It’s a brand new year and yet I’m still riding high on my barbershop fragrance flag! Due to some rather generous holiday gift cards to Maggard Razors, I went a little wild in their fragrance department and Seville from Barrister and Mann is one of the fragrances I happened to pick up during my rampage.
Barrister and Mann aren’t exactly a designer house, but they’re not a niche house either. Fragrance is a byproduct of their primary focus, and that’s shaving. Let’s call them an indie house and call it fair. Founded in 2013, Barrister and Mann have been offering shaving soaps, aftershaves, and more for years.
But, they did eventually decide to offer straight fragrance products, and Seville was launched in 2017, with William Carius credited as its nose. Let’s take a look at the notes.
Seville Notes
Top: Lemon, bergamot
Heart: Rosemary, lavender
Base: Oakmoss, patchouli
If you’re looking at this and thinking “yep, those are definitely barbershop fragrance notes” then you’re exactly right! But, as my review of Dodo 2020 showed, you can have all the right notes, but it won’t mean anything if the blending isn’t there. So how did Seville do?
Verdict
Seville is about a realistic barbershop fragrance as you’re going to find. Not just the notes family, but actually going to an old school barbershop. There’s a wonderful mix of classic “clean” shaving cream, with the tang of antiseptic and tonic (thanks in part to the rosemary), and a slightly powdery finish.
Now, I’ll be honest, some compare this to Christian Dior’s Eau Sauvage EDT and I’d have to completely disagree. The citrus in this fragrance isn’t nearly as “tannin-y” and far creamier. Rather, some Barrister and Mann fans have affectionately dubbed it as “god’s barbershop” and it’s hard to disagree. Eau Sauvage is classy, no doubt, but it doesn’t call to mind a classic barbershop experience or scent the way Seville does.
The only major drawback here is that this, as an eau de toilette concentration doesn’t last as long as I would like. At best, on skin I get three, maybe four hours tops out of each application. This is, however, countered by the price.
You can purchase a 30 mL bottle of Seville for just $24.99 (by comparison, you’re looking around $61.74 for a 50 mL of Eau Sauvage. Scaled up, you can still get 60 mL of Seville (two bottles) for less than the price of a 50 mL of Eau Sauvage. For the level of quality you get for Seville, the price is really, really hard to match.
Of course, Barrister and Mann have other fragrances (with higher concentrations) on their site for purchase well, but you’ll have to see if you can get some of them in season. I’ll be back throughout 2021 too review at least two other fragrances I’ve picked up from this house!
The Fandomentals “Fragdomentals” team base our reviews off of fragrances that we have personally, independently sourced. Any reviews based off of house-provided materials will be explicitly stated.
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Image courtesy in part to Maggard Razors
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