Old Spice versus Tabac

Not sure which is manly and which is necrotic in your mind, but in the best tradition of YMMV I'll say I kinda like Tabac but somehow Old Spice majors on the Old. I remember even in the 80s thinking it was for grandad. I saw some new variants of it in TK Maxx the other day, next to the Tabac AS and Cremo soap stick, and bought the latter as the OS didn't really seem to grab me. Had it appealed olfactorily I would have bought some to try, or if they'd had the original, maybe I'd have got it for nostalgia purposes, although I think I only ever had one bottle back in the 80s. (Sheesh, back then I was also given some Hai Karate for Christmas and even as a teenager I thought it was cheesy).
 
Nothing like some old school scents for creating a bit of nostalgia, even if you can't stand them. I personally like a lot of them but there's absolutely no comparison between the original versions and the current formulations of most of these scents. ( i.e. Old Spice, Brut, Blue Stratos etc. ).
These were in your face and potent back in the day.
I would be playing football with my mates in the park two streets away and I would know when my dad left the house.
BTW, Hai Karate was great for cleaning the oven
 
Hahaha! And IIRC it was green, the sort of colour they use for poison in films featuring mad scientists. Blatantly playing on the huge increase in Eastern martial arts over here during the 70s without a hint of self consciousness over the ridiculous name! (Hai just means 'yes" in Japanese, although I think many over here figured it referred to the 'kiai' (shout) made when landing a strike).
 
HaHa ! Yes, and long before PC took over the world.

"karate" translates to "empty hand".
I heard a story that the marketing people hated this scent so much that they came up with this name as a backhanded sarcastic joke.
It was a suggestion that you'd be better off with an "empty hand" than to hit your face with a splash of it.
 
I've always regarded Old Spice as an "old man"'s aftershave. It's the kind of thing that I would have expected to find in the bathroom cabinet of my very elderly grandfather. My friends and I used to take the mickey out of OS when I was at school. It wasn't a particularly "in" kind of aftershave, even back in the 1980s, when it was supposed to be more popular.

Tabac, on the other hand, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for. I just prefer the smell of Tabac, as opposed to OS. Although it is still "old school", it seems to be generally respected more than OS ever was. I still buy and wear Tabac aftershave to this day, and I say that with absolutely no shame.

So, if I had to choose, I would always go for Tabac.
 
Tabac - granny spilt her flowery perfume in the ashtray and hid it in her handbag for years.

Vintage Shulton Old Spice - Man stink!

New Old Spice - Meh, prefer Boots Freshwood.
 
You've the kind o granny you canna shove off a bus, clearly! Tabac is dead, long live Tabac! (that's what I say when I finish a bottle and reach for the next). It's not my only frag, nor my all time favourite, but it's like an old pair of slippers. Not in smell of course hahaha! Just a nice daily splash when you've no need of getting the expensive stuff out. Brightens my weekday mornings does Tabac.

Maybe Paco Rabanne next, or Mandate?
 
You've the kind o granny you canna shove off a bus, clearly! Tabac is dead, long live Tabac! (that's what I say when I finish a bottle and reach for the next). It's not my only frag, nor my all time favourite, but it's like an old pair of slippers. Not in smell of course hahaha! Just a nice daily splash when you've no need of getting the expensive stuff out. Brightens my weekday mornings does Tabac.

Maybe Paco Rabanne next, or Mandate?
Blue Stratos, you lady killer!
 
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