Blizzard Battles 2026 Artisan Challenge: The Pregame

Howdy and welcome back, everyone. Blizzard Battles 2026 Artisan Challenge is almost here. Round 1 drops June 21st, and this is the pregame.

What’s a pregame? I’m just refamiliarizing myself with my benchmarks, my Level 1 and my Level 5 on my personal coldness rating scale. Fair warning up front: 99% of this is entertainment and my own curiosity. Everyone reacts to menthol differently. Everyone has a different threshold. One percent science.

I remember the first Blizzard Battles, I tried to be as scientific as possible. Same bowls, same brushes, all of it. That worked and I enjoyed it. Last year I was more relaxed about the whole thing. This year it’s more about how the artisan approached the challenge. Should be a lot of fun.

My Benchmarks: Level 1 and Level 5

Level 1 is Paso Green. Some people say this is fairly decent or even heavy menthol. For me it’s almost non-existent. I can feel it, but I have to think about it to notice it. That’s exactly why it’s my one.

Level 5 is Chiseled Face Cryogen. Winner of the very first Blizzard Battles in 2024. The benchmark for maximum cold. I’ve got the splash for both soaps and the bomb for both as well.

Here’s how the splash and bomb rules work: if one soap has a splash and the other doesn’t, it’s soap only. Both have splashes, we use splashes. One has a splash and bomb and the other just has a splash, we go splash only. Both have splash and bomb, we apply everything. Those full-application rounds are something else. The longevity on the cold goes through the roof when you stack it all on.

It’s been over a year since I’ve used either of these, so this pregame was genuinely useful.

Brushes and Razor

I bought two Grizzly Bay brushes specifically for this series. I liked them because they’re inverse of each other color-wise, which makes them easy to tell apart on the counter. Red bottom for Chiseled Face, black bottom for Paso. Simple.

But I may be switching them out. I’ve got some knots on order, and if they come in time, I’ll be using two identical brushes for Blizzard Battles instead. I’ll announce those when I unveil them. If the knots don’t arrive, the Grizzly Bays are plan B.

The razor is the titanium Aylsworth Drakkant. Love this razor. One razor for both sides of the face, which means a tiny bit of menthol will carry across. These razors have good water flow through them, so it’s never been an issue in past battles and I’m not worried about it now.

How the Lathering Works

I’ll be tub loading for everything, aiming for about 20 seconds per soap. Menthol can be hard on lather, so I want to give every soap an equal shot. Consistent load time across the board.

One exception: Denton Majik comes in a small jar, so those will get bowl lathered. I’ve got two identical bowls set aside for that, so there’s no advantage on either side from a different lathering method.

One thing I realized mid-shave during this pregame: I’ve never done Blizzard Battles with a mustache before. New variable. Glad I caught it now and not on episode one.

The Pregame Shave

Paso first, Cryogen second.

Paso loaded up well. Good fragrance. I love the whole Paso line, and this one’s no exception, though it sits a bit lower in my personal ranking within the lineup. The menthol was there, but I had to concentrate on it. That tracks with my Level 1 memory. And I did notice a challenge I hadn’t fully thought through: I don’t want lather from one side getting on the hand I’m loading the other brush with. Maybe I go with my pinky for one side. Maybe gloves. I’ll figure it out before Round 1.

Then Cryogen. That familiar smell hit the second I opened it, nothing but menthol. A little more pasty than the Paso, needed some water to get the brush loaded. Already cold just loading up. By the time I was lathering the second half of the face it was already frozen. I asked myself why I waited this long to come back to this soap. My old friend.

The second and third pass on the Paso side picked up a little Cryogen residual through the razor, which is one of my favorite parts of these menthol shaves. You get a boost of cold every time you re-wet. Adding another layer each pass.

The benchmarks held. Level 1 and Level 5 are exactly where I remembered them.

Artisan Lineup Updates

Two soaps that were aiming to be part of the battles aren’t going to make it.

Lockhart’s Authentic reached out late in the process and wanted to join. I explained that the competition requires original entries made specifically for the battles. We worked out an idea together, and they added something to the concept I hadn’t even thought of before, which I’m genuinely looking forward to. But when I followed up about a week ago they said it just wasn’t going to happen in time. They came in too late and that’s nobody’s fault. No hard feelings at all. They’re still working on it and may release it later this summer. I’m not going to say what it is because that’s their call to announce. But it ought to be really interesting.

The other is David at Soap Palooza. He made a genuine effort to create a heavily mentholated soap and it just didn’t come together. He’s still working on it. I thank him very much for trying and for being a part of this. That’s the artisan challenge part of the name. A lot of these makers haven’t worked with this much menthol before. This was a big ask. A huge ask. Some of them said yes anyway and made one soap just for these battles. That means a lot to me.

I’ve been working with these artisans all year: encouraging them when they didn’t think it could work, connecting them with other artisans who could help, all while staying out of the details so I wouldn’t know what any of the formulas were going to be. I wanted to be surprised. That’s why I haven’t watched anyone’s full review of the soaps that have already sold. A few shave-of-the-day comments, maybe the first couple minutes of a video here and there, but I’m not going to taint my own reaction when I shave with them in the battles.

And a genuine thank you to everyone who’s bought these soaps. The artisans weren’t sure there was a market for heavily mentholated products. You proved there is.

Round 1 is June 21st. See you then.