- Joined
- Jun 22, 2016
- Location
- Sydney
Barristers Reserve
https://www.barristersreserve.com/
The long anticipated Reserve range of after-shaves recently went live after months of testing and refinement by Will @Barrister & Mann. As we have come to expect from the products out of these stables we have 3 inimitable scents, an irony that they are interpretations of 3 products from the wet-shaving world that are no longer available. It may be a case of homage to the originals, or as I suspect it may be a case of a man who likes scents offering his personal interpretation based on his love of perfume and scents.
I obtained these three via a colleague who travelled to the US on business, I understand that Con @shavetheman will be stocking all three via his online store The Stray Whisker at a price point yet to be determined.
Ingredients
Classic
Cool
Spice
Packaging
The packaging here is beautiful, innovating sturdy and durable as we can expect from the Italians. The bottles feel solid, well made and speak to the care taken with product. The artwork itself reflecting I believe the US Patents in regard to the items depicted on the bottle - a very nice touch that lends a sense of provenance and love of law in this regard. I love the hand feel, the density of the plastic and the care taken with the plastic top. My only comment would be that the sticker placed on the top cap was off centre, and in my opinion not needed. A stamped into the plastic logo or 'herald' in my opinion would have value added the product more than the stickers.
Reserve - Classic
Scent: Upon lightly agitating then opening the bottle of Classic I was greeted by a powdery oakmoss analogue, citrus, lavender and a hint of Sandalwood - certainly a scent reminiscent of after shaves long gone. It may be that 'real' oak moss is used in these, however I suspect a synthetic analogue - at any rate it is a pleasing smell for fans of this scent. The older wet-shavers will immediately recognise the mimic of Gillettes now discontinued 'Sun Up' aftershave albeit with some intelligent and interesting refinement as we have come to expect from B&M
My initial thoughts are that the concentration of scent oils/perfumes to alcohol is not particularly strong, what I mean by this is essentially that it is a fairly dilute solution. I applied 3 or 4 generous shakes into the palms of my hands as I would any splash and applied generously over my face and neck area. My initial impressions in this regard were found to be accurate, the scent dissipated rapidly and was almost undetectable approximately 2 hours after application.
Skin Feel: The skin feel, as with all Barrister & Mann alcohol based splash products is superb. These are cooling, moisturising, caring splashes that treat your skin superbly for what they are. I would go as far as to compare them to many of the non-alcohol based balms as regards their skin care and post shave properties.
Reserve - Cool
Scent: Fans of Floid Blue will love the Cool with it's subtle notes of lemon, bergamot and lavender. I initially found the bottle scent to be a touch synthetic, but with repeated uses and sampling it is starting to grow on me as I am a big enthusiast for the traditional barbershop scents - this one being a very Italian interpretation with the absence of the powdery musk dry down in favour of sharp, refreshing and bright citrus notes.
As with the classic I found that the scent from the blue has a short life, on the occasions I used it within an hour or two the scent has depleted to a barely detectable level.
Skin Feel: As with the Classic the post shave feel, and skin care properties of this splash are superb and last several hours after application. Absolutely no complaints in this area as to performance. The care taken with ingredients is apparent, and rewards the face superbly.
Reserve - Spice
Scent: Undoubtedly my favourite of the Reserve range, this is unquestionably a homage to the much loved Old Spice of yesteryear with it's rich, warm woody, spicy notes. I immediately get Vanilla, tonka bean and nutmeg out of the bottle with the more subtle nuances becoming noticeable during the dry down. This works immediately for me, the scent profile and notes are superb. Love it!
Unlike both the classic and the cool I found that this one had the most duration of 'face time' at around 3 hours or so. While not exceptional in longevity it was certainly the right direction as to my expectations of a splash. I'm uncertain if this is due to greater concentrations in solution or due to the nature of the individual ingredients themselves.
Skin Feel: Again superb, see the previous descriptions.
Overall
It would be very easy, if perhaps not naive to dismiss this range as dilute with the ratio of oils & perfumes to alcohol in solution found wanting, and it may be quite fair to say that this is in fact the case. However it could also be easily argued that yes, while this is in fact demonstrated and evidenced by the short life of the scents on the face, it can also be interpreted as a case of utility offering a range that deliberately not endure - sometimes we want something that fades and does not cloy.
Another line of reasoning and argument and an important one I must foreground is that these splashes permit the use of an EDT. An EDT as we know is designed and formulated to sustain scent throughout the day where an aftershave, traditionally, is supposed to fade.
My subjective take is that these scents are growing on me and I am mostly undecided if I will keep them in high rotation or not. I found, and commented previously that they do not immediately stand out like others in my line-up however this is the case with other Barrister and Mann soaps and splashes due I suspect to the complexity and composition of the products.
Will loves his scents (I base this on his /r/wicked_edge and /r/wetshaving posts, I do not know or correspond with him personally) and more relevantly he loves to make interesting, complex and nuanced scents within his product range - I base this on my owning all of his soaps and scents. I feel that this range embodies that ideal so I insist on persevering with the Reserve range for a time longer least I miss something truly exceptional.
A Caveat
Thanks for reading, and do please remember: this review is of course based on my purchasing the range as a consumer, with no free samples, inducements or gratuities that could otherwise be construed as introducing bias or favour into this review. Further, my subjective sense of smell and evaluation is employed here - what I do not like, others may love and visa versa.
