D.H. Harris Almond Shaving Soap. Cautionary tale.

[GMM]

Cautionary tale here for those of you thinking of purchasing D.H. Harris Almond shaving soap.
My wife and I recently got back from a trip to the UK. We finished our trip in London, which we have visited several times before. As part of the trip I visited the St. James/Jermyn street region, home to what I understand is the "flagship store" of D.H. Harris. Wife in tow I visited the store and sampled the scents.
I'm familiar with most D.H. Harris soaps with Arlington being my go to scent. My wife was most enthralled with the scent of the Almond shave creme which was new to me so that's what I bought. Being a fan of hard soap more than cremes I purchased a "shave bowl replacement puck" and packed it up.
I tried it out for the first time yesterday. The good news is the soap performs well. Easy to face lather, nice slickness. Post shave is good...I'd give the performance an 7 out of 10. The bad news is it is scentless. Absolutely no almond scent. Barely even any soap scent. I did pry open the box before purchasing and thought the absence of scent was due to the hard soap base rather than cream and that the scent would show itself when lathered up as I have experienced with other sops. Nope. Ah well. Live and learn.

 

[Kurkahn]

Next time go to Italia and visit Torino. Buy Tcheon fung sing almond, you will smell it

 

[Goblin]

It is a VERY mild bitter almond. If you want artisan levels of scent it will be disappointing. That particular one is closer to Haslinger in terms of scent level - same with the Sandalwood. I don't mind, but I prefer subtle scents.

 

[Pedigree]

It is a VERY mild bitter almond. If you want artisan levels of scent it will be disappointing. That particular one is closer to Haslinger in terms of scent level - same with the Sandalwood. I don't mind, but I prefer subtle scents.

Same with Geo F Trumper almond hard soap, though it's scent is stronger.

 

[JeffJ]

I’ve thought of it as Almond Blossom. Subtle and for me a favorite.

 

[Pedigree]

I’ve thought of it as Almond Blossom. Subtle and for me a favorite.

Could just be the scent of pure almond oil?

 

[ChriWilson]

The creams will always out-fragrance the hard pucks, in my experience that is.

 

[DesertIguana]

People Taste receptors, and Smell receptor are all different.

I know because I eat a lot of Hot Spicy Food, my Taster is burned up.

As I shower after shaving, most sents from shave products are down the drain.

 

[BudgetShaverGuy]

I found DRH creams to be generally fragranced more strongly that the soap equivalents. The Arlington cream is downright nuclear whereas the soap is just lovely. The Windsors are close but are still different as indicated above.

With that said I found the Almond soap to be mildly scented and not scentless. Never tried the cream version though, so can’t comment there.

 

[zoidberg]

Could just be the scent of pure almond oil?

This is what I had read elsewhere. It's named after having almond oil in the soap.

 

[TBoner]

Harris Almond soap doesn’t and never has had an almond scent. It once contained almond oil. It’s a chypre/eau de quinine scent. Citric, bitter, bordering on leathery, and light. I love it, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.