So this is hard to write. Really hard. And I write for a living. But in this case, that’s part of the problem.

I started in 2015 making shaving products while realizing that I had a natural affinity for creating the scents that would go in them. As I grew and worked to develop my talent as a perfumer, I also realized that cosmetic formulation would end up becoming my Achilles’ heel. I wasn’t motivated to develop new bases and I could see that in the shaving world stagnation can be dangerous.

And while I may have experienced the problems of base stagnation, I was always appreciative of the people in the shaving community and the friends that I've made. Those who loved what I was doing. It was great and the amazing people made the long hours and the sleepless nights worth it. However, working long hours and all-nighters can end up taking its toll over time. Especially if there’s no path to scaling it to be my main gig, meaning all-nighters would become the norm...well, forever. And my day job had been getting more and more demanding with no signs of slowing down.

The biggest problem was that sometimes demand is huge (around the launch) and sometimes it would be maybe 6-8 bottles in a month. Hard to invest too much into something that fluctuates wildly, and even harder to keep up with a large workload when your day job was demanding but suddenly you're faced with a level of demand in a product that you're not used to seeing more than maybe a few times per year. 

However,  I never wished to quit my shaving line and realized my partnership with Declaration Grooming, and more specifically, my friend Scott, could be the answer to the problems that I faced in making my shaving line sustainable. In order to coordinate the supply of aftershave with the supply of soap, it would be easier for both our customers and retail partners to order our shaving products from one source that has far greater production capabilities than I have. Simplicity and production capacity in one fell swoop. 

With the freedom that this would bring, I would now be able to:

• Supply a streamlined fragrance supply without having to source and create bases and packaging, creating fewer stock outages
• Create more new scents by utilizing the time I spent on production on fragrance development
• Find a more predictable schedule for myself
• Ensure there is an easily accessible and dependable source for my shaving customers
• Provide someone who I could trust to keep the quality of production at the highest level

Unfortunately, it would seem that the aftershave business was simply not scalable. However, with the partnership with Declaration Grooming, I could keep the aftershaves alive and well while also creating a better work schedule for myself.

I will continue to offer unscented versions of my aftershave and toner, but from here on out, Declaration Grooming will be the sole provider of Chatillon Lux fragrances in shaving product bases. We plan on making this transition by mid-August. I will try my best to stock as much product as possible until the transition happens, but my job has become far more demanding than it previously had been, making it hard to promise anything more than doing my best to create as much stock as possible while it’s still in production.

You all have been wonderful and I look forward to seeing what amazing things we can do with the enhanced structure of Chatillon Lux as a fragrance maker in conjunction with Declaration Grooming’s production capabilities.

However, what makes a difficult decision easier is knowing that Scott will not only continue to do work of only the utmost excellence, but will also remain both a partner and a friend with whom I can work closely. That way we can trust that the level of quality will remain at and (most likely) above the standards I have set.