Strike Gold Shave Red, White & Rugged: An Avon Wild Country Throwback
Hi everybody, welcome to the Luxury Shaving Hobbyist. Today we’re shaving with Red, White & Rugged from Strike Gold Shave, available at Razor Emporium. We’ve got the aftershave splash and the EDP, a razor from Shave It Shave Co, and a beautiful Frank Shaving brush - the Tobin Throwbacks Edition. Really happy you’re here for this one.
Red, White & Rugged
When this soap came out, I got excited. Really excited.
Red, White & Rugged is from Strike Gold Shave’s presidential series, honoring Ronald Reagan. It’s a tallow soap, the label is great. But the thing that really got me is that this is a dupe of Avon Wild Country.
When I was 10 or 11, my mom used to buy a lot of Avon products. She picked up Wild Country for me. It came in a race car bottle and I just loved the smell of it. The last time my nose was on that scent was age 10 or 11. So when I heard Red, White & Rugged was a Wild Country dupe, I couldn’t wait.
Opening the jar: wow. This is exactly what Avon Wild Country smells like. Exactly. I love it.
The scent notes:
Top: bergamot, lavender, basil. Mid: geranium, coriander seed, anise. Base: oakmoss, sandalwood, musk.
Medium to high on scent strength. Kind of a barbershop vibe with more cologne in it. If you’ve never experienced Avon Wild Country, you need to pick this up. You need that scent on your nose.
The Razor and Brush
The razor today is from Shave It Shave Co with a Mühle R41 head. Red, white, and blue handle, and a pretty massive-looking one at that. I love Shave It. I feel so bad that they’re no longer in business. I have a bunch of their razors and they did fantastic work. Running a Feloso blade on its third and final use.
The brush is a Frank Shaving Tobin Throwbacks Edition. This is my fifth Tobin brush. I had it soaking in my Frank Shaving scuttle before the shave, first time using this one. Tobin’s goal with this collaboration was a high-end luxury experience without the high-end price tag - a handle that feels classic yet somehow modern. They went with a 22mm Manchurian Silvertip knot, genuine unbleached and uncut badger hair sourced from the coldest regions of northeast China. The Manchurian backbone is there with naturally soft tips. On the face it feels much bigger than 22mm. It really does.
It’s $89 on the Frank Shaving site. Use code Tobin at checkout for 20% off. Wonderful buy at that price.
Lather built in a Rodak ceramic bowl from Erik Rodak.
The Shave
Three days of beard growth today. Started with Tube 2.0 from PAA as a pre-shave.
The lather looked beautiful and the soap is slick. And that Wild Country scent during every pass. I can’t believe how well they duplicated it. As a kid I used to love putting Wild Country on my face. This took me right back to that race car bottle.
Three passes, BBS shave. Definite BBS. The Mühle R41 head handled three days of growth with no problem.
After the third pass, I worked the leftover lather from the bowl and brush back onto the face one more time. I do this every shave, three reasons: it smells fantastic and you get to enjoy that scent a bit longer, it’s good for your face, and if you missed any spots you’ll find them and fix them. Nothing missed today.
Then the splash. You get a lot of bergamot up front in the Red, White & Rugged splash. Followed it with some EDP. Fantastic finish to a great shave.
See You in October
One more thing before I wrap up. The Great Mid-Atlantic Wet Shavers Meetup is happening October 18th, noon to 5:00 PM, at the Conshohocken Brewing Company KOP Tap Room in King of Prussia, PA, about 20 minutes from Philadelphia. Door prizes, swag bags, PIF table, trivia with prizes, and you get to meet the artisans. Tobin will be there. Frank from Strike Gold Shave will be there. And Erik Rodak, who made that beautiful bowl you saw in the video, will be there too. Hope to see you.
Thanks so much for tuning in. Pick up Red, White & Rugged. If Wild Country is a scent you remember, or one you’ve never tried, this is the one to get. It’s wonderful. See you next time.