I don't have any patience with a soap that I do not like the scent of. When you combine that impatience with some fragrance allergies, I have completely modified my approach to soap to ONLY buying samples before buying a full sized product. No impulse buying for me anymore. I sample it, if I hate it or it burns my skin, I can throw it away without any guilt or irritability. If the soap performs and smells great I'll get a full sized version of it.
How Disappointing To You Is A Soap You're Not Happy With The Scent of?
- Thread starter BradtheImpaler
- Start date
Remember soaps can be mixed, and usually improve in performance when they do. Two scents might find a happy middle ground...
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If a soap performs well the scent is not a factor unless it really stinks or is otherwise unpleasant. I'll toss a poor performing soap before I toss a scent that isn't that great. I've only gotten rid of two over the past few years.. MWF that refused to lather under any condition (except when i took it on vacation to Berlin... it seemed to like Berlin water 
) and CC 45th Parallel which was entirely too sweet smelling and didn't lather all that well.
) and CC 45th Parallel which was entirely too sweet smelling and didn't lather all that well.i mixed a partially used MWF with a partially used Haslinger Schafmilch along with a smidge of TOBS sandalwood and it is a good performer but has a very undefined and limited scent. Mixing works and I now use that tub for remnants and samples that don't really strike me.
SV manna di sicilia. I never enjoyed it!
Very little. It's all about an performance for me. While I prefer some smells over others I'd never, say, throw a soap away just because of the smell.
I've never smelled a soap that smelled downright bad...including all the common polarizing aromas like Arko, Tabac etc. Guys that throw soaps away due to smell l, in my opinion, are just being babies.
I've never smelled a soap that smelled downright bad...including all the common polarizing aromas like Arko, Tabac etc. Guys that throw soaps away due to smell l, in my opinion, are just being babies.
Ditto.
I am still working through samples from last year sometime ( particularly as stirling samples seem to last almost a month ).
So yesterday opened up tres matres… by southern witchcrafts, likely the first southern witch crafts I’ve used. It is really urinal puck meets fake flowers. I usually test these on my wife and sniffing the soap itself she was “that smells like ponds ( something old ladies use ?” And this morning she was “Avi, my god it smells like an 80 yr old woman in there”
Now that said, i have gone through many ( though not in completion ) of many of the brands you guys seem to love ( A&E / B & M etc etc ) and this is the first one that I can say is really really good and in my mind concretely superior to stirling and really potentially superior to T&H UC. It seems to lather to a sweet spot of not too dry and not too thin/ wet almost intuitively. This scent is absolutely not for me but I’m pretty sold on the brand. ( I will also say these scents while overpoweringly unpleasant are short lived enough I think in the grand scheme of things do not matter )
avi
So yesterday opened up tres matres… by southern witchcrafts, likely the first southern witch crafts I’ve used. It is really urinal puck meets fake flowers. I usually test these on my wife and sniffing the soap itself she was “that smells like ponds ( something old ladies use ?” And this morning she was “Avi, my god it smells like an 80 yr old woman in there”
Now that said, i have gone through many ( though not in completion ) of many of the brands you guys seem to love ( A&E / B & M etc etc ) and this is the first one that I can say is really really good and in my mind concretely superior to stirling and really potentially superior to T&H UC. It seems to lather to a sweet spot of not too dry and not too thin/ wet almost intuitively. This scent is absolutely not for me but I’m pretty sold on the brand. ( I will also say these scents while overpoweringly unpleasant are short lived enough I think in the grand scheme of things do not matter )
avi
Just trying out some Haslinger Sandalwood for the first time after reading some very positive reviews. So far I don’t dig the scent. Not too bothered yet, will definitely give it a few more attempts. I’m not drawn to it, more like tolerating it. Not how I want my shaves to go. If things don’t turn around, no biggie, didn’t break the bank on this soap so that’s good.
I have to at least not dislike the scent to continue with a soap. I generally don't like bay rum scents, and surprisingly, B&M Seville turned me off by the scent.
Arko? Love at first sniff.
Tabac? Hated it when I first smelled it, I could actually smell the stench from outside the mailbox. I used it once, kept smelling it hours after I shaved, and I couldn't get rid of it quick enough. I kept thinking "who the heck would think this is a nice aroma?" I tried it again years later, and now I enjoy it.
Arko? Love at first sniff.
Tabac? Hated it when I first smelled it, I could actually smell the stench from outside the mailbox. I used it once, kept smelling it hours after I shaved, and I couldn't get rid of it quick enough. I kept thinking "who the heck would think this is a nice aroma?" I tried it again years later, and now I enjoy it.
Scent is secondary to performance but these days you really can have both.
MWF and Hasslinger worked fine but we’re too boring scent wise to finish.
Baume is a take it or leave it scent but the performance is off the charts. One of the best for winter. Would definitely buy again.
MWF and Hasslinger worked fine but we’re too boring scent wise to finish.
Baume is a take it or leave it scent but the performance is off the charts. One of the best for winter. Would definitely buy again.
I get rid of them. With all the choices available, there is no point for me to use a soap that doesn't smell good to me. Every soap I own both performs and smells, amazing or it has gotten sold, PIF'd or traded away.
I like or sorta like the scent of all products I’ve tried. Since I generally use the same soap or cream daily I barely notice the scent after the third time. Scent is nice but it fades quickly into the background.
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There’s genetic variation in what humans are able to smell and taste etc.
About 10% of the UK population can’t detect the scent of Freesias. They were my grandmothers favourite flowers, my mothers too, and mine as well. If I walk into a supermarket I know straight away if they have them on the flower stand.
Yet my dad can’t smell them at all.
I always liked Tabac soap, liked the scent and loved the performance. I used to think that the people that didn’t like it must be finicky, picky.
I mean what does the scent matter? It’s shaving soap.
But I’ve been lately ordering a few samples of soap from Stirling, and the last two I ordered were ‘sandalwood’ and ‘Texas on Fire’.
The sandalwood to me had a weak uninteresting scent, though the performance was fine but the Texas on fire had a smoky scent which I genuinely disliked. I’d happily throw these two away as I just don’t like them. This makes me empathise with the guys who dislike Tabac. Performance on its own isn’t enough, the whole experience has to be on point. This is 2021 after all.
About 10% of the UK population can’t detect the scent of Freesias. They were my grandmothers favourite flowers, my mothers too, and mine as well. If I walk into a supermarket I know straight away if they have them on the flower stand.
Yet my dad can’t smell them at all.
I always liked Tabac soap, liked the scent and loved the performance. I used to think that the people that didn’t like it must be finicky, picky.
I mean what does the scent matter? It’s shaving soap.
But I’ve been lately ordering a few samples of soap from Stirling, and the last two I ordered were ‘sandalwood’ and ‘Texas on Fire’.
The sandalwood to me had a weak uninteresting scent, though the performance was fine but the Texas on fire had a smoky scent which I genuinely disliked. I’d happily throw these two away as I just don’t like them. This makes me empathise with the guys who dislike Tabac. Performance on its own isn’t enough, the whole experience has to be on point. This is 2021 after all.
