Hey guys does anyone have any thoughts on British Sterling as an aftershave and cologne? I know its a drug store standard and my father wore it for many years long ago. Anyone still using it?
British Sterling
- Thread starter harverster
- Start date
I really enjoy the stuff but wear English Leather more often.
I wore British Sterling during and just after graduate school, which is longer ago than I like to admit. I liked it a lot back then. A girlfriend, whose tastes I still would think would be reliable had bought it for me. I do not quite recall whether it was sold in drugstores then or at some slightly higher end kind of store, I just cannot remember.
Years later, but still longer ago than I like to admit, I bought a bottle, I am sure for a relatively low price at some drugstore or other, thinking I might wear it again from time to time.
I would say that my, let's say, "experience" with scents was not then what it is now. But I thought what I got later was pretty bad and my impression was that it was not nearly as good as what I had had in graduate school, and that it was pretty much unwearable to me. It occured to me at the time that maybe my tastes had simply changed. I had not then had the experience with scents being reformulated, etc., I have now.
That was awhile ago and I have not tried any vintage or current versions of British Sterling in a long time.
My guess would be that it was not bad back in the day, and in fact may have been very nice. And by the time tried it last time around, it was a cheapened, dumbed down version of its original self, being sold by some company that had bought the rights to it for cheap and was essentially just using the name.
However, that does not mean that whatever is being sold as British Sterling these days is not closer to the original in quality. It does not mean that it is either, or that it has not always been the same and in some time periods I loved it and in others I did not!
Not all that helpful, I know! I would really like to try some truly vintage British Sterling. It would be interesting.
Years later, but still longer ago than I like to admit, I bought a bottle, I am sure for a relatively low price at some drugstore or other, thinking I might wear it again from time to time.
I would say that my, let's say, "experience" with scents was not then what it is now. But I thought what I got later was pretty bad and my impression was that it was not nearly as good as what I had had in graduate school, and that it was pretty much unwearable to me. It occured to me at the time that maybe my tastes had simply changed. I had not then had the experience with scents being reformulated, etc., I have now.
That was awhile ago and I have not tried any vintage or current versions of British Sterling in a long time.
My guess would be that it was not bad back in the day, and in fact may have been very nice. And by the time tried it last time around, it was a cheapened, dumbed down version of its original self, being sold by some company that had bought the rights to it for cheap and was essentially just using the name.
However, that does not mean that whatever is being sold as British Sterling these days is not closer to the original in quality. It does not mean that it is either, or that it has not always been the same and in some time periods I loved it and in others I did not!
Not all that helpful, I know! I would really like to try some truly vintage British Sterling. It would be interesting.
My grandfather used to alternate between this stuff and Avon something or other. I remember him giving me a bottle when I was in 8th grade or something. That was when I thought that Coy's Raw Vanilla was the best frag I had ever encountered. British Sterling smelled "old" by comparison. Sweet, green, and "like a person wearing a thick sweater" is the impression it always gave me. But I wore it because he wore it. And because the name and crown on the label made it seem expensive and "British."
It's not bad, but it's not especially good from what I remember. Definitely a child of its time. I think it might be better if it wasn't so sweet.
It's not bad, but it's not especially good from what I remember. Definitely a child of its time. I think it might be better if it wasn't so sweet.
I have a bottle of cologne I bought last year at Walmart and there is just a little more in it, and I will say I won't be replacing it with more. Okay scent wise but not long lasting and there are more scents that I like better.
I used to buy bottles of British Sterling or Wind Drift as presents for my father when I was a kid! Great smells, great memories!
Many years ago, my dad wore British Sterling. I thought it smelled great. Just for the heck of it, I picked up a set of AS and cologne (not sure if it was an EdT or not) a year or so ago. i thought it smelled terrible. Memory, of course, is fallible, but I think it's been reformulated and turned into something cheap and nasty. That's coming from a fan of drugstore/barbershop frags.
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Thanks guys you saved me from wasting like 15 bucks on it. Should have known it would be reformulated.
I don't know about the differences between the original and the reformulation, but i picked up a gift set of cologne and AS last weekend. I didn't mind the scent, but SWMBO did NOT care for it. Just for reference, she loves AV Sport, and likes Old Spice, but she hates Canoe. British Sterling initially has a sharp herbal note, but dries down fairly nicely, in my opinion...not hers! 
Speaking of Wind Drift...I loved that stuff when I was a teenager! I'd love to smell it again.
Speaking of Wind Drift...I loved that stuff when I was a teenager! I'd love to smell it again.
I still use it occasionally for work, it's not as good as the Vintage stuff and the cologne can be on the sweet side, the aftershave is a bit spicier. If you're after some of the older Drugstore scents stick with Aqua Velva, Skin Bracer, English Leather, Jovan Musk/ Sex Appeal or Brut.
IMO the newer version of this fragrance is inferior to the old stuff. It's been reformulated using synthetic stuff. It is probably cheaper to do that rather than to use genuine ingredients. Having said that it's not horrible, you get a hint of former glory but overall disappointing.
I wore it in it's prime, and tried it again recently. I didn't notice so much the difference in formulation (probably just not remembering well) as I did the awareness of how much it now smells like a "barber-shop" scent to me. Not a comment on whether it's good or not, I just don't remember that impression from the past. Of course, I wasn't aware of the term or category "barber-shop" scents back then. But I thought then that British Sterling was pretty hip, probably due to the advertising.
More importantly than the scent, is the bottle the same as the one they used years ago? My grandfather used to have a bottle on his dresser in probably the late 1970s, and I'd only consider buying it if it looked the same.
That bottle has varied a lot over the years. I think the earliest ones, at least in the larger than 2.5 oz sizes, for AS and cologne, had a shiny, silver cap that came down over the shoulders of bottle to just above the halfway point of the vertical line of the clear glass bottle. The underlying bottle completely smooth, no indentation in the glass that the metal cover rested on. No atomizer. By the early 70s, the bottle itself has a mirrored finish where the a actual metal used to be. Cheaper, obviously. At one point that mirrored finished part may have been in a abbreviated format on the bottle. Wavy and high up on the bottle's shoulders.
Now, starting who knows when, from photos it looks like the bottle is shaped to take a metal cover, with the bottom edge of the metal resting on a little ledge in the bottle, and the standard bottling has such a shiny, silver metal cover affixed. Sort of back to the future. The frag seems to be for sale with out that metal cover, but with the shaped bottle. I assume these bottles have an atomizers.
Non-aerosol atomizers back in the day were cylindrical with a shiny silver, round cap. Smaller sizes seemed to be in bottles without the metal and the glass entirely clear or in a couple of cases frosted, or perhaps the frosted versions are plastic travel-type sets.
Hmm, sounds too iffy to risk the investment.
I love, but am a little afraid of, the detailed answer!
You could probably have a look at the photos for what they are selling on ebay and at various vintage scent web sites, and be able to immediately recognize exactly the style of bottle your grandfather had! Based on price you could decide whether you wanted to take a chance on buying something that had deteriorated over the years. I do not know whether vintage British Sterling is a coveted enough item to have to worry about, say, someone refilling an old bottle with a current version of the juice that is not what you would remember.
Might be fun to take a chance!
Might be fun to take a chance!
I remember this was one of my Dad's favorites years ago. I haven't the faintest idea what it smells like, but I'm sure I would recall the scent once I did. May be a nice gift idea for him and I'll get a bottle for myself.
