. Performance wise I’d say the base is very good, but there are definitely goat milk bases I prefer over this one. Given that it is a challenge to purchase here (with a high price tag) in Canada, I’d have to really want the scent to seek out ordering more. They do have a couple other dupes I really have my eye on so if they become a little more accessible here I could see adding more to the den.
I finished up with the matching splash that has nice scent strength and while it does the job it is still a fairly basic alcohol/witch hazel formula. No great skin food properties but the scent will carry for at least a few hours post shave. Great if you aren’t lucky enough to have the matching frag. If that is all the performance you want out of a splash you will really like this. If you want all day performance, the Zoha dupe offers a really great value option for that.
The Strike Gold Shave offering was very good, don’t get me wrong, but it does underwhelm a bit for its price point. They could do with some packaging upgrades and a bit of an upgrade on both soap and splash bases. If the price point was a bit lower (especially for us Canadians) and it was a bit more widely available from retailers, I could really get on board the Strike Gold train. For now, I’m just damn happy to have this setup as is.
All for now – J
