Aftershave - Sandalwood

Okay so a little backstory before we get to the review on the actual product. So i'm a 21 year old college student who lives at home while I go to school. Well because I shave with a straight razor I require an aftershave that cools and tones but it also cannot be a balm. I live in a desert area and balms just layer oil onto your skin because of the heat and dust. The kicker is my mom suffers from excruciating migraines and almost every single aftershave, cologne, etc will set her migraines off. I have searched for years since I started shaving when I was 15 to find an aftershave that has a scent that won't set off my mom's migraines but will also do what an aftershave was intended to do. I found that with Captain's Choice Aftershave. So now onto the review of the product itself. So I didn't get the bay rum scent because in all honesty I have no idea what Bay Rum smells like and I know that cloves will give my mom a headache so that was out. However all my shaving products (soap, preshave oil, etc) is all made with Sandalwood so I figured why not. I've heard some pretty great things about Captain's Choice products so I figured why not give them ago. When I found out that they made a Sandalwood scent I was sold on it. The main selling point for me on this aftershave is the amazing scent. So everybody who has reviewed this saying that it smells like "real sandalwood" hit the nail on the head. This truly smells like the took a knife, cut off shavings of Sandalwood, and put it into a bottle. In fact i'm pretty sure that's what they did since the ingredients list says "essential oils". I'm assuming that those "essential oils" are Sandalwood oils. This aftershave is the real McCoy and I really love that. It's made with real sandalwood not some cheap knockoff or fake test tube scent. It's made with the real stuff. The only place that I come anywhere near to getting something of this quality is when the Ren Faire comes to town and I buy some essential oil from a vendor who actually made it themselves. So this stuff has a light yet manly smell to it. It's not overbearing and it's not too sweet either. It's very woody and very very manly. The scent also fades after about 20-30 minutes which I love because I do wear cologne and I don't like it when aftershave interferes with my cologne (looking at you Old Spice). Now onto the actual effects of the product. So I am currently writing this review at 9:43pm and I put the aftershave on at around 11:00am and my face still feels smooth, soft, and toned. My face feels just like I just put the product on 5 seconds ago that's how amazing this stuff is. Captain's Choice really works and it feels amazing on my face. It does give you a little bite like an aftershave should (if you want more of a bite I hear they have a Cat O' Nine Tails one with twice the burn) but it smooths and tones your face even better than other aftershaves. The closest I've come to having my skin be this smooth and toned was using something with Aloe in it which lets face it just feels less manly. I'm sorry but it feels just really unmanly to put Aloe on my face unless my face is sunburned. I really can't stop raving about this product because it is really a fantastic aftershave and it does everything it advertises.

So, I get this delivered all the way from Florida to my place in like two days with FREE SHIPPING from Men's Direct. Packaging was alright it came in a box with that tissue paper stuff. It was in a ziploc bag which was covered by bubble wrap. Only issue I had with the packaging was that the bubble wrap was only on the sides of the bottle. When I lifted it up, the bottle almost slipped and fell to the floor. Luckily, I'm cautious so I stopped myself from fully turning it upwards before it fell. Initially, I HATED the smell. I just recently got into wet shaving so I just wanted the best product. But then I shaved and gave it a second chance. IT IS AMAZING! The initial sting is a very nice and refreshing wake up call. The smell is terrible in the bottle because it so CONCENTRATED. But once you dab a little bit on your face, the smell really evens up and becomes very subtle. I love the all natural ingredients, the high quality glass bottle, and the very traditional feel this aftershave has. I will definitely be buying more of these and I hope the Captain comes up with more fragrances for us to try. I will certainly get the Lime one next summer (hopefully I'll finish the Bay Rum by that time, hahah). This was definitely worth my time and money! I'm a fan of quality and this certainly meets my high standards.

As an aftershave (from a functional perspective), this product hits all the right buttons. Minimal ingredients, nothing you can't pronounce: Alcohol, witch hazel, oils & extracts, glycerin. It works great. After a good shave, my face feels amazing -- and it stays that way the rest of the day. When the package arrived, I took the bottle out and my wife asked about it. I told her I had wanted to try it, and that the Amazon consensus seemed to be that it smelled bad out of the bottle, but was much better after application. So of course, we both smelled it out of the bottle, and it was disgusting. It's exacerbated by the fact that I really don't like the smell of clove, and this stuff REEKS of it. So I applied it after my next shave. Just as many people had said, the scent mellowed in about 15 minutes to something quite different. The scent was still dominated by clove, but it was no longer JUST clove. My wife said she liked the scent, that it was nothing like the way it smelled in the bottle. Every time I use it, it grows on me a little more. I find myself missing the scent when it eventually dissipates beyond my ability to detect it. However, there's still a nagging thing -- I'm currently shaving with the bay rum scented Colonel Conk soap , and I really like the way that one smells. I find myself still wishing that I had an aftershave that could provide a longer lasting variation of that scent. The scent seems to have nothing in common with this aftershave. So while the scent of the aftershave has definitely grown on me (and as I said, I LOVE the way it performs) I still find myself holding out hope that one day I'll be able to find a similarly great aftershave that's more in line with the type of bay rum scent I prefer.

I bought this scent because the reviews were so glowing and they said that it didn't have a strong clove scent... uh, review fail. First off - the cap was loose in the packaging so some of the contents had leaked out, at least it was in a sealed plastic baggie or the delivery driver would be smelling like it for days. My first impression was of my mom's Easter ham, which she covers judiciously in cloves and spices. Really? To be fair though, I tried it on my face. Burns like rubbing alcohol on a skinned knee, smells like cloves and booze. The scent is sweet and strong and cloying. I had some Col. Conks shaving soap and the bay rum scent is very pleasant, but Captain's Choice is like a bay rum drop kick to the face.