1903 Aftershave Balm

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1903.

I was browsing in a Paris antique shop one winter afternoon when a fitted leather train case caught my eye.

It contained silver-handled brushes, boot hooks, a straight razor, several silver-stoppered glass bottles.

Inside a bottle, there was still the faint aroma of a gentleman's cologne. Custom-made for a rich traveler a century ago.

Curiosity was eating at me. I bought the case and sent the bottle to a laboratory for analysis. They broke down the residue by gas chromatography. Identified its fingerprint through spectrophotometry.

The report said: an "old woody fougère." Clean citrus notes, bergamot, "green notes." The middle notes: clary sage, cardamom. The dry-down: leather notes, smoky labdanum… elemi, tabac, frankincense.

The detective work was impressive. So is the thing itself. Women like the way it smells on a man. Like a symphony that begins loudly, then soon slides into subtle, entangling developments that grow on them.

Or so I've been told.

1903 Aftershave Balm (No. 1402). Aftershave balm. Mine is non-greasy (absorbs readily), with witch hazel, aloe vera and comfrey. Apply tiny amount to fingertips, smooth over face and neck… ah, feels much better. 3.4 fl. oz., 100 ml.

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