Absolute Mahogany Deodorant Stick 75g

18.21 Man Made Absolute Mahogany Deodorant Stick 75g takes the scent profile the house built its reputation on and puts it into something you use every morning rather than something you reach for on the way out.

Mahogany woods sit at the centre of it, dry and faintly polished, and virginia cedar keeps that from going soft by adding a sharpened, pencil shaving edge. Around them the spice does most of the talking. Cardamom is cool, green and slightly resinous, cassia bark and cinnamon bring the warm bite you get from opening a spice drawer, and clary sage adds a herbal, slightly bitter dryness that stops the whole thing turning into a dessert. Italian mandarin and bergamot lift the first moments after the stick goes on, bright for a short while before the heavier material takes over. Night blooming jasmine is the unexpected inclusion, heady and a little green rather than powdery, and it gives the blend a richness that spice alone would not manage. Tonka bean, tahitian vanilla bean and golden amber finish it, sweet and resinous, which is the signature the brand keeps returning to. Judge it as a deodorant, because that is what it is. It glides on dry, it is there to keep you comfortable through a working day, and the scent stays close to the skin instead of filling a room. You will notice it when you pull a shirt on and then only in passing, which is the right behaviour for something applied under the arms. If you wear the matching body mist, the two stack without arguing.

The house is an American grooming label, started in 2014 by three people from the professional haircare trade who sold first in Texas and then across the country through barbershops, salons and Ulta. Its name points at the two amendments that began and ended Prohibition, and the bottles and sticks follow that theme throughout. New World Natural Brands bought the business in December 2019.