Okay, I've been a customer of Stirling Soaps for years now. They primarily made shaving soaps, but…read morehave since branched out. All of the stuff I've tried from them have been great.
Let's talk about the scents first. For anyone coming from more traditional scents, or canned shaving cream, Stirling Soaps' scents are an eye-opener. When I first ordered from them, of course I got Vanilla Sandalwood. But look at some of the other scents. Orange Chill?! This scent literally smells like being in an orange orchard. Weekend in Malibu smells like a flower field. And you can match the entire shaving process. Aftershave, and aftershave balm in the same scent!
If you're coming from traditional scents like boring ol' sandalwood, it's like discovering toppings on pizza for the first time, after a lifetime of eating only cheese pizzas. If you're coming from those barbershop or menthol canned shaving creams, it's like discovering non-barbershop or menthol-flavored pizza.
As far as how they perform, they lubricate and cushion better than any other soap I've tried. I bowl lather, and I take my time with that; so if you're one of those who wants to build a lather in 30 seconds, your results may vary. I personally find the lather more lubricating and cushioning than the popular soaps everyone gets when they first get into wet shaving (D.R. Harris, TOBS, MWF, Proraso, etc). It's an all-around pleasurable shaving experience.
Their soaps are tallow-based, and if you get a super fresh batch, they'll have a slight odor. Don't worry about it! Just put it away for about a week or two, and after that, the odor will have dissipated. Also, their pucks last forever (granted, I'm not an everyday shaver). So here's also my recommendation, if you want to maximize finding scents that you'll enjoy. Get on their bath soap subscription, and let them pick the scents. You'll find the ones you like. They have so many scents that you can even start classifying scents by season. Like... look at the Hot Apple Cider soap. Great soap scent for autumn!
Updated: Forgot to actually talk about how the shave soaps perform. Added as second-to-last paragraph.