Edit: This particular scent is no longer available.

Ho Ho Ho! And now, with a fair bit of delay because I’ve been feeling both lazy and ill lately, we’re up to the final Scent Off 2013 entry. From Green Mountain Soaps – Nick’s Red Jacket. Here’s what the rest of the judges had to say about it. And here’s what the manufacturer had to say about the scent:

Triple milled shaving soap with a special scent developed for the holidays. Essential oils of Spruce, Sweet Orange, Peppermint, Texas Cedarwood, Nutmeg, Clove, Tobacco Absolute, Carrot Seed & Oakmoss evoke the scent of Christmas Eve clinging to St. Nick’s jacket on Christmas Eve on his journey home to the North Pole.

Of all the scents listed in the description, the Peppermint really predominates. To the point that, while you can tell that there’s “something else” there, it’s difficult to really be able to distinguish what that something else might actually be, with probably the orange and the spruce as somewhat distant runners up.

Overall it’s a pleasant scent; I do like peppermint, and it certainly fits the seasonal theme. The scent was at a good strength level; started out fairly strong, with only a bit of fading throughout each pass.

I’d call the lather fairly good. While it wasn’t all that difficult to find the right amount of water for a good balance of lather thickness and glide, it did seem to have some lather stability problems, with noticeable breakdown starting to happen before got from one cheek to the other.

9/10 Scent Pleasantness

8/10 Scent Strength

8/10 Lather Quality

All in all, I’m going to be giving this final entry in the scent off a 8/10.

Cost: A 1 oz sample is available for $5.50, or a 2.5 oz puck for $9. Unfortunately, the last time I checked, they only shipped within the United States, so any of us who live elsewhere might be a bit out of luck.

Gear used:

Ingredients: Tallow, Distilled Water, Stearic/Palmitic Acid, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide (lye), Castor Oil, Cocoa Butter, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Olive Oil, Borax, Bentonite, essential oils