Scaramouche & Fandango Review

When it comes to Scaramouche & Fandango, I could tell you about the short history of this young company, the two guys who created it and how well they are doing (and they are doing well). But instead I'm going to pull out the classic and honest review from my relatively small bag of tricks...

I came across Scaramouche & Fandango when subscribing to GQ last year (unfortunately I missed out on the free Hugo Boss manfume). This wound was briefly healed by knowing that I could try this new grooming company's products for free, and so I went for it and began waiting for my magazine and products.

Three bottles came through, branded as 'Sh', 'Cd' and 'Bw' - presumably because they figured that their masculine-jetset-businessman-type consumer has no time for full titles of products. After all, why write 'Shampoo' when you can assume your customer is intelligent enough to realise 'Sh' doesn't stand for 'Shit'? Thus, the first major point of my review reveals itself: The branding - although overly abbreviated for a company with a name as long as 'Scaramouche & Fandango', it is impressive, simple and grabs attention. Plus, the lack of extreme-fruitiness and models orgasmically caressing their scalps is refreshing and certainly suits a masculine audience.

Onto the products...

Naturally the first thing tested was the 'Bw', the nicest smelling one and overall, the best of the three. It cleaned me, it's as simple as that, but it didn't do anything amazing; I didn't feel especially revitalised after using it and that was disappointing. That may seem like quite a harsh statement to make about a product that I got for free and did do it's job overall, but that will be explained later. 

When I first smelt the 'Sh', I think I described it as what a shampoo should smell like. It simply smells 'shampooey', which is neither good nor bad. The shampoo was the worst of the three in my view, to the extent that after I washed my hair with it once, I went back to using some Garnier stuff that I bought for £1. It did not clean my hair properly, but I wouldn't hold that against it. I have ridiculously thick hair, to the extent that I have to use a lot of gel to stop my afro showing itself. Not every shampoo can deal with that properly, this may just be one of those cases.

From the smell perspective, the Cd is a typically manly smell. Not one that I am particularly fond of as it reminds me of the smell you get when someone has had a shower moments before you. But as a conditioner, I suppose it did condition. I can't say I'm too good with conditioners and so I don't have much basis to review this on. It had the same qualities as other conditioners I have used, and it seemed to do the same job. That's good I think.

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Before examining everything else, Scaramouche & Fandango have got it down. The products do their respective jobs (even if not suited to me), they smell manly, they are branded incredibly well, and when you use them, it makes it hard to not sing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (never a bad thing). Furthermore, many people have given it rave reviews, along with being stocked in the likes of John Lewis, Waitrose and Selfridges.

However, there is one massively fatal flaw in all of this and the entire reason that I will never buy a bottle. Ever. This is the reason I was harsh about the 'Bw' and why I was disappointed by the entire experience. This is the fact that the RRP, for a 200ml bottle of this is £11... ELEVEN POUNDS!

When I say that I could buy my favourite bottle of rum (Kraken) and bathe myself in it for less cost per litre, I'm not even mildly exaggerating (£32.86 per litre for Kraken, £55 per litre for S&F). I would genuinely rather do that than buy a bottle of this. Yes, I came out of the shower clean overall, but it was no different to the feeling after washing with a showergel/shampoo hybrid from Poundland. 

For £11 a bottle, I expect to come out of the bathroom looking, feeling and smelling like David Gandy. That did not happen, and so I am underwhelmed (as was my girlfriend).

Please understand that this is coming from the perspective of a poor student with incredibly thick, abnormal hair. If you have money and normal hair, then this is probably the 'Sh' for you.

Cheers guys,

O&U.