L'OCCITANE

JayTrek · Post by **JayTrek** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:19 pm

On a recent trip to Birmingham, the lovely bride and I stumbled on a store that was new to The Summit.

L'Occitane.

They are a French maker of bath and shower products. A few shaving creams are available.

My wife and spent $10 on a bar of soap from there. It was the 8.8oz bar with a milk scent.

I have used the soap in the shower several times. The scent was wonderful and it rinses very clean...a quality I have always enjoyed in the Yardley line of soaps.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 9:48 pm

Jason, Yeah. L'Occitane is actually a fairly new company. They kind of are to traditional Marseilles soap/fragrance firms as Ralph Lauren is to Brooks Brothers/J. Press or as AoS is to the traditional London firms. That is, they copied, or did their version of if you prefer, old high end traditional products that only some people knew about and more mass marketed them. Personally, I think their bath soaps are good, if a bit over priced. I introduced my now wife to their large cake Lavender soap last year and now she insists I keep her in the stuff. Because it's veg. oil based and contains shea butter it does not agree with my skin but it's a fine soap and it works well for her. Their shaving cream used to be absolutely awful but some say that it has improved somewhat more recently...I dunno. Their hard shave soap was better we all pretty much agreed.
Regards,
Gordon

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:22 am

I found the scent of the soap overpowering and stopped using it first time out....a pity because when i was in the store the sight of all these nice looking soaps and the hottie behind the till got me buying more than i ought to have bought

clive

JayTrek · Post by **JayTrek** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:36 am

Classic, Clive. got to watch for those hotties behind the till. It can get us all to thinking incorrectly at times.

Gordon, Thanks for the background info. I always like knowing that kind of info about a brand or product.

You always seem to have that info in abundance.

Squire · Post by **Squire** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:17 am

I understand Clive, hotties can have quite an effect.

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:51 pm

First Jay had me wondering what milk smells like, then Clive brought up the fetching cashier and now I'm sure to be glancing around curiously when near a retail center, just in case there's one of these intriguing new L'Occitane joints nearby. Wife: what's an L'Occitane store? Me: they have milk soap that's supposed to smell pretty good.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:51 pm

Clive, Well I never cared for the scent of their shave soaps either, but at least they were generally reported to function pretty well. Their original shave cream, on the other hand, was one of the poorest shave products I've ever tried at any price point.
Regards,
Gordon

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:58 am

I'm pretty much done with bath soaps...between mwf and vinolia how much better could one get?

clive

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:12 am

p.s. would try the santa maria novella if anyone in the sales dept ever decided to call me back HAHA

clive

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:29 pm

Clive, I quite agree. As my other favourites ( Floris, Claus Porto, etc. ) all went to veg. oil base I stuck entirely with Vinolia. It was a wonderful, top quality very old fashioned bath soap and I loved it. Then it too, finally, went over to the dark side and now I'm using Mitchell's exclusively ( other than the last two cakes of the old Vinolia from Chris M. that I'm hoarding ). I think SMN are also superb soaps but they are just too pricey for me unless some kind and well heeled soul gave me some as a gift ( or...say!....perhaps the wife at Xmas time....hey, might work ).
Regards,
Gordon

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 5:16 am

I never knew the *real* vinolia and so for me the current issue isnt a disappointment like it is for you. Ive got a nice little system going alternating between the two.....as an aside, women luvvvvvvvvvvvvv both

clive

EL Alamein · Post by **EL Alamein** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:39 pm

bernards66 wrote:Clive, I quite agree. As my other favourites ( Floris, Claus Porto, etc. ) all went to veg. oil base I stuck entirely with Vinolia. It was a wonderful, top quality very old fashioned bath soap and I loved it. Then it too, finally, went over to the dark side and now I'm using Mitchell's exclusively ( other than the last two cakes of the old Vinolia from Chris M. that I'm hoarding ). I think SMN are also superb soaps but they are just too pricey for me unless some kind and well heeled soul gave me some as a gift ( or...say!....perhaps the wife at Xmas time....hey, might work ).
Regards,
Gordon

Gordon, how are you getting along with the Mitchell's? I am intrigued and am thinking of getting a cake to try. I know if it's not bothering your skin I'm a shoe-in.

Does it smell like the shaving soap? I know I've asked that question before and it has been answered (I think in the affirmative) but I can't quite recall. I'm not a huge fan of the shaving soap's scent but I can get along with it.

BTW I just recently pulled out my ancient cake of MWF shaving soap and it is an excellent soap despite the lackluster scent. If I had to I could very much get along with just it. But then again, I don't have to.

Chris

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 8:34 pm

Chris, It's going just fine. I'm well into my third cake and no skin push-back of any kind. I'm vastly relieved as it seemed I had almost no good options left. In the bath, as oppossed to my prior experiances with the shave soap, it lathers extremely well...a very rich lather. I always thought it was a superb soap, quality wise, I just didn't think I could use it....but apparently I can now....who can explain it? Personally, I like the scent as a bath soap but it lacks ummph for a shave soap scent, IMO. And yes, to me, their bath and shave soaps smell pretty much the same. Not everyone agrees I gather but that is my take. I first ran across their shave soap in the Kent disguise...I knew nothing about it, but one whiff and I knew it was made by Mitchell's.
Regards,
Gordon

EL Alamein · Post by **EL Alamein** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 8:06 am

Gordon, thanks for the feedback, a cake is on the way. It's a good point to try it too as I'm ready to replenish my stock of bath soaps soon.

Yeah, the Kent version of the shaving soap is what I have also. People say the only difference is the wrapper so I'll take their word for it.

My cake of Taylor's English Lavender shaving soap is just about caput. I loaded it in October of last year so no surprise there. After three years and three cakes of this stuff it's getting to be an October tradition. I think I'll experiment with the Kent shaving soap for a while before loading another cake of Taylor's.

Chris

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:28 pm

Chris, Let me know how it goes with the Mitchell's.
Regards,
Gordon

Esoteric83 · Post by **Esoteric83** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:33 am

Do the bath soaps & shampoos have the same scent as the shaving soap? I found some Kent bowls locally and decided to try it on a whim. At first, there was very little scent and it was kinda like gramps' old wool sweater. After a couple uses it opened up, so to speak and the fern came out to play. I really like it and would splurge on some bars if it was the same scent.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:40 pm

To me, the original brown wrapper Mitchell's bath soap and their shave soap smell pretty much the same. I've never checked out their shampoo so I can't speak to that part of your question. If you try it, let us know.
Regards,
Gordon

EL Alamein · Post by **EL Alamein** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:34 pm

bernards66 wrote:Chris, Let me know how it goes with the Mitchell's.
Regards,
Gordon

Well, the cake of Mitchell's bath soap arrived today. We'll see how it performs with my skin over the next few days.

Interestingly my first impression about the scent is that it smells nothing like the shaving soap. It actually reminded me of a much lighter version of Musgo Real bath soap from about 10 years ago. The scents are similar though not identical. They both seem to be a hayflower scent which I love. The particular variation of the Musgo bath bar I am referring to is no longer made. The scent has been changed considerably in later iterations and doesn't resemble the older iteration at all but this bar of Mitchell's does resemble it.

Should be interesting testing it out.

Chris

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:49 pm

Chris, Okay...let's see how it goes. I dunno....it's been years since I had that Mitchell's/Kent shave soap ( I wound up giving it to Sam ). However, when I bought it, at a mall kiosk in Tampa, I had no knowledge of any Kent shave soap and it had never yet been mentioned on the old forum. So, it was a completely blind buy, but I HAD prior used the MWF bath soap and as soon as I took that 'Kent' soap out of the box I thought, 'shoot!..this is Mitchell's Wool Fat! The scent provided instant identification. Maybe they've changed the scent of the shave soap since? Admittedly, I've never compared the two side by side.
Regards,
Gordon

gruffydd3 · Post by **gruffydd3** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:51 am

I find the scent of the bath and shave soaps to be somewhat similar, but definately not the same.

Regards,
Rick