Martin de Candre's shaving soaps have a very distinctive scent, from the soap base. It's most notable in the unscented soap, but it's detectable in all of the soaps, to some degree. Where exactly does it come from? MdC is made from just a few simple ingredients, yet I have not smelled a similar scent in any other soap. Does it have something to do with the drying process?
What makes MdC smell like MdC?
- Thread starter TropicalHotDogNight
- Start date
Unicorn sweat.
Being that I've never smelled any of their soaps and only have the ingredients to go by, it could be the stearic acid you smell. It's a peculiar smell that's hard to describe.
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
Likely benzoin resin/styrax balsam family. I was wondering too and did a little Google-fu a while back.
Cheers, Steve
Cheers, Steve
Whatever it is, I like it.
Yep agree, it's the benzoin.
- Thread starter
- #7
Indeed. The unscented soap is my favorite, followed closely by the new rose, which is heavy with that scent. I love it!
lavender plus some sort of citrus or green scent.
not sure, but their soaps are legendary, and deservedly so.
View attachment 711837
not sure, but their soaps are legendary, and deservedly so.
View attachment 711837
Just received the unscented. Upon opening the jar (This is plastic? Feels like glass. Whatever, high quality.) I caught a whiff of something, then gone. My sniffer ain't what it used to be so I have to believe something is still there, but if it is it's far below my threshold for sensing it.
- Thread starter
- #10
It should be fairly noticeable, though not extreme. I would liken it to the smell of a new paper textbook. Some people claim to smell lavender, but I don't get even the slightest hint of that. I find it to be slightly smokey, in a pleasant way. The benzoin suggestion sounds about right.
Benzoin is often described as a "vanilla" scent.
I think it (Benzoin, not MdC) smells like creamed butter (butter and sugar whipped together) with a dash of vanilla to me.
I think it (Benzoin, not MdC) smells like creamed butter (butter and sugar whipped together) with a dash of vanilla to me.
Yeah I don't get any lavender in the unscented either. I find it hard to describe the smell of the Benzoin. Sometimes it reminds of the smell of new rubber...in a good way 
I have maybe a quarter pound of the powder left kicking around, I use it occasionally in body soaps I make for gifts. I'd offer to mail some of it to people curious, but mailing envelopes of mysterious brownish powder seems ill advised. My MdC isn't fresh enough (or unscented) to really say if it's the mysterious scent you are all getting; but it wouldn't surprise me.
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