Shave
After my usual pre-shave application of Grooming Dept Moisturizing Pre-Shave, I used my Rooney Style 3, Size 1 to make a very fine lather from a tub of shaving soap that I was told was rebranded Truefitt & Hill (before their outsourcing and reformulation). It’s a triple-milled soap and makes a lovely lavender-scented lather.
Three passes of the Above the Tie R (now called the R1, but I got this before the R2 appeared), here riding on a RazoRock Barberpole handle. Result: extremely smooth face, no damage.
And then a splash of what from the label you would think is Pinaud Clubman but seems in fact to be Clubman Pinaud, in the fragrance Classic Vanilla, which to my nose differs noticeably from (plain) vanilla, although it is a pleasant fragrance. However, I don’t detect vanilla. This is no substitute for Paul Sebastian aftershave.
History
The confusion about Pinaud Clubman vs. Clubman Pinaud led me to do some web-searching this morning. The line starts with Édouard Pinaud (1810-1868), who in 1830 bought a perfume store and in 1852 started a perfumery and a chain of four stores. (More detail in found in the French Wikipedia for those who read French.)
Today, we have Clubman-Pinaud (or Pinaud-Clubman — the company itself uses both, as well as simply “Clubman” — their URL is “clubman”) and also a totally different company Pinaud (whose URL is “ed-pinaud”), which offers luxury cosmetics, watches, etc. Since the company Pinaud is not relevant here, the remainder of the post focuses on Clubman-Pinaud/Pinaud-Clubman.
Today, Clubman Pinaud offers a line of shaving products and other toiletries for men, including a wide variety of aftershaves. Their brand, despite the appearance of the label in the photo, seems to be “Clubman,” with the “Pinaud” merely a nod to their origin (though, as noted, they also use Pinaud-Clubman as their name).
Clubman offers a wide variety of aftershaves at modest prices, including not only Clubman aftershaves but also Clubman Reserve, Lustray, and Jeris aftershaves.
I in fact have Lustray Coachman, which I’ll use tomorrow — and it is that name that made me that that “Clubman” was a specific aftershave made by Pinaud (not the case). I was thinking that since “Coachman” is a specific product fragrance, “Clubman” must be the same — not so.
The About page on the Clubman site presents a brief history of the brand. Clubman Online (a different site) offers a bit more detail of the history (and also has a separate history page with a meager amount of information), along with pages on the products. The history page refers to the line as Pinaud-Clubman.
As a side note, I am intrigued by three of the Clubman-Pinaud Reserve aftershaves: Whiskey Woods, Gent’s Gin, and Brandy Spice. (The tradition of using potable spirits as an aftershave includes — and perhaps began with — the venerable Bay Rum.)
As I was writing this post, I looked through my old-timey aftershaves, and I found one made by A.I.I. Clubman. What? Yet another Clubman?
Looking into that, I found that American International Industries (A.I.I. — the periods or necessary, otherwise it looks like the word “All”) owns over 60 brands, including Andrea, Ardell, Body Drench, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, ibd, ‘N Rage, ProLinc, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Tres Flores, and Youthair, to name a few. A.I.I. has a page on Clubman. That page mentions”the Pinaud brand and its Clubman line,” but then also specifically states that the brand is “Clubman” (not Pinaud). The page also mentions Clubman Pinaud (in addition to plain Clubman). They also state that Édouard Pinaud started his company the same year he was born (1810), which strikes me as incredibly precocious (literally incredible, as in “not believable”). As Wikipedia notes, Pinaud bought his first store in 1830.
It seems clear that the companies themselves (A.I.I. and Clubman/Pinaud-Cllubman) still are undecidedwhether it is Clubman, or Clubman Pinaud, or Pinaud-Clubman, and whether the brand is Clubman or Pinaud. Nevertheless, they do offer a broad range of reasonably good and modestly priced shaving products.
I’ll be using some of their aftershaves in the days ahead.