This soap has (in spades) the petrichor fragrance I (wrongly) anticipated to find in Declaration Grooming’s After the Rain. After the Rain seems to be the aftermath of a gentle late-spring shower in meadowed woodland, whereas Summer Storm portrays, as the name implies, the aftermath of a sudden summer thunderstorm — the Esperanto word fulmotondro neatly names it: fulmo means lightning, tondro means thunder, and fulmotondro is a thunderstorm.
That’s the kind of storm — a sudden rush of cool wind on a still hot day, large raindrops plopping into the dust, and the sudden crack of thunder as a bolt of lightning leaps across the sky just before the deluge begins in the sudden darkness that just moments ago was full daylight — that Summer Storm olfactorily presents.
The badger brush is a Rooney’s Finest in Style 2. It has an interesting feel on the face: a crisp and almost crunchy attack from the fluffy but quite resilient knot. The lather inflates the knot, keeping the bristles somewhat separate, so that contributes to the feeling. And the lather was excellent.
The Lupo’s blade feel is quite noticeable — in the foreground, but non-threatening. (I don’t get nicks with this razor, despite the pronounced blade feel — probably in part because I take care to maintain a good blade angle and keep the cap in contact with my skin.) Three passes left my face totally smooth, and a generous splash of Summer Storm completed the job. No storms in sight here: a bright and sunny daywith no clouds overhead.