Shaving Product Review - Barrister and Mann "Adagio"

Value (Cost, Packaging and Performance)

Lather (Density, Glide and Feel)

Post-shave (Healing, Moisture and Feel)

Scent (Quality, Strength and Longevity)

Completing an impromptu springtime marathon with a variety of Barrister and Mann scents - this time with Adagio #soap and #aftershave!

New England Summers are vibrantly green and bright, landscapes of breathtaking biology and natural beauty. Fragrant blossoms and fruits perfume the air and the very ground itself seems to radiate a cool, calm scent when the sun goes down. Adagio is the combination of all these scents made solid, a “cool green fruit” fragrance consisting of lime, cherry, violet leaf absolute, lily of the valley, and a beautiful floral musk called Galaxolide. The soap is rounded off with a light mentholated coolness, not super cold but enough to refresh the face in the swelteringly hot weather of Summer. Cool, green, fruity, and floral, Adagio is an excellent way to keep your face looking sharp and your skin smelling nice all Summer long.

Making its debut in June of 2014, Adagio is not unlike other springtime offerings such as Jacinthe and 42 in that it's got a fruity, floral vibe. In fact, it's the latter two reviews that inspired me to revisit Adagio today, to complete the triumvirate. I've reviewed Adagio before, so I won't really add too much today; just giving it a fresh look. I've also done a lot of reviews of #BarristerMann goodies over their history - in fact, almost every product they've released! Click on the hashtag to browse them all, or check out the History of Barrister and Mann for a more targeted approach. Regular readers should be well aware of the performance of both soap and aftershave, the former being in the Glissant and the latter in Tonique.

The name, Adagio comes from the from Italian adagio, meaning "slowly", from ad agio, meaning "at ease" (as in tempo) and the artwork is an illustrated record (LP). It officially has notes of lime, cherry, violet leaf absolute, lily of the valley and Galaxolide. As I've mentioned in those other reviews of Jacinthe and 42 - Adagio has a somewhat similar vibe as well, and while it has floral components, they're downplayed somewhat - instead it features the lime and cherry primarily - making it a fruit-forward scent. Of course, it also contains menthol - which neither of the other two do. All three could be a loose-knit family. Adagio being fruity, Jacinthe being lemony/floral and 42 kind of in the middle with neither fruit nor floral standing out, as they're toned down by the tea (instead of the green of the other two).

If fruity and floral are your jam, check out yesterday's review of Mickey Lee Soapworks La Belle du Sud with its peach/lavender/pistachio accord. From Barrister and Mann you can also check out Sinfonia with a simple jasmine/apricot accord; it's relatively recent and more easily obtained. Another is Dr. Jon's Savannah Sunrise which has a peach/jasmine/orange blossom/honeysuckle accord and readily available new.

Astute readers will notice the little 2ml tester in the photo above... It's none other than the brand new fragrance from Barrister and Mann called Romance in Middlesex County (or just RIMC). It has top notes of apricot, tangerine, ho wood and cardamom; middle notes of coffee, lily of the valley and fresh laundry; and base notes of jasmine, tobacco, musk, oakmoss and sandalwood. The scent strength is strong with sillage to match and a longevity of about 6 hours. The accord is described thusly, with which I essentially agree:

An understated, elegant floral characterized by a fresh, juicy tangerine opening, underlaid with coffee and apricot. The scent softens into something strongly reminiscent of apricot skin, and contains a huge combined dose (4.4%) of Egyptian jasmine absolute and the Indian jasmine distillate motia mukhallat.

Hardware for today included the black #StandardRazors with a #Gillette 7 O'clock (black) blade and a sweet brush from #ThatDarnRob. This is his popular "milk glass" handle. Milk glass fits, as it has the look of a translucent colored glass but also a touch of sea glass because of its somewhat more rare green color. Traditional and common milk glass has colors of blue, pink, yellow, brown, black, and the white of course, which gave it its name. The knot is also very new to the market, called SilkSmoke. You can think of it as a Tuxedo knot, but instead of black on the bottom, it's grey/silver. But the beauty is more than skin deep; while it has a similar scheme to a Tuxedo it also has its backbone... However, the face feel is more like a Cashmere knot - very, very soft. Alas, the color combination doesn't work for most handles, but I think it poses as a ghostly juxtaposition against the green milk glass handle. This one's 26mm; a righteous size and probably my favorite. The #GTP scuttle did its thing.

I've now completed a fresh series of reviews with four Barrister and Mann springtime favorites: Jacinthe, 42, Rhapsody and today's Adagio. Which one is my favorite? I can definitely say that Rhapsody is my favorite - and it's a damn shame that it was discontinued! But these three fruity/floral offerings are very nice in their own right; just simpler, more playful accords. Alas, it does not look like we'll see Adagio return this year, as it usually does in the summer.