What soap/cream did you use today?

I am going to make a statement here and I will probably have several people saying this guy is weird.  I own 117 soaps and creams.  But, to begin with I quit smoking twice in my life.  It has probably been 16 years since the last time I gave up cigarettes. After about 6 months to 1 year you begin to retain you sense of smell and taste.  Believe me, when you smoke smell and taste are inhibited.  

I cook, I am not a chief, a trained cook or cook professionally.  However, I have been cooking for several decades and I am damm good.  Smell and taste are absolutely important to me.  I can smell and taste fine wines, bourbons, coffee beans that I grind myself, etc.   And whatever I cook I can always decide what herbs or spices it needs.

But, I open a tub of shaving soap or cream and the majority of the time it smells close to what it is advertised as.  However, when I make a lather (I face lather)  very few of these products continue TO ME to smell like they did when I opened the tub.  Very few do.  That does not bother me; I am more concerned with performance.

And here is where I am going to get blasted.  I have two D.R. Harris soaps.  Arlington and Windsor.  I have read the write up of Windsor repeatedly and I can not smell anything.  This is why perfume and colognes can not be patient or receive copywriter  Only the bottle or vessel and the name can.  Because everyone does not have the same sense of smell or taste.

Can’t smell Windsor....that sucks.  Awesome scent.  A can you smell Arlington?

YES

I open a tub of shaving soap or cream and the majority of the time it smells close to what it is advertised as. However, when I make a lather, very few of these products continue TO ME to smell like they did when I opened the tub. Very few do. That does not bother me; I am more concerned with performance.

And here is where I am going to get blasted.  I have two D.R. Harris soaps.  Arlington and Windsor.  I have read the write up of Windsor repeatedly and I can not smell anything. This is why perfume and colognes can not be patient or receive copywriter. Only the bottle or vessel and the name can. Because everyone does not have the same sense of smell or taste.

Tidepool, you're spot on! When you make a lather, the scent changes. Adding the water and air fiddles with the fragrance. Humid environments are much better for conveying scent molecules. So, when we lather up our soap with a wet brush, we're releasing lots of smells that up until then have been sort clinging to the surface of the puck. For the most part, I think the scent improves. The notes seem to be more in harmony when they're presented in the lather. When they're still in the tub, everything smells a little off. 

I think we're all born with the same olfactory apparatus. We all start out with pretty much the same sniffer and receptors and brains. But a lifetime of use can wear out some of the parts. Our olfactory receptor neurons become less responsive or sometimes stop working altogether. Other times they give our brains the wrong information: we take a sniff of a lemon and our brains tell us we're smelling wet cement. These false readings may be due to illness, or age, or environment, or they may be down to our own wacky wiring. Most of us cannot smell at least one scent. This is called anosmia. Even great perfumers are anosmic to one or two notes. When you write that you cannot smell Windsor, it may be due to your being anosmic to some key element of the fragrance.

And there's this to consider, too: our sense of smell is tightly bound up with our emotions and memories. One part of our brain (the hypocampus and amygdala) processes not only what we smell, but also what we feel and what we remember. Smells become very closely linked to our personal emotions and memories. Since none of us has the same memories and none has felt exactly the same feelings, it's reasonable to assume that none of us interprets what we smell in the same way. In other words, we each inhale the same scent molecules, and our receptors pass that information in the same way to our brains. But our brains make their own unique sense of each scent based on what we've experienced in our own personal past. So, I agree, our brains don't interpret smells with the same set of equivalences. A fragrance molecule that may remind you of a day sailing on the bay, may remind me of an old shoe.

Thanks for bringing this up. I'd love to read what everyone else thinks.

Excellent opinion.  So, there are several artisans who make 6 or more soaps.  Many of these are the same formula just different fragrances.  I am not interested in purchasing more of the same.  Instead when I find that the formulas are the same I will only purchase one and then find another manufacturer that I like.

Australian Private Reserve Ozymandias

Ethos Grooming Mélange d'Agrumes soft shaving soap

CBL Sir Fougere tonsorial

Nag Champa t. (Stirling Soap Co.) plumeria, patchouli

I really like Stirling’s one ounce samples. I wish more soap cookers offered them. Each mini puck delivers about fifteen shaves. If you’ve got a large rotation, that’s enough to keep you going for years. Stirling's performance is legendary. Don't believe me? Just look at some of TommyCarioca's luscious lather shots. Bound to give you lather envy. How's it smell? In the dry soap I pick up nutmeg, but lathering brings out the floral notes. There’s a pretty big dollop of patchouli at the bottom, too. Stirling's Nag Champa isn't as intense or complex as Declaration’s Harmony (my benchmark for all nag champas), but it’s still a nice nag that could easily become a wintertime favorite.

   

Sir Henrys Quartet is not just the best barbershop around but one of the best smelling soaps!  The splash lasts like an edp.  I splashed it on this morning and coming on 12 hours later it’s still bold.  So so good!