Adopted Acres Family First Soap Review: EIEIO Base on the Blackland Blackbird
Hey, what’s going on gents. Welcome back to the shave den. It is a complete washout here in New York. Memorial Day weekend, pouring rain, nothing to do but get a shave in. Fine by me.
I had this set sitting for about a week. Just didn’t get to it. But I’m glad I finally did, because this one deserved the time. This is Family First, the collaboration between Jerry over at Shave Dad and Doug Lane over at Adopted Acres. I want to be up front: I supported this one because the message behind it matters to me personally. Family first. Friends first. I spend a lot of time with my family and I know how easy it is to let work and life crowd that out. You have to be conscious about it. You have to show up. And that goes for the friendships you build too. Four-plus years in this wet shaving community, and I’ve made some genuinely close friendships. Those people are going to be there for you when things get hard. The collab is built around that idea and I think they got it right.
This is my second shave with the set. After the first one, I messaged Doug. I told him straight: whatever you did with this base, you nailed it.
The EIEIO Base
Doug developed the EIEIO as a premium-tier formula, and from what he’s shared it’s intended for special releases rather than the whole lineup. I understand that. This thing has to be expensive to produce.
Here’s what’s in it: Wagyu tallow, duck fat, lard, and castor oil. That combination is why the post-shave feel is what it is. I’ve said “best I’ve ever used” on the channel before, and I mean it here. The lather is ultra-thick, ultra-slick, dense, creamy, sticks to your face like it belongs there. I had enough water in it to get a full rich lather and I could’ve pushed it further. It just kept building.
Doug told me he was impressed by how this came out. That’s not something an artisan says easily. When the maker is surprised by his own result, you pay attention.
His Champion base is excellent too. Don’t get me wrong. But this is a different tier.
The Scent
Family First runs on bergamot, orange peel, cardamom, lavender, sandalwood, amber, and musk. That’s the full note profile, straight from the label.
You get that orange peel right up front. Bright, clean, opens things up immediately. The lavender comes in with a soft floral quality underneath. I don’t pull a ton of sandalwood out of it, but I can tell it’s there in the base. And the musk - yeah, you feel it. This one has a musky warmth that grounds everything out. It’s rich and comforting. Jerry and Doug worked on this fragrance together, and the full story behind the inspiration is in the product description if you want to read it. They put real thought into what this was supposed to represent, and the scent backs it up.
The Aftershave
I had a situation with the splash before this shave. The cap had a hairline crack in it. Slow leak, ruined the label. Completely not Doug’s fault, just one of those things that can happen. I reached out to him and he sent a brand-new cap and a fresh label to replace everything. No hesitation. That’s how you handle it.
The bottle is similar in format to what you’d expect from Sterling. And this is a premium silk release with high-quality ingredients across the board. The Wagyu tallow and duck fat in the soap base are what push the post-shave feel into a different category. It doesn’t feel like anything I’ve used before after a shave.
The Hardware
Back in rotation today is the Blackland Blackbird. I cycle through my razors and the Blackbird was due. I had about 24 hours of growth and ran a Personna Comfort Coated blade on its second use. That combination on top of this EIEIO base gave me as clean a two-pass shave as I can ask for.
Since it’s Memorial Day weekend, I brought out the red, white, and blue stars and stripes bowl from Peter over at Spotrince. Felt right for the occasion. The brush is a Captain America brush I also picked up from him. I believe the knot was set by my friend Brett - friend of the channel - though I’m honestly not a hundred percent certain on that one. Soft knot, decent backbone, works great for bowl lathering.
Two passes. No irritation. Post-shave face feels conditioned. That post-shave feel with this base is unlike anything else in my rotation right now.
A One-and-Done Drop
I believe this is sold out at this point. It was a one-and-done collaboration with Shave Dad, and from what I understand it went fast. Check the Adopted Acres Etsy shop directly for anything that might resurface, and keep an eye on what Jerry puts together next.
He’s done a lot of great collabs over the years. The one with Strike Gold Shave, the Old Spice and Brute-inspired fragrance, that’s another one I picked up. Love the label they did on that too. Jerry keeps finding the right artisans and building the right projects, and that’s a big part of why the Shave Dad group hit 5,000 members. He hosts giveaways, keeps the community active, and these collabs give people something to look forward to. It’s a good community. Glad to be part of it.
Thanks for watching. Hope your Memorial Day weekend treated you better than the weather did. Take care of your people.