Institut Karite Rose and Institut Karite Violet Shaving Soap

[brothers]

This is the story of Institut Karite Violet (VIK) and Institut Karite Rose (RIK) shaving soap. I like how the GFT Rose smells, but not how it lathers. And for a veggie soap that lathers better than OK, but has a bit of a too-sweet-for-me smell, I like Institut Karite soap.

At one time I went through a phase where I thought I liked how GFT Violet smelled, but soon decided it wasn't all that great, just not bad. The adventure began when I took a puck of GFT Violet and a puck of IK and got out my wife's Pampered Chef cheese grater and grated them together into a pile. That one turned out to be a very nice lathering mild violet shaving soap.

The experience worked out so well that I did the same thing with a puck of GFT Rose and a puck of IK. As with a few others, the alchemy involved results in the sum of the whole being greater than the sum of the two parts.

I made extras of the Violet and gave one to my son and one to my son-in-law. I didn't follow up because I thought it wasn't very good (Violet version). I was waiting to see what they said. Independently of one another, each of them, after a few weeks went by, told me the VIK was an amazing lathering soap. I only made one batch of the Rose version, (2 x 2.95 oz. pucks) and I'm keepin' it.