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My review of B&M 'Seville' (Discontinued Excelsior base)

About a little over halfway through the tub and have been using daily for quite a while now and I'm happy with the product overall. I'm not really going to go into a lot of specifics considering its a discontinued base which to my understanding has been replaced with Omnibus indefinitely but I will say that I had 0 issues with it personally. It fits quite firmly in the 'excellent' tier for me. It has kept its scent, loads easily, lathers easily, is plenty slick and has a great post-shave feel. It definitely needs quite a bit of water though and I would classify it as thirsty but you are rewarded with a really hydrated yet still amazingly dense and creamy lather.

What I really want to discuss is the scent. Many consider this to be one of the all time greats of wetshaving but I'd have to disagree. I don't find anything particularly stellar about the scent. There isn't a lot of description on the kind of scent that it is other than 'citrus infused barbershop'. I don't know about you, but that means nothing to me. On the side label, there is a sticker that says: citrus, herbs and oakmoss. This is the most accurate description of the scent. It is citrus forward with a lemon zest scent (think natural lemon as opposed to yellow skittle or lemon sherbert) followed by a heavy herbacious base of rosemary and patchouli (I don't get much lavender personally) and then finished off with oakmoss. It begins bright and becomes quite herbacious and earthy as you continue to smell it. It has grown on me but its certainly not a must buy for me. I think citrus scents (at least for shaving) are not for me.
 

shavefan

I’m not a fan
I have a tin of the Seville/Excelsior base too. I find the scent to be a combination of citrus & baby powder. I too do not get much lavender from the scent. I like it though.
 
About a little over halfway through the tub and have been using daily for quite a while now and I'm happy with the product overall. I'm not really going to go into a lot of specifics considering its a discontinued base which to my understanding has been replaced with Omnibus indefinitely but I will say that I had 0 issues with it personally. It fits quite firmly in the 'excellent' tier for me. It has kept its scent, loads easily, lathers easily, is plenty slick and has a great post-shave feel. It definitely needs quite a bit of water though and I would classify it as thirsty but you are rewarded with a really hydrated yet still amazingly dense and creamy lather.

What I really want to discuss is the scent. Many consider this to be one of the all time greats of wetshaving but I'd have to disagree.

You're allowed to disagree. It's just a barbershop scent and if you don't like them in general you definitely won't like Seville . Not much more to it than that.
 
Respectfully disagree with all of you. When I first purchased it 4 years ago I felt as all of you. As time has gone on my love for this soap has grown and grown. It’s now in my top 5 favorite scents. Performance is top notch.

Something I’ve noticed about B&M scents is sometimes they take a while for me to appreciate. Same thing happened with Hallows. At first I hated the smell. Over time it’s grown on me and is now in my top 5 favorite smells.
 
Respectfully disagree with all of you. When I first purchased it 4 years ago I felt as all of you. As time has gone on my love for this soap has grown and grown. It’s now in my top 5 favorite scents. Performance is top notch.

Something I’ve noticed about B&M scents is sometimes they take a while for me to appreciate. Same thing happened with Hallows. At first I hated the smell. Over time it’s grown on me and is now in my top 5 favorite smells.
I’m not going to have it for four years since it’s almost finished and there’s way too much choice to bother rebuying something I’ve already used. I do agree though, time let’s us become accustomed. I’m personally just not a fan and don’t find it to be as sophisticated and quintessential as others do. Just my input.
 
Barrister and Mann Excelsior base was the very first "Elite" soap base that I used. It scored 10/10 on each of my evaluation criteria. It was the first soap to meet those standards. I recently obtained one of the Omnibus soaps (Nordust) and consider that to be even better. I place it in my "Super Elite" category. Not only does it score 10/10 on the evaluation criteria, but the post shave feel lingers all day... in this case over 24 hours. Only a few soaps I have tried will do that.

I like the scent of Seville just fine. It is the most popular Barrister and Mann scent with buyers. However, for me there is too much lemon. Although I love the aroma of lemons, the oil irritates my sensitive skin. I can use Seville, but it always leaves slight irritation after my shave. My goal is for an irritation-free shave. Nordost is based on orange peals which does not irritate my skin the same way lemon, lime and grapefruit do.
 
Something I’ve noticed about B&M scents is sometimes they take a while for me to appreciate. Same thing happened with Hallows. At first I hated the smell. Over time it’s grown on me and is now in my top 5 favorite smells.

Usually with B&M the ones I like off the puck from the start turn into being just ok. The ones you say no to when you first open that jar turn into gems.
 
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