Universe 25 CUBE 2.0 Preshave Soap | The Experiment Begins!

Universe 25: Homage to Eau des Baux by L'Occitane 

Pronounced: OH day BOH (you are welcome)

Scent Profile
Top: Bergamot, Cardamom, Pink Pepper
Middle: Cinnamon, Cypress, Juniper
Bottom: Cedar, Frankincense, Oakmoss, Vanilla

Find The Universe 25 Collection HERE!

If you wandered into my shave den, you'd probably overlook it completely. Surrounded by rows of Phoenix Shaving aftershave colognes, it doesn't call attention to itself. That's never been its style. Yet year after year, bottle after bottle, it has remained exactly where I instinctively reach for it, on the top shelf, close enough that I never have to think about where it is. I've often wondered how a fragrance that isn't mine managed to earn permanent residence among all the ones that are.

I've emptied more bottles of Eau des Baux than I'd care to admit, and every time I wear it, I discover something I could have sworn wasn't there the last time. Some quiet whisper beneath the incense. A different conversation between the cedar and vanilla. A subtle shift in the way the cypress seems to rise from the composition. Just when I think I've finally figured it out, the fragrance reminds me that I haven't. Not completely. (yet)

Truthfully, this wasn't supposed to become a Phoenix homage. There are certain compositions you leave alone because they've already found their place in the world. But curiosity has a habit of settling into your thoughts like water finding a crack in stone. It doesn't arrive all at once. It returns in quiet moments while cleaning brushes, packing orders, hiking with Huxley and CUBE, or driving home at dusk. You tell yourself you're only thinking about it because you admire the craftsmanship, but eventually another question arrives, and this one is harder to dismiss. What exactly is it that keeps pulling me back? Not what does it smell like. That's easy enough to answer. Why does it linger in the mind long after the fragrance itself has disappeared?

Oddly enough, that question always led me somewhere else entirely. Universe 25. It sounds like the title of a forgotten science fiction novel, but it was actually the name of one of the most fascinating behavioral experiments ever conducted, I swear! #RealScience

In the late 1960s, researcher John B. Calhoun created what appeared to be paradise for a colony of mice. There was unlimited food, fresh water, perfect shelter, ideal temperatures, and complete protection from predators. Every obstacle to survival had been removed. It was, by every measurable standard, a perfect world.

It wasn't. (there is a lesson in this somewhere, but YOU need to find it)

For a time the colony flourished. Then, slowly, inexplicably, everything began to unravel. Social bonds deteriorated. Strange behaviors emerged. Mothers abandoned their young. Healthy animals withdrew into isolation. Others became irrationally aggressive. The colony ultimately collapsed, not because it lacked resources, but because something essential had quietly disappeared. Decades later, people are still debating what Universe 25 actually proved, but that isn't what captivated me. What stayed with me was a simpler idea. Environments matter. The worlds we inhabit shape us in ways we rarely notice until much later (or it's too late).

Creating a fragrance isn't all that different.

Every fragrance is its own carefully constructed world. Every raw material changes the landscape. Every accord nudges the imagination toward someplace else. The finest fragrances don't simply smell pleasant. They invite you to step into a setting, a memory, or a story and remain there for a little while. That's where Universe 25 and Eau des Baux unexpectedly collided in my mind.

"Bring me a shrubbery. A nice one, not too expensive..."

Long before I learned the history behind it, Eau des Baux had already built a world I wanted to revisit. It never presented itself as a collection of notes. It suggested weathered stone warmed by the afternoon sun, dark cypress standing watch over ancient walls, ribbons of incense drifting through quiet chapels, and distant hills disappearing into the Provençal haze. Later I discovered that wasn't my imagination running wild. The fragrance was inspired by the legendary fortress of Les Baux-de-Provence, where the Knights of Les Baux adopted the cypress tree as their symbol of courage and endurance. Suddenly everything made sense. The fragrance had been telling that story all along.

Universe 25 is my tribute to one of the finest fragrances I've ever worn, but it is also a celebration of something larger. The idea that perfumery is, at its heart, an act of world-building. We don't fall in love with arrangements of bergamot, cedar, or vanilla. We fall in love with the places they create inside us. Over time those imagined places become attached to real ones. A favorite jacket. A quiet evening. A winding road. Someone we loved. A version of ourselves we'd almost forgotten.

Perhaps that's why certain fragrances remain with us for decades. They aren't trapped inside the bottle. They've quietly taken up residence somewhere else.

Seriously, you're going to fall in love with this accord.

Seasonality or When To Wear This?

Some fragrances seem destined for a particular season. Universe 25 has other ideas. It is every bit as captivating on a long summer evening as it is on the first crisp afternoon that calls for your favorite sweater. As autumn settles in, the woods and resins become richer and more contemplative. Winter draws out its warmth, wrapping cedar, frankincense, and vanilla around you without ever feeling heavy. Then spring arrives, and the fragrance seems to breathe again, revealing a brighter, greener character that had quietly waited beneath the surface all along. It is one of those rare compositions that never feels out of place, adapting effortlessly to the changing seasons while remaining unmistakably itself. Wear it once, and you'll understand why it has remained one of my personal favorites for so many years!

CUBE 2.0?