Anyone have any thoughts on this one? I am sure I was sent some samples of at least the ASB and the SC by a kind member here as part of another exchange, but I do not remember being impressed one way or the other about the scent, supposedly uniform throughout the JB line, except I had a vague recollection that it was supposed to be very old school Brit and rather polarizing.
I tried some this moring at Rodman's on Wisconsin Avenue in DC, which seems to carry an entire line of JB shaving products as sort of an upscale line of such things. For instance, they keep them locked up, and with the more expensive shaving brushes, and they keep the edt with the SCs, ASBs, SS, etc., rather than with Rodman's rather impressive glass cases of scents.
This time the edt anyway seemed very nice. Sort of an Eau de Portugal, with a sturdy base of spices and oakmoss. Maybe more bergamot in the top than neroli. Still very orangey citrus, but with some earthiness to it. And a good study in evolution, as the spices and earthiness of the oakmoss seem to come out over time and to dominate any lingering orange, without the scent seeming like it is trying to be too many different things at once. Decent tenacity for something that starts out so orange citrus. Although I do think I like the opening more than I like the dry down. At the opening it seemed like a somewhat Brit version, but not too Brit, no great dryness, dustiness, and quite forward, of the various Italian neroli-type scents, such as Acqua de Parma. Not sure how the opening could be polarizing. How can anyone not like citrusy orange? On dry down it seemed a bit more British and unusual, with some potential for being controversial.
Other all, I think I prefer some well-known scents along the same lines without the complexity at the end, and another not so well-known scent that is on the way that may be a purer traditional Eau de Portugal, a purer orange!
There is a JB eau de pefume version of this same "house" scent apparently. I would like to give that a spin. I find that often the edc/edt and the edp versions of a scent differ enough to make things interesting!
Anyone have any thoughts on this edt or related JB products? It is about $40 at Rodman's for 3 plus oz, but looks like one can get it on say EBay for under $30 shipped. At $40 it is competing with some fine stuff, at least at Rodman's where prices are generally quite good, and $40 seems like a lot to pay to have something to use sporatically. But at under $30 a bottle becomes more justifiable, at least to my own internal illogical rationalizations! Although, I really do not think I am liking this dry down all that much.
Rodman's had some interesting and good looking (marbalized green handled, for instance) shaving brushes today, BTW, around the $40 mark, labeled simply "badger" and "Made in Italy," with no brand marking at all that I could find. Hard for me to judge the exact grade of the badger knot, but it did not seem lower grade and scratchy at all. About a 22mm diameter I would say, with the green handles having a silver metal ring around the base of the knot. I think another version had a black ring around the base.
Also, some unbranded brown and gold, I think, diagonal striped boxes of three white, travel-sized hard shaving soap pucks each, for about $12, also marked made in Italy, with a small while sticker saying "Almond" on the plastic wrap of each puck, and "Sapone - Barber" around the interior diameter edge on one side molded into each puck. Could have been "Sapone da Barber" or "Sapone per Barber," I should have paid more attention, and I do not know what if anything was molded into the soap puck on the other side. I cannot find a photo that looks exactly like what was in the boxes, much less the boxes themselves.
I wonder what Italian company might be making these items. I do not know whether to be impressed that Rodman's is carrying them or not. I guess I impressed when any store carries shaving brushes apart from Tweezerman, much less a variety of shaving soaps and creams!