I've finally done it! Clicked the checkout button and received my very first Barbour item and it's not just any item. Oh no, this is a Barbour Wax Jacket! I'm totally over the moon with the fact that it's way more gorgeous in person than the online images give it credit for.
The wax jacket I was swoon by was the Classic Beadnell Wax Jacket in Olive. I was completely torn between that and the Acorn Wax Jacket which I've originally wanted since late October but my mind changed when I did a bit of research on all the other jackets Barbour had to offer and I ummed and ahed for around 3 months before finally taking the plunge on this coat thanks to my lovely instagram followers. *I'm fairly active on instagram so do give me a follow if you're interested. My username is @jazmineinthecountry or click here to view my profile.
Wednesday night I had the pleasure of unwrapping the most beautiful jacket I have ever laid my eyes on (along with the most beautiful packaging too!). This coat is bloody gorgeous! If you have a Barbour Wax Jacket yourself I'm sure you completely understand where I'm coming from but if you don't, let me explain.
The coat itself feels such good quality, you know that just from holding it up. You can see the great quality in every aspect, the Sylkoil waxed cotton outer, the corduroy collar, signature tartan lining, and both the zip and zip pull.
There are lots of features to the coat to make it perfect for any occasion. There is an additional zip on the inside where you can attach a lining to make the jacket that little bit more cosy and warm during the freezing months and you can add a hood too should you wish to. There are lots of modifications you can make to this jacket to make it personal and perfect for you. You can view the selection of hoods and the liner here.
Now, lets get into my unboxing!
First thing to mention is the beautiful packaging and oh my word what lovely packaging it was! It was a bit like pass-the-parcel. The jacket itself was presented in the standard 'Barbour Green' box with the logo printed on.
The box itself felt super sturdy and protective which is what you expect from a high end brand such as Barbour and they did not disappoint. I remember so many times where I've bought something on the pricier side and the packaging was so useless and damaged and in some cases damaged the item inside and it's really not impressive or a good look for the company. It's these little touches that make the buying experience so much more enjoyable and worth spending the money.
Upon opening the box, (I must admit, I did gasp because I was blown away at the love that was clearly put into this packaging!) I then discovered the next layer of wrapping to rip into! There was a small A5 sized slip pocket envelope which enclosed the return label should I have wished to return the item and this envelope was also such good quality. For such a simple thing of enclosing a return label, Barbour do really go all out!
The tissue paper that my item was wrapped in was so nice I really didn't want to rip the stickers. I loved the stickers and the jacket was really nicely wrapped and was presented beautifully.
After carefully prising the stickers away from the tissue paper without too much destruction, the beauty was revealed!
The jacket came in a standard clear plastic bag with the Barbour logo printed on it along with the Royal Warrant badges.
I took no time at all to whip the bag off the jacket and I finally get to the prize at the end! I never used to win at pass-the-parcel when I was younger so this makes a change and it's definitely a better version of it too!
The smell! Love that new coat smell and this one definitely had it. The wax smells really good and the jacket feels really well protected. After handling the jacket a lot, my hands got covered in the wax so just bear that in mind! That soon wore off though as that was just the excess.
My biggest worry with this being my first Barbour purchase would be if it fitted me or not as I had no knowledge of Barbour's size guide and had never tried anything on in store but I needed had worried because it fitted me a treat! There's plenty of room for many layers in the winter months but it still looks very flattering with only a thin jumper underneath!
From my experience anyway, Barbour's size guide is true size so if you normally wear a size 10 in a coat, you should be a size 10 in Barbour. Don't take my word for it 100% but Barbour have free returns if the items doesn't fit anyway!
OK, let's talk about the details/features of this beautiful jacket!
First thing as previously mentioned is the great quality of the jacket itself. It feels great, got a good weight to it but it's not heavy feeling once it's on. Barbour recommends that you check your jacket once a month for any patches where the jacket needs re-waxing such as the shoulders, pockets and creases of the arms as these areas tend to get worn a lot quicker than the rest of the jacket and therefore needing re-waxing.
The next obvious feature of the coat is the gorgeous tartan lining that goes all the way through the jacket which adds a extra something special if you were to roll over the cuffs slightly to make this coat look even more fashionable.
Now for my favourite features, pockets! I absolutely love pockets on my jackets/coats and this wax jacket has all the pockets I could ever dream for. The reason I ended up looking at wax jackets was due to the fact I was looking for a country coat with hand warmer pockets and that's one type of pockets that this jacket features, moleskin hand warmer pockets which incase you are not familiar with this type of pocket they sit just above regular pockets so your hands are essentially on your chest as this photo shows;
FYI - This is the Acorn Wax Jacket I was contemplating on getting in the first place before choosing the Beadnell!
So in addition to the hand warmer pockets this coat also features the standard two large patch pockets which are absolutely huge and have the tartan lining inside and one of the pockets has Barbour stitched onto. Then there is yet another pocket (yes, another one!) and this one is located on left hand side on the inside of the jacket which is super nice to have as us women normally get cheated out of inside pockets! As you can see from the following photo, it's very subtle and I completely missed it to begin with!
This jacket also features a two-way zip with a really lovely zip pull. Sometime zip pulls can be really tiny and fiddly for bigger fingers, fortunately for me I don't have these struggles having baby sized hands and fingers but taking into consideration those who have standard sized hands, I can understand zip pulls can be a nuisance but there is none of that wit this zip! Plus the zip is super smooth being a YKK zip and as I said, it is two-way which makes the coat even comfier if you use that feature. The jacket also features a studded front covering the zip to keep out the wind and make the coat feel even more snuggly!
Talking of being comfy, this jacket also features poppers/studs on the lower back of the jacket which you can undo to make the jacket wider around the bottom, perfect for driving or horse riding where jackets can be a bit restricting.
Barbour have essentially added every feature possible so that you can't complain about it not having what you need from a jacket even if you don't use half of the features.
The jacket also has a lovely brown corduroy collar which includes a small piece attached separately to the collar which really baffled me when I first inspected the jacket. Turns out this random piece of material is for making the collar more snug around your neck and to keep the chill out. See from the below photo how to wear.
Last but not least, there is one other great feature on this collar, the ability to add a hood should you wish to. Barbour sells their collars separately as I mentioned at the start of the post which I'm not sure how I feel about this. Sure, it's great if you had the detachable hoods that come with jackets that you never wear but those of use that like the fact our jackets come with hoods detachable or not seems like a bit of a inconvenience. When you're spending just under £200 for this coat to then have to spend an extra £30 for a hood seems slightly crazy to me.
You can buy the matching hood here.
A very cute touch to add if you didn't think you were treated enough by this jacket, upon delving my hands into the pockets, there was also a small badge included and a Care & After Sales Service booklet.
So there it is! My unboxing and opinions of the Barbour Classic Beadnell Wax Jacket in Olive.
I hope you liked this blog post and I hope to do more of these type of posts in the future so keep an eye out for those!
Much Love,
Jazmine x
All opinions are my own and I will always give an honest review. I was not contacted by Barbour to review this product. Photography, wording and opinions of my own are in black and any quotes from brands are in red. If a product has been given to me to review it will be stated.