Review | The Apothecary Malaysia: Solid Colognes in Cornerstone, Hot Shot & Maverick

(unpaid lmao I literally bought this even tho they for men)
(update 14/8/2017: the concept is actually very similar to Solid State for Men from Melbourne, Australia)

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The Apothecary Malaysia: Specially catered for Modern Man.

These. Are colognes. Mainly for men.

I'm a lady. Not much of a masculine kind.

Why did I even bothered to buy them?

Reason: my guy friends' birthdays are here. HAHHAHA

I have nothing to gift and I somewhat came across the Facebook page of this brand.

Honestly, I was very intrigued by their concept of photography and design. I knew about solid perfume long ago when my mother brought me some from Paris, France. So the idea of solid cologne is just 'meh' for me. However, the packaging and the founder's success to sell these in Korea and America had really made me excited to know how these smell like. So I bought them.

Introduction:

‘The Apothecary’ came about from the word ‘pharmacist’ – way before the development of drugs and medicines; when empirical observation was the key to cure. The Apothecary Malaysia began as an effort to pick up this same spirit of the old, and reintroduce what our traditional pharmacists left off. Adrian Cheong (founder), coupled with his domestic skills in the kitchen – from his interest in making cheese and chee cheong fan from scratch, had started an interest to make perfume right from home, all handmade in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Colognes were named according to unique characteristics of a modern man, personifying empowerment – from meeting the needs of a corporate high-flyer, to an alpha male, or even a witty creative highbrow – covering all grounds. (Source)

How to's and What's

Tab a bit of the cologne with your fingers and rub on your wrist and neck. You can try putting behind your ears as well. They last about 3-4 hours and they do not contain alcohol. They can go back to solid state if they were melted (since they were made with beeswax, it's definitely going to melt in high temperature environment.) Sweating is normal for their product, as do other handmade products like soaps.

  

What's really in it?

As a craftsperson, I can tell that the ingredients and methods of making this are fairly simple. They used beeswax, shea butter, virgin almond oil for their solid base. These products are easy to find and you can easily replicate them with a couple of tries. What is difficult to replicate is the scent. They took about 6 months before operating, probably because of formulating fragrance oils and packing, etc.

They don't have a physical store

but they are available in many places countries.

USA (1), Taiwan (1), Thailand (1), Korea (2), Singapore (3), Hong Kong (6)

Malaysia (15)

KUALA LUMPUR

Pestle & Mortar Clothing, The Yard, Riders Garage, Major Drop, OTHRS, Bro & Joe, Ramlee's Sport Barberclub, Slick Barbershop, The Oven, Claire Organics,

PENANG

Pestle & Mortar Clothing

PAHANG

Clash Magaza

KUANTAN

Seven Sinatra Barbershop

KOTA KINABALU

Fiska, Nine Helena Road

Delivery & Others

The waiting time for delivery was very short. After purchasing, they immediately ship out the product and then the products reached me by the very next day. They used Pos Laju for my order. 

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Enough said.
Let's begin with my review.

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I bought three from them, each is weight at 0.5oz / 14g. Very light, yes. Very, very light.

Each one of them is in the tin containers of the same colour: Gold. (I was a bit disappointed that they weren't different but isokei, just my false expectations.)

The box looks very, very sleek in my opinion. I feel very excited when I see the box. It's just the kind of aesthetic that I'd like to reach but always fail .... ugh. ANYWAY, my point is, the packaging is just drop dead aesthetic.

The back of the packaging. More aesthetics. OOH.

Each tin container was designed as if to resemble gold bars. Something, that I'd admit is, very creative. It would fool someone if I'm holding this up from afar.

I think the tin containers are approximately 3cm x 6cm x 1cm. They are very small in person and I would suggest you have a bit of 'mental preparation,' especially if you are prone to have high expectations.

They were designed this small to fit into a pocket, that's why.

To open the tin container, you need to slide the cover downwards. It's a cool concept tho. Normally, a person would attempt to open it by flipping the right side of the container (which my colleagues and sister almost tried to do it.. aggressively.)

Slide down the lid and this is how it looks like, naked.

Add caption

The surface of the cologne has some water vapour on it, they are called as 'sweats.' It's a common process for handmade products because they don't contain chemicals to "avoid sweating."

(btw, I made a bad choice to open it when my dogs were around. Literally scraped a bit of the cologne with the lid. Very. Regret.)

Here's a closer look of the sweat. I'm in a room-temperature environment btw.

Maverick (I think) sweats the most. Look at it (omg).

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Scents:

The back of the tin containers are labelled with their names and the fragrances used. The three scents that I've purchased are Cornerstone, Hot Shot and Maverick.

My colleagues were all talking about how these smells like soap??? Baby product????? Baby powder after barber cut???? AHAHHA. I was simply entertained by their thoughts while they gave me the very exciting faces about how these smell like.

  

Cornerstone:

Patchouli, Nutmeg, Sandalwood, Cedarwood and a hint of Vanilla & Paprika

This scent is actually very inviting. It smelled like a very easy-going person. A very soothing smell yet comes with a hint of excitement. Makes me wanna do fun activities with guys who smell like this. My colleagues (5 males + 2 females) like this the most tho.
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Description from store: Woody, soothing and decidedly comforting, the Cornerstone is warm and enticing. A cornerstone represents the first stone set in every construction of a monument, and every other stone follows suit and builds around it. It is the chief foundation, it is essential and it is indispensable. It defines a boss man, an alpha male, a spear-header, an anchor. Every gentleman will identify with the Cornerstone.

Hot Shot:

Red apple, Jasmine & Rose, Tonka beans, Geranium and Sandalwood.

Hot Shot smells very adventurous like a risk-taking man but also comes with a classy feeling. It has a tint of bitterness, that's why I felt that way. What a unique scent. Not everyone's favourite but I won't say that this scent smells bad. It's just not as inviting as Cornerstone.
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Description from store: Spicy, fresh, and unabashedly stimulating.The Hot Shot is a heady scent that captivates. A Hot Shot is classy, intelligent and the crème de la crème. He is a whiz, set to impress with his top-notch skills and talents. Meant for the swanky highbrow with affluent taste.

Maverick:

This scent is somewhat in between Cornerstone and Hot Shot but it comes with a thick woody scent. I'd think of a person with huge body size with this scent. Someone who is almost like Brian Harding from the game, Dream Daddy. (Do. not. judge. pls. I swear I'm normal.)

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Description from store: Velvety, woody and crisply cool, the Maverick is a fresh yet exotic mash-up.A Maverick is in a class or league of his own, as he is a non-conformist with a tough and strong character. It is defined as an unbranded calf or cow. He is an intellectual, individualist, indifferent and independent. This is for the distinguished man who stands apart from the rest – the rebel.

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Apothecary under different lighting.

In the same room as the previous photos. Lighting source only from the windows in front and some faint lighting from the house door at the back. 5pm sky.

Lighting comes directly from the back window and also the winder behind the couch. Dog at the right bottom of the photo that did not relate to this at all. 5pm sky.

In an open area, aka garden. 5pm sky.

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Personal Opinion

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The design really gave these solid colognes a luxurious feeling even just by looking at the box packaging. It felt very satisfying to look and smell it. The scent isn't 100% masculine with all that heavy woody or raging scent and I believe that some females who are more masculine can use these as well. This is an exciting experience for me even though I won't be the potential users of these colognes. (I'm just not so masculine and I have a lot of perfumes already.)

As I've mentioned before, I planned to gift these to my guy friends (which at first I felt a bit sceptical about the scents, worrying that my friends won't like em). I personally believe that these scents are safe to give em to almost 80% of the guys out there. The scents give a hint of a person's personality but not strong enough to define them exclusively.

Overall, I had a very fun time with these products :D

Will I buy again?

Honestly, I wouldn't buy them for myself unless I smelled Cleopatra, which is made mainly for females. (Prolly need to visit Major Drop for that but I'm lazy....) Anyway, it depends tho because not all of my guy friends fancy scents. Besides, they may have more feminine sense than I thought.

That's all for this post!