HC&C Kilimanjaro Review: Shave Soap Inspired by Byredo's Bal d'Afrique Absolu
What is up, my marvelous misfits of wet shaving? Welcome back to the channel. I’m Wes, your favorite talking torso. Hope you had a solid weekend, and if you’re stateside, I hope the Fourth of July is shaping up to be a good one. I’m on the wrong weekend for the holiday myself, working that one, but that’s the way it goes.
For this review and shave, I’ve got a recent drop from Pete at HC&C, Hendrix Classics and Co. out of Nashville, Tennessee. It’s Kilimanjaro. A unisex artisan shave soap inspired by Byredo’s Bal d’Afrique Absolu.
The Hardware
Razor is the Maxwell June DE with the EX plate. Sub-$100, stainless steel, made in the US. This is my favorite DE right now, and I mean that. I have not found a blade it doesn’t work in yet. Not saying that’s impossible, but so far it handles everything I put through it, and it feels great every single time.
For blades, one of my viewers, Chad, asked to see Tiger blades in action. He was after Tiger Superior Platinums specifically, but I only had the Superior Stainless on hand. So Tiger Superior Stainless it is. We’ll talk about how they did in a minute.
Brush: Turnings by Tanz custom handle with a G5C knot. Hadn’t touched it in a while. Felt like the right call for a Kilimanjaro kind of shave. A little matchy-matchy energy.
HC&C Kilimanjaro
This one just released. If you want to grab it, head over to hendrixclassics.com.
Kilimanjaro is a vegan, non-tallow soap. As with everything Pete puts out at HC&C, it loads up fine and whips into a great lather. No drama there.
Scent strength: I rate on the Tennessee whiskey proof scale on this channel. Zero proof is the worst, 100 proof is the best. Kilimanjaro lands at a solid 50 proof. You can smell it, it’s not overpowering, and there’s no fragrance burn risk. That’s right where it needs to be.
Before the shave, I put a little of the matching aftershave splash on the back of my hand. Gives you some extra aroma during the shave and lets you track the dry-down the whole time.
The Inspiration: Byredo’s Bal d’Afrique Absolu
Kilimanjaro is inspired by Byredo’s Bal d’Afrique Absolu, the 2025 concentration. Byredo is a Sweden-based luxury fragrance house, founded by Ben Gorham. The original Bal d’Afrique is a beloved modern classic, known for being bright, fresh, and airy. The Absolu takes that DNA and runs it through a richer, sweeter, more concentrated version.
The two biggest additions in the Absolu are praline and warm black amber. Those replace the airy, sunny florals from the original, which gives the Absolu a heavier, more gourmand finish. And because it’s a more concentrated formula, it addresses the most common complaints about the original: performance and longevity weren’t quite there. The Absolu fixes both.
Scent Notes
Top notes are lemon, bergamot, and blackcurrant. Lemon hits first, sharp and zesty, and clears fast to let the richer layers come through. Bergamot is more complex than straight citrus, bright and aromatic but with a slightly bitter edge that gives the opening some sophistication instead of just going flat acidic. The blackcurrant sits in between, tart with a slightly syrupy dark fruit thing going on, bridging the sharp citrus up top to the sweetness coming in the heart.
The heart is where the Absolu separates itself from the original. Praline is the key addition. Roasted, nutty, caramelized. It pulls the fragrance away from its floral roots and into gourmand territory. Musk acts as a buffer around the praline, keeping the sweetness from tipping over into cloying. And violet brings a soft, powdery, slightly green botanical note that keeps the heart from going full dessert. Elegant, not sweet for the sake of it.
The base is black amber, cedarwood, and vetiver. Black amber is rich, resinous, deeply warm. It’s what gives the scent its staying power and gravity. Cedar is one of my favorite base notes: dry, clean, structural. It counterbalances the amber and praline so the whole thing holds together and doesn’t go syrupy. Vetiver is another personal favorite. Earthy, slightly grassy, with a faint smokiness. That’s a deliberate nod back to the core DNA of the original Bal d’Afrique. It cuts through the creaminess with a dry earthy edge and leaves a refined, masculine-leaning finish on the whole scent trail.
This leans gourmand, no question. But it’s a woody, resinous gourmand. The cedar and vetiver keep it honest.
On the Tiger Blades
First shave impression: grippy. Not uncomfortable, just grabby. Like the blade was really suctioning to my skin. Think dry abrasive without the roughness or irritation. Not painful, just a lot of blade-to-skin contact. Second shave, it smoothed out considerably. My guess is the first-pass burrs got knocked off.
Worth noting: the Superior Stainless has no comfort coating. That’s different from platinum-coated blades, and it probably accounts for some of that grab on the first pass.
Efficiency verdict: mild. Less efficient than most blades I reach for. More buffing strokes, bigger cleanup pass, more touch-up work overall. I’ve heard people talk trash about Tiger for years. I get why. They’re not going to be your go-to if you want efficiency. But they’re not bad. They work.
So Chad, Tiger Superior Stainless works. If you want a bit more bite, the Superior Platinums might be worth chasing once I track down a pack and I’ll run a proper comparison.
School’s out. Good shave. Kilimanjaro delivered on lather, the Absolu-inspired scent profile is genuinely interesting, and the Maxwell June kept doing what it always does. If you’re looking for a new vegan soap with a more complex scent direction than the usual suspects, Kilimanjaro is worth checking out. Hope the Fourth of July is a good one, whatever you’ve got going on.
Happy shaves, gents.