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Am I The Only Person On B&B Who Finds The Scent Of Tabac Nauseating?

I don't see why people say "Tabac smells like an old lady's purse" but then again I never went around sniffing in seniors purses, so I cannot say. :001_rolle

For me Tabac is a great product (soap, aftershave, cologne, deodorant, etc.) with a great fragrance. The soap has an amazing lather.
Probably because they’ve been asked to get something from said purse by the aforementioned senior and ended up getting a whiff of it.

I haven’t used any Tabac products yet but there’s a local shop (Myxn Scents) that specializes in mixing custom scented products. One of the approximately 500 essential oils and fragrance oils they have is the fragrance oil for Tabac. I have had an opportunity to smell that. Definitely not one of my favorites
 
I realize I'm bordering on shavehood blasphemy when I call this stinkbomb out for the offensive aroma it carries. Yes, scents are objective, and YMMV and all that, and the stuff makes so many top 5 lists here on the forum that I know it is much loved. That is probably for its top shelf lather and shave characteristics, granted, but that many folks would not be touting Tabac as much if they didn't get along with the scent. Eight or nine years ago, after hearing so much about it on this forum, I bought a jar from one of the online vendors. Long story short, I realized I had made a grave mistake. I went ahead and shaved with it, ONCE, but I was somewhat nauseous through the whole shave. By that time, the scent had coated my nose hairs and I had an unpleasant morning. The shave was good, but I got a good weeper once because I had a slight dry heave while the blade was in contact. I know that it is me. I have an acute sense of smell and some scents are disagreeable. I put that opened jar out in my shop hoping the scent would decant but then I couldn't use my shop. I know it's good---I know you guys love it. But is there not one of you members that find the scent of Tabac disagreeable to a fault? Come on, help a brother out.:wink2:
No blasphemy. I agree. A brand new fresh puck of Tabac can have a disgusting smell, but that is simply because it is too strong. After a few weeks the smell fades and is fine. It is exactly like putting your nose too close to an open bottle of full strength Chanel no. 5 perfume. Yuck. People mention a granny's purse. That purse, likely made of fabric and not leather, likely was never washed or dry cleaned, unlike granny's clothes. So after many years the perfume smell can build up unpleasantly, even though granny probably knew full well not to overdo it with the perfume.
 
That middle aged man dressed in his best suit is wearing Guerlain Vetiver.

The little old lady next to him? THAT’S what Tabac smells like.

But not a little old lady nowadays. Tabac smells like someone who was a little old lady in the 1960s. A woman who remembered WWI. A woman in a pink, polyester dress with a pillbox hat. Who kept “hard candy” in her handbag.
 
I bought Tabac EdT years ago. I reeeeally wanted to like it. It’s old school. It’s classy. It’s “continental”.

But every time I spray it, I’m instantly transported back in time to a room full of elderly women (all born in the 1899-1920 era). They’ve all been dead for decades now, so it’s just creepy.
 
I actually don’t think Tabac is all that bad of a fragrance. I just can’t pull it off. It’s the florals. That’s the “old lady” vibe.

I’m pretty long in the tooth, myself, so any time I hear a frag described as, “you must be ‘mature’ to wear this”, I figure that’s for me. But even I’m not ‘mature’ enough to leave the house in Tabac.
 
I just ordered a stick (assuming it's the same as the puck). It's a no cost return if I don't like the scent. I also assume it works well. In this case, it will be all about the scent. If I keep it, it'll get puckified into a ramekin or VdH ceramic bowl.
 
BTW, with all the talk about Tabac Original formulations having gone vegan, there is either plenty of old stock still or they continue to make the tallow version as well. I'll find out next week when the actual product arrives. I cancelled the stick refill and opted for the puck version in the glass tub as Amazon had for just under $19, shipping included. Best Stateside price I've seen.
 
Just received a stick of the new formula. The scent of it isn’t nearly as bad as I expected. But the first time I smelled it was when I tried a small sample of the pure fragrance oil. Not a pleasant experience but smelling it in the soap mutes it quite a bit (plus I heard that the scent changed slightly from the original tallow version)
 

JCarr

More Deep Thoughts than Jack Handy
I'm not a fan of it. It's ok...but I wouldn't consider it great by any means. The performance of the tallow soap is quite good though.
 
I recently opened my second to the last refill puck and was having trouble sleeping, so I just bought these two little bad boys on eBay.

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I first tried buying a puck on Amazon but was shipped a vegan puck even though the listing listed the ingredients for the tallow version. I still have two unopened tallow-based sticks :).
 
I have no idea what Tabac smells like. I was turned off by the name, having been told erroneously that it meant tobacco. I now know it is someone's name or something.
 
I've only been on the retro DE and SE jag for a year and the only Tabac product I've tried is their shaving stick which I found to be OK. The only soap scent I find somewhat objectionable is Proraso, both red and white. They smell like a stink bug. Brown marmorated stink bug - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_marmorated_stink_bug
If you've ever stepped on a stink bug, you would recognize the smell. Still the Proraso is a good soap and the scent is not so bad that I won't use it.
 
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