Being a big fan or Old Spice and living in India I remember using Old spice ever since my peach fuzz days through multi blade system and return to wet shaving some 10 years ago.
To correct recall and for benefit of everyone else here who have been using Indian Old spice I will just quickly run through who all have been bottling this elixir in India.
1. Cosme Matias Menezes based in Goa, group bought the brand from UK-based Shulton (Not US Shulton). CMM manufactured and distributed the blue yacht logo across buoy shaped ivory (Not white) bottle from 70s onward. The year of introduction was 1964 I think.
2. CMM kept and held the rights even through the sale of Shulton to American Cyanamid in 1970, and then upto P&G’s acquisition in 1990.
3. In 1993, P&G had a JV with Godrej wherein Godrej had the distribution and sales duties up to 1999 and P&G just collected royalties since it was busy fighting for shelf space with Unilever India and couldn’t care less for a brand that was all but a single aftershave line. (It was up to this point the Indian Old Spice had same old formula as UK markets and very close to USA version, to my nose at least).
4. From 1999 to 2002 Marico took over the sales and distribution but sales suffered due to poor networking but in reality it was due to Marico going all out to cement their place in branded cooking oil segment and Old Spice was not really a priority for them.
5. Beginning of 2003, M.C.P.L (India) Pvt. Ltd (erstwhile CMM Ltd renamed as MCPL in 1994) again took over the duties of sales and distribution of Old Spice, a brand that was still a spit in P&G account books. This continued till 2012 and P&G did not renew the agreement. (During this time even MCPL did some tweaking to the formula and it was not really the old formulation they use to bottle up to 1992 before Godrej.)
I bought my last supplies in 1994 from last of the leftover old stock made by MCPL used them up last month. I rerolled on B&B the same time and realised what a deafening racket Old Spice is subject to since I never visited the shops to buy Old Spice for over 20 years !!!
With no choice available and not willing to drop silly sums for UK stocks I bought 2 bottles each of Fresh Lime and Original bottled by Rubicon. Eager to try the new stuff I had my usual three pass shave with a mild aggressive Parker razor using MWF and badger brush. I used a new Feather blade and it was a real smooth close shave. I took a generous scoop from a new white bottle of old spice original, it didn’t smell anything like I have known all these years but proceeded nevertheless... one second ... and a napalm bomb exploded on my face, quickly devouring my face like ghost rider coming into form. I almost screamed with agony and burn nd rushed to the bathroom again to douse the flames leaping all around... Holy Mother Mary ...!!!
I have always known the Old Spice to be slightly ‘warming’ at face feel but this is not OLD SPICE. It is a pure alcohol shot with fistfuls of pepper shoved in for good measure, burning your face if you have a bad shave or a blade like Feather in your razor.
I am not the sort to nitpick over trifling things like a tweaked formula but I am just livid and indignant at this one. Not because it buyer’s remorse or something P&G have no right to do but they have just turned it into something else and not usable by any stretch of imagination.
This stuff is cheap here. At US $ 6.5 for 2 bottles of 150 ML each am not berating the money but what else is there I can turn to if I want a better Old Spice?
Can I try to cut it with witch hazel? Water? But it is not going to help much for I tried to put this on when I had a 24 hour old stubble but this stuff still warmed up my ears... this is so bad.
I am really at loss to think how this can be turned into something more usable..
To correct recall and for benefit of everyone else here who have been using Indian Old spice I will just quickly run through who all have been bottling this elixir in India.
1. Cosme Matias Menezes based in Goa, group bought the brand from UK-based Shulton (Not US Shulton). CMM manufactured and distributed the blue yacht logo across buoy shaped ivory (Not white) bottle from 70s onward. The year of introduction was 1964 I think.
2. CMM kept and held the rights even through the sale of Shulton to American Cyanamid in 1970, and then upto P&G’s acquisition in 1990.
3. In 1993, P&G had a JV with Godrej wherein Godrej had the distribution and sales duties up to 1999 and P&G just collected royalties since it was busy fighting for shelf space with Unilever India and couldn’t care less for a brand that was all but a single aftershave line. (It was up to this point the Indian Old Spice had same old formula as UK markets and very close to USA version, to my nose at least).
4. From 1999 to 2002 Marico took over the sales and distribution but sales suffered due to poor networking but in reality it was due to Marico going all out to cement their place in branded cooking oil segment and Old Spice was not really a priority for them.
5. Beginning of 2003, M.C.P.L (India) Pvt. Ltd (erstwhile CMM Ltd renamed as MCPL in 1994) again took over the duties of sales and distribution of Old Spice, a brand that was still a spit in P&G account books. This continued till 2012 and P&G did not renew the agreement. (During this time even MCPL did some tweaking to the formula and it was not really the old formulation they use to bottle up to 1992 before Godrej.)
I bought my last supplies in 1994 from last of the leftover old stock made by MCPL used them up last month. I rerolled on B&B the same time and realised what a deafening racket Old Spice is subject to since I never visited the shops to buy Old Spice for over 20 years !!!
With no choice available and not willing to drop silly sums for UK stocks I bought 2 bottles each of Fresh Lime and Original bottled by Rubicon. Eager to try the new stuff I had my usual three pass shave with a mild aggressive Parker razor using MWF and badger brush. I used a new Feather blade and it was a real smooth close shave. I took a generous scoop from a new white bottle of old spice original, it didn’t smell anything like I have known all these years but proceeded nevertheless... one second ... and a napalm bomb exploded on my face, quickly devouring my face like ghost rider coming into form. I almost screamed with agony and burn nd rushed to the bathroom again to douse the flames leaping all around... Holy Mother Mary ...!!!
I have always known the Old Spice to be slightly ‘warming’ at face feel but this is not OLD SPICE. It is a pure alcohol shot with fistfuls of pepper shoved in for good measure, burning your face if you have a bad shave or a blade like Feather in your razor.
I am not the sort to nitpick over trifling things like a tweaked formula but I am just livid and indignant at this one. Not because it buyer’s remorse or something P&G have no right to do but they have just turned it into something else and not usable by any stretch of imagination.
This stuff is cheap here. At US $ 6.5 for 2 bottles of 150 ML each am not berating the money but what else is there I can turn to if I want a better Old Spice?
Can I try to cut it with witch hazel? Water? But it is not going to help much for I tried to put this on when I had a 24 hour old stubble but this stuff still warmed up my ears... this is so bad.
I am really at loss to think how this can be turned into something more usable..
