There is a particular feeling that arrives near the end of August. You notice it almost without realizing it. The mornings are cooler, but the sun still warms the afternoon. The garden is still green. There are still plenty of good days ahead. The evenings arrive a little earlier. The calendar has fewer empty squares than it did a few weeks ago. Today I blink my eyes and it's August 28th! Time passes. I’ve always liked Al Stewart’s Time Passages. There is something about that song that captures the strange feeling of watching time move forward while life around you continues almost exactly as it always has. You can be sitting beside a lake, standing on an airport ramp, or simply...
Summer has a way of arriving quietly here. Not always by the calendar, but by feel. The nights finally stay above zero. The gardens are planted. The landscape shifts almost overnight—from muted browns to a living, breathing green. And with that change, so too does the way we think about scent. For years, my summer rotation has leaned heavily into bright, vibrant citrus. There’s something undeniably refreshing about those sharp, sunlit notes—lemon, bergamot, grapefruit—especially on warm mornings. They wake you up, cut through the heat, and feel right at home in the season. But this year, I’ve found myself reaching for something different. Something greener. One scent that stands out—and perhaps doesn’t get the attention it deserves—is O’Vert by E...
There’s a moment in every flight where the air turns a little uncertain. The seatbelt sign flicks on. The cabin quiets. You feel the subtle rise and fall—nothing dramatic, but enough to remind you that you’re not entirely in control of the conditions around you. Running a small business can feel a lot like that. Lately, there’s been a bit of turbulence. Shipping to the U.S. has become more complex, and I’ve had to suspend that part of my business. Even customers overseas in the Middle East have had their orders stuck in holding patterns. At the same time, new allergen labeling requirements are asking artisans to rethink how products are presented—down to the smallest detail. None of it is...
At Stone Field Shaving Company, I’ve always believed scent should tell a story. So many of the collaborations I've had with artisans have revolved around a story or memory. Several years ago, dupes seemed to be quite popular and we decided to craft some shave soaps and splashes based on popular fragrances. No. 82 was my personal favorite and I still have a set. The other day I used this set and took a picture. I asked AI (Who doesn't?) to polish up my image. Scent is a powerful sense. It’s the one most tied to memory — the one that can bring back a place, a person, or a moment faster than a photograph ever could. One breath, and...
For a long time, I shaved under the bold assumption that my beard hair grew straight down. Confident. Efficient. Completely wrong. I returned from work last week and decided to take a break from shaving. Don't act too surprised! Even avid wet shavers need a little down time and it seemed like the perfect time to let it grow. It was the perfect time to revisit mapping my face. Like many people, I followed the universal shaving method: lather up, shave downward, hope for the best. Some days it worked. Other days my neck looked like it had lost a disagreement with a cheese grater. I accepted this as normal—until I finally mapped my face. What “Mapping Your Face” Actually...
