 Bottom line up front, you don't have to spend a lot of money to smell good. I love niche fragrances. However, niche fragrances tend to come with a bit of a hefty price tag. And no matter who you are, it can be hard to justify spending hundreds of dollars on a bottle. A great smelling, budget-friendly alternative, aftershave. They're easy to find, inexpensive, and very masculine. Eight picks reviewed, rated, and ranked right after this. I'm Brian Sakawa and you are watching He Spoke Style, where we are dedicated to giving you all the tips, knowledge, and inspiration you need to dress well, have more confidence, and unlock your potential. All right, so here's how we're going to do it. So we're going to start with a brief overview of each aftershave. I'm going to assign them a score from one to ten in four categories, scent, longevity, manliness, and value. We'll total all those scores up, and then at the end, we will declare our winner. First up, we have Aqua Velva Classic Ice Blue. Now, the interesting thing about this is that it was originally introduced as a mouthwash, not an aftershave. It wasn't until 1935 that Aqua Velva started to be marketed specifically as an aftershave. Hallmark of Aqua Velva is the cooling menthol sensation. It's a very fresh and bright aftershave with notes of amber, peppermint, bergamot, lavender, cedar, vetiver, lemon, pettigrain, jasmine, and moss. Aqua Velva is really a kind of love it or hate it aftershave, in my opinion, and that is reflected in my scoring. For scent, I give this a two. It's just really potent and I'm not a huge fan of menthol. Longevity, five. Lighter scents tend to wear off a little faster. Manliness. I'm going to give it a seven just because of the intensity and potency. Overall value, three. For me, even though this is cheap, I wouldn't spend another $5.50 on this. So that gives us an overall total of 16 points. Next up, we have Brute Classic Scent introduced in 1966. This is an iconic masculine scent and one of the most classic fougères that you can find. It is associated with many famous people, people like Roger Moore, Elvis Presley. Top notes of lavender, anise, lemon, basil, and bergamot. Heart notes. You have geranium, ylang ylang, and jasmine. And base notes include sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli, oak moss, vanilla, and tonka bean. They call it the Essence of Man. Let's see how it stacks up. Scent, straight up 10. This is a classic for a reason and it doesn't get much better than this. Longevity, eight. Pretty decent, but it doesn't really get you through an entire day. Manliness, 10. It's the Essence of Man. What did you expect? Overall value, coming in at just around $8, this is an incredible value for the money. So 10 out of 10. Finishing up with a total score of 38 points, gonna be hard to beat. Continuing in alphabetical order, here we have canoe by Dana Fermin, launched in 1936 and created by the Perfumer who was also responsible for iconic fragrances like Miss Dior. And interestingly, canoe is included as part of the Smithsonian's cosmetic collection in the Museum of American History. On the bottle, you have the name as well as the nautical flags, which also spell canoe. Notes include bergamot, pettit grain, lavender, geranium, patchouli, and musk. Now one final note before we get to the scoring is that if you haven't seen the old TV commercial for this, I highly recommend looking it up on YouTube. Scent, I give this a solid seven. It's fresh. It's light. It smells like the ocean. It's definitely a great year-round fragrance. Longevity, seven. Interestingly, although this is a lighter fragrance, it does last. Manliness, also a seven. Total value, four. At $25 to $27, although a solid performer, it's pretty expensive for what it is. So that gives us a total score for canoe of 25 points. Moving on now to English Leather also by Dana Fermin. This was created in the 1930s. The scent they say was reminiscent of what Russian Saddlers used to tan leather. So it was deemed Russian leather. However, when it was released in the US in 1949, they changed that to English leather due to the Cold War. The notes for this one include Italian bergamot, kefir lime, leather, oak moss, vettiver, sandalwood, cedarwood, and musk. Now for scent, I give this an eight. It's not a fougere. It's definitely very leathery. And initially that threw me off and I scored it lower. But as I tested it out more, I really came to appreciate the softer and maybe more subtle quality of this fragrance. Longevity, 10 out of 10. It's fairly incredible, but this stays on the skin all day long. Manliness, nine. Again, not the in-your-face fougere manliness, but a very subtle, soft, and deep manly scent here. And value, I'm giving it a seven. My bottle costs around $25. So it's on the higher end. But I think for what you're getting, it's really worth the price, giving us a total for English leather of 34 points. Next up is Old Spice Classic. This was introduced in 1938. My grandfather wore it. Your grandfather probably wore it. And you may recall in the late 2000s, they had the slogan, if your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist. If you look up the notes on Old Spice, it's actually kind of crazy. I did list them all off in the Top 10 Classic Men's Fragrances video I did a while ago, but we're going to skip that today only to say that Old Spice smells like Old Spice. Okay, so for scent, 10 out of 10. Of course, it's a great fragrance, but for me, and I'm sure many of you as well, it also carries strong notes of nostalgia, which is important as well. Longevity, seven. Not bad. Kind of wears off around lunchtime. Manliness, 10 out of 10. What else is there to say? And for overall value at $8, incredible value, 10 out of 10, giving us a total score for Old Spice of 35 points. Our next aftershave is Pino Clubman. This eponymous brand was debuted in Paris in the early half of the 19th century by Edward Pino, who has an interesting story. He left home at the age of 13, moved to Cologne, Germany to become a perfumer. He started his own perfume factory in 1830 and by 1855, he caught the attention of Queen Victoria and became her official perfumer. Pino Clubman has been a barbershop staple for a long, long time. Notes for this one include orange, bergamot, lemon, green nuances, jasmine, lavender, of course, and then all underpinned by musk. Scent. For me, this is an eight. It's nice, but it's kind of on the softer side and doesn't really seem to have a fullness to it, which would have gained more points for me. Longevity, I give it an eight as well. Manliness, also an eight. And that is because of the musk. It has a little bit of a powdery undertone, which for me knocks it down a bit on the manly scale. Total value at about $7 or $8. This gets a 10 out of 10 with a final score of 34 points. Next, we have pro razo lozione doppo barba. Now this brand was founded in Florence in 1908. You can find it all over the place now in America. Personally, I really love their shave soap. They have a very closely guarded secret formula, they say, based on eucalyptus oil that has been passed down for generations. In the notes for this, you will find eucalyptus oil and menthol. For the scent here, I'm giving this a six. As I mentioned, not a huge menthol fan, but this is fairly pleasant and not super potent, and I would characterize it as very bright. Longevity gets a six as well. Manliness also a six. Overall value for $15, you're getting in my opinion kind of a ho hum product. I feel like you're paying more for the name and the idea of it being Italian more so than the product itself. So we're going to give it a score of three, bringing our total for pro razo to 21 points. Last up, we have Stetson original by Cody for men. This was launched in 1981 and named after John B Stetson, who created the iconic Stetson hat, which you can see on the back of the box. Looks to be a very manly and rugged fragrance. And we've got lots of citrus up top, but the real notes are in the heart and the base where you have patchouli, oris root, jasmine, vetiver, cedar, and geranium, along with honey, tonka bean, amber, musk, and vanilla scent. This is an absolute 10 out of 10 of the eight aftershaves I tested out for this video. Stetson has the most complex scent. It's classic. It's a very sexy and it just has an incredible depth to it. Longevity is a nine incredibly long lasting for an aftershave manliness. It's a 10 out of 10. No question. And value at around 12 or $13 a bottle. I really think you are getting a great bang for your buck all around. So I'm also giving it a 10 making our total score for Stetson original 39 points. Now let's recap and see who our winner is coming in in the number eight spot with 16 points. We have Aqua Velva next at number seven with a total of 21 points pro razo in the number six spot with 25 points. We have canoe number five and four. We actually have a tie at 34 points between Pinot Clubman and English leather. So for the tiebreaker, we're going to the manliness score and Pinot Clubman with an eight slots in at number five and English leather with a nine takes the number four position. Here we are at our top three and our number three position with 35 points goes to Old Spice. Now coming in at number two, the runner up with 38 points. Brute classic scent making the winner of our aftershave competition with 39 total points. Stetson original. I would consider all of these aftershaves to be really, really classic masculine scents. If you like classic fragrances like me, be sure to check out that video right over there where I talk about the 10 most classic men's fragrances of all time.