Aftershave Lotion Refresh Green

If you've recently started wet shaving — safety razor, cartridge, straight, whatever — and you've been reaching for whatever drugstore splash came with a gift set, this is the upgrade that costs nothing and changes everything. Proraso Green is also quietly excellent for anyone who shaves daily and wants post-shave care that doesn't involve a twelve-step protocol or a founder's origin story involving a gap year in Morocco.

What it actually does is straightforward: eucalyptus oil and menthol cool the skin almost immediately after application, the witch hazel acts as a mild astringent to close pores and reduce minor razor irritation, and the glycerin offsets what would otherwise be a drying alcohol experience. The alcohol content is real — this is a traditional splash, not a balm — so you will feel it, especially on fresh nicks. That sting is broadly functional rather than cosmetic: it's doing mild antiseptic work and signalling that the active ingredients are in contact with the skin. It is not, however, evidence of 'deep pore action' or any of the other things the looksmaxxing corner of TikTok attributes to products that tingle.

Performance-wise, the menthol cooling lasts about ten to fifteen minutes, which is long enough to matter and short enough not to leave you smelling like a swimming pool changing room all day. The scent — sharp eucalyptus up top, herbal and slightly medicinal in the mid-notes — fades to almost nothing within an hour. This is genuinely useful: it means you can layer a proper fragrance over it without conflict, unlike some splashes that announce themselves until lunchtime. Compared to Acqua di Parma's Collezione Barbiere aftershave at roughly £60 for 100ml, Proraso Green delivers perhaps 70% of the post-shave sensation at about 8% of the price. The Acqua di Parma smells better in isolation and the bottle looks better on a shelf. Whether that gap justifies the price differential is your call, but the functional delta is modest.

Cost and value: at £8-12 for 100ml depending on retailer, this is almost offensively good value. A daily shaver will go through a bottle in roughly two to three months. The larger 400ml format brings the per-use cost down further and is available for around £18-22. For context, some 'elevated' aftershaves at the £40-80 price point are doing the same witch hazel and alcohol work with better packaging and a more complex scent. If the scent is why you're buying, look elsewhere. If the function is why you're buying, Proraso Green is not the cope — paying four times more for equivalent post-shave relief is.

Jamie's verdict: this is a genuine-lever product in a category full of expensive nonsense. It won't restructure your face, advance your PSL score, or signal anything particularly interesting about you as a person. It will close your pores, cool your skin, and make shaving feel like something worth doing rather than a chore you're rushing through before work. That's the entire brief. It executes it perfectly. Buy the big bottle.