A Stirling Decision: Will Carius on Barrister & Mann's Next Chapter

Barrister & Mann and Stirling Soap Co. are two of the most respected names in wet shaving. So when Will Carius, founder of Barrister & Mann and the creative force behind its fragrances and formulas, announced that Stirling would be taking over soap production, it caught the community’s attention immediately. ShaveSplash caught up with Will to talk through the decision, what it means for Barrister & Mann going forward, and what shavers can expect next. Here’s Will…

You announced you will be moving production to Stirling. What led you to this decision and why is now the right time?

It’s time for me to do something other than burn myself on hot equipment for 15 hours a day. I need to focus on running and growing the business rather than making soap (and whatever else) all day, every day. As for the right time, it would have been six months ago, but we couldn’t manage that, partly due to extreme personnel restrictions, partly due to having to deal with the fallout from my father’s sudden passing in December 2024.

Why did you choose Stirling as your manufacturing partner?

The list of manufacturers that can accommodate this kind of work at this kind of volume is extremely short. I would go so far as to say that Stirling is likely unique in that respect. There are other, larger companies, but their minimum order quantities are generally in the tens of thousands of units per fragrance, which we could not possibly afford, let alone sell in a profitable time period. There are also smaller companies, but most of them either have facility issues or would not be able to absorb the volume increase without seriously disturbing their current business models.

Which Barrister and Mann products will Stirling produce, soaps, aftershaves, balms, bar soaps, EDPs, and will anything remain made in house?

Only fragrance production will remain in-house. Everything else will either be produced by Stirling or will be made by a production lab with which I’ve worked for many years. They’ve made the aftershave base (what used to be called “Barrister’s Reserve”) almost since its creation.

What will the transition look like for customers in terms of timing, availability, and any changes they might notice?

Ideally, our customers won’t notice any change at all once production resumes. As for timing, as soon as possible, I’m afraid that I don’t have a more concrete answer than that. This is an extremely labor-and-time-intensive undertaking, and, while we’re working as fast as we can, much of this will be finished and done at the absolute last minute. The weather, including the most recent storm, is also likely to interfere, so we’re going to have to work around that as well.

Omnibus is prized for its performance. How will you ensure the shave feel, lather characteristics, and overall quality remain consistent after the move?

Lockhart’s Authentic Grooming produced a product identical to the one made in my lab, and I didn’t even have to fly out there to teach them. So far as Stirling adheres to the formula and production methods they are taught (and I see no reason why they wouldn’t), there will be no issue.

What quality control standards and testing will be in place to make sure each batch meets your specifications?

That’s between us and Stirling, I’m afraid, but I have every confidence that they are up to the task.

Fragrance is central to Barrister and Mann. How will you ensure every scent stays true to what customers know today?

I will continue to produce the fragrances myself in my studio in Massachusetts. There will be no change in the fragrances because they’ll still be made according to my formulas and by my own hand.

Will your role in fragrance creation and blending change at all once production is outsourced?

Not in the slightest. I consider our fragrances to be the single most important aspect of Barrister and Mann, one that I would never entrust to anyone else (except in a collaborative format), and I will continue to blend and compose them as I have always done.

Do you expect this shift to affect pricing, either increasing, decreasing, or staying the same, and why?

I expect pricing to remain unchanged. The shaving soap business is enormously cash-intensive and requires considerable labor without the aid of many millions in commercial equipment. I’ve seen speculation that Stirling might purchase a soap mill to accommodate the increase in volume but, speaking only for myself (and thus not for Rod and Mandy), I rather doubt that such a thing is possible; soap mills, properly called extruders, require industrially-dried soap base in order to function correctly, and commercial soap noodles are in no way suited to the manufacture of bespoke shaving soap formulas. They’d have to set up giant kettles and drying rooms before even considering an extruder, which would require massive capital investment. It’s just not likely to happen. The primary benefit of handing off production to Stirling is that it will give me time to focus on the parts of the company that require my direct attention. The product's scalability will remain about the same, at least for now.

How do you see outsourcing changing Barrister and Mann’s mission and your ability to innovate going forward?

Honestly, I doubt it will change much. I’ve spoken publicly many times about the idea that I largely consider the Base Wars to be over. Additional innovations in shaving soap formulation will yield only small increases in performance over the long term, and I’m much more concerned with offering an excellent product in interesting fragrances than with pursuing that last little percentage of lubricity or cushion. I will continue to develop fragrances myself in my studio and formulate new products on a small scale, as I have always done. If I come up with something exotic or truly revolutionary, I’ll head back down to Arkansas and get them set up to scale it for full production.

What were the some of the biggest changes you’ve made to your website and eCommerce strategy, and how do they improve the experience for visitors?

I haven’t really overhauled our website in years. I’ve made incremental changes, and a full redesign is coming, but everything else has been what I can spare the time to do. That’s part of the problem, actually: I don’t have a webmaster or design team and currently don’t have the time to work on the website myself. All I can do is little things here and there, which results in broken, buggy code and confusing web design. I hope to change that once I have more time available.

Looking ahead, what can you share about upcoming products, releases, or initiatives for Barrister and Mann?

For the time being, my ability to plan that stuff is limited, largely because I am almost completely focused on moving production and returning everything to availability. However, I can say that we will resume export to the EU in the next few months, though I’ve still been unable to convince our distributor to carry any colognes other than Fougère Gothique. I’m also hoping to offer a micronized silver deodorant at some point in the future; anyone who’s heard/read me talk about it knows how much I love Super Deodorant (which is currently available on our site), and, with Super Deodorant itself pivoting to some kind of new, top-secret formula that they’ve been teasing for months, I’m very interested in developing my own version, which I’d love to offer in fragranced varieties. I’m also hoping to complete my lip balm formula, which I started a few years ago and had to set aside after things got too busy for me to continue. My longstanding view is that most lip balm is pretty terrible, and, having grown up in a place that becomes extremely dry in the cold months, I’ve been looking for a better version for years. I’ve nearly finished it, so I’d love to be able to put it on the market.

Will Carius

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