The Subjectivity of Soap Scents: What is "good" and what "stinks"?

And a sports illustrated cover model?

 

ABSOLUTELY!

 

By the way, all I could get was the cut out....

 

Well, I don't like to brag or anything.....

 

Cumba Cheech is one of my all-time favorite shaving soap scents. I just love it.

I've found a lot of variability at my house, as well, when it comes to shave soap scents. My wife and son found B&M Vetiver/Heather/Clary Sage "floral" and pleasant, but I found it smoky and unpleasant. I was beta-testing some veggie soaps from a guy who normally makes tallow soaps and one of the samples was a green, slightly floral vetiver mono-scent which I found complex, interesting, and generally pleasant. My wife recoiled from it and said it smelled like "B.O."

To each his own, I guess.

 

I like it as well. Although it didn't fare well with the other sniffers in my household (see post#1), I was the lone exception.

 

So, I know scents are tough, but humour me:

Arko is described as a citrus smell. Guards are up then, then MITA is described as citrus. I like Arko, but I don't need another one, with a hefty pricetag for the same smell

Are they comparable, scent-wise? What is MITA best compared to?

 

To my nose, Arko is reminiscent of a lemon-scented bathroom cleaner. It does not reminds me of fresh lemons. Some say 'urinal-puck' fragrance is what comes to mind. Fake lemon is what it conjures up to my senses. If a 'clean scent' is what you're after, the Arko scent is certainly reminiscent of a clean, well-scrubbed bathroom!
MITA smells more of fresh limes and tequila (!); definitely more of a 'fresh-squeezed, natural' fragrance. Those are my perceptions. Others are, of course, free to disagree.

 

So when wifey says EWWW to Arko, she might say "Come closer " to MITA?

 

I suppose much depends upon whether she has an aversion to margaritas or an affinity for bathroom cleaners....

 

Of course, the perfect woman would love both.

 

I know that smell is subjective,
but I ask anyway,
does tabac smell like stale cigarette smoke?

 

Absolutely.
Disgusting doesn't even begin to describe it...












I figure if I keep telling people that, there will always be plenty of Tabac for me!

 

I've got to smell that myself.
but the price is prohibitive to buying it without smelling it first.
definitely can't stand with old smoke. I'm a reformed smoker, now can't abide with it.

 

It is so much a case of YMMV. Some guys I know hate the scent of my Stirling Glacial soaps and others love them.

 

More powdery than smokey; hence the comments about Tabac smelling of grandma's closet, etc. (see #2 on the Worst list on page 1)
The soap is quite tolerable to me; the aftershave cologne…not so much.

 

did grandma smoke and use alot kid powder also?

 

Actually my grandma smoked like a chimney, and powdered herself liberally, so yeah, Tabac is almost like 'Grandma in a Can..."

 

thanks for the heads up

 

My favorite scents are Oxford and Cambridge and Windsor but I don't care for a steady dose. #2 would be light clean smells like De Vergulde Hand and MWF. I really enjoy Prep Shaving soap which is similar to Noxzema scent. Then I go for vetiver and patchouli type scents like Port-Au-Prince and Glastonbury. Dream soap would be a mentholated MWF or De Vergulde Hand with no mint or eucalyptus in it. I'll give Cella it's props, great soap but can get a little sweet for me on a daily basis.