OK, so I had my second shave with M&M soaps this morning. Decided to try the Naid, which, as you may or may not recall, was the one I was most excited about given the scent notes, but was disappointed with when I smelled the soap sample. I almost just ordered a tub of this based on the scent notes; man, am I glad I did not.
The lather was almost exactly like what I got from Claddagh; soaps brush lathered can have variable quality from day to day even using the same soap; today I got a bit more water into the lather, which made it even slicker. May have sacrificed a little bit of the cushion, though. Still, a lovely, dense, shiny lather that was very slick and provided for a nice shave.
Now, about the scent...........
I told you there was some kind of "funkiness" coming off this thing. Last night when I gave it a good whiff, it occurred to me that the "off" note smelled a little bit like baby puke. Not particularly pleasant. I was hoping against hope that the puke overtone wouldn't show up in the lather today, and, for the most part, it did not.
There is a very, very subtle apricot and freesia scent hiding in there somewhere, but it's not peaking its head out from behind its hiding place very much. Mostly apricot, I think. Very little floral about this scent; on the other hand, there is literally very little of ANYTHING about this scent.
The scent did NOT open up with lathering. It stayed really subtle. At times it felt like I was just shaving with an unscented soap. (Nothing wrong with that, if that's your thing.)
This scent is like that 10th grader that is really brilliant and talented, and you know could really make something of himself if he would only put in a tiny amount of effort, but all he does is sit around, make jokes, flirt with the cute girls, and play video games. He might still be a likable guy, but it's just SO DISAPPOINTING because you just KNOW he could be so.much.better! This scent has tiny glimpses of how it could be awesome, but it's not. Not in the sample I got, anyway. What I can get from it seems like it would be a really nice, simple scent that would be refreshing and calming all at the same time, but right now it is nothing. Strangely, even though I could barely smell it, it did seem like it was triggering my nasal allergies just a little bit; maybe I am allergic to freesia? I don't know.
Anyway, the shave was fantastic. I'm probably going to shave through this whole sample, but it will be hurling disappointment at me every single time I use it. I kind of wish I had a small sample of either the aftershave or the EDT, so I could see what it was TRYING to be; to see whether I would like it if it were fleshed out a little.
Naid is considered a lighter scent but my sample I got first then the full size tub I have now is just below a medium strength in my opinion. I mostly get apricot with a small amount of floral in the background. In the sample and full size tub of Naid, or any of the Aon or previous base I have, I don’t get any base funk, in the Kodiak base I do get some smell of the base but the performance is so good, I don’t care. Honestly, I’m guessing you got a bad sample, I’d contact Bill at M&M and advise him about the Naid sample smelling funky and the other 3 are fine. I’m thinking he may send you a new Naid sample. I’ve reached out to him in the past with an issue with one of my soaps and he was a pleasure to deal with in replacing it.