Ariana & Evans – Why does a shaving soap suddenly smell like cherry cola?

If you spend long enough with traditional wet shaving, you eventually get to know the usual suspects.

Sandalwood. Lavender. Citrus. Barbershop.

All good fragrance worlds. Some genuine classics.

And then Ariana & Evans comes around the corner and simply makes Cherry Cola.

Not “cherry with a warm, spicy base.”

Not “inspired by an American diner.”

But rather, quite clearly:

Cherry Cola.

And exactly such moments are one of the reasons why I find Ariana & Evans so exciting.

A brand that regularly makes me think: Who actually comes up with something like that?

Ariana & Evans is one of those manufacturers for me who set significantly fewer boundaries with fragrances than many traditional shaving brands.

Pistachio.

Asian Plum.

Cherry Cola.

And alongside them, fragrances that are significantly more complex and are almost built up like little perfume concepts.

With Asian Plum, for example, A&E combines various plum accords with tobacco, coffee, tonka bean, and vanilla. Pistachio works with mandarin, pistachio, jasmine, almond, and creamy sandalwood. That is far from “a little lemon and done.” 

You don’t have to like it all.

But it is rarely boring.

And that is exactly where I had a misconception at the beginning

When I built up The Gentleman’s Shave, I naturally looked closely at which fragrances I myself found exciting.

With Ariana & Evans, that is particularly dangerous.

You open a tin, smell it, and immediately think:

We have to have that.

Only my taste is not automatically your taste.

And that is exactly why I look at such brands differently today. Not just: “Do I like that?”

But:

Does the fragrance really bring something new to the range?

Is it interesting enough that you consciously choose it?

And are there customers who are looking for exactly such unusual fragrance ideas?

With Ariana & Evans, the answer is astonishingly often: yes.

Why Cherry Cola still works

A shaving cream with a Cherry Cola scent sounds almost like a gag at first.

The exciting thing, however, is that A&E doesn’t simply write such ideas on a label.

The brand lives very strongly through fragrance.

Cherry Cola is actually positioned by the manufacturer exactly as this recognizable cola-cherry scent, and the customer reviews on the manufacturer’s website also describe it very directly in this direction. 

So the product is not supposed to just smell somehow “sweet and fruity.”

The recognizability is part of the idea.

And that is exactly what makes such products interesting.

You suddenly don’t just buy shaving cream anymore.

You want to know:

How does that actually smell on the skin?

Fragrance is not a side issue with Ariana & Evans

You can tell that now also from how the brand has developed overall.

Ariana & Evans has long been selling not only shaving soaps and aftershaves, but is also building up its own perfume world in parallel. The manufacturer itself now explicitly positions itself between Artisan Shaving and Niche Fragrance. 

And that is exactly why many fragrances seem more complex than typical classic shaving products.

For me, that is one of the brand’s strengths.

You can shave in the morning and not simply have “a pleasant scent.”

You sometimes have the feeling of experiencing a complete fragrance concept.

But fragrance alone is not enough for me

Despite all the enthusiasm for unusual concepts:

A shaving soap or shaving cream still always has to do its actual job.

It has to lather well.

It has to offer protection and lubricity.

And the skin should feel decent after shaving.

Ariana & Evans is now working with the new Ultima-2 base, which according to the manufacturer combines elements of the earlier K2E and Ultima formulations. The focus here is on a rich formulation and a pronounced skin feel after shaving. 

For me, both belong together:

A fragrance can be crazy. The shaving performance, please not.

Why I want to have such brands in the range

Because exactly such manufacturers keep traditional wet shaving interesting.

Not everyone wants to buy sandalwood over and over again.

Not everyone is only looking for the classic barbershop scent.

Some people want to open a shaving soap and first think:

What the hell is that?

And if skepticism turns into curiosity afterwards, the brand has already done quite a lot right.

That is exactly why Ariana & Evans has a permanent place in the range of The Gentleman’s Shave for me.

Not because I personally like every fragrance.

But because the brand regularly does something that makes you want to talk about it.

And sometimes, a shaving cream that smells like Cherry Cola is actually enough for that.