Thread: History of scents?

Thinking about all the scents of pre-shave oil, cream, soap, balm, and so on; got me wondering the history of the standards...lavender, sandalwood, lime, others?

Guessing that the scents may have been just a bonus to the actual benefits of the unique properties of the essential oils derived from different raw base products.

Thoughts? Comments?

Paul

For soaps it might have been to cover up the scent of the tallow. I can't remember exactly but I seem to remember one of the soap makers saying that even the "unscented" version of their soap had some sort of scent in there to keep the tallow smell away.

Historically scents were created to cover up foul oders back in the day when bathing was done maybe once a year.

The Old Days... 'the smell of these arm pits is an aroma finer than prayer'. The 1800's must have been great!

They ate a lot of beans too!

Originally Posted by MSPSTR8

Guessing that the scents may have been just a bonus to the actual benefits of the unique properties of the essential oils derived from different raw base products.

I believe the oposite is true - the scents were added to improve the fragrance of the product, not for it's properties. Some of the fragrant oils have other benefits, but far from all.

Originally Posted by str8fencer

I believe the oposite is true - the scents were added to improve the fragrance of the product, not for it's properties. Some of the fragrant oils have other benefits, but far from all.

I sort of wondered if it was as simple as adding for fragrance. When I see packaging labeled as "essential" oils, my brian goes to the question, "Essential to what?".

I'm a newbie to the SR and the products associated with the ritual, but I will say this, in the learning stage when I have to touch up with a cartridge or give the SR a break for a day, I still use all the products.

Sometimes I think the products are more intriguing than the act of using the SR. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I wish I would have at least been using the products the last 25 years of shaving with a cartridge.

It's somewhat amazing to me that the quality of specialized shaving products is so much better than pressurized foam out of a can, that more guys just don't throw the can of foam away.

"Essential" or not, just using nice stuff on the face makes for a better day and better skin IMO...even if using a cartridge.

Thanks for all the comments!

Paul

"Essential" in this case I believe refers to the actual "essence" of the fragrance, meaning that, for example, sandalwood essential oil actually comes from sandalwood, as opposed to being a synthetic chemical approximation. Sure, some oils do supposedly have some beneficial effect (lavender comes to mind), but most essential oils used for fragrance are just that: used for fragrance.

Anyways, as you've already found, the software side of wetshaving is just as beneficial as the hardware side, regardless of what kind of oils are used to make them smell nice