Tabac Original
Tabac Original
Tabac Original is a German men’s fragrance released in 1959, which became the name of an entire shaving and grooming range. It was born at Mäurer & Wirtz, a house from Stolberg in Rhineland whose origin dates back to a soap factory from 1845. Its opaque white glass bottle and drugstore price made it a barbershop fragrance more than a perfumery fragrance.
Tabac Original perfumes
A Rhenish soap factory from 1845
Michael Mäurer and his stepson Andreas August Wirtz opened a soap shop in Stolberg in 1845. The company moved into detergent in 1884 and remained for over a century a soap and hygiene manufacturer before becoming known for a fragrance.
Tabac Original was released in 1959 and became the house’s first international success. The name eventually came to designate an entire product family, from eau de Cologne to shaving foam, soap and deodorant.
A barbershop fragrance
The composition belongs to the aromatic fougère family, with lavender, citrus and a musky woody base. The white glass bottle with a black cap has barely changed, which is rare for a product sold at this price.
The brand long occupied in Germany the place that Old Spice occupies in the United States: the bottle sitting on the shelf of every barbershop, bought without hesitation and without comparison. Its drugstore distribution kept it apart from selective perfumery.
Mäurer & Wirtz beyond Tabac
The group acquired the 4711 eau de Cologne range in 2007, and the license for Baldessarini fragrances from Procter & Gamble in November 2011. In 2016 it opened pop-up Tabac Barbershops in airports, extending the shaving range.
Tabac Original is still sold as an eau de toilette and eau de Cologne, in generous sizes and at prices that have not followed those of perfumery. It is this gap, as much as the composition, that built its reputation.