Reformulating "Down"

Photo by JaneArt, 1962, modified & color-corrected by B. Ross, 2024

So, the Skin Bracer saga continues. On Badger and Blade the gents are claiming that the current version of Skin Bracer is "weaker" with "more alcohol" and "more menthol" than the version from just ten years ago. There is still speculation that it is discontinued, although some recent comments have firmed up the notion that Colgate-Palmolive are still manufacturing and distributing it. So, some relief on that front.

When it comes to reformulations, there are two ways to think of them. Let's use the above picture of the girl(s) in the water as a reference. Some men think of reformulations as taking the largest girl, stripping her of most or all color, and fuzzing her out by removing information from the image. You could start small (the girl on the bottom right) and wind up big (top left) and have a big blob of a scent that in no way resembles the beauty that once was. Most men think of reformulations like this, as the fine-tuning of their favorite fragrances being undone, until all that is left is the basic shape of what was. 

The second way to think of it is as the literal interpretation of the above image. You start with the big, beautiful image of a girl in water and you reformulate her "down" to the smallest girl. All of the notes and accords are still there, but smaller in concentration and in part, contributing less to the pyramid and the performance. Eventually you wind up with a mini version of what was once a grand fragrance, overtaken by the useless white space of excess alcohol and water. The fragrance that once lasted twelve hours and had a beautiful progression now lasts two hours, and on your ride to work you must focus like a laser to notice each little evolutionary stage, an exercise in frustration. 

This ironically tends to be how aftershaves are reformulated, while proper EDTs and colognes are subject to the first method. Aftershaves begin with less information, with their scent being at the lowest concentration (somewhere between 1% and 10% of the formula, and it varies between products), and thus the act of stripping them down even further is only possible if you attenuate everything. In the case of Skin Bracer, the starting point was likely around 10% or perhaps as much as 12%, and since 1940 it has crept down to around 3%. The bottle I bought back in 2010 or 2011 smelled like it was roughly 10%, and I would occasionally use it as a cologne, which actually worked!

The bottle I purchased much more recently did smell a bit weaker to me, and I believe a reformulation took place, but it was a reformulation "down" from what it was, not an actual changing of the scent. Colgate-Palmolive decided it wanted to spend less on formula annually, and so acted to stretch the fragrance oil across more bottles, thus reducing the amount used in each, probably by several percentage points. What the exact strength difference is would be impossible to know, but my nose senses it's significant, with the tenacity of the newer formula only lasting about ten minutes before becoming naked menthol and little else. I could never substitute Skin Bracer for an EDT now. 

So while I would cast doubt on claims that it is discontinued, I agree with the idea that SB has been tampered with. Is money the only reason, or are there others? I tend to think that products like this, which have been around forever and appeal mostly to men over sixty, are simply becoming culturally obsolete. The powdery and slightly sweet profile of this type of fragrance is pleasant to a nose of any age, but the cheap image and dated olfactory aesthetic make it a tough sell. I'd wager that women under fifty aren't super enthusiastic about it, although the crap that many women are wearing these days makes them unsuitable critics in my opinion. Skin Bracer is great, but its days are numbered. 

Is Skin Bracer Discontinued? Look to Brut for a Lesson on Why We Can't Have Nice Things . . .

Recently on the shaving forum Badger and Blade, a member posted a thread asking if Mennen's Skin Bracer aftershave had been discontinued. Apparently SB has become increasingly difficult to locate in brick and mortar shops, with places like Stop & Shop (a grocery store chain), CVS, Walgreens, and Rite-Aid failing to display bottles or marking them all down for sale. Given the nearly 100 year-old legacy of this product, the idea that its days are numbered is distressing to all of us. 

I'm not entirely certain the rumor is true, however. I recall seeing it at Walmart at least six months ago, and seem to remember seeing it at Walgreens not forever ago. It's possible that certain stores have opted out of selling it for their bottom line, and maybe distribution has simply tightened up a bit after the pandemic. Whatever the case may be, some on B&B have suggested that any price ending in seven foreshadows a discontinuation, and if SB is labeled as such, we should consider it the apocalypse. I think prices ending in seven are simply sales prices or are just random dollar-up prices that shouldn't be considered anything other than typical big box pricing. 

But let's say Skin Bracer has been discontinued - what would that mean? You could view it as a black-and-white, hard numbers economic betrayal of the shaving man, with little more than basic balance sheet realities accounting for its being axed from global outlets. This would be the most likely explanation; companies aren't in the habit of shedding hot ticket items. If SB doesn't sell, it doesn't sell. Time for it to go, and Colgate-Palmolive certainly has a right to can it. Okay, fine, but what if we view it as a result of buyer apathy? Is it possible that there simply aren't enough men who care about the product to keep it on store shelves? Or would this be "blaming the vicim?" 

I'd say it's the latter case, except I've been observing the wetshaving community's reaction (or lack thereof) to the recent reformulation of Brut aftershave and cologne. In 2022, High Ridge Brands purchased the licensing rights to Brut from Helen of Troy, and since then has completely changed the fragrance formula back to a late nineties version that I haven't smelled since I was in high school. It's richer, louder, more expensive smelling, and more ambery than it was a couple years ago, when HoT's endless formula tweaks had finally ground Brut into a cheap vanilla paste that wasn't worth the plastic it was housed in. 

For many years under the Helen of Troy license, B&B members lamented the reformulations, and correctly said that they paled in comparison to the Brut they knew in prior decades. The running consensus was that Brut Classic was as close to true 1960s Brut that you could get, but then Classic was discontinued sometime around 2012, to be replaced by Brut Special Reserve, which was basically Classic with heavier accords and poorly-balanced lavender. Essentially Brut SR was just a screwed-up version of Brut Classic, and I have a bottle that I've only used about 15% of in the last eight years. I know they wanted to take Brut back with this stuff, but I simply don't like it, and won't wear it. 

People felt that the Brut you can buy anywhere, which comes in a green plastic bottle, was cheapened Brut 33 that had truly fallen on hard times. It was still an aftershave, but the scent had been neutered into a powdery mess. Brut "Splash-On," which came in a seven ounce bottle, had maybe fifty seconds of longevity before it vanished. The hunt for vintage Fabergé Brut was ongoing, and even a bottle from the nineties was preferable to the stuff available in the 2010s. Never in a million years did anyone expect Brut would be saved by anybody, as it seemed Helen of Troy had an iron grip on the license, and I fully expected they would discontinue it in the 2020s. And it would appear that I was half right about that!

It's clear that the bigwigs there had decided that there were two options going forward: discontinue Brut, or sell the license to someone else. Luckily they sold it, and High Ridge Brands, which must be run by Republican Boomers, wisely opted to ditch the going formula and replace it with something that actually smells like real Brut. Their decision marks the first time in my life that I've ever seen a legacy brand like Brut get resurrected by a buying entity. If High Ridge Brands buys Old Spice, our prayers are officially answered! 

You would think that this turn of events would have led to a massive outcry of celebration in the wetshaver community, and that B&B would have a sticky thread devoted to praise for the "new" Brut. You would think this development would have guys shouting from the rooftops about it, and that their excitment in forums would be palpable. Will HRB bring back Brut Classic? If so, will it be like sixties Brut, with some kind of modern stand-in for nitromusk filling in the base? Will they switch the branding back to Fabergé? Will they actually give men their beloved wetshaver fougère back? You would think that all of this speculation would be happening non-stop. You would think. 

Except it hasn't been happening at all. There have been no celebrations. No shouting from rooftops. No stickies on the return of Brut. Nobody has bothered to raise the questions of what HRB might do with Brut going forward. Nobody has even asked how and why HRB changed Brut's formula back to something that actually smells good. The level of apathy for the new reformulation of Brut is so high that it's almost as if people always hated Brut. Aside from a couple of comments on maybe one or two threads on Badger and Blade, the noise around this not-insignificant change has been dead on arrival. Most of the members do not seem to care. One even asked if the new packaging for Brut aftershave signifies counterfeiting, and openly wondered how Walmart gets away with selling fake Brut. This is where the conversation has gone since High Ridge Brands spent untold millions of dollars to switch Brut back to the way it used to be.

What does this say about the buying public? There's no reinforcement being given to High Ridge Brands for their choice, and how exactly do we expect them to take that? I wonder if Brut's sales have gone down since their takeover. It wouldn't surprise me if HRB discontinued Brut by 2025, and the fragrance simply went extinct. After years of wanting something, openly wanting it, the wetshaver community finally got it, and then pissed all over it by basically ignoring it. This is why we can't have nice things. 

Skin Bracer is an old-school aftershave used by many Boomers and older Millennials like myself, and it's one of those hiding-in-plain-sight grocery store treasures that anyone under 35 skims over and ignores when shopping shaving basics. Dad wore Skin Bracer. Grandpa wore Skin Bracer. I'm 27, I don't wear Skin Bracer. I wear Gucci Guilty shave balm, or Montblanc Legend with a little water after I cartridge shave with canned goo. Cheap? Cheap is cheap. I don't wear cheap. Okay Zoomer, that's fine. But when Skin Bracer disappears and becomes an eBay unicorn, don't pop onto Badger and Blade and start kvetching about how someone needs to bring it back to market, because it turns out that the only thing that's actually cheap in this world is talk. 

Update 2/15/24:

I received a message from a faithful reader on Fragrantica who pointed out that I seemingly contradict myself when I say that I don't like Brut Special Reserve. In my review on this site I say that it's essentially Brut Classic in a different package, and elsewhere wrote that I liked it the same way that I used to enjoy Classic. So, what gives?

Things change. In the last five years, every attempt to wear and enjoy Special Reserve ended in me having a minor allergic reaction to it, with my airways closing up just enough to give me a sinus headache. I find that the first hour of SR is unusually "dense" and heavy compared to Classic's top notes, and the drydown is strangely flat and unsatisfying. If I didn't have the physical reaction to it, I might consider SR to be an adequate substitute for Classic, but given the circumstances and the added fact that it too is discontinued, I don't really have positive feelings about it. 

I do hope that HRB reinvigorates the Brut "Classic" approach, but I hope that the suits there are a little more ambitious in how they do it. Instead of slapping "Brut" on the glass neck, I want them to resurrect the Fabergé labeling, and I really want them to make it a splash instead of a spray. I'd also like them to make the formula more clean/dirty in the true vein of the original from Fabergé, instead of just a gussied-up retooling of the drugstore plastic bottle version. I doubt any of this will come to pass, but a man can dream. 

Medicine Cabinet: A Tale of Three Aftershaves

I know I said this blog wouldn't mix perfume and aftershave, but I lied.

The truth is, I have to get something off my chest. Perfumes I understand - aftershaves I don't.

What bugs me about aftershaves is that they're typically watered-down and cheapened versions of otherwise-classy compositions. I mean, I can't imagine listening to a live performance of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio and then settling on a scratchy cassette-tape radio recording as a souvenir. With Skin Bracer and Brut, the material for masterful opera is there, but the execution leaves much to be desired. It's like whoever was charged with formulating these fragrances graduated from Grasse in the top percentile, and immediately accepted briefs with $10 budgets.

Take, for instance, Brut:

Fabergé released their renowned ambery fougère in 1964, only to water it down and bottle it in plastic a scant four years later. Full of classical fougère elements, including lavender, lemon, oak moss, patchouli, and sandalwood, Brut's note pyramid exhibits all of the hallmark characteristics of a perfect masculine. And yet, it smells so . . . cheap. When I sniff the aftershave, I get the alcoholic vapors, something vaguely suggestive of mint and lemon, and then a massive, utterly unbalanced sweetness. Anise is in there, but instead of smelling floral and spicy, it's a bald cloud of coumarin. The cintronellol fields shallow against piles of oak moss and tree moss, and the whole thing ends up an odd combo of sweet 'n sour. It's like Clubman by Pinaud (which is an exceptional aftershave), only skanky, and unbearably sweet. It's a little too fetid for me to wear, even in the privacy of my home. I don't know. I really don't understand it.

Then there's Aqua Velva Ice Blue:

Originally by Williams, the makers of Aqua Velva got one thing right - psychologically, blue is more refreshing than green. After that, Aqua Velva loses me. For one thing, the scent doesn't smell blue at all. More of a dirty, minty greenish-brown. After a typical limonene (lemon), linalool (lavender), and peppermint opening, Aqua Velva slides into a weirdo combination of sweet musks and leathery woods. The leather note really presides over everything else, lending an unexpected darkness to the drydown. This is what makes Ice Blue a leathery chypre. Which would actually be a great thing, except the minty mouthwash top notes never entirely disappear. Instead, they mesh with the sweetened coumarin-leather whatever, which creates a sort of stained "freshness" accord. Me no likey. But me wanna likey, me wanna likey alot! All well. Perhaps someday someone from Combe Inc. can explain to me what the philosophy behind Aqua Velva's scent is. Maybe they could also explain why they've taken an already-challenged fragrance and doomed it before it even exits the bottle by making said bottle PLASTIC.

The best of the lot is Skin Bracer by Mennen:

I recently picked up a bottle of Skin Bracer, and I have to say, it's really nice. Nice enough that I wish it were a lot better than it currently is. It could also use a glass bottle, although Skin Bracer's switch to plastic isn't as recent as Aqua Velva's. If only these toiletry companies understood the deleterious effect of plastic on fragrance. Classified as a fresh fougère that trends ever-so-slightly into woody territory, this one is a little more abstract than its two compadres. It's like a Mark Rothko painting, with distinct blobs of scent transition that all somehow meld into one color. I get a distinct mint leaf from the top, intermingled with a very light lemon, which rapidly slides into a musty vanilla and leather base. The leather is more refined than the others, and the mint persists as the base fades. Eventually, when the darker notes are gone, the sweet freshness is all that's left. That, and my sense of ennui. Why, oh why can't this aftershave be made with better ingredients? 

I'd gladly pay twice as much for this, especially since this formula costs $9. Pretty pricey. But it could be better. It could incorporate hints of orange blossom to compliment the vanilla. There could be a little cedar to brighten the leather. Instead of a Rothko Print, I could have an original Rothko! Skin Bracer turns 80 this year, and given its age, Mennen should celebrate and turn up the volume on the scent. Sure, it'll always be a lowly alcohol-based aftershave, but that doesn't mean it has to smell like one.

Then again, maybe it's better to keep these aftershaves low-brow. Whether you're working on a lounge lizard moustache with Brut, a Bertie Wooster impression with Aqua Velva, or a Swedish Girl with Skin Bracer, you're working something.