Trafalgar by Truefitt & Hill, 1986

First of all, even though the juice is blue, the scent is definitely not...Freshman should have been this color. You start with an unusual combination of lemon and nutmeg, a very light high-pitched soapy citrus over sharp, non-sweet woody spices. I'm sure it's one of many men's scents with this combination, but one of very few that I can smell the two simultaneously...a miracle of un-blending which I like a lot. As the lemon fades, some sweetness comes to the woody spices, yielding something like Santos, or Curzon, containing notes that normally fall into a heavy "winter" category, but are executed rather lightly. There's just a trace of anise, but I don't mind it because the nutmeg is so dominant. To some extent, this is the type of scent I wanted to find in some of the older Trumpers (Astor, Eucris, Curzon, Marlborough), but many didn't quite fit the bill or were too weak. It has just a trace of the distinct floral (carnation?) in Marlborough, but I mostly only notice this if I "revive" the mid notes by breathing warm air over the test spot. Trafalgar is also slight smoky, but avoids the over-the-top ashtray aura that kills Floris Elite. Even though it's not very strong in the base notes, I like what they've done here.

I don't agree with all these comments that say Trafalgar is a weird scent with a cooking herb element. What I get, all the way through, is reminiscent of a classic eau de cologne with a touch of spice, woods and florals - it opens with some distinct and very slightly powdery (in a pleasant way) citrus, then the jasmine comes on strong and then I get the cedar and cardamom all at once. Sounds like a bit of a train wreck, but for me it all plays out wonderfully. Of the four traditional English barber companies, T&H aren't the cheapeast but they probably have the nicest and highest quality frags - each one is very independent from the other and considered on its own merits, unlike Trumper and DR Harris who seem intent on putting a signature note or two in pretty much everything they release (in Trumper's case cloyingly sweet powder, in DR Harris' case a much more pleasant old style citrus). Trafalgar's sillage and longevity is, unfortunately, among the weakest of the T&H range (perhaps not surprising given the relatively minimal pyramid - even taking into account the things not listed on BN, there's still not an awful lot going on for an 80s frag) but paradoxically, if taken as an eau de cologne alternative, it's spectacular - 4 hours at least. Still, it does make it quite expensive, but very worthy all the same, in my opinion.