Review: Noble Otter's Logbook

Originally Posted: 11 Dec 22

Some of you may know that I am a pilot, so the second I saw Logbook and read about Cody's inspiration to create this scent, I knew that I would be buying it. I've done blind buys before, and with the knowledge of Cody's perfuming experience and the Noble Otter soap base, I knew that this would at least be well executed, even if I didn't like the scent.

How does one capture the essence of "smell of pilot" though? Let's find out.

Sourced from the Noble Otter website, the scent notes are:

Bergamot, Orange, Black Pepper, Nutmeg, Cedarwood, Patchouli, Amber, Leather, Elemi, Moss.

Scent of Logbook

As a pilot, I can tell you that the guy next to me tends to smell of sweat, coffee breath, garlic and meat notes emanating from their pores, and if I'm lucky, that scent is deftly layered with Drakkar. Capturing this unique scent picture would be quite the challenge, so Cody took a different (admittedly better) approach. He captured the smell-idea of what a pilot smells like in the airport terminal when you were 5 years old and wanted to ask him about flying. Even in my memories, I never met a pilot who smelled bad. Reality isn't quite so pleasant (for me at least). Don't meet your heroes, kids. ;)

Noble Otter's website says:

"I wanted to make logbook for everyone to give them this subtle confidence. It's a woody fougère that is a easy fragrance to wear and I think will be loved by the vast majority of people." 

Cody nailed everything he set out to achieve in blending this fragrance. It is a woody fougere with some bright fruity notes that die off within the first hour, leaving mostly just the woody notes after a few hours. While the scent is complex, it is still approachable due to the scent being "conceptually ubiquitous" in men's fragrance house lineups.

The soap fragrance strength is slightly above average, and lingers for approximately 30 minutes post-shave. The soap scent stays pretty much the same the whole time with no noticeable developments throughout lathering/shaving/wash-off.

Soap Performance

I don't think I've reviewed this soap base (I have no idea what iteration of soap base this is now), and frankly I'm glad that with Ruds' departure from Reddit, we're no longer arguing over discussing "ShaveScore" for soap bases. I think it was a rubbish metric and Ruds was obviously paid/gifted to review the soaps he chose. But I digress...

The last Noble Otter soap I reviewed was in the Battle of the Barbershops. Spoiler alert: "Barbarr" won.

The soap base here is a subtle improvement to an already elite soap base. The lather is incredibly easy to create, can take a lot of hard Texas water, provides excellent protection, is slicker than the previous iteration, and leaves my face pleasantly soft and smooth after shaving. I think the most noticeable improvement for me is the softness of my face after shaving.

As always, for any shaves that I use to compose a review, I use a Gillette Flare Tip and Astra Greens (3-5 shaves per blade). I've had this soap for about a month and have used it in at least 10 shaves.

Overall

Logbook is a complex scent. Noble Otter has one of the best soap bases. Under most circumstances, this combination would be a slam-dunk for me. Unfortunately, the scent, while well-constructed, just smells like an approachable generic cologne, and that's not why I'm here.

I love the uniqueness of "Valley of Ashes," the mustiness of "Fougere Gothique," and the aggressiveness of "Midnight Stag." Logbook is exactly what the average shaver is looking for. The average consumer isn't looking to smell like "smoky new car smell" (that's Midnight Stag, for the uninitiated), or like "moldy lavender caskets" (fougere gothique) because they want to smell pleasant, impress their SO, and blend into the background. My SO appreciates all of the above scents, for the record, just asks that I not wear them every day.

There's a very large audience for this scent, I am well aware. That audience just isn't me.

So we come to the ever-important question:

Would I buy a replacement tub?

No. I would not buy a replacement tub, but I have 4-5 pilot friends that I know would be very happy if they received this as a gift. I have so many soaps and this would not see much use in my rotation, so I'm planning on giving the soap/frag to a close pilot friend. He's going to absolutely love it and use the hell out of it.

And here's the thing... I know HE would buy a replacement tub.

I purchased all reviewed items with my own money. I have not been paid/compensated/reimbursed in any way for discussing any product or for posting product links.