First, I want to say it’s not my “interpretation” of a barbershop or barbershop scent. Is it a barbershop scent? I don’t know, I think it would fall in that category because of the scent notes NOT because it smells like any barbershop you’ve walked into exactly. It’s not powdery, or at least I hope/think it shouldn’t come off that way. In MY head it is quite a lot like the old barbasol without the chrome metalic note (if I knew where to find that note I would put that in). If sent it to 2 different people and told one that it was a copy of English Fern and the other it was a copy of Rive Gauche, each of them would complement me for a job well done and say I was very close. I think English Fern is easier to copy so that guy might say I was right on but the Rive Gauche guy would say it’s missing something. That is why I describe it as being the love child of English Fern and the original Rive Gauche, it isn’t a copy of either but it has their vibe. So, maybe it’s like a barbershop fougere.
I don’t want to pigeon hole this as a barbershop scent, that’s why I made the point that it not an interpretation of barbershop. Barba is actually intended to tie a few ideas/concepts together (I thought I was being quite clever and came to a name that sounded good too). ‘Barba’ is an Italian word that means ‘beard ‘ but was also used in some regions /dialects in Italy (my grandfather was born in Torino Italy and served in the Italian army) to mean ‘uncle’ or sometimes used to describe a man who was revered. The real word for “uncle” in Italian is “zio” so obviously my choice of name isn’t a direct reference to Italian uncles but if you grew up in Torino maybe you’ve heard or called an uncle or other close friend called “Barba” are something similar. (Like “Babba”). My soap is a SHAVING soap and it smells great, like your favorite uncle...really comfortable, the kind of smell you can enjoy every day.