British Sterling (1965)
by Dana (orig. by Mem Company)

Oh dear! After reading some of the negative reviews, I realize how feminine mens frags have become through the years and since the days of British Sterling (1965). Yes men, I do remember it well. Men have now become used to "sweeter" fragrances. British Sterling is clean cut, manly, and pleasant. There's no way it can be mistaken for anything else BUT a true mens scent. British Sterling mixed with a light dose of "man musk" makes for a REAL MAN and nothing in between either. I guess those days are long gone based on the silly "popular" scents of today that young men douse themselves in and then think they smell so "sexy" for women to enjoy. Based on statistics and pheromone studies, they don't at all.

This is perhaps my favorite aftershave, a pleasant suprise from a blind-buy made in the clearence aisle at a Wal-Mart. It's sort of floral, with a verdent/spicy base, but dries down predominantly soapy (in a rather good way, mind).

I liked it enough to buy an adorably small bottle of the cologne, which I proceeded to spill onto my pantleg. Thankfully, it's a pleasing smell to me, and not very powerful, so I did not have to spend the evening in tears or pantsless.

So then, if I seem to like it so much, why the neutral rating? Well, because to me it smells like a confused knockoff of the infamous Brut. In fact, on my skin it smells so much like Brut that someone could switch bottles on me and I'd likely never notice.

All in all it's fine for an aftershave. Perhaps wearable to work as a cologne. It's safe, and might be a nice alternative to Old Spice or other everyday mass-market frags.

OMG
Most powdery awful bitter POWDERY...
dry fire extinguisher chemical...
Baking soda and mloustache wax...
PAU... DEAR ...EEEEEEEEEE...
Powder smell I've ever been invaded and dehydrated by.

Sweet, green, spicy and aggressive, this has a lot of the old clean-cut professional-smelling aftershave air about it, which appealed to me for a while. I guess this is how straight-shooting businessmen were meant to smell around the office in simpler days gone by, and I'm sure many actually did. I could live without the anisy note in this stuff, as well as whatever is pepperminty; these together stopped me from fully liking BS in the end. The main caveat with this one is that it has a tiny nagging sour note that occasionally pokes its head out. I had a plastic bottle of BS once, and it got very sour over time from this, which probably wouldn't have happened with the 2nd (glass) bottle, but I always felt like it was on the verge of starting up again. It really doesn't need to be so darkly colored either, but at least it doesn't stain like Old Spice.

Again, another scent like English Leather that I mostly recommend in the after shave (available at Shop Rite these days) and say, "Not bad, but not for me." Like foetidus, I do remember the one back in the day being sharper, but the one available today in the after shave is clean, floral but not out of hand, with a fade into powdery soap.

While not wearing this one again I want to ask, "What was this one all about?" since I clearly remember that woman with long hair on a horseback presenting the man with British Sterling on a silver platter. I believe at that time I went with Zizanie for awhile...something a little more boozy...

I had the misfortune of trying this at my local drugstore. The citrus and floral bravado is not bad, but it dries down to a dirty, urine-like leather and then vanishes within a half hour.