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Pinaud Clubman Special Reserve

I use this stuff practically every day and wish I could find it in a local store.

Where can I find these glass bottles that you can decant it into?

I would try visiting your local Goodwill and thrift stores. If there's one thing they have in abundance is glassware! I typically find Avon bottles with various amounts of juice still in them, and usually see one or two interesting bottles along the way. Usually cheap!

But honestly, I'm defaulting more and more to the Avon "book" bottles. Hold 6 ounces, thin and compact, they take up a whole lot less space than their car bottles do!

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FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I would try visiting your local Goodwill and thrift stores. If there's one thing they have in abundance is glassware! I typically find Avon bottles with various amounts of juice still in them, and usually see one or two interesting bottles along the way. Usually cheap!

But honestly, I'm defaulting more and more to the Avon "book" bottles. Hold 6 ounces, thin and compact, they take up a whole lot less space than their car bottles do!

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Those are perfect. I can't tell you how many of the automobile decanters I've tossed.

I could see myself actually BUYING empties of those.
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
It took years for this one to grow on me, but eventually it did. I have to use it sparingly because it is almost pure parfum strength and is awful and obnoxious if overdone. If I'm staying in I'll use a smallish amount as a regular after shave splash but if I'm going out I put a drop on the wrists and behind the ears like an EDT or a powerful cologne. It lasts all day on me. If I use it at 6 AM my wife will sometimes ask about it at night after dinner when I've essentially forgotten about it. As I said, go easy!
 

OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
It took years for this one to grow on me, but eventually it did. I have to use it sparingly because it is almost pure parfum strength and is awful and obnoxious if overdone. If I'm staying in I'll use a smallish amount as a regular after shave splash but if I'm going out I put a drop on the wrists and behind the ears like an EDT or a powerful cologne. It lasts all day on me. If I use it at 6 AM my wife will sometimes ask about it at night after dinner when I've essentially forgotten about it. As I said, go easy!

Special Reserve shows it's best after it has completely dried down. Then the dark, powdery, oily, resinous, mechanics garage, thing... Comes to the fore front. If you really like the scent of Special Reserve, but consider it too strong or not refined enough, you owe it to yourself to make up a batch of Bootlegger's EL Dorado.

The "EL" in EL Dorado, stands for English Leather. EL Dorado, keeps the same top note scent that makes Special Reserve... Special. But EL Dorado takes all the rough edges off of the dry down and gives it the refinement and air of sophistication which is very much needed.

If Jesus wasn't rocking a beard, he would use Bootlegger's EL Dorado. :)
 

never-stop-learning

Demoted To Moderator
Staff member
While you're deciding whether or not you like Pinaud Clubman Special Reserve, consider this:

Bootlegger's El Dorado - Equal Parts of: Pinaud Special Reserve and Pinaud Classic Vanilla. Add (very important) 1/2 Part Only: English Leather.

You'll be glad you did! This is one of the nicest aftershaves I have in my collection.
100% agree. Huge +1. :thumbup:
 
I would try visiting your local Goodwill and thrift stores. If there's one thing they have in abundance is glassware! I typically find Avon bottles with various amounts of juice still in them, and usually see one or two interesting bottles along the way. Usually cheap!

But honestly, I'm defaulting more and more to the Avon "book" bottles. Hold 6 ounces, thin and compact, they take up a whole lot less space than their car bottles do!

View attachment 1203292
Next time Linda ventures into the local Red, White, and Blue thrift store, I'll tell her to look at the glassware.
 
Did a look/see in my collection - I'm up to 13 book bottles. Some had juice, but several were empties. Two of them were missing their caps or they had peeing chrome. So I re-tasked some other caps. That's a nice thing about Avon decanters - many times caps sizes are the same across the line. I think they add some class to those bottles.
And these things are easy to spot on a shelf of glassware. Even for someone who doesn't know Avon.
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I like Special Reserve and EL Dorado but the Pinaud Vanilla is a pure filler - I can’t detect a discernible scent. Maybe I got an overaged bottle.
 

OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
I agree with this assessment. I just bought a sample of the Pinaud Vanilla and was disappointed to detect almost no scent at all. I’m a big fan of the original and Special Reserve.

This is the very reason I chose Pinaud's Classic Vanilla for my Bootlegger's EL Dorado. At the time, many reviews from members where saying, while they liked the leathery, oily, resinous scent of Special Reserve, they felt it was kind of harsh around the edges with no soft tones of refinement and sophistication.

Many were saying it had an dusty, 'old woman' dry down. In my mind, Pinaud's Classic Vanilla, while it doesn't smell like vanilla, it still smells pretty awesome. So I asked myself, "how would I describe the scent of Pinaud's vanilla, that doesn't smell like vanilla?"

An air of refinement and sophistication jumped into my mind. :) I was pleasantly surprised, when Mixing the Pinaud vanilla with Special Reserve, to discover that everything that makes SR desirable was still there, but the harsh edges were not. I then knew, all I needed to do left, was to find that one extra ingredient that would round out the scent. I wanted something with a slight floral note, but still manly which would give it a fuller scent bouquet, but still keep the smoky, leather notes up front and push the slight floral bouquet to the middle, which would turn the dry down into something smooth, manly and sophisticated. Almost "Tabac esk" but with it's own personal identity.

English Leather accomplished this. Modern EL can be a bit harsh in it's own right. But it complimented the Special Reserve, while the Pinaud Vanilla, tamed both of those wild stallions from over running the scent. They all three synergized beautifully and became Bootlegger's EL Dorado.

One of the great benefits of EL Dorado is. The longer it sits and ages, the smoother and richer, the mix becomes. :)

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To me it smells like an old, worn baseball glove. Very rich but utilitarian leather. Probably underrated as a leather scent in the wide canon of leathers now out there.
 
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