Tried The Soap

Hi Sean, welcome to DFS.  I thought I'd post my thoughts on my first shave with MacDuff Soap - I picked up a couple of tubs from Stone Field Shave and also another from you directly as well as a sample.  I lathered the sample  - Alone in The Wilderness with scent notes you describe as "Fresh Cut Cedar, Green Cedar Leaf, Camphor, Juniper Berry, Fresh Balsam, Cardamom".   With the following ingredients:

Stearic Acid, *Tallow, Glycerine, Castor Oil, *Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, *Babassu Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Coconut Oil, *Camellia Seed Oil, Mango Butter, Beer, Goat Milk, Hydrolyzed Oat Protein, Sodium Lactate, *Argan Oil, *Jojoba Oil, *Pumpkin Seed Oil, Silk Peptides, Green Tea Extract, White Willow Bark Powder, Essential Oil Blend (*) ORGANIC

First of all, its a very good soap, lathers up beautifully thick and rich and is certainly slick enough to get a great shave.  I found the scent to be very mild which surprised me because I also have a full tub of Alone In The Wilderness and it has decent scent strength off the puck.  Its a beautiful scent too, very woodsy, outdoorsy which is right up my alley.  I'm going to lather next off the tub to see if there is a difference in scent strength compared to the sample.  I know that scent and scent strength can be a highly subjective area but I do like to be able to smell the scent of the soap I'm shaving with.  

The other MacDuffs soaps I have are Kananaskis Explorer and Old Sea Captain. - I haven't tried them yet but they smell great.  I also have a bottle of your Bay Rum splash which I really like.  I really like the Alberta Series which is no stretch being an Alberta boy and the fact that I can look out my window and see the inspiration for some of the products is pretty cool   Kananaskis Explorer - I've been going up there my whole life and it never gets old.

Thank you for the review Mark and I appreciate you letting me know about your concern.  As you say, scent is subjective but I would agree that the Alone in the Wilderness is a lighter scent, despite it being scented at the same percentage as our other soaps.  It is also scented entirely with essential oils, which for the most part (in my experience) don't have the same strength or staying power in soap as fragrance oils do--there are of course exceptions to this. We had the same issue when carrying over our Kananaskis Explorer scent from a beard oil to a soap--the pine and spruce essential oils just didn't shine through the soap making process, so I ended up switching to fragrance oils (the beard products are still EO based). 

I can look at scenting it stronger in future formulations--I know for most wet shavers this is a key element--but I don't have a lot of room to add more without causing potential issues with skin safety. Despite the bad press about fragrance oils, if you're going to have a reaction to something in a soap it's usually an essential oil.  Until then, I think the best solution for me is to communicate in the listing that some customers have noted this is a lighter scent.  Let me know if you find a difference between the tub (versus the sample) in terms of scent strength.

As for the Alberta series, you've probably noticed I heavily favour southern Alberta despite (in spite of?) living in Edmonton--I'm sure you appreciate that . I'm happy to say that the label of the K.E. scent is a photo I took while hiking the Sarrail ridge a couple of years ago (I posted about this on our Instagram a couple months ago for anyone curious, linked below).  For our Alberta series I would love to eventually travel to all the spots I've used that inspired our soaps and take the photos for the labels myself!


here

Awesome pictures  .  Good to know on Eo vs FO and I didn't mention in my post above that I do have your beard oil in Kananaskis Explorer and Alone in the Wilderness  (you already knew that) and they make a beard smell like it should.

Yes indeed, one of the attractions of southern Alberta is the proximity to the mountains (maybe the only one) - my wife and I are taking up snowshoeing this winter to keep us active in the colder months.  My wife is a much better skier than I am and she and my daughter continue to ski but for me as I get older the prospect of cartwheels down the mountain and sudden impact at the end is unappealing.  To be fair, I don't crash on every run  but I would rather just take my time and enjoy the beauty which snowshoeing is perfect for.

Scooped some Lemon Spice V3 into a bowl and whipped up a great lather. While it’s old, your soaps run with the best of them. Amazing shave.

Been using Sean's soaps for about one week, now. Bought Summer and Spring Cabin as they were on sale and I have to admit that it is a superb soap. 
Possibly, the densest and creamiest soap that I've tried. Just an excellent soap that only needs a few swirls with my brush. 
Really glad I made the purchase and I plan on getting quite a few more, now, seeing as Sean lives in my city and I don't have to pay for shipping.  

Been using Sean's soaps for about one week, now. Bought Summer and Spring Cabin as they were on sale and I have to admit that it is a superb soap. 
Possibly, the densest and creamiest soap that I've tried. Just an excellent soap that only needs a few swirls with my brush. 
Really glad I made the purchase and I plan on getting quite a few more, now, seeing as Sean lives in my city and I don't have to pay for shipping.  

Just used the unscented (Aspen Parkland) a few minutes ago for half of my shave. Just an awesome soap. It is likely my best soap.

You, sir, are lucky. I'm not even in the same Country. Thank goodness Sean participates with so many vendors.