Review: Barrister and Mann's The Four Horsemen... War

The Four Horsemen isn’t novel as a concept in the wetshaving world. Creating soap scents that are focused on a theme happens occasionally, but usually most soaps are one-offs. One memorable soap series for me is the “Cold War Series” from Dr Jon’s, in which they created 3 different soaps that were a varation on single soap scent-base, namely mandarin and sandalwood. All three of these scents (Propaganda, Defiance, and Conquest) were very good!

Usually the reason why most artisans won’t do multiple iterations of the same soap is because of production costs and consumer desire. From a practical standpoint, it just doesn’t make sense to have more than one similar scent-profile in your store at the same time. While there are wetshavers (like me) who will strive to buy each offering in the set, there will still be people who will only buy one. That means that each item in that line will achieve theoretically 1/3 of the performance that it would otherwise… but you have to keep enough on stock to keep customers happy too.

“War” is a soap that is probably being financed by the successes of the other soaps in the lineup (I haven’t smelled “Death” yet. Full tubs of War were even selling on Barrister and Mann’s website for $5 last week… so what does this say about the scent?

War, as a scent, achieves the goal of smelling… aggressive.

Scent of War

From Barrister and Mann’s website, War is characterized as follows:

Characterized by the aromas of hot metal and gunpowder laid over the core chypre accord that represents Death, the full fragrance encompasses notes of metal, aldehydes, gunpowder, leather, citrus, resins, clary sage, and amber. The peculiar, unsettlingly clean aroma of ozone and gun oil hangs over the scent of War like smoke on a battlefield, belying the foul, elemental hunger beneath.

In retaining the core scent from the previous iteration that I reviewed, “Plague,” War is a noteable departure in a few notable olfactory ways. On the tub, the scent is bright and almost acrid, but upon lathering, the hot metal and gunpowder notes are significantly reduced, but are still very much present. Lathering is where the balance of the scent notes is most noticeable, so this is absolutely not one to smell and give up on. If you’re looking for the powdery and subtle earthiness of “Plague,” it isn’t here in any meaningful way.

There’s a great deal of complexity to this scent, which is a running theme in soaps that I find myself using most often. The complexity here is different from anything else that I’ve ever shaved with before. I don’t see this scent as being appreciated by most wetshavers. Personally, I find the scent off of the tub unpleasant.

Most often, the scents that are polarizing, are the ones that grow on me over time. I’ve learned enough about Will Carius’ nose over the years and I can’t remember any flops scent-wise. There is an incredible balance to the scent when lathered, but I don’t believe that most will get past that.

When lathered, the soap scent seemed a bit above average, even for Barrister and Mann, but I believe it is because of how distinct this scent is. I noticed the scent for as long as 30 minutes after washing it off. For those with very sensitive noses, this will probably be overwhelming.

Soap Performance

You can find my evaluation of the soap base in my previous post on “The Four Horsemen.”

Overall

This is a soap that is pretty easy for me to say that I would not buy again. This tub is going to last a while and I’d be willing to bet that I could find used tubs on the resale market as well. While I do want to give it a chance to grow on me, I wouldn’t recommend it for 95% of wetshavers. The acrid notes are off-putting and would make this a “regret” purchase for anyone who isn’t a fanboy that buys new shaving soaps as they come out. We’ll see how this one grows on me over time. If it does, I’ll make a fresh new post on it in approximately one year.