I'm may post up some more impressions as I go through them, but this is what I got and what I reckon so far.
Cream, balm and cologne sets of:
1805
Grafton
Sandalwood
WI Limes
Ultimate Comfort cream, pre shave oil, and balm
Almond, Rose, & Lavender creams
Trafalgar, Clubman, Spanish Leather, and Freshman colognes
So far I've tried the Sandalwood set. It's nice, but the cream scent is so subtle, they may as well not have bothered. Even Trumpers is honky by comparison - which in turn is subtle by TOBS standards. Performance is as good as you'd expect from a good cream, which is all I expected. It's good, but nothing I can't get from TOBS for less. I don't think you can expect discernibley 'better' performance in these premium products over the top notch budget ones (Tabac, Cella, Speick, Proraso). It's pretty subjective and I think most people would choose them mostly because of scents and availability of matching products.
Likewise the cologne. Pretty dissappointed here, as I was hoping this would be good. Again, it's very subtle and nicely woody and musky. But I have to shove my wrist halfway up my nose to smell it. They don't give you much, but I really threw it on the second time and still it's barely there a couple of hours later. My TOBS 'pharmacy grade' smelly is less subtle to be sure, but you can smell it. It's doesn't waft though, I wear smelly for me, I can't afford to get the chicks easily excited anymore.
I've been through the other colognes, and they're the same for 'strength'. Nothing much that grabs me first time round, mostly because of the speed with which they disappear. Odd really, given the Spanish Leather lasts as long as your trips between showers. It's possible this is splash samplers for you. I found the TOBS sandalwood wasn't very prominent till I had an empty spray bottle to put it in. Maybe they work a lot better this way? Then again, I remember I bought the Spanish Leather bottle after trying a sampler way back and it stuck around a long time from splashing. Grafton does seem to be a cologne version of TOBS Mr Taylor cream, which I remember reading somewhere.
The Sandalwood balm is nice - more up front for scent than either of the other two Sandalwood products. But I don't think that lasts paticularly long either.
Cream, balm and cologne sets of:
1805
Grafton
Sandalwood
WI Limes
Ultimate Comfort cream, pre shave oil, and balm
Almond, Rose, & Lavender creams
Trafalgar, Clubman, Spanish Leather, and Freshman colognes
So far I've tried the Sandalwood set. It's nice, but the cream scent is so subtle, they may as well not have bothered. Even Trumpers is honky by comparison - which in turn is subtle by TOBS standards. Performance is as good as you'd expect from a good cream, which is all I expected. It's good, but nothing I can't get from TOBS for less. I don't think you can expect discernibley 'better' performance in these premium products over the top notch budget ones (Tabac, Cella, Speick, Proraso). It's pretty subjective and I think most people would choose them mostly because of scents and availability of matching products.
Likewise the cologne. Pretty dissappointed here, as I was hoping this would be good. Again, it's very subtle and nicely woody and musky. But I have to shove my wrist halfway up my nose to smell it. They don't give you much, but I really threw it on the second time and still it's barely there a couple of hours later. My TOBS 'pharmacy grade' smelly is less subtle to be sure, but you can smell it. It's doesn't waft though, I wear smelly for me, I can't afford to get the chicks easily excited anymore.
I've been through the other colognes, and they're the same for 'strength'. Nothing much that grabs me first time round, mostly because of the speed with which they disappear. Odd really, given the Spanish Leather lasts as long as your trips between showers. It's possible this is splash samplers for you. I found the TOBS sandalwood wasn't very prominent till I had an empty spray bottle to put it in. Maybe they work a lot better this way? Then again, I remember I bought the Spanish Leather bottle after trying a sampler way back and it stuck around a long time from splashing. Grafton does seem to be a cologne version of TOBS Mr Taylor cream, which I remember reading somewhere.
The Sandalwood balm is nice - more up front for scent than either of the other two Sandalwood products. But I don't think that lasts paticularly long either.
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