Glacial Electric Sheep: A Menthol-Heavy Straight Shave with Stirling Soap
What’s up, my marvelous misfits of wet shaving? I hope you’re all doing well. Welcome back to Tennessee Whiskey Shaving. I hope your week’s been a fantastic one, no setbacks, no whammies.
The Soap
For this shave’s Sensational Str8 Shave Saturday, I’m pulling out another awesome menthol soap. It’s not in this year’s Blizzard Battles, but to me, this one was my introduction into heavily mentholated soaps. It’s the reason I became a menthol maniac first class in the menthol militia. That’s what I like to call myself.
I’m shaving with Stirling Soap Company’s Glacial Electric Sheep, and it’s in their mutton tallow base, which you can tell right off the tub by the little sheep on the label. The mutton tallow is a step up from Stirling’s regular base. It’s more slick, more thick, more cushiony, which is exactly what you want when the soap is carrying this much menthol, since menthol itself is a type of alcohol.
Here’s something I do a lot with Stirling soaps. I buy little tins off Amazon, then I buy two 1 oz soap samples straight from Stirling and pack them into the tin. I peel the sticker off the sample and stick it right on the tin, and boom, I’ve got myself a nice little travel set. Then I add the aftershave, and that’s Glacial Electric Sheep sitting right there.
Credit where it’s due on this one. My good friend Barry over at Texan Shaves, stellar guy in the community, does a lot for wet shaving, got the idea from another stellar gentleman, Doug, the owner of Adopted Acres. Doug told Barry, Barry told me, and now I’m telling you. So if you want a little mini set for travel, that’s how you do it. You can also just load straight from the tub if you don’t mind getting your fingers dirty.
Loading Up
For this shave’s lather I’m departing from my usual routine. I’m going to scrape a little soap out and bowl load it instead of loading straight from the tub, then face lather. I’ve got my Captain’s Choice turquoise bowl that my son got me for Father’s Day, and I’m going to scrape this soap into it, load the brush, and go from there.
And check out the brush. This is brand new to me from Abominable Creations, the Teal Sparkle Fart with an AbominaBoar knot. The camera isn’t doing this thing justice, it’s gorgeous. I’m still breaking this knot in, so don’t hold it against the lather if it eats up more soap than it should. This stuff smells awesome as I work it into the brush, and like any soap, it opens up the more you lather it. With how strong this one smells, citronella and all, I’m hoping the lather knocks some of that boar funk out of the knot too.
The Hardware
For the iron, I’ve been really busy lately and haven’t gotten on the stones like I like, so I’m going with the Teddy, that’s Tedalus Essence, but I’m trying something new for the blade. I just got some Kai Captains in and I’ve been giving them a run this week. I’m not 100% sold yet. My boy Eric, the Cajun Blade, swears by them, and another buddy of mine says the same. This will be the third use on this blade. The very first time I put it in the Teddy, it bit me good, drew blood right off the bat. They’re sharp, I’ll give them that, but that’s part of why I’m not fully sold yet.
Scent Strength and Notes
Let me give you the scent strength off the tub. On my Tennessee Whiskey Proof scale, where zero proof is the worst and 100 proof is the best, Glacial Electric Sheep comes in around 65 proof. This stuff will wake your sinuses up. It’s got lemon, citronella, and eucalyptus essential oils on top of the menthol, and I also count the mutton tallow as a scent note of its own, because I can pick it up whenever I work the lather.
The lemon essential oil is nowhere near a sweet candied citrus. It’s a sharp, acidic, astringent lemon rind note, a piercing top note that grabs you and gives that bright, almost clinical cleanliness. This is a wake-up soap, a soap for after you’ve cut the grass. It opens your senses right up.
The citronella is the powerhouse of the fragrance and probably the most polarizing note in the tub. It’s heavy, resinous, deeply grassy, a lemongrass aroma that dominates the heart of the scent and gives the soap its rugged, utilitarian edge. It takes center stage. That’s what you smell the most.
Eucalyptus adds a layer of medicinal greenery on top of that, a camphorous sharpness that bridges the citrus from the lemon and the citronella and the cooling chill of the menthol. It clears my airways out and adds an earthy depth under all that brightness.
The menthol itself is mostly a physical sensation, but the dose in the Glacial line changes how you perceive the whole fragrance. It wraps the profile in a frosty, sinus-clearing, Vicks VapoRub kind of vibe and turns the lemon and citronella into what feels like an ice-biting gale on my face. And the mutton tallow, while it’s not an added scent note, brings its own subtle, earthy, slightly animalic undertone to the lather. The heavy base rounds off the jagged edges of all those essential oils and gives a faint grounding richness underneath all that arctic citrus.
As for the menthol level itself, I’d put Glacial Electric Sheep a notch above where I think menthol should start. Proraso Green is your level one, barely there. PAA’s mentholated Star Jelly is around the same range. This one’s a level two. Then you’ve got a level three tier with the Cryogen line, Adopted Acres, Triple Dog Dare, and Subzero. So this is a little more than a beginner soap. You’ve got to actually like menthol to run with this one.
I will say the lather builds fine despite all that menthol, which is commendable in a soap base. It’s one of the better mentholated options I own, right up there with newer releases like Subzero and Triple Dog Dare, even though this one’s been around a lot longer. I love this scent.
Alright gents, got about a day and a half worth of growth on my face. Time to stretch the skin and get after it with this Teddy and that Kai Captain blade.
That’s going to do it for me on this one. Happy shaves, gents.