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Soaps you’ve fallen in/out of love with?

Just curious what soaps folks started out liking then falling out of love with. Or vice versa. When I first bought Barrister & Mann’s Petrichor a few months ago it struck me as “meh.” I thought it performed well, but the scent wasn’t anything that I particularly felt the need for. Fast forward two months, and, especially with the cool down in weather we’ve had in the D.C. area, I’m using it as a daily driver and loving the scent and performance.

On the flip side, I started out thinking Fine American Blend was the bee’s knees. Now I’m in this weird position that while I like the scent after it’s been on me for a while, I find it too strong when I’m actually shaving with it. After experiencing a number of soap makers, I find FAB to be maybe a little synthetic and forward smelling, enough so that it’s not the first thing on the shave shelf I think I should reach for on most mornings. But the scent lasts on me forever - almost to the point of it being a EdC - and after like hour three, it’s toned down enough to be pleasant. I guess that while I haven’t fallen completely out of love with it, it’s definitely ‘just friends’ at this point.
 
Noble otter barrbarr is my absolute favorite soap / scent combination. I love a lot of other soaps and scents like B&M Seville, A&E Kaizen, DG tribute, and Stirling coconut lime. But I always come back to Barrbarr being my favorite. On the flip side while I like the soap scent of Stirling barbershop, the aftershave spice was too strong for my liking.
 
There isn’t a soap that I’ve necessarily fallen out of love with, and as far as falling in love is concerned, Wilkinson Sword ( Blue Tub ) is definitely up there. I was very indifferent to it initially but i now i love its no nonsense performance.


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mrlandpirate

Got lucky with dead badgers
404.jpg great soap, at one time my #1 soap
but I can buy even better for less $$
now so the love affair is over
 
For me that would be Ariana and evans kaizen each time I use it I'm I'm thinking gosh this performs excellent easy to lather great slickness and post shave feel but scent wise its not my favourite so you see a nice scent isn't everything but still important to me
 
Proraso Red. It was my very first quality shave soap and although I loved the loud talc/sandalwood vibe at first, it has since become somewhat cloying to me. It also has a tendency to burn and leave me oily post shave. I keep it around for nostalgia sake, but that's about it.
 
AoS Sandalwood. At first I had a hard time getting a good lather out of it (inexperienced) so I was upset that I spent that much on a shave soap that didn't perform as well as even Barbasol.

Learned how to lather it and it's great. I'm planning on using it again for a bit starting tomorrow. I'm happy I didn't chuck it. Wouldn't buy it again though.
 
SO many...

1) Loved cologne scented soaps from a variety of artisans and have recently begun to HATE them for their artificial smells. Tossed out and sold several.

2) I have had several great performing soaps who I thought were more difficult to lather and I increasingly became bothered to the point where the performance no longer mattered enough to keep them around.
 
When I started wet shaving, I went cheap and bought a tub of Wilkinson Sword soap. It was great compared to canned stuff. However, I've come more and more to dislike the smell of it. Too strong....and something else I can't quite describe. I have a puck of William's Mug soap that I need to learn how to lather properly. Hoping that will work for me, or I might try to find something else?

Any recommendations for a very lightly scented, fresh smelling soap?
 
I was initially quite impressed with the new American artisans like Zingari Man Explorer and Ariana & Evans Kaizen. The performance of these soaps is very good and the post shave is great. Eventually I grew tired of the huge array of mediocre scents, constantly changing bases, large amounts soap required to create a lather, gluggy croap consistency and extortional international shipping rates. I’ve grown to appreciate the more traditional soap makers.
 
Tabac

I went over a 3 months period from "eww, what is that smell, i might need to put that into the garbage" to
"I will always have a tub of Tabac in my den"

Tabac! I hated the reek of Tabac. Such a great performance soap ruined by that awful disgraced scent. After a year or so I tried it again and it was like "mmhh.. the scent is not that bad as I remembered". Another year passed and the scent was so faded that I actually liked it. After two years since its first use the soap still lathered like a champ so I bought two more, the beautiful milky glass container and a refill. When I opened the lid of the new container I took a sniff at the notorious scent at its full power and I'm not saying I loved it but at least it was bearable.

Proraso Red. It was my very first quality shave soap and although I loved the loud talc/sandalwood vibe at first, it has since become somewhat cloying to me...

I adored the scent of Proraso Red. It was my personal benchmark for Sandalwood. Now, just like in your experience, it is cloying. It smells bad to me. I was afraid the croap went bad somehow so I bought a tube of the new Super Formula cream. It still smells bad to me. It smells so "old" that in comparison Trumper's Eucris smells fresh as Davidoff Cool Water.
 
Just curious what soaps folks started out liking then falling out of love with...

On the flip side, I started out thinking Fine American Blend was the bee’s knees. Now I’m in this weird position that while I like the scent after it’s been on me for a while, I find it too strong when I’m actually shaving with it. After experiencing a number of soap makers, I find FAB to be maybe a little synthetic and forward smelling, enough so that it’s not the first thing on the shave shelf I think I should reach for on most mornings.

The same happened to me with Stirling Soaps, especially "Executive Man". At first I liked very much the "Aventus-like" scent but it's too strong. The soaps are excellent but I always reach for something else.
 
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