Hmm I just had my first go with it and I see what everyone means about the smell. It does remind me of those yellow cubes they put in urinals. I also made the mistake of applying it directly on top of Proraso green preshave and that didn't work at all. Killed the lather completely. I rinsed the brush and my face and had another go but it still didn't give me the texture I wanted. However I put this down to user error and the mistake of trying a new not well honed razor all on the same day. I'll persevere because it's obviously me rather than the soap stick, which gets such praise normally. So yeah, first go, I managed to fail with a soap that almost everyone agrees is easy to lather. It's been a long week and really I should have stayed in bed! I'll try again tomorrow with a known good blade.