Clubman Special Reserve Shave Cologne, After Shave Macho Fragrance, 6 fl oz

I have been a long time clubman aftershave fan the past 13 years. While I only used the pinaud clubman shave lotion exclusively until the past couple years - then tried and still use their Bay Rum splash and made part of my weekly rotation, I had not tried any others. So recently bought some others to try like this Special Reserve. So here is the breakdown:It's an Aftershave Cologne, so it will be a little different than the Clubman Pinaud Aftershave Lotion. BLUF: It works. The smell is spicy, kinda in a small way smokey but kinda leather. It's very masculine and is what you want in your aftershave rotation. You could also just use as a cologne as well. For example, first use I later went outside and all the women came out and chased me down the street and now they are claiming child support. Its that powerful. and has the old time mens barber shop smell for those old enough to remember it last century. Because it's a cologne, the smell is more heavy and will stick around until you shower the next day. While Clubman's Pinaud is the best aftershave lotion you can buy, you need to have the Bay Rum splash for the light shaving or on the go days and the Special Reserve for when you need everyone focused on you.Bottle came secure and had no leakage, is effective and long lasting and though a cologne, leaves the skin soft. While some may call the smell older man or old timey, its for anyone old enough to shave.

You either love Pinaud or hate it, there is no middle ground it seems. I've tried the Virgin Island Bay Rum, Classic Clubman, and the Vanilla, and enjoyed them all (especially the Vanilla, that stuff is great). So I gave this one a try after reading the favorable reviews. For about $6 a bottle, the risk on investment was small. Upon opening the plastic bottle and smelling it I feared that this was the first Pinaud that I would regret buying.Then, I decanted about 5 ounces into a glass bottle with shaker top that Amazon sells for those folks who make and bottle their own hot sauce. These are great for decanting "drug store" after shaves out of their plastic bottles to remove that plastic funkiness that all Pinaud's seem to have at first. A few days later I took the plunge and splashed some Special Reserve on after a shave. It instantly reminded me of Aramis, only a bit different (much like the Classic reminds me of Brut, only different). It's strong at first, much like the Classic, so be a bit conservative with your "splash". Leather, tobacco, some other spices which I can't pinpoint, but the overall scent is warm and manly. It definitely has lasting power, but the scent is clean, masculine, not at all floral or sweet. I can smell this stuff from the time I splash it on, through the rest of my morning routine, getting dressed, making coffee, and then during my drive to work in the car. About an hour or so. Then, it starts to fade, to the point where I no longer perceive it but I get whiffs of it throughout the day.This is a good winter time after shave. The scent and feel just seem to "go" with colder temps as opposed to the menthol after shaves like Floid Blue which are definitely warm weather after shaves. While there are no obvious moisturizing or healing ingredients that I can see on the label, but my face doesn't feel dried out or overly tight when using this. I get a kind of matte feeling to my skin which is rather pleasant. Overall, this has become part of my rotation, especially in the colder weather now. The Vanilla is still my favorite Pinaud, but this is a close second.

Special Reserve seems to be the odd duck in Pinaud's line of aftershaves, with it's hard to place complex array of scents. I admit when I opened the bottle I had some "reserve" about this one. I'm a big fan of Pinaud's Clubman & Virgin Island Bay Rum but in the bottle this particular scent is actually pretty rank. It doesn't even smell like something you'd put on your body. It smells like you threw your belt into the campfire while opening a container of stale cinnamon. I'm not exaggerating, I almost didn't use this one because of it's scent but today was my day to shave (I skip every other day) and the Special Reserve was sitting on my bathroom sink so I thought why not. I fully intended to "regift" this after one use, but no longer. Out of the bottle and on my skin the scent changed immediately into a woodsy-leather-smoky mixture that is very pleasing and as the blurb on the bottle states it is indeed bold & masculine. It soothed my skin very well and tightened it, similar to the effect of Aqua Velva. I didn't nick my face today so I can't say if it stops minor bleeding as well as the Clubman or Bay Rum does. I would describe the three scents this way: Virgin Island Bay Rum is a working class, no nonsense scent. It burns, it's tough, it's what a guy who works in a factory or steel mill would wear. Clubman is old school upper class, something that Jay Gatsby would wear to drink cocktails with attractive young ladies and business associates. Special Reserve strikes me as what the gentleman hunter would wear while discussing his latest adventure in a social club over whiskey and good cigars. Of course these are the images my mind conjures up, and are completely subjective. I always was the Walter Mitty type who felt out of place in my own time.UPDATE: I nicked myself pretty good today and can report that Special Reserve does stop minor bleeding well. Overall I'm liking this one a lot, and the scent seems to last quite a while too.

When women smell this on my skin, it turns them into wild beasts of passion. It's for sure a aphrodisiac of the scences. It's cheap but effective.