So, for my first post since fall officially started (starting to feel like it too!), I’ll be covering Mama Bear’s Autumn Lodge. So, first off, here’s what Sue has to say about her soap:

I adore the fall scents because they always have something incredibly fresh smelling about them.. for Autumn Lodge think wood.. like cedar and oak delicately tempered with cinnamon, bayberry and other fall like spice favorites.. This is a take off of the Yankee Candle fragrance.

The shave itself was pretty much what I’ve come to expect from Mama Bear Soaps. It lathered up nice and thick rather easily. It provided enough cushion, and enough glide for a decent shave, with some minor irritation that I’m not sure if I should chalk up to the soap of the shave. The lather has a tendency to decay rather quickly, so for those of you who are bowl-latherers, you’ll need to re-work it between passes.

The smell was immediately reminiscent of pumpkin pie, although second sniff revealed that it was just that combination of spices, without anything particularly “pumpkiny” about it. Further sniffing revealed the slightly smokey woody scents underneath, although the spices certainly dominated. I rather enjoyed it, and the girlfriend liked it quite a lot. Oh, and apparently the candle it’s inspired by was discontinued.

As for strength, it’s kind of a weird one. It’s easy enough to make it out when shaving, but perhaps not quite as strong as I would have liked. However, it lingered quite a bit, to the point where the aforementioned girlfriend who liked it was still sniffing hours later. Now, generally speaking, I prefer to have the scent from my shave soap last only the duration of the shave: otherwise I need to worry about interference from any cologne or scented after-shave balm. So, I took a point off for that, but of course, some of you might consider that to be a mark in the soap’s favour.

8/10 Scent Pleasantness

7/10 Scent Strength

7/10 Lather Quality (reflects new scoring as outlined here)

Overall, I give it a 6/10. I’d say it’s worth the dollar to try it out.

Cost: 7.99 for a jar full, or $1.00 for a sample, which would probably last me about five full three pass shaves.

Gear used: