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Aqua Velva reformulation?

I just picked up a new bottle of Ice Blue and it smells different. It has a more mild/weak sent compared to my old bottle that is maybe less than a year old. My wife could immediately smell the difference as well. Cost cutting measure or just a fluke batch?
 
I don't know but what I can tell you is the bottle I have came in glass. Cost cutting is so common that you probably nailed it.
 
I had this thought the other day with a new bottle of Musk actually. I thought it was in my head, but now maybe it may not be? I was thinking it seemed a tad more alcohol smell and that it wasn't quite the strength it was before in how long it lasted?
 
I just picked up a new bottle of Ice Blue and it smells different. It has a more mild/weak sent compared to my old bottle that is maybe less than a year old. My wife could immediately smell the difference as well. Cost cutting measure or just a fluke batch?

I got a fresh bottle a couple months ago and it was perfect.
I'd suggest returning your 'off' bottle to your retailer and get another with a different batch code.
 
I got a fresh bottle a couple months ago and it was perfect.
I'd suggest returning your 'off' bottle to your retailer and get another with a different batch code.

Sometimes I do wonder if quality control may not be a top priority when it comes to mass produced after shaves. The 'average' shaver is not that discerning. Perhaps a bad batch.
 
Sometimes I do wonder if quality control may not be a top priority when it comes to mass produced after shaves. The 'average' shaver is not that discerning. Perhaps a bad batch.

Yes it's possible. I dug up an old thread here that someone else was complaining of the same thing right after they switched to the plastic bottles. I did not notice a difference after they switched to plastic myself. So hopefully it's a bad batch?

For what it's worth I'll add that it seems like there is less alcohol, doesn't sting as much as the my old bottle.
 
Yes it's possible. I dug up an old thread here that someone else was complaining of the same thing right after they switched to the plastic bottles. I did not notice a difference after they switched to plastic myself. So hopefully it's a bad batch?

For what it's worth I'll add that it seems like there is less alcohol, doesn't sting as much as the my old bottle.

i could detect absolutely no change in sting or alcohol level in my most recent bottle, vs earlier ones.
 
This bottle definitely has less alcohol content (burp) than my old one. Maybe they're making "low VOC" versions for us on the left coast? LOL

I'll keep an eye out an see if anything changes next bottle I purchase. :wink2:
 
I just ordered a couple of vintage NOS bottles from the 70s to compare them to current production. I'll report back shortly.
 
OK, my old Aqua Velva arrived. Could be the age, but the scent is different. The older version smells nicer, frankly.
 

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OK, my old Aqua Velva arrived. Could be the age, but the scent is different. The older version smells nicer, frankly.

$aqua velva on ice-D8C_1790edit.jpg

exactly. my vintage aqua velva has a mellower scent than the fresher product.
due to age, plus whatever formulation changes happened over the years.
my guess, mostly due to age.
but, that's just a guess.
to me, both smell nice.
 
So my new old stock came in the mail today.
i wanted the glass bottle more than the AV.
But I did want to to see if the formula changed.
differnece in forula is Benzophenone 1 was added and the colors were reversed.



Definite smell difference. i'm in the midst of a clubman only month so the full test will have to wait.
 
So my new old stock came in the mail today.
i wanted the glass bottle more than the AV.
But I did want to to see if the formula changed.
differnece in forula is Benzophenone 1 was added and the colors were reversed.



Definite smell difference. i'm in the midst of a clubman only month so the full test will have to wait.

Yeah I got a full bottle just like yours early this year and agree. It is milder in scent vs the plastic bottle I bought about a year ago. Kinda disappointing. Hard to know how much is due to age vs. formulation changes. My vintage bottle was full and in orig box so should be a good representative of the old.
 
I have quite a few bottles of the vintage Ice Blue dating back to it's introduction in 1957 (has the black cap instead of blue) in both AS and cologne. Most smell as expected but some smell bland. I have always chalked it up to the way they were stored before they found me, but it's quite possible that it may be a batch quality problem.

I have also noticed that the new dark blue Ice Blue in the plastic bottles have always smelled bland and when I read about people claiming they smelled the same as vintage, I thought they were full of it, that is until I opened a recent bottle bought at the beginning of the summer and lo and behold it smelled almost exactly like the vintage. So apparently different batches of the current juice can vary, doesn't seem like much of a stretch that it may have always been that way, or they have been warehoused or shipped in very undesirable conditions. I am happy to discover that a good batch of the current stuff comes very close to that of a good batch of vintage.
 
I am happy to discover that a good batch of the current stuff comes very close to that of a good batch of vintage.

Thanks for the input. I wish I could say the same about a couple large bottles of Floid AS I picked up some years back. They've turned. Makes me hesitate to pull the trigger on NOS AS & C's
 
Vintage AV is definitely different than modern. But that really isn't what the OP is referring to. The brand has gone through no recent changes in formulation. Even when they went from plastic to glass, it stayed the same, and amazingly smelled the same too (unlike others that made the plastic transition). I recently bought 5 new bottles to transfer to some of my older glass bottles and it smelled no different than I'm used to. If yours smells off, IMO, you either have a bad batch or it was handled improperly.
 
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