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Murphy & McNeil

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.
 
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.

Yeah, it's listed as one of their lighter scents. I like a strongly scented soap, so I don't even bother with the ones that are advertised as lightly scented.
 
It seems like a heavier, Fall/Winter scent profile.

I got my set today 😁
After the first smell, I agree with you. I'll see how it will be while shaving.
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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.
Sent an email yesterday and Bill responded within minutes, offering a free replacement sample of Naid, and offering to sniff it himself before it left for my house to make sure it smelled like it should.
He said that if I didn't like this next sample, that means the soap scent just doesn't work for me, because he was going to ensure that it wasn't an "off" sample.

Excellent customer service, to be sure! When it arrives I'll update you on whether the problem was the original soap sample really was off, or whether it was my sniffer that was off.
 
I'm extremely interested to hear how this (Naid) turns out. It sounds like a scent I would like.

I *really* like Pisgah but probably agree that its profile may be best suited to cool weather. I will test it a few times in summer weather just to be sure :)
 
Sent an email yesterday and Bill responded within minutes, offering a free replacement sample of Naid, and offering to sniff it himself before it left for my house to make sure it smelled like it should.
He said that if I didn't like this next sample, that means the soap scent just doesn't work for me, because he was going to ensure that it wasn't an "off" sample.

Excellent customer service, to be sure! When it arrives I'll update you on whether the problem was the original soap sample really was off, or whether it was my sniffer that was off.

That’s good news and I hope this sample smells right or maybe there’s something wrong with my sniffer if I like the smell of something that smells like baby puke and faint apricot 🤷‍♂️

Bill’s a standup guy and I knew he’d send a replacement if you had an issue. His quality products but especially his above and beyond customer service is why M&M is my favourite brand.

I’m getting very excited for Pisgah to arrive in the next few days, I must be the last one waiting still 🤦‍♂️ After hearing your guys descriptions, I think it will work perfect for me as I was wanting a heavy cool weather scent and was hoping this would be it 🤞
 
Well, last night I had my first shave with the Trinity sample.

Scent strength on this one was much higher than either of the other two; about 6.5 on a scale of 1-10. I thought it smelled quite nice. It is a complex men's cologne scent, apparently based on Aventus. The scent stayed about the same when it was lathered.

The lather was absolutely beautiful. This is some of the most photogenic lather ever. Dense, unctuous, rich, shiny....just beautiful. Sometimes when lathering a chunk of it will fly off. The lather has real staying power. A thin, tubular piece of lather about an inch long flew off and landed on my left ear. I didn't wipe it off, I just left it there. It looked like I was wearing AirPods through my entire shave. Kept its shape and everything.

So, I have to say, lather from the M&M soaps is just about my ideal looking lather. And it is very slick. I think I have noticed, however, that cushion is not quite as good as some of my other soaps. Sometimes, looks can be a bit deceiving. Don't get me wrong: this is still a really nice lather. But I don't think it is as good as it looks.

End result of my shave was excellent. Post-shave was actually better today than on prior shaves; maybe I got the water ratio just perfect this time?


Now for the interesting part. I asked my wife to give it a sniff to see what she thought of it. Like I said, I thought it smelled pretty darned good; I expected her to like it. She gave it a big whiff and then kind of turned up her nose a bit. I said, "Well?" to which she replied, "It's ok, I guess. It kind of reminds me of an old dirty hotel room." OUCH. If you are Olivier Creed, that's gotta leave a mark! I told her that the fragrance this soap scent was an homage to was one of the most popular fragrances in a very expensive line, and that I could get the 100 mL of the real deal for about $250. She just shook her head in disbelief.

Fragrances are very, very subjective, individual, and unpredictable. Years and years ago I had a puck of Barrister and Mann's Heather, Vetiver, and Clary Sage. The vetiver in this accord was one of the smoky vetivers. My nose really picked up on the smoke note. To me it pretty much ruined the scent. So I asked my wife to give it a whiff and tell me what it smelled like. I fully expected her to say it smelled like a campfire. She said, instead, "I don't know, some kind of flower? It smells really good." Then I had my youngest son smell it. He, too, thought it smelled mostly of flowers. Then I told my wife it smelled like smoke to me, and asked her to smell it again. I thought with the mental preview of smoke, she would pick up on the smoke note, but even after being told it smelled like smoke to me, she sniffed it and said, "Nope; smells like flowers." Go figure. To my nose it was about 35-45% campfire.
 
Fragrances are very, very subjective, individual, and unpredictable.
You're hit upon the post-COVID party game for people with shave soaps. Have them smell a soap, write down what they sense and like and don't like, and discover how different our noses are.

In my house, my wife dislikes the 'powder' scent on me. I never smell powder (which I think she means as a baby or talc powder scent). So, the other day, I'm like, wow this (non M&M) soap has a wonderful vetiver smell. She crinkles her hose and says, "Powder." That sample went bye-bye.
 
Well, this is my report on the last of the four samples I ordered. Cat Sidhe (sp?), apparently based on Neroli Portofino. In the past I have used and enjoyed neroli scents; that's why I was interested in this one.

From the outset, the important thing to note is that, for my nose at least, this one is BY FAR the most heavily scented of the four I got. Right out of the pouch the scent strength was easily a 7 or 8 out of 10; none of the others got past 5. So if you like strongly scented shave soaps and have been avoiding M&M because you heard their scents were weak, you can get this one and rest assured the scent is right there, smacking you in the face, just the way you like it.

This is also a very, for lack of a better term, "spicy" scent to my nose. Lots and lots of neroli, and it's not a mellow neroli note; it's sharp. If you love neroli, again, this would likely be looked upon as a positive.

When I first opened up all four pouches and sniffed them, I ended up putting this one into a little ziploc bag until I was ready to use it. That's how scent-forward it was for me.

OK, so what about the shave? Well, the scent does mellow a bit when the soap is lathered, and over time during the shave it dulls just a little bit more. It doesn't get even close to going away, so don't worry about that. It actually smells really good, and once it was lathered and on the face, it was pleasant to me. Again, if you don't like neroli, completely forget about this one, because it is a face-full of neroli. Since I do like it, I was happy with it.

The lather was fantastic, at least as good as all the others. Maybe slightly better, because I have been dialing in the lathering.

So, a strong recommendation for this one, especially for people who like neroli and like their shave soaps to not be timid.
 
Thanks to all of you here at Enablers R Us I decided to get off the sideline and get into the Murphy & McNeil game. I ordered 8 samples: Bad Mor, Trinity, Ouroboros, Tobac Fanaile, Crann Bethadh, Nantahala, BDLM and BDLM2. I imagine that I will find something that I like in all of these. I wish there were samples of Pisgah available. Isn't there supposed to be a limited drop in Kodiak coming soon?
 
Thanks to all of you here at Enablers R Us I decided to get off the sideline and get into the Murphy & McNeil game. I ordered 8 samples: Bad Mor, Trinity, Ouroboros, Tobac Fanaile, Crann Bethadh, Nantahala, BDLM and BDLM2. I imagine that I will find something that I like in all of these. I wish there were samples of Pisgah available. Isn't there supposed to be a limited drop in Kodiak coming soon?
Happy to claim any part I may have played in this enabling! Let us know what you think of them when they arrive.
 
So, as promised, Bill sent a replacement sample of Naid; it arrived in the mail yesterday. It did smell better than the first one, to be sure. But the scent was still disappointing to me. First, it is still extremely faint. Second, there is a hint of apricot in it, but one really wishes for more. The freesia is a complete no-show to my nose.

In any case, I fired it up for this morning's shave.

In a word, the shave was fantastic. The lather was beautiful, unctuous, and slick. Post-shave face feel was wonderful; hydrated, smooth, but not "gunked up." Really, really nice.

As for the scent? Well, I do think the scent is better in the lather than it is off the sample, but it is still extremely faint. What is perceptible is rather pleasant; refreshing, clean, and light.

My final word on Naid is that I like it, but I'm glad I didn't buy a full tub. By a full tub of this is you like your shave soap scents to be subtle, fresh, clean, refreshing, simple, and uplifting. Don't buy it if you like your shave soap scents to be complex, heavy, dark, or strong.

I will definitely finish the entire sample and enjoy using it, but this will likely not be my full tub purchase.
 
So, as promised, Bill sent a replacement sample of Naid; it arrived in the mail yesterday. It did smell better than the first one, to be sure. But the scent was still disappointing to me. First, it is still extremely faint. Second, there is a hint of apricot in it, but one really wishes for more. The freesia is a complete no-show to my nose.

In any case, I fired it up for this morning's shave.

In a word, the shave was fantastic. The lather was beautiful, unctuous, and slick. Post-shave face feel was wonderful; hydrated, smooth, but not "gunked up." Really, really nice.

As for the scent? Well, I do think the scent is better in the lather than it is off the sample, but it is still extremely faint. What is perceptible is rather pleasant; refreshing, clean, and light.

My final word on Naid is that I like it, but I'm glad I didn't buy a full tub. By a full tub of this is you like your shave soap scents to be subtle, fresh, clean, refreshing, simple, and uplifting. Don't buy it if you like your shave soap scents to be complex, heavy, dark, or strong.

I will definitely finish the entire sample and enjoy using it, but this will likely not be my full tub purchase.
Nice review! With all of the different scents I am really hoping to find one that wows me.
 
So, as promised, Bill sent a replacement sample of Naid; it arrived in the mail yesterday. It did smell better than the first one, to be sure. But the scent was still disappointing to me. First, it is still extremely faint. Second, there is a hint of apricot in it, but one really wishes for more. The freesia is a complete no-show to my nose.

In any case, I fired it up for this morning's shave.

In a word, the shave was fantastic. The lather was beautiful, unctuous, and slick. Post-shave face feel was wonderful; hydrated, smooth, but not "gunked up." Really, really nice.

As for the scent? Well, I do think the scent is better in the lather than it is off the sample, but it is still extremely faint. What is perceptible is rather pleasant; refreshing, clean, and light.

My final word on Naid is that I like it, but I'm glad I didn't buy a full tub. By a full tub of this is you like your shave soap scents to be subtle, fresh, clean, refreshing, simple, and uplifting. Don't buy it if you like your shave soap scents to be complex, heavy, dark, or strong.

I will definitely finish the entire sample and enjoy using it, but this will likely not be my full tub purchase.
Naid is one of the 4 soaps in my rotation at the moment. I do get a bit of the freesia (or at least some sort of floral) along with the apricot scent. Performance is great and, while I wouldn't mind it if the scent was a little stronger, there's enough scent there to enhance the shave for me.
 
OK, so here is a quick update.......

My relationship with Naid has taken a turn......I'm not sure if it is for the better or for the worse, lol. Before I said it was the 17-year-old brilliant high school kid who never applied himself, and was thus a disappointment; now I think it is that girl that when you first met her you didn't think she was all that good looking, but then, after seeing her a second time, you just couldn't get her out of your head. And then when you saw her the third time, you could see that was still not all that good looking, but for some inexplicable reason you felt drawn toward her.

That's Naid for me at this point. I keep thinking about it, and I keep sniffing the tub, hoping each time it will be better than it was before, and it's not....but I still want to sniff it again.

I fired it up for this morning's shave and it once again made a lovely lather, and it smelled ok....not great, but not horrible, either. There is something about it that is intriguing, for sure.

One thing i have noticed about the M&M soaps compared with my other soaps is that they don't seem to offer much cushion. If I don't watch my pressure and angles very precisely I tend to end up with some areas of irritation (shaving with an AC shavette). Slick as anything out there, and the lather appears to be very rich, giving the impression that it would supply a lot of cushion, but in reality it doesn't. I do like the way it fairly quickly rinses completely clean from my shavette (some of my other soaps, the ones that feel like they provide more cushion, are sometimes slow to rinse away, or hard to rinse off). I suspect there is a connection between cushion and "rinsability." The more easily a soap lather rinses off, the less cushion it provides. Still, the slickness is top-notch and the post-shave is actually quite heavenly; the skin feels smooth and refreshed, never feels oily or bogged down, and certainly not dry.

Still thinking about whether I will make a full tub purchase from M&M, and if I do, which soap I will choose.......I will say that for now, at least, Naid has entered back into the conversation as a possibility.
 
My samples from M&M were supposed to deliver today but now tracking says it is arriving late with no ETA. I had been having good luck with the Post Office too. I guess that run is over.
 
I got my Pisgah set this week and due to life haven’t shaved since I received it so I made sure to use it today.

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The Kodiak base excelled as usual. I will say, a pleasant surprise was that I couldn’t detect any funk from the bear tallow like I do from BDLM and BDLM2, which is minor though, not strong. Maybe it’s due to the scent notes or strength compared to the others?

As for the scent, I love it 🥰 I have been searching and trying countless samples looking for the perfect warm fall scent with a little spice and this is it. My wife loves it too and can’t stop smelling me all night. I will say, I was worried before I received it when others mentioned how strong the scent was, I found it was just above medium strength and neither the wife or I had any issues with the scent strength, obviously though ymmv.

I got the frost edition balm and enjoyed it. The cooling additive didn’t change the scent, it wasn’t eye watering cold but had a steady cooling that lasted about an hour and a half. I will say though, maybe due to the cooling additive, it didn’t absorb in right away, it left my face white so I left it a minute or two and most had absorbed by then and the little bit of white left rubbed in.

Overall, super happy with Pisgah and when / if they still do the drop or pre order in June like they mentioned for the last of the Kodiak, I’m going to get another tub of Pisgah and the EDP.

BTW, did you gents see M&M are releasing two news scents which Bill describes as season appropriate. Further details are coming later this weekend the post says. One is a frost shaving soap so must be their version of a Terror or Orbit. Interested to hear more about them.

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