The Mother Load

[Eighties]

So my mother in law was cleaning out her late husband's effects last week and when she stopped by the house yesterday, she handed me a shoebox full of vintage aftershaves and colognes. Some I thought I would never have the pleasure of sampling.

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From right to left: Quatro balm, Jafra balm, British Sterling Talc and two different sizes of aftershave. Paco Rabanne, one bottle of P&G Old Spice, two bottles of Shulton Old Spice (there is a bottle of the Old Spice talc in the pic that my dad gave me), Old Spice Leather Cologne and AS, Old Spice Lime AS, two sizes of MEM English Leather, English Leather Musk, English Leather's Wind Drift, Brut AS and Cologne and last but not least, Tamarisk by Mary Kay.

Some of these appear to not even have been opened, at least until I smelled them. They all seem to be very fresh with very little to no evaporation.


Here is a close up of the Old Spice Family as I have begun to call it:

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And the English Leather Family:

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[sychodelix]

Wow, completely awesome! Obviously he was very much into collecting and rotating aftershaves.

 

[Niles]

Congrats on the nice collection!

 

[Brewshooter]

Wow!!!

 

[tmurzz]

pretty jealous.

 

[Krona Kruiser]

Wow! That's an aftershave time-capsule. Haven't seen some of those bottles since I was a kid.

 

[smalltank]

I have the British Sterling..great staying power!

 

[joshua1970]

nice score!!!!!

....if ever there was a reason to send a mother-in-law flowers

 

[tfinch]

Great score! I completely forgot about British Sterling. My grandfather rotated that and Old Spice when I was a kid, I can remember seeing and admiring the look of the bottles on the counter.

 

[beginish]

How awesome is that?!

 

[The Nid Hog]

Great collection! Vintage British Sterling has a much nicer fragrance than the current version. You've got some really nice stuff there. Enjoy!

 

[Trouthunter]

Awesome! Nice! What a mother in law!

Chuckling over here: English Leather plus their soap on a rope - standard gifts I gave to my Dad every Christmas and Birthday for something like 800 years in a row as a kid! Not sure if I could smell it now without bringing tears - lost my Dad 3 years ago and I'll bet that smell is burned into my brain as HIS smell!

Enjoy that collection!

 

[superkreep]

Awesome. What a great lady!

 

[Go West Young Man]

Wow, completely awesome! Obviously he was very much into collecting and rotating aftershaves.

LOL, hardly. The fact they're all 90% full means he probably got a bottle every Father's Day for years even though he obviously barely used the stuff.

 

[sir-nix-alot]

Im jealous of all of that Old Spice.

 

[andrestole]

Get her some flowers, or a flower store. She deservs it!

 

[sk0ttomann]

Nice PIF, I'm in!

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Holy Moly, that is awesome. Especially the Old Spice!

 

[Eighties]

LOL, hardly. The fact they're all 90% full means he probably got a bottle every Father's Day for years even though he obviously barely used the stuff.

I think that sums it up. The only time I remember him using aftershave was to church or if we were going out for dinner. He passed away five years ago and while I was into straight razor shaving it was before I got into the vintage aftershaves so it never came up in conversation. Some of these are easily from the early 80s. My MIL probably bought the Tamerisk for him from my wife's cousin who sold the Mary Kay and I'm pretty sure the small English Leather, Wind Drift and Musk were all part of a gift set. If I know Mack, he put it under the sink to get to one day, unfortunately that day just didn't come.


As it is I've worn the Brtitsh Sterling, English Leather, Tamerisk and Old Spice Leather so far, while I don't have a favorite, I like them all. The Old Spice Leather is nice, it makes me think of a mild English Leather with a hint of the original Old Spice hovering just at the fringes.

(Okay I'm longing for the days of the Shulton)

 

[SmoovD]

Congratulations on the awesome score.