Adopted Acres x Tennessee Whiskey Shaving: Still House Spice
Texan Shaves. Steel in hand. Traditional wet shaving, smooth and a little different. Welcome back to A Texan Shaves.
Doug over at Adopted Acres has a new release, and it’s a collab with Tennessee Whiskey Shaving, also known as Westley. Go check out his channel; link’s down below. He also runs a livestream with Rapid Shaves every other Wednesday, the one after Shave Masters, called Open Comb Collective. Worth a look. Good show.
The release itself, and you’ve probably seen it floating around already, is Still House Spice. Man, I love the labels Adopted Acres puts on these things. I picked up the splash along with the soap.
Still House Spice
Here’s the short version. Adopted Acres and Westley built this one around the classic Shulton Old Spice profile, then folded in rich whiskey notes on top of it. Warm spice, smooth whiskey, a little nostalgia for the old-school barbershop chair. It’s just plain great.
Only picked it up, haven’t shaved with it yet, but it smells incredible straight out of the tub. I might have to grab the EDT version of this one too. We’ll see.
What I’m Shaving With
Let’s run through the gear real quick. This is the RazoRock Smile, the one I’ve talked about being my favorite for head shaves because of that concave side. It’s got a regular flat edge too. Realized I hadn’t actually run it on my face yet, so here’s the first use: flat edge on part of the pass, concave on the rest. Figured the concave side might work on the chin as well as it does on the head. It does.
New handle on it too: the RazoRock Super Knurl in titanium. Great price for a titanium handle, and the knurling on it is genuinely nice.
For the brush, I’m using my Vortex X setup, the full system with the bowl, brush stand, and tin warmer. Mounted in it is a Frank Shaving Manchurian Silvertip, 26mm, soaking in water. That’s what’s loading the lather in this shave
The Shave
Keeping this one to a pass or two. Believe it or not, the last blade I ran left me almost nothing to shave. A paper-wrapped blade did that to my chin. I still can’t get over it. If you can grab a pack of those, they’re cheap, they’re paper, after all, but try one. Worth it in my opinion.
Instant lather with Adopted Acres, and this is plenty for a pass or two. Probably more than I needed, honestly. Smoothing the paste out, then adding water a little at a time. This lather needs a lot of water to get where it’s going, but once it builds, that scent takes over the whole bathroom. Really good stuff.
Glasses off, face wet. My God, it smells so good. Great whiskey note in there, very mellow, not a strong alcohol smell at all, though I don’t always mind that either.
Wetting the blade and running the Smile on my face for the first time. Between how little there was to shave and how well the concave side rides my jaw, this turns into basically a one-pass shave. I’m getting more of that whiskey note now, sweet and mellow with a bit of spice behind it. The concave side feels good gliding over the neck and around the Adam’s apple.
I could go for another pass, but there’s nothing left to shave. I’d rather spend more time with this scent anyway. It’s making me happy. Along the jawline, the concave side handles the angles well. I ran it for the whole pass except under my lower lip, just out of curiosity, and got almost no feedback there because, again, there’s nothing to shave. Paper blade. Who would’ve thought.
Final Thoughts
Rinsed off, cleaned up. Great shave. My shirt barely has anything on it. Good pass.
Now the splash. Just opened the bag it came in, so this is the first time I’m putting it on. Here we go. Oh. Wow. There’s my buddy. The Old Spice note didn’t come through as strong in the soap for me, but it’s right there in the splash. Doug was right to lean into it: that whiskey note is mellow and smooth, like it always belonged in an Old Spice blend. It’s not a strong liquor smell to me, just a warm note that should have always been there. Really good. Great work, Doug, Cara, and Westley.
Still House Spice is out now from Adopted Acres. Not sure if they’ll have sample sizes available, but Doug’s been trying to offer more of those for guys who want to try a smaller size first, so it’s worth checking their site. Follow Westley’s channel too, link’s below, and catch him and Rapid Shaves on Open Comb Collective every other Wednesday.
Find your peace in what and where you can. See you next time.