There are a lot of soaps (and splashes) out there that pay tribute to (rip off?) famous edts or aftershaves from years past. I've had some great experiences and some meh experiences, so I appreciate that matching someone else's scent is easier said than done. It's all the more impressive if it's in a soap base that outperforms. If anyone else has had similarly good experiences I'd be interested to hear. Here are my experiences with some classic scents and the soaps they inspired:
JPG Le Male edt = Eufros Gea. I don't own Le Male, I own Boellis Panama 1924 edt which is very similar. The scent and performance of this soap are both stellar. Boellis makes a cream in this scent (not to be confused with their world class soap of the same name that's almond-scented) but the performance was weak when I sampled it. Eufros (Jabonman) is hard to get, but I have used two of their soaps and sniffed a number of others as Pasteur's in NYC and have nothing but good things to say about the whole line. 5 of 5 stars (scent and performance total experience)
Brut AS = Wholly Kaw La Fougère Parfaite. I don't know if WK was specifically paying tribute to Brut when they made this scent, but the similarities are undeniable. FP has a mint note that stands out a little vs Brut and FP is also more organic / natural in it's scent. So I wouldn't say the scent is a dead ringer, but that's okay because I like the WK version exactly as it is. The donkey milk base is worthy of the praise it gets, which is a lot. I also have the matching toner which is excellent. 5 stars
Floid Blue AS/edt = Barrister and Mann Cool
Gillette Sun Up AS = B&M Classic
My experience with these B&M soaps is limited but very positive. I have more experience with the splashes. Cool is a dead ringer for Floid Blue. Sun Up was discontinued a while ago so I have no idea, but the Classic scent is great in an old school kind of way. They also have spice which is supposed to be like Old Spice, but that's not my cup of tea so I haven't tried it. 5 stars.
Creed Virgin Island Water edt = Ariana & Evans St. Barts. This is a hard scent to nail without it being overly sweet. I used the Stirling Island Man soap and splash but don't love their soaps and their splashes irritates my face. And the scent is too synthetic. St. Barts soap and splash are more true the Creed scent and I get better performance. They also have an edt that's not quite as good as Creed but much cheaper. 4 stars (a definite keeper but not quite elite)
Santa Maria Novella Tobacco Toscano edt = RazoRock Santa Maria del Fiore. SMN makes their own cream and it's fantastic. They also make their own splash. So you can go right to the source. But RazoRock is much cheaper and their croap is actually more true to the tobacco toscano scent than SMN's cream. SMN is mentholated and smells like tobacco toscano had a baby with Proraso Green. I'm not a big fan of RR's splashes, but they pair well with the soaps. They have a number of different bases and SMdF and Mudder Focker are my two favorite. 4 stars
YSL Rive Gauche edt = Fine American Blend / RazoRock American Barber. Rive Gauche is my every day edt so I probably split hairs more on the comparison. Fine and RR both make a soap or croap as well as a splash. They both do a good job on the RG scent, but could be better. I like Fine performance over RR by a little. RG is a barbershop / barbesol tribute itself. There are tons of barbershop scent options out there, and I ended up kicking these both out of my rotation and pair other barbershop soaps and splashes with the RG edt. 3 stars
JPG Le Male edt = Eufros Gea. I don't own Le Male, I own Boellis Panama 1924 edt which is very similar. The scent and performance of this soap are both stellar. Boellis makes a cream in this scent (not to be confused with their world class soap of the same name that's almond-scented) but the performance was weak when I sampled it. Eufros (Jabonman) is hard to get, but I have used two of their soaps and sniffed a number of others as Pasteur's in NYC and have nothing but good things to say about the whole line. 5 of 5 stars (scent and performance total experience)
Brut AS = Wholly Kaw La Fougère Parfaite. I don't know if WK was specifically paying tribute to Brut when they made this scent, but the similarities are undeniable. FP has a mint note that stands out a little vs Brut and FP is also more organic / natural in it's scent. So I wouldn't say the scent is a dead ringer, but that's okay because I like the WK version exactly as it is. The donkey milk base is worthy of the praise it gets, which is a lot. I also have the matching toner which is excellent. 5 stars
Floid Blue AS/edt = Barrister and Mann Cool
Gillette Sun Up AS = B&M Classic
My experience with these B&M soaps is limited but very positive. I have more experience with the splashes. Cool is a dead ringer for Floid Blue. Sun Up was discontinued a while ago so I have no idea, but the Classic scent is great in an old school kind of way. They also have spice which is supposed to be like Old Spice, but that's not my cup of tea so I haven't tried it. 5 stars.
Creed Virgin Island Water edt = Ariana & Evans St. Barts. This is a hard scent to nail without it being overly sweet. I used the Stirling Island Man soap and splash but don't love their soaps and their splashes irritates my face. And the scent is too synthetic. St. Barts soap and splash are more true the Creed scent and I get better performance. They also have an edt that's not quite as good as Creed but much cheaper. 4 stars (a definite keeper but not quite elite)
Santa Maria Novella Tobacco Toscano edt = RazoRock Santa Maria del Fiore. SMN makes their own cream and it's fantastic. They also make their own splash. So you can go right to the source. But RazoRock is much cheaper and their croap is actually more true to the tobacco toscano scent than SMN's cream. SMN is mentholated and smells like tobacco toscano had a baby with Proraso Green. I'm not a big fan of RR's splashes, but they pair well with the soaps. They have a number of different bases and SMdF and Mudder Focker are my two favorite. 4 stars
YSL Rive Gauche edt = Fine American Blend / RazoRock American Barber. Rive Gauche is my every day edt so I probably split hairs more on the comparison. Fine and RR both make a soap or croap as well as a splash. They both do a good job on the RG scent, but could be better. I like Fine performance over RR by a little. RG is a barbershop / barbesol tribute itself. There are tons of barbershop scent options out there, and I ended up kicking these both out of my rotation and pair other barbershop soaps and splashes with the RG edt. 3 stars
