Varen
Stirling Soap Company

It opens very green and bold with a ton of that oakmoss goodness. It's very aromatic and not a dark green like polo but more of a light green like Brut. It does have what you would imagine fern would smell like up close. I get that leafy greenness like you are smelling the leaf of a plant up close. As time passes that aspect becomes mixed in with a very lovely strong lemony bergamot and this starts to dominate the green mossy leafy scent.

The scent projects within arms length and just seems to last and last with a bold distinctive smell that I can always catch wafts of the scent. One good thing is the scent does not become soapy at any time like some fern scents tend to do. Also there only a tinge of powder but only if you start looking for it.

Now what interests me is this really reminds me of Vintage Brut it has the same vibe and greenness without the excessive powder. I'm saying this as I recently purchased Brut special reserve for nostalgic reasons and it was a powdery short lasting synthetic scent. This is scent reminds me more of vintage Brut than the actual Brut reformulation/special edition. It's as if the creator used Brut as a inspiration to create a old school Fougere scent using the old restricted ingredients.

I have to say even though it has it's rough edges and is not contemporary it does smell good. It's like a little rough diamond which has not been refined. But it has lots of the IFRA restricted oakmoss in abundance, it lasts and has a bold distinctive presence. I have to say I like it!

I think it's kind of amusing that there is such a fixation (addiction even) with oakmoss in certain age demographics among the male side of the online fragrance community that a product like Varen by Stirling Soap (2019), an aromatic fougère almost single-mindedly hellbent on oakmoss, can actually be floated with some success in the market. I'm not saying that Varen isn't good, and it is certainly not the first fougère to focus on the oakmoss accord (hello from Geo F Trumper), but in a world where oakmoss was sort of on its way out as a go-to dry down note long before IFRA started restricting it for the allergen atranol it contains, making a fragrance that defies this edict and focuses on the ingredient feels very "boomer" in mentality, as the online gen-z kids would say. On the positive side, it's good that houses exist willing to defy the corporate whitewashing and natural ingredient censorship in conjunction with overzealous European government commissions, designed to "nanny state" the world of perfume and grant chem suppliers a monopoly over flavorants and odorants. A perfume world of perpetual "bleu" freshness and pink pepper laced with sweet ethyl maltol sounds like a purgatory for the nose, so giving young guys a chance to smell (at their own risk) what cranky old vintage thumpers harp on about all day in forums is ironically just what the doctor ordered, or barber in this case. As you can suspect, Stirling won't ship Varen outside of its home base of the US because it wouldn't even begin to pass muster under IFRA or European Cosmetics Commission regulations, although I don't think that stops people from the Middle East about inquiry.

As such, Stirling Soaps doesn't boast fine filigreed perfumery made in the grand French tradition with tutelege at Grasse, under some second cousin of a Guerlain or the nephew's nephew of Jean Carles, but that good old American "can do" simplicity and ruggedness of character from the postwar years congressional Republicans still seem to think should lead society is definitely encapsulated in the design of Varen. In other words, this feels like a super-powered Avon masculine from the 60's or 70's. Before you break out your vintage bottle of Avon Deep Woods (1974) or Avon Tribute (1963) to confirm, take in what Varen has to offer: a bright ostensibly green mix of pungent oakmoss and sweet lemon verbena. There's almost a spiciness to this opening from afar, and I think that's the sharp "lichen" accord being used to give Varen extra green punch, which makes it stand out in power and projection from any mid-century "cologne" it can be compared to stylistically. Before long a lavender and geranium treatment similar to Avon Tribute comes into play, also similar to later stages of the aforementioned Deep Woods, also a bit of Mennen Skin Bracer (1932) minus the mint, meaning perfumer Roderick Lovan plays close to the chest with inspiration. Sage, cedar essence, and coumarin merge into a dry down that comes faster than a bottle of vintage Guerlain Jicky (1889), and like that scent, Varen doesn't really have a heart but rather just opens then collapses the light into earth. Once again, Varen is good, but its "reject modernity embrace tradition" status is meme worthy (and is in fact a meme), which makes it hard to take seriously. Wear time is all day, and projection is rather good, making this very much of the "men's cologne" strength powerhouses of old professed to out-perform modern woody-amber nukes. Best use for Varen is after a shave, during the day, at work, or anywhere you want to smell "blue collar 1960's garage dad" fresh.

Varen is a "nobile gesture" (pun intended) towards the guys who spend hundreds on a single surviving bottle of a halcyon-days oakmoss fougère bomb then boorishly get on their soapbox about how perfumery is dead and they'll never make them like they used to, talking until they're blue in the face about how anyone who disagrees about oakmoss doesn't know what real perfume is, what "real men" should smell like, even if the irony is they'd never think to look at a brand like Stirling Soaps for their "fix" in the first place. The rest of Stirling Soap's range goes through the usual garden variety of wet shaver styles, but for the nice price of $25 for 50ml, playing around is rather low-risk. For everyone else interested in a modern indie house completely dedicated to resurrected vintage styles with authentic ingredients, they're probably better off looking into Rogue Perfumery, a brand delivering the "middle finger to IFRA" as the modus operandi, but at a slightly higher-cost per ml than what Stirling Soap offers. At the end of the day Varen is what it seeks to be, a simple drugstore throwback fougère with an accompanying range of shaving accoutrements that won't require you to slave over eBay for potentially-spoiled NOS stock (a problem with vintage Avon), and performing more like a modern fragrance (if not better) for much less coin. Guys worshiping old bottles of Patou pour Homme (1980) or Dunhill Blend 30 (1978) will waltz in and smell oakmoss, then waltz out and go back to their unicorns, finding some other fault in Varen and never supporting the brand anyway (like it being "too cheap" or something). If you're looking to snort a line of oakmoss off a fern leaf and aren't so picky about the supplier, then this is for you. Thumbs up.

Varen goes on skin as majorly green... mossy green, driven primarily by oakmoss before quickly moving to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the focal oakmoss grows in strength as supporting aromatic lavender and hay-like coumarin join-in, with woody cedar and slightly softer green tree moss adding support. The composition stays highly linear through the late dry-down as the supporting cedarwood becomes a bit more apparent with the aromatic oakmoss led green "fern-like" accord gradually softening through the finish. Projection is above average, and longevity very good at 10-11 hours on skin.

Varen (Fern) is an original composition by Sterling co-owner Rod Lovan that resulted from a project for a Dutch shaving forum. I first was acclimated to the perfume through Stirling's Varen shaving soap. It was the first soap I had bought from the artisanal soap company and did not have any idea as to what to expect, but when I opened the jar the aromatic oakmoss, lavender and coumarin laden “fern-like” accord came off immediately, and while I got that it was a classic fougere, it did not quite resemble any fougere I had sniffed to date. In actuality, the “fern-like” aspect is front and center from the get-go in all Varen's forms (shaving soap, bar soap, aftershave and EdT). It is a rather rough, old-school aromatic fougere concoction created in an IFRA oakmoss neutered world without the pesky regulations getting in the way. The composition could definitely use some balance and polish, but Varen is all about brash boldness... It makes no pretension to fall into today's tastes... No, this stuff is more old school aromatic fougere to my nose - all about displaying what the perfumer feels a green fern would smell like if it had a scent. It definitely takes some time to warm to due to its distinctiveness, but it ultimately delivers. The bottom line is the $25 per 50 ml bottle Varen may not be "love at first sniff," but the "very good" 3.5 stars out of 5 rated old school fougere in time wins the wearer over with its brazen distinctiveness, earning it a solid recommendation to old school classic fougere lovers that abhor IFRA driven restrictions in modern perfume.