Welcome to Old School Scents, my blog dedicated to exploring the fragrances of generations past. In this blog, I will mostly be examining fragrances marketed towards men that were released from the 1960s through to the 1990s. That said, I will be looking at some fragrances that are unisex and some that were marketed to women that I believe wear perfectly well on men. I will also talk about a few fragrances that were created before the 60s, as well as some modern scents that I believe are well suited to fans of older fragrances. I feel I should mention this, I don't hate modern perfumery; there are a plethora of fragrances released today are very good, but as I found myself getting more and more interested in fragrances I noticed that I had a penchant for older fragrances and that most of the modern releases just didn't feel like me.
A little bit about me: my name is Mike and I'm a 31 year old librarian from Canada. From the drawing above some of you might call me a hipster; I don't think I am one, but the label doesn't bother me. I've been a fragrance enthusiast for the better part of a decade and I owe my interest in the hobby to my Opa and to my local barbershop.
Growing up, I spent many weekends and summer holidays staying with my grandparents, Oma and Opa. Opa was a dapper man; always well dressed, well groomed and he always smelled fantastic. Opa's two favourite fragrances were Brut and Old Spice. Whenever I was over, I would always sneak a few splashes of his colognes/aftershaves so that I could smell amazing and gentlemanly just like him. To a young and impressionable me, Opa was the pinnacle of masculinity and smelled exactly how a refined, mature man should smell. My Opa passed away recently at the age of 91 and whenever I smell Brut or Old Spice, I'm transported back to my childhood and the wonderful memories he and I shared together come flooding back. I'm grateful for Brut and Old Spice so that I have a little piece of him that I can keep with me for the rest of my life.
Prior to becoming a full blown frag head, I always kept a bottle of Brut and Old Spice around so I could smell mature and gentlemanly, just like Opa. I also would kept a few other bottles of fragrances that my Dad and Uncles wore; Drakkar Noir, Azzaro pour homme and Aramis were always in my wardrobe.
Through my teen years and early 20s I was a fragrance wearer but didn't have much of an interest in fragrances as a hobby. The majority of my friends didn't really wear fragrances (and still don't) and I never really paid much attention to the fragrance trends that were going on. Instead I stuck with my old faithfuls; I wore Brut, Old Spice or Aramis when I wanted to smell more mature and Azzaro or Drakkar Noir for a night out on the town.
I began my journey down the fragrance rabbit hole in the mid 2010s. I started going to a new barbershop, the retro-vintage hipster kind of barbershop where they played obscure 60s rock n roll and all the barbers had long beards like myself and more tattoos on their hands than most people do on their entire bodies. After a cut and a neck shave, they'd dust you off with some talcum powder and spray on an aftershave. The whole barbershop smelled strongly of the aftershave and talcum powder and my gosh, what an amazing smell. As soon as I got home from my first cut there, with that wonderful scent still wafting from the back of my neck, I knew I had to have whatever they were using.
I decided to start researching barbershop fragrances online to discover what they were using. The general consensus online was that it was likely Clubman Pinaud, so the next day I went out to a beauty supply store in my area and picked up a bottle of it. Well, it was not Clubman Pinaud that they'd been using; but I was, however, extremely satisfied with my purchase. I absolutely fell in love with the smell of Clubman Pinaud; very reminiscent of my classic Brut, but with the powder, sweetness and sharpness kicked up a notch.
I went back to the drawing board and resumed my quest to discover that mystery aftershave and while doing that I discovered that many of my old faithfuls were considered barbershop scents. I figured that I probably just really like barbershop scents, so I started reading up on other fragrances that people on Fragrantica and Basenotes had dubbed as barbershop scents. Before I knew it I had purchased a dozen or so aromatic fougeres, woody chypres and woody floral musks. My love for fragrances didn't stop at barbershops, as I would soon discover that I had a penchant for old school fragrances in general and thus my journey down the fragrance rabbit hole began.
Through this blog I will be discussing some of my favourite barbershop and classic fragrances that I've grown to love, as well as some I didn't enjoy quite as much as I'd hoped and I'll be discussing scents that I continue to discover along my fragrance journey. I hope this blog can be a place where we can discuss and learn about new fragrances and rediscover some of the best forgotten scents of past eras.
Welcome to the Old School Scents Blog,
Mike
Oh, and I did eventually find out which aftershave they were using in case you were wondering. It was Crown Shaving Co. After Shave Tonic, a local independent Canadian company (I probably should have figured as much).
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