PERFUME REVIEWS
ON FRAGRANTICA
(as of 11/22/20)
No.
9 Victor Milton Lloyd
Actually, I like this better than Aventus, which never impressed me.
It starts with a strong fruity accord, and dries down to a musky-rose accord,
more rose than musk. I detect no smoke at all, however. (Isn't that the main
thing to get right about an Aventus clone, a pineapple-smoke accord?) Also,
there isn't any oakmoss within miles of this stuff. It's not listed on the box
and I don't smell any.
It lasted about five hours on my skin before it turned into a very faint skin
scent. Not a bad piece of work at all, especially considering the money.
My wife hates it - but she had a head cold.
⁝
Very retro - and not in an especially good way. It's not that I am opposed
to the way this stuff smells - it smells okay - it's just I am completely
underwhelmed by it. I sprayed some on my wrist and it was gone pretty quickly.
No projection or longevity. Instead skin scent. So.... I pass.
Also, I recall that in the early 1970s musk scents smelled very new and
exciting. Now they remind me more of laundry than anything else. The thrill is
gone.
⁝
I stumbled across this one in a kitchenwares store in Boise. My
expectations were not high but I was pleasantly surprised to discover in this
one a fine boozy aromatic cedar wood. Very nice. So I bought a bottle as it
wasn’t expensive at all.
I detect no smoke and only a hint of vanilla.
----------------------
After a month of use I have discovered that this stuff has tragic performance.
It doesn't last. On me it's gone from skin and clothing after a couple of
hours. Essentially, I smell it when I spray it on and that's it. I won't be
replacing my bottle...
⁝
Great stuff! Mmmmmm... cork. I used to have a cork board in my bedroom as a
teen and Akro Smoke smells just like it. A very appealing scent! Even my wife
likes it... she normally hates the "Grandma's ashtray" note she
detects in smoky scents. She detects a boozy note that I only faintly get. For
me, this is all about the smoke and cork.
Problem, though: This stuff doesn't last on my skin. After a couple of hours
it's almost entirely gone - which is a problem I have with almost all modern
scents.
⁝
I bought a small bottle of this for myself for Christmas. I haven't opened
it yet. It's a total blind buy since The Scent Bar in LA didn't have a tester.
But I loved the New York original and so I think I shall like this, too.
----------------------------------
After a wearing: Yep, it's great! But I can't tell how it differs from the
original New York; it's been too long since I had a bottle. I suppose that if I
compared them side-by-side I could tell. The Intense flanker has a bit more of
a pepper note, perhaps? I'm not sure. But it smells great - an old school
chypre - and it lasts!
I see comparisons to Bois du Portugal (what I think is Creed's best scent)...
it's of the same genre but not at all the same. Frankly, I think this stuff is
better.
⁝
After reading the news about this house in a Fragrantica article I had so
wanted to reward Manuel Cross for sticking up a big middle finger at IFRA by
buying a bottle of this, and traveled to The Scent Bar in West Hollywood to try
it. Real oakmoss is back! Oh, boy!
But... sad to say, on my skin this struck me as being strongly feminine. That
white floral is all to the fore here, and it's just not for me. I was very
disappointed.
Don't get me wrong - it's an excellent perfume of obviously high quality and
with a real retro/classic vibe. But not for a male seeking out a perfume that
is masculine in character. I bet it would be gangbusters on my wife...
⁝
I actually bought and owned this one - for about an hour. I liked the
opening tobacco-chypre notes and based on that, made a purchase. About an hour
later, however, in the car, I noticed that it had turned to a sickening,
overpowering soapiness on my skin. No, no, no. So back it went to The Scent Bar
in West Hollywood, to be exchanged for Parfums de Nicolai New York Extreme.
⁝
I just noted that it was sweet with a very slight poopy note, but both my
wife and a friend sniffed it, put thoughtful looks on their faces, and
independently said the same thing, "Twizzlers!" So I guess it smells
like Twizzlers. (I kind of get that.)
It doesn't seem to last especially long on me - but then, almost nothing does.
⁝
This appears the be the replacement for Prada Infusion d'Homme, which I
really liked. It smells the same. I'm glad it's still with us, even with a
different name. This stuff was just too good to go away. But, GEEZ: $160/bottle
at Bloomingdales? Yikes.
It is unique in one good way: it lasts.
⁝
"...blue licorice with voluptuous white amber..." Huh? Blue
licorice? What's that? This is not bad, but not significantly different from
the original green Mugler Cologne to my nose. Very similar.
I know what the twisted "E" note is! (1) Marketing, and (2) the
original Mugler Cologne.
⁝
I love the original, wear it and know its characteristics very well. How
does this flanker differ? Well, the first thing I detected for a second or two
after spraying on my skin was an intense lacquer note which resolved very
quickly into a pronounced skank note. This has a very brief dirty smell that
the original TL doesn't own. And then... green. After five minutes or so on my
skin it dried down into pretty much the original Tuscan Leather. Perhaps a bit
greener. After a half hour it became a skin scent, so I'm not sure this lasts
as long as the original scent.
On a card I detect what my wife calls the "Grandma's ashtray" note. I
don't find it objectionable as she does, but I do not believe it's in the
original.
I like it - but I prefer the original
⁝
Very nice. It's clean but interesting and avoids the usual boring
"freshie" (I hate that term) and sporty vibe. A simple but effective
mix of citrus and pine. A good summer scent and a nice thing to wear with a
crisply-ironed shirt.
Does it last? Not especially - but rarely does anything last on me.
Hey, I'd try a bottle.
Actually, I sort of did already. It reminds me very much of the bottle of
Penhaligon Blenheim Bouquet I used to have. Same notes, same vibe.
⁝
I like this, but I read it as a fougere. Like Paco Rabanne DNA. And I don't
smell any mint. BUT - I had my sinuses operated on last week and my sense of smell
is all messed up and comes and goes! I wonder if I'll like this in a few months
when I heal up? I bet I'll smell the mint then, and won't like it. Generally,
mint-based frags remind me too much of toothpaste and dentistry.
⁝
Well, I liked the top-most citrus notes. They fairly sparkled. And then...
it transitioned into the familiar stench of a blue scent on me. I do not have
good luck with blue scents. One reviewer here called the drydown "rotten
egg," and that's about as close as I can get to describing it. A lot of
scents smell this way; it's a very common smell and it never works for me.
"This perfume reminds me of..." ...just about every other blue
perfume.
⁝
I actually like the fruity top notes, which are well-wrought. Usually I
don't like perfumes with an apple note, but this one works and actually does
smell like an apple. For a short while. Sadly, as the lighter components
evaporate (and I'm talking about five minutes or so), what happens on my skin
is that the whole thing becomes sour and nasty. Ugh. From nice apple to
scrubber in mere minutes.
Spicebomb Extreme (aka Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille) is the one to get.
⁝
Tom Ford Tuscan Leather is my signature scent, so based on the rave reviews
and the ridiculously low price, I bought a little roller bottle of this stuff.
It arrived in the mail yesterday. However, I presently have a bad case of
sinusitis and can't smell a thing!
So I got my wife and two other women to do a smell test, Macho Man on my left
wrist and Tuscan Leather on my right. They all agreed that the two scents are
indeed similar. My wife still prefers the Tuscan Leather, but says this stuff
is good, too.
I'm now on antibiotics. When I get over this sinusitis I'll be able to judge
for myself!
------------
(Sense of smell returned)
Yep! Very close to TL. There are differences but they're pretty subtle.
⁝
My very first impression of this scent was not good; it smelled like a
dusty citrus fruit. That is, a citrus fruit set aside in a room that has not
been dusted or cleaned in a long time and takes on a dirty/musty smell.
But then I tried again with another skin spray and got a better sense of the
subdued (not fresh or zingy) grapefruit note mixed with that seems like a
juniper or cypress (green) note, a camphorous note and the musk. It now makes
more sense.
I like it better than I did at my first whiff, but, overall, I think Atelier
does a much better job with citrus and, especially, grapefruit. In no way does
this grapefruit "sparkle."
But yes, I'd wear this, despite the undeniable fact that it does smell a bit institutional
(like a cleanser).
Secret "C": note - oh, please. It's really an "M" note for
Marketing.
⁝
Atelier makes some great-smelling citrus scents, to be sure, and this is
another one of them. The orange in this is very accurate, fresh and cheering.
So much better than Clinique Happy, which is what I think they were going for.
But, alas!, as is the case with just about all citrus scents based on light
molecules, this one doesn't last, either.
I give them credit for coming up with a great orange scent, however...
⁝
I'm glad I'm not the only one who detected the likeness to Guerlain Vetiver
(one of my favorite scents, btw).
A very nice scent and it smells good on me. I do detect some pepper... but it's
a nice pepper and there are some orangy notes as well. It seems to last better
than average, which I attribute to its EDP concentration.
Is it soapy? Perhaps a bit - but it's a good soapy.
Would I buy a bottle of this instead of Guerlain Vetiver? Possibly...
⁝
The top notes are strongly citrus; these are quite nice. The drydown moves
into Ambroxan territory which isn't bad but hardly original. I found it...
okay. "Safe for work" (the perfumery equivalent of damning with faint
praise). It's also somewhat soapy.
"Ice?" Nah.
My wife is completely unimpressed. She thinks it smells too much like the
cleaning agents she uses. In other words, functional perfumery instead of fine
perfumery.
⁝
My wife glommed onto this one at a local Sephora and said she liked it.
Always anxious to please, I got a sample. Yes, it's dry cocoa powder and some
undefined woody notes. It's not bad - cuddly and likable, in fact - but as
other reviewers here state, projection and longevity are tragic. I sprayed it
on my shirt and an hour or so later I can barely smell it.
I don't detect any ginger at all.
Pretty, unique bottle.
⁝
Wow - a Tom Ford scent with poor longevity and projection (at least on me).
That's unusual.
The name had me hoping for a good agarwood scent, but this is really a somewhat
wifty marine scent. It's a bit like smelling a piece of driftwood that washed
up on the beach. It's not bad, but it's not really successful, either. It's too
subtle to have any "wow factor," and it's not different enough from
the usual collection of marine scents to convince me.
Oceanics aren't a big deal for me, and I really haven't found one I like better
than Outremer Oceane.
I pass.
⁝
greyhoundmom has it right: "...was surprised to find that it smells
almost exactly like TF Tobacco Vanille!" Yes, I think so, too. A tamer
version of TF TV but very much in the same vibe. Very strongly tobacco and
vanilla - not so much spice. (The pepper note is very downplayed.) I like it. I
like it better than Spicebomb, in fact.
It's also a cousin to CK Shock, I think.
My wife's comment was, "It's okay. At least it's not soapy like a lot of
the others."
⁝
Here I thought I was done with fragrances, and I get this one as a blind
buy/gift. I put it on my amazon wish list based almost wholly upon people
thinking that this reminds them of Creed Bois du Portugal - the only Creed I
really like. Does it remind me of Bois du Portugal? No.
It opens weird - strongly citrus but also somewhat skanky. It's somewhat
off-putting. But that soon dries down into a nice, traditional and classy men's
scent with lavender and vanilla in the lead. (I don't really get the woodsy
notes.)
I think my daughter paid less than $30 for the 100ml bottle. Wow. Well done,
Lalique! (I also once had - and liked - my bottle of Encre Noire.)
---------
I'm about 20% through my bottle; I have come to like this a lot! It's a nice
vanilla variation.
⁝
I played rugby, so as much as I wanted to like this... no. The initial
blast is quite nice and citrusy but it dries down to something somewhat soapy
that smells like functional perfumery - something you spray on linen, for
example. My wife thought it smelled like the dish soap she uses. It's not bad,
but it's not really successful. Zero WOW factor.
I suppose you could say it's a "good work scent," which, to me, is
like damning with faint praise.
The green notes make it smell like a cousin of Mugler Cologne.
What does real rugby smell like? Hot turf, sweat, blood, cotton, Ben-Gay and,
sometimes, men whose hygiene needs some attention. (Especially if you're in the
scrum like I was.)
⁝
On paper and then wrist: Smoky wood which eventually dries down to a woody
vanilla. Very, very nice. If you like the smell of campfire smoke (and I do)
and you can't find or afford the Cadillac of campfire perfumes, Naomi Goodsir
Bois d'Ascese, then get this. $125/bottle at the Nordstrom near me. I got a
sample so I'll be trying it as soon as I use up my five year old bottle of
Bogart Pour Homme this week.
---------------
I'm now wearing my Nordstrom sample. Very nice stuff, woody/smoky. I would have
thought it overpowering, but no. It wears very nicely. And I don't think I'm
broadcasting it... Also, I would have expected to be cloying, but, no, it's not
that, either.
I'd like a bottle!
⁝
I've been waiting for a long time to smell this one; I finally found it in
an Ulta store. That green bottle certainly stands out!
So do the top notes - and not in a good way. Okay, it's settled: I do not like
mint scents. They all seem to remind me way too much of toothpaste. The dry
down is okay - A-Men - but, yuck, those top notes. Scope, Crest, Orbit gum,
etc.
I pass.
⁝
From the title I was expecting an animalic musk, but no - this is a cookie.
It falls into the "yummy" category of scents. My wife swears there's
an anise note which makes it smell like her Christmas Pizzelle. Whatever...
this is a very nice gourmandy scent. Put me on the bandwagon: I like this
stuff.
⁝
This is the stuff! Pine, oakmoss, leather - and it lasts. (I don't get any
mint from it.) Retro and masculine. But... I didn't buy it. $160/bottle at the
Scent Bar in L.A. I'm kind of done with expensive scents, to be honest. But
this is a good one!
--------------
I bought a sample. It smells terrific on skin, but, wow, doesn't last at all.
There's a surprise. I don't know why I wrote that it lasted above... that
wasn't my experience actually wearing it.
⁝
Hooray! I finally got to try this. (It normally isn't sold in the states.)
I tried it on skin at the LAX Duty Free shop.
The first blast is lemony... and then it dries down to a nice, oakmossy scent.
(Indeed, oakmoss is listed on the box.) But, sadly, it is very light. Chanel
meets Jo Malone. It turned into a very weak skin scent on me in less than an
hour.
I get Luca Turin's love for this, but longevity and projection on this one are
dire. How thoroughly disappointing!
Well... I won't be wasting my time with it as planned when I go to Paris next
year. I guess I can skip the Chanel Boutique.
I prefer the Chanel Monsieur Concentree sold in the States!
⁝
Most people detect aldehydes, ink and magnolia in this one? Wow. I'll give
it points for being daring and different, but... I don't like it. It's strange
and way too powdery.
The very first thing I get from this is a blast of something sharp and very
much like enamel or lacquer paint - that solvents nose burn. The drydown
reminds me too much of the scented talcs my mother used to get from Avon when I
was a little boy. It doesn't seem to last long... the long term scent here is
mildly floral/woody.
No like.
⁝
Not bad. No WOW! factor, but not bad. I like the fruity opening - that
seems well-wrought. It dries down to an inoffensive, somewhat generic scent.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't buy this, but I wouldn't turn down a bottle if it
came my way.
One of those "office scents." Projection and longevity are average
for scents these days, which is another way of saying disappointing.
-----------
On a second wearing I have changed my opinion because I've detected a somewhat
sour note in this. It is not prominent and I don't know how I missed it before,
but it is unpleasant, so, no.
⁝
This doesn't smell like fine perfumery. It smells like functional
perfumery. The original Neroli Portofino smelled like Spray and Wash - this
stuff even more so.
It appears that the only reasonable way to extend a light citrus scent (and
keeping it light) is via Hedione, as Roudnitska did with Eau Sauvage. This
stuff is like a sledgehammer. My wife sniffed my collar and made a stink face.
And, wow, $100 more than the original? I pass!
⁝
The top notes on this one are pretty hard to take (yes, "poopy"),
but it dries down to a quality oud like Hayat Kemi Blending Magic. Problem is,
wearing this one is going to be harder. It's just... hard to take. This is not
one of those rapidly-vanishing scents. And, happily, it's also not one of those
medicinal ouds. High quality oud.
Much better than M7!
⁝
Yes, it seems like a soliflore orange blossom, but does it have Hedione in
it to provide a white flower note? It reminds me of Eau Sauvage - but this is
still a very pleasant scent.
My favorite orange scent remains Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo - Arancia di
Capri, but this is good, too. It lasts longer.
⁝
Well, that was a surprise! I have found that I normally like men's scents
with iris (Prada Infusion d'Homme being the main example), but I sure don't
care for this! It's too green, too wild, too strong, too floral. Scrubber, in
fact.
Unisex? No, I don't think so. I think it is very feminine. Not for me at all.
And how exactly is this a "chypre?" No oakmoss, bergamot or labdanum.
Patchouli alone does not a chypre make.
⁝
Oh, this is VERY nice. It may be the best citrus scent I have ever smelled.
Anyway, it's up well there. It starts as citrus and dries down to... green.
Greenish. I want a bottle!
My wife likes it, too.
Update: I have a bottle. Longevity and projection sucks! I like it but I won't
be replacing it.
⁝
"Tom of Finland is beyond sexuality – he is sex, in all its fullness
and magnitude, open and erect."
Oh, puleese.
Not a bad scent. I seem to almost automatically like scents that contain iris.
And I'm no fan of the "clean/fresh" genre, but this one is tolerable.
Too soft and clean to be much of a leather scent to me.
⁝
More like Cartier Declaration than Terre d'Hermes, I think. (I have owned
both.) I don't get the pronounced bitter orange note that forms such a
distinctive part of the Hermes product.
I like it, but I think I'd prefer another bottle of the Cartier or the Hermes
than this.
It's... okay. I'd wear it.
⁝
Oud is almost always a miss with me. Either I can't smell it as a distinct
note (Tom Ford Tobacco Oud or Oud Wood), or there's a nasty cough medicine
aspect to it (M7). Or, with an oud attar, it smells like a rotting log. The
only oud that I have liked thus far is Hayat Kemi Blending Magic - $400/bottle.
But this stuff is complex, wonderful and I'd wear it! It's not really me - but
I'd wear it.
Like the Hayat, the top notes are a bit overwhelming and unpleasant, but that
soon fades away to a deep, completely unique scent. This is oud done right.
Yes, there is some skank here, but it's a good skank, if that makes sense.
Problem: My wife gets her hated "grandma's ashtrays" note from it.
(Encre Noir and Creed Royal Oud also has this for her.)
⁝
I'm a smoke fan, so yes, I love this stuff! As eilismaireg pointed out,
it's Autumn in a bottle! A lovely scent. To my nose it is not as
campfire-smokey as Naomi Goodsir's Bois d'Ascese (which I also like a lot).
Don't be put off by the "patchouli" in title. There is indeed an
earthy, potting soil aspect to this, but it's a well-blended mix of smoke and
patch.
I don't detect much vanilla here... I guess it modifies the raw/soil note of
the patchouli more than asserts itself as sweet. This is not sweet.
I think I like this as much or more than the Tom Ford Patchouli Absolu, which
is very much a potting soil scent.
Yes - I want a bottle!
⁝
I found this plain bottle on the shelf at Nordstrom, my favorite department
store. I've never seen it there before. Hm. So, Nordstrom being Nordstrom, I
filled myself one of their little sample sprayer bottles to try it out.
It smells nice - musky, woodsy - but there is no WOW factor at play, here. And
it doesn't really seem to assert itself on my skin - I suspect projection is
virtually nil.
So while I like it, I must admit that it's kind of a personality free sort of scent.
It falls into the category of "safe for work," which is the same
place one of my favorite scents, Prada Infusion d'Homme, inhabits. But the
Prada has a much more welcoming radiance... I always feel well-groomed wearing
it.
This Loewe scent is just kind of there but doesn't really do anything for me.
Once again, I like it, but, no.
⁝
What happened to my original review?
Anyway, I bought this and wore it only to find out, over time, it struck me as
just plain weird. I tried and I tired, but no, I could not come to terms with
it. So I don't really like it anymore and shall be giving it away as a white
elephant exchange gift this Christmas!
⁝
I tried this via a Nordstrom sample and, yes, I agree with everyone else:
It's sort of a toned-down version of Tuscan Leather, which I own and like. As I
have quickly scent-neutralizing skin, this stuff doesn't last as long as TL on
me. So if it's the same price, why buy it?
It's... okay. It's a good leather scent but not one of my favorites. For Tom
Ford cost I expect more Wow Factor.
----------------
Smelled it again in a big department store in Paris. Yep, same conclusion. The
underwhelming little brother of Tuscan Leather.
⁝
I smelled this one on paper at a Nordstrom. Yes, it is green. Very green.
At times it reminded me of grass, which recalled memories of me as a child
lying on grass and feeling itchy. (I think I am mildly allergic to grass.)
I agree with the reviewer who thought this not unisex. After the assertive
greenness of the opening it indeed becomes floral. It's not for me. I have
smelled other scents with violet leaf notes and find them to be turn-offs.
It might smell terrific on my wife, however...
⁝
Awful stuff. It's a good thing I test sprayed a bit of my Nordstrom sample
on my arm before doing a general spray or it would have made for a long, long
day. The top notes have a piercing, cloying floral note that smells like the
world's worst scented candle - or unbearably soapy, I'm not sure which. This
pungency only lasts for a half hour or so and then the scent settles down, but
I don't care for the floral drydown, either. (Suspicion confirmed: geranium is
not for me.) This is one of the least attractive Hermes scents I've ever
smelled.
Scrubber.
⁝
When the Nordstom associate picked up the bottle to prepare a tester she
noted the little leather zippered suit for the bottle and said, "That's
cute." Indeed. Hot Topic cute. You know, Corporate Goth/Corporate Rebel cute.
I like the top notes! A smoky leather...very nice. The drydown, not so much. It
gets kind of trashy within about a half hour... it loses its allure and
character.
Longevity is indeed tragic. I sprayed two wet sprays of this stuff on my arm at
9:20 AM. By 9:55 it was a very weak skin scent and at 10:20 AM it was almost
entirely gone. Why waste your money on stuff that doesn't last?
So far I have not cared for any of the Varvatos scents I have tried and this
one joins the crowd. A pity. The top notes are great!
And I still maintain that the true rock and roll rebellious scent is Knize Ten.
⁝
Hm. I wonder about the notes. First of all, I don't get any eucalyptus -
and bear in mind, I know what the stuff smells like because I used to play
among eucalyptus trees and leaves all through my childhood in California. This
doesn't smell like that. And gin? Again, hm. All of the gin scents I've smelled
from Tokyomilk were sour and awful - and yet this isn't.
I read it as mildly floral. It's not bad... I could grow to like it. It smells
upper crusty and British.
⁝
A classy citrus scent in a superlative bottle. It lasted about two hours
max on my arm. There are better citrus scents out there for me - Terre d'Hermes
and Terre Eau Tres Fraiche leaps to mind - but this one wasn't bad
That bottle is outstanding. Heavy and substantial. But who wears a bottle?
⁝
As I sprayed this one on the adjective that came to mind was
"yummy." Even gourmandy. That's the vanilla, which is quite
prominent. It goes through a phase when it becomes soft and powdery, but every
now and then I'd catch something else - the skank element, which, in this, is
quite subtle. I couldn't call this animalic...
Labdanum is described as "deep, powerful, leathery and ambery note."
I don't detect any leathery note... if I do it's a soft, powdery leather.
This is an interesting and nuanced scent of obvious quality - I like it!
Longevity is good.
⁝
Not a fan.
My initial impression is that it was like spraying sweetness on myself - not
quite cotton candy, but not far from it. It's not my thing. I kept hoping and
expecting that the rather more bitter chocolate A*Men base would emerge, but it
didn't. The long term note in this is a sort of generic sweet coffee.
The lavender in this is pretty subtle to my nose.
Pure Malt is still the best of the series, in my humble opinion.
⁝
Let's see: Rasasi La Yuquawam is like Clive Christian C is like Montale
Aoud Leather is like Tom Ford Tuscan Leather is like this one, Parfums de Marly
Godolphin. Yes, I definitely see a resemblance between all these. And this one
is another solid leather scent contender.
If I did a wrist by wrist comparison with this and TL I suppose the differences
would become more obvious, but suffice to say that, like TL I love it and it's
a very luxurious leather scent. Longevity seems to be about the same as TL.
Nordstrom pricing is about $65 an ounce for this vs. $88 an ounce for TL. (The
Rasasi is the best value here, but it doesn't last as long on me as TL.
Eventually you get what you pay for.)
Geez, that bottle cap is heavy.
⁝
Tuscan Leather is one of my very favorite scents - I own a bottle of it and
know it well - so, mindful of the comparisons between that and Clive Christian
C I tried a Nordstrom sample.
(And I bet this constant comparison with Tuscan Leather drives the Clive
Christian people nuts!)
Same general vibe, yes, but TL is more of a leather scent. CCC is leather with
something else. There is a somewhat astringent, medicinal note in CCC that is
not in TL that puts me off a bit. It must be the oud. Also, I find that I
usually don't like amber - perhaps that's what's causing me grief.
In general, I like this (it is obviously a quality scent), but... no. I
wouldn't buy it. My ranking of the TL's and TL smell-alikes is as follows:
1. Tuscan Leather
2. Montale Aoud Leather
3. Rasasi La Yuquawam Homme
4. Clive Christian C
⁝
I was sold on this one at the Scent Bar in Los Angeles. I've smelled many
of the leather scents - it's my favorite note - but this one is superlative due
to the woods and booze notes. It smells like... a club. A fine club. Very, very
nice. A little more sillage and longevity would be good, but...
------------------
I've been wearing this off and on for the past six months. The more I wear it,
the more I like it. This is seriously good stuff! Leathery, boozy... it hits
the right notes for me.
⁝
Well, I sprayed on an entire 1 ml sample on myself and, after an hour or
so, it was virtually gone.
When it comes to whiskey/boozy scents, I prefer Tim McGraw Southern Blend
(which has longevity about as bad but is much cheaper) and, for a more complex
scent, A*Men Pure Malt. This one didn't show me anything.
⁝
I once owned a bottle of Royall Bay Rhum. $40 (and that was discounted),
Nice bottle - didn't last. I like this stuff just as much. $7, much bigger
bottle - doesn't last.
It's what I wear when I don't feel like wearing anything, or when my nose is
congested and I don't want to waste my bottle of Tuscan Leather...
⁝
Commonplace, unoriginal, boring. Makes no real impression, has no
"WOW!" factor. It has a scent, but it's almost indistinguishable from
a freshly-laundered shirt. I suppose that's the musk in it.
Is it "safe for work?" Sure. If your goal is to get your co-workers
to yawn in your face, this is your frag.
⁝
Yes, it invokes the sea. No, it is not pleasant. It dries down smelling
like a stinky pier somewhere. The odd thing is that it is somewhat reminiscent
of Outremer Oceane, which I like, but this stuff turns me off somehow. Some
errant note, I guess. I would not want to smell this on myself all day.
So... not quite scrubber, but close.
⁝
The top notes are zingy, citrusy, sparkly, fresh and very pleasant. Sadly,
it all turns to soap on my skin. There is good soapy (Prada Infusion d'Homme,
Mugler Cologne) and bad soapy. This is one of the bad ones; sniffing it
irritates my nose.
A pity. I really liked those top notes.
Longevity on my skin is a couple of hours.
⁝
As the name suggests, it is a woody scent, cedar coming to the fore, then
pine notes. It is quite nice - I like it. In fact, I like it better than Le
Labo Chant de Bois, which was previously my woodsy favorite, and almost as much
as Creed's Royal Oud, which costs more than three times as much. And it is so
much better than Mugler's Pure Wood. I want a bottle someday.
However, again, longevity on me is an issue.
I detect no citrus.
⁝
My local Sephora now carries some of the Comme des Garcons line, so
naturally I got samples.
This is one of the relatively few incense-based scents I like. It's complex...
my first take on it was woody-spicy, but then the stuff settled down and the
incense came to the fore. But I read this as sort of piney-smokey. Like
aromatic burning wood.
Somebody made a comparison to Encre Noire, and I agree, although this seems to
be a sort of second counsin to that popular fragrance. This is more of an
incense-smoke scent rather than EN's vetiver-smoke scent.
I don't detect mint at all, and any leather is very subtle.
Weird bottle!
Longevity is about the usual thing these days: disappointing. On me it's nearly
gone in a few hours. On cotton, very faint. Can we please go back to making
scents that last?
------------
A second test:
This and Wonderwood are two excellent woody scents. I like Comme des Garcon's
use of incense... this smells mysterious and somewhat campfirey. Dry, too.
Austere. And I can detect the nutmeg. I like it.
Problem, though - it doesn't seem to last at all. A pity.
⁝
Lo and behold I found a tester of this stuff at a Nordstrom. No bottles for
sale - just the tester! So I had a sample made.
I like the opening, I like the drydown. It doesn't especially smell like a
coffee that I have ever had, but it does strongly suggest coffee. A sweet,
milky sort of coffee, but a coffee nonetheless. And somehow it manages to avoid
smelling like, say, I just spilled coffee on myself. It's a fully realized
coffee scented perfume. Nice!
I don't like it as much as Pure Malt, but I like it better than Pure Havane,
Pure Wood and A-Men.
Longevity is decent.
-------
Second wearing: Same overall opinion as before. Not much WOW! factor but I'd
wear it.
⁝
I wasn't sure I'd like this... It's a deep, rich, earthy, potting soil kind
of scent. It reminds me of a small bottle of Tsar I once had (and traded away),
but this doesn't have the geranium scent that was such a turn off. It's quite
nice.
Really? This is just patchouli? Nothing else? I once smelled some patchouli
essential oil and don't recall liking it much. How is this different?
Wore it for a day: Yep, I like this stuff. It smells great! Longevity is
acceptable.
⁝
A helpful perfumisto at The Scent Bar in Los Angeles showed me this one,
and because I bought some fragrance I got a sample! He told me that this is
what a quality oud-based scent smells like. (I really wasn't sure. I thought
oud was either cough medicine or a rotting log.)
The top notes, at first, repelled me... No, I didn't care for it. And then,
amazingly, it changed into a truly marvelous scent... A lovely, deep, complex
wood. So *this* is oud! Ah, I can see why it is prized now!
The development of this one is the most radical and pronounced of any scent I
think I have ever smelled. Truly amazing! Finally, an oud I like!
$400/bottle.
------------
I wore some of the sample and a female cop asked me what it was I was wearing.
I told her and she wrote it down. I'll be very sorry to see my sample go away.
⁝
I liked it better than I thought I would. I'm not sure I'm smelling any
cranberries, but what I get from this one is a sort of candy scent that is
approaching the Joop! line of obnoxiousness but never crossing it. This one
seems to be an amber variation scent. Normally I don't care for amber scents.
It's one of the better fragrances in the Polo line.
This is for a younger man than I. It doesn't really suit me.
It makes my wife sneeze.
⁝
It's a tonka bean and vanilla bomb in the manner of LeMale. I like LeMale
and so I like this... but it's not the vanilla scent I hanker after. I haven't
found that yet. It's my favorite in the Luna Rossa series, however.
But credit goes to Prada for avoiding the usual thing and *not* making a
"sport" scent clean/fresh.
HOWEVER... I have to admit that I'm not a fan of the drydown; the way this
stuff ends up smelling after about two hours. It smells common and
over-familiar.
More credit: this stuff lasts and projects better than average.
Nice bottle.
⁝
I tried this in a Barney's store in Las Vegas. It's a good lavender scent,
but, for the money, I could probably be just as happy with the less expensive
Pour un Homme de Caron, which strikes me as nearly the same sort of thing. (I'm
sure somebody will chime in and state that this product has subtleties that the
Caron does not, and I suppose that's true.)
Note: I am not an especial fan of lavender, which, to my nose, smells bitingly
of some kind of astringent lemon-limey thing. But I recognize that I could get
to like it in time.
⁝
Mildly woody, mildly spicy, mildly rummy, mildly citrus, mildly leathery.
The emphasis is on mild - and this fragrance is very much in the modern style
in that it is light. Sadly, it is also in the modern style in that it doesn't
have much longevity or projection - and this is an Eau de Parfum concentration!
I like it, but it's nothing special and I won't be buying a (overpriced)
bottle.
⁝
I like Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille and I get the comparison to this, but I
find this stuff somewhat gagging and headache-inducing, and I'm not sure why.
It has a cough medicine note that reminds me of original formulation YSL M7; at
first I thought there may have been some of that same synthetic oud in this. What
is it that's annoying me? The benzoin? I find I almost always don't like
predominantly amber scents, so that could be it.
MysteryBuff: I have and love De Nicolai New York and Chanel Pour Monsieur
Concentree and I love Creed Bois du Portugal, but this Odd Fellow's Bouquet
doesn't appeal to me - I don't get the comparisons.
Yes, it does strike me as gourmandy... that was my first take on it until I got
that it's mainly a ambery tobacco scent.
Longevity is better than average.
----------
Second wearing on my hand: Yes, it's confirmed, this stuff bugs me. That ambery
benzoin note is fierce on me.
⁝
Wow - this one is weird! It opens with an incredible mustiness that reminds
me of Salvador Dali Pour Homme, then transitions into a rotting grapefruit
accord rather than a floral note like the Dali.
It's like a roll in the hay - and not clean hay, either.
I'll hand it to Frapin for coming up with something unusual, but I don't want
to smell like this.
Fortunately it doesn't last long on me or my sample would have resulted in a
long, long day.
⁝
Okay, last week I was in Las Vegas, and one day my wife and I covered eight
miles of shopping walking through Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio and the
Venetian.
One stop was at the Prada store. I asked the SA if Infusion d'Homme was really
discontinued and she gave me a blank stare. She then resorted to her cheat book
and we noted that, no, Infusion d'Homme was not listed therein.
I heard that the old Infusion d'Homme is now Iris, so I sprayed some of their
tester of that on my arm. Yep - smelled just like! So the SA gave me a sample
of Iris - nice.
But hang on. I put some of it on one arm just now and some Infusion d'Homme on
the other to do a side-by-side test. They seem different. The new one, the
d'Iris, is weak and has a brighter, more citrus top note.
Curious, I dumped more of the sample on my arm... this stuff certainly isn't
Infusion d'Homme. It's far more citrusy and far less interesting than Infusion
d'Homme. More floral. More feminine. less barbershoppy and powdery.
Hmf.
⁝
A very fine nutmeggy-suede scent... soft and comforting. It's a bit like
visiting a leather shop. It is one of the oddest fragrances I own in that when
I first spray it on I'm a little annoyed by it; it seems somewhat off-putting.
But then, after a little while I get used to the smell of it and realize,
again, that I really like it. No other scent I have is like that.
Lacha has superior longevity - on me it survived a shower! That doesn't happen
very often.
I found this one after an exhaustive try out of the scents at the Barney's
store in Las Vegas. Had to have a bottle!
I do not detect any pepper, BTW.
---------
I liked it before, but after a number of wearings I got to the point where, at
the end of the day, I sniffed the top of my tee shirt and went Mmmmmmmm. I
cannot mentally force myself to do this. It's my final confirmation of approval
and all my favorite scents have this reaction for me.
It's a very nice stablemate to my Tuscan Leather. One is assertively leather,
the other is mildly suede.
⁝
Suggested for me by a fellow in the Las Vegas Barney's store.
Nice, but that opening is way feminine... Not for me. Not my style.
Interesting in that I saw a datura plant today on an ancient Native American
rock dwelling tour. Apparently the datura leaves can cause 24 hour
hallucinations!
⁝
Incense scents usually don't impress me, and this one is no exception. It
goes on with the same sort of mysterious dry mustiness found in Salvador Dali
Pour Homme and doesn't develop much on my skin. In fact, after about 40 minutes
or so it almost entirely disappears. It's very timid. So this one isn't showing
me much.
⁝
Much more bois than feminite, I think.
This has a very nice woody vibe and is in nature, I think, really unisex. It is
light (longevity and sillage are not especially good on me) but not
unmasculine. I liked it, but when it comes to woodsy scents, not as much as Le
Labo's Chant du Bois or Creed's Royal Oud.
I don't especially smell the cinnamon note, either.
I've never smelled the Shiseido version.
⁝
Sampled via a generous fragrantican.
On me this is too "perfumey"; what I'm probably objecting to here is
the jasmine. I could detect what I thought was a white flower/indolic note
right away. It reminded me a bit of the classic Guerlains: Shalimar, Jicky,
L'Heure Bleu. Not in a good way on me, however - this stuff was driving me nuts
all day.
But! On somebody else this is probably stellar!
The vanilla here is vanilla bean, rich and strong.
So I like it. Just not on me.
⁝
A very accurate and delicious vanilla scent; it reminds me of Outremer's
Vanille. People seem to like this a lot and I can see why - it smells great! In
the bottle there's a bit of a vanilla liqueur note; it smells a bit boozy. This
isn't a part of the spray, however.
The only problem: on me it is very timid. On skin it disappears quickly. I
sprayed most of my 1 ml sample on my shirt, and it was only faintly noticeable.
If I got a bottle of this I'd be using a lot, I think.
⁝
Root beer float!
I was in a Sephora one day and tried this on a paper strip out of curiosity
(full disclosure: the bottle and concept lured me). Wow! This stuff smells
great! Yes...a root beer float. That describes it as well as anything else.
It's yummy.
After another couple of visits and re-tests on paper strips I wondered - how
would this smell ON ME?
Well... it still smells great! Just like some sweet, delicious gourmet food.
And there's the problem. Do I want to smell myself smelling like a sweet
gourmet food? Or a root beer float? You would think this is a non-issue, but it
is as it influences my self-image. Bad ass or teddy bear? (I am a big, tall
guy.)
I wear A-Men Pure Malt, which is very foody/boozy just fine. But somehow that's
different.
I'll have to ponder this one. I've been looking or a vanilla scent, but as
things stand it's probably Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, not this. But my opinion
could change!
And this stuff smells great! I need to get another sample for my wife...
(Update: I did, and she agrees: root beer float. But she's not a fan.)
⁝
Found in the men's section of a Nordstrom - why, I have no idea. Unisex
this is absolutely not!
Sorry, folks, but I fully agree with Luca Turin: this is an obnoxiously heavy
and gagging floral scent that, yes, Hermes would do well to discontinue. Is it
for men? Sure - if the man in question is on a stage performing dressed as Mae
West or Cher.
Wary and suspicious, I sprayed one shot to my arm. It came at me for the next
few hours, and alarmed my daughter-in-law who smelled it all the way up the
stairs. It greeted me the following morning from my pillow, sheets and
comforter. Egad.
To paraphrase David Bowie, this ain't a perfume. It's genocide.
⁝
A trickster at Nordstrom put a bottle of this in the men's section, so I
obtained a sample.
Whew! The opening is way too perfumey, way too floral, too feminine. But
wait... it dries down to what could be a second or third cousin to Bel Ami.
Soft and somewhat leathery. But there are no leather notes listed... it must be
a clever olfactory trick of Hermes.
And, on me, a third phase is somewhat soapy - which I do not like.
We tried a spray on my wife's arm - she doesn't like it.
So... not for me. It's a distinctive, quality scent, though, no doubt about
that.
⁝
Some trickster put this in the men's fragrances section of Nordstrom, and I
see why. I got a sample.
It starts with a gentle iris note that reminds me a bit of Prada Infusion
d'Homme. A dressy, squared away laundry scent. But after awhile it becomes
sharp and bright, and here's where we part company as it strays and settles
into the usual clean/fresh/sporty territory of many men's scents. If my bête
noire dihydromyrcenol isn't in this, I'm smelling something very reminiscent of
it. Or the same effect, anyway.
But I must say, if I were forced at gunpoint to wear a clean/fresh/sporty scent
it would be this one.
Unusual bottle.
⁝
Hooray! I found another Bvlgari scent I like! (In addition to Au The Vert.)
This one is very nice... the rum and spice accord is right on the money and
smells great! The top notes are enchanting. I see this has iris in it...
another reason I like it. I like smelling iris on myself (Dior Homme, Prada
Infusion d'Homme) and on my wife (who loves Guerlain's sadly discontinued
iris-heavy Shalimar Parfum Initial).
And yes, I do detect the resemblance to Spicebomb.
The only problem: as is the case with most modern fragrances, sillage and
longevity is wanting. Even sprayed on cotton this becomes quite soft. On skin
it's a skin scent right away on me. At the end of the day it's utterly gone,
even from cotton.
This is an Eau de Parfum? Really? It has Eau de Toilette performance.
⁝
Wow, that opening takes some getting used to! It almost smells like
eraser... black pepper and vanilla? Is that what I'm smelling?
It dries down nicely, however. I can detect a soapy House DNA in this one, not
unlike Infusion d'Homme, which I like.
I wasn't greatly impressed with the original Luna Rossa, which I found generic
and boring. I cannot say that about this scent. I like it!
Once again, great bottle.
⁝
It had to happen eventually: I finally found a Declaration flanker I didn't
like!
The original d'Un Soir is subtle and charming. This one is crass. That opening
is pretty unbearable; I agree with the others - it ventures too far into
gagging Tom Ford Black Orchid territory.
And yes, there is a bit of a candy accord at play early on. It reminded me a
bit of a fragrance I can't stand - Joop!
The original is much better.
⁝
For the life of me, I don't know why this fragrance gets so much attention.
It goes on smelling of pineapple - and if you're lucky you also get a smoke
note. I did with a previous sample but I didn't with the present sample. I
guess this is what's at the heart of the whole Aventus batch variation
controversy.
At any rate, on me it dries down to a boring sweet/fruity thing. Also, it
doesn't last. And it doesn't seem to project.
I'm convinced, when it comes to nude emperors, this is the one with its junk
hanging out.
⁝
A nice orange scent with an additional zing of ginger. I like it... but
longevity and sillage is pretty bad on me. I get an hour, tops, with this.
Oakmoss? In this? I don't detect any!
It's a pity it's so timid.
Actually, when I first put it on the very light white flower floral aspect of
it reminded me of Eau Sauvage, except with orange instead of lemon. But Eau
Sauvage lasts longer.
⁝
Is this the stuff that's being marketed now as "Signature?" Looks
like the very same bottle and both are oud scents.
Anyway, a sales assistant at a Nordstrom begged and petitioned me not to walk
away from the Bond No. 9 counter before I sniffed this on a paper strip. So I
did. What gives? I could barely smell anything at all and so I told her this.
So she gave a sniff herself and her face betrayed her - there was nothing
there. So she muttered something about it being light and changed the subject.
A weird experience. Did we get a Bond bottle full of perfumer's alcohol?
BTW, the Nordstrom at the Pentagon Center in Northern Virginia has WAY too many
sales assistants. They won't leave you alone.
⁝
Wow, this stuff has a punch!
The best description I've read for the opening is "acetonic." Yes -
and to my nose easily confused with a camphorous note. After a very sharp
fanfare, the scent settles down to a leathery patchouli. The vetiver is there,
too, but this isn't as rooty or as pungent as Guerlain's 1959 vetiver. But it
is intensely green. I'm reminded of a grove of bamboo near my backyard where I
grew up, but this is more of a suggestion than the same literal smell.
I suppose there's sandalwood in this mix, but it's not as prominent as the
patchouli or the leather. As time moves on this becomes more balsamic and
softer. Or is that the sandalwood? This one's hard to read!
This fragrance is bold and individual, and not to be blind bought. Longevity
and projection are above average.
I like it!
My wife, however, declares that it's somewhat "Pine-Solly."
⁝
The topnotes on this are wonderful, a very sharp citrus.
But... uh-oh. On my skin the lemon scent is virtually gone after about a half
hour (no kidding - I timed it), replaced with a very faint and somewhat
unpleasant soapy smell. No sillage unless sprayed on clothing.
I think Creed's Bois de Cedrat is still my all-time fastest evaporation king,
but this one's a contender.
⁝
A generous fragrantican sent me an evaluation sample of the La Yuqawam; I
own and greatly enjoy the Tuscan Leather. I put a little on the top of each
hand and made a fool out of myself continually sniffing.
Observations:
These two scents, indeed, smell very similar, just as people claim. My wife,
doing a comparison sniff, confirmed this. With more inspection, however, she
claimed that she preferred the Tuscan Leather.
The La Yuquwam has a more pronounced berry note than does the Tom Ford product
- it is right up there as a top note. Certainly, any jasmine or woody notes
(listed as notes) are hard to detect among the heart or basenotes.
The Rasasi product has a bit more of a smoky cork note to it.
The Tuscan Leather lasts a lot longer on my skin; I'm guessing that the concentrations
differ. The Rasasi behaves like most Eau de Toilettes on me.
Overall I prefer the Tom Ford Tuscan Leather - but would gladly wear the Rasasi
product!
There is a considerable difference in cost!
⁝
Atelier joins the ranks of Hermes (Eau de Pamplemousse Rose) and Guerlain
(Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune) at getting the elusive grapefruit note right! There
are so many nasty, synthetic efforts to create an olfactory impression of a
grapefruit out there - so full credit to Atelier.
Another reviewer called the top notes of this "hyperrealistic," and I
concur. It's like squeezing a grapefruit onto yourself, which I unexpectedly
found to be a nice experience.
The drydown is a gentle ambery note. The same structure as the Varvatos scents,
really: a citrus top end on amber. Iris? Okay, but I don't get that.
I like it a lot! A nice scent with a real zing... This kind of scent isn't
normally my thing but I can see myself wearing this on warm days.
Longevity: As usual with citrus scents, a problem. I put it on at 11 AM and
it's 2:30 PM now and it's pretty much gone. I can barely smell it on my cotton
tee shirt top. Pity.
⁝
Urged to try this one by somebody on this page's forum, I duly visted a
Nordstrom for a paper strip and a spray.
I was hoping for a sort of distant cousin to Tuscan Leather, which I like very
much. Or perhaps some variation of a light white musk of the type found in
Mugler Cologne. Anyway, that was the expectation.
What I got was a sort of hard-to-define collection of notes that didn't make me
think of either. Worse, it didn't play well with my skin chemistry, becoming
rather sour or "off." There's a note there that is just not
flattering or pleasant on me.
What's more, it's very light. I'm a big guy... this is like wearing a tie made
out of Kleenex. It just doesn't work.
My wife didn't like it, either. It reminded her of a cheap musk that somebody
she used to know used to wear.
So... no. Not for me.
⁝
Guerlain is my favorite house. But there is no getting around it, this one
is disappointing. My take on it is that it's a bit too mainstream. No WOW!
factor at all. It's Guerlain merely filling a market expectation, but not
redefining it or doing anything really new.
It's nice, but I don't expect or want nice from Guerlain - I expect more.
It goes on "yummy"; the almond notes are certainly there. It
disappears pretty quickly on my skin. In fact, longevity is awful.
This one has me wondering, if you like almonds why not find a bottle of
Givenchy Pi in a Ross and get about the same thing for less?
--------------
Another try: My wife likes this one a lot on me. She thinks it's
"yummy."
⁝
After seeing this constantly suggested on this website's men's forum, I
decided to pay for a sample to see what all the fuss was about. (It was less
than two bucks and made my fragrancenet shipping free, so I consider myself as
coming out ahead.)
I still don't know why people recommend this.
A synthetic trash heap, that's what this is. It went on smelling very generic;
the top notes are undoubtedly the same-old same-old stuff you constantly smell
in the mass market bottles for sale at a Ross. (I'm looking at you, Usher,
Giorgio and Michael Jordan.) It then dries down to a nasty, sour smell that
reminds me of nothing so much as what my daughter calls "trash
juice," the liquid matter that occasionally oozes out of trash cans.
Phew! Nasty.
I'm not afraid of "dirty." After all, I love the castoreum in Antaeus
and the civet in my wife's perfumes. But this isn't a well-wrought dirty in any
way, shape or form. It's just... trash.
Fortunately Dirty English doesn't last. (Because it's cheap, people!) This is
the one time a scrubber didn't last forever on me, and boy, am I glad.
Better yet, it's discontinued.
⁝
I'm sure there's a difference between this and au the vert (which I like),
but I'd have to have them on side by side paper strips to judge.
I like this one, but, wow, is it ever light! I tried a sample on myself and it
just sort of disappeared. It's way too subtle and dainty for me.
⁝
I get the oranges at the beginning, and it does have some zing, but I
prefer the orange notes in Terre d'Hermes more. The drydown is similar to the
A-Men gourmand. But this is not my preferred orange scent.
I prefer this to A-Men Pure Wood and A-Men, but I like Pure Malt better.
Longevity is so-so. A few hours.
⁝
A friend of mine found a vintage bottle of this and was kind enough to make
me a 1 ml sample.
I'm not a fan of the top notes... it was somewhat alarming going on me. (That,
"Oh, no, what am I doing?" feeling.) It struck me at first as being
overwhelmingly... floral? Can that be? It then settled down into the musk note.
Sadly... I do not care for it. It just smells too dated. I'm okay with Kiehl's
Musk Oil and the white musk in Mugler Cologne, but this one comes across as
being just too cloying.
I don't get the tobacco note that's supposed to be in this.
I'm not especially a musk person, I am finding out.
⁝
I tried some of this in the Norway store at EPCOT; sprayed some on my arm.
I didn't like it at all because it's way too floral for me.
When I got to the Italian section at EPCOT, the guy at the fragrance section
sprayed the other arm with a sweep of Prada Infusion d'Homme. I bet you could
smell me coming from a mile away that day.
⁝
I'm trying to figure out if Creed is telling the truth about this perfume's
history.
So. Does anyone here definitively recall owning a bottle of this prior to 1975?
Please PM me if this is the case.
Of course, if you owned *any* Creed fragrance prior to 1975, please also PM me.
If you *didn't* own a bottle prior to 1975 and wish only to take me to task for
being a "Creed hater" or some such thing, don't bother. Same if you
want to inform me that prior to 1975 they were only making scents for the rich
and famous. I've heard that.
I am seeking evidence (not hearsay or copy from Creed's website) of Creed being
producers of perfume prior to 1975.
⁝
This is a curious one! It reminds me a little of Halston Z-14 and a little
of Van Cleef and Arpels Tsar. Spice and cinnamon are the two notes I get most
strongly - but then there's that x-factor that the incense also imparts for me.
I'm never quite sure what to make of it. I can smell the pine/fir... it smells
mildly Christmassy to me.
And there's a hint of floral, too. Is that the carnation note? Normally I don't
like carnation - it's what spoiled Tsar for me - but here it's restrained.
A very nice scent!
Not a powerhouse like Bogart Pour Homme, which is nuclear strength. But I like
the strength of this one.
I'll have to get a bottle!
A few hours later: No, I won't. That carnation-incense accord, which becomes
pronounced with the passage of time, is a deal-breaker for me. As the hours
passed that accord kept "coming at me" (to use my wife's phrase). A
pity.
⁝
A very pleasant beachy scent. I wasn't a fan of the initial blast, but the
drydown was quite nice. The only problem: strength. I can tell just from a
paper strip that this stuff won't last on my skin at all.
For me, the king of sea scents is Outremer's Oceane and Backpacker's Cologne
Big Sur, but this one could take third place.
C'mon, Jo - up the concentration!
---------------------------
A wearing:
It's ephemeral and timid in the usual Jo Malone style. Like some perfumer
dipped a piece of wood into a mildly salty alcohol solution and called it a
perfume. No silage to speak of. Little longevity.
I like it, sort of, but it's just sort of not there on me. Yes... I can see why
some might call it boring. Given the above and the Jo Malone price point, I
won't be buying a bottle of this.
I'm not a fan of the House of Jo Malone, as you can see, and this one doesn't
convert me any.
I see there's grapefruit listed as one of the notes. At least it's not that
obnoxious, weird synthetic that gets used nowadays in place of a more
convincing grapefruit note.
Sage? I don't get that at all. Sage is a note that never fails to invoke in me
memories of the California coast and I don't detect that in this. The Sage King
is Backpacker's Cologne Big Sur.
⁝
Leather? I don't smell any leather at all. Just an indifferent
sandalwood/generic woody smell. Not impressed at all with this one.
But at least it doesn't have that weird apple pie note the original has. (James
Bond/apple pie?)
No longevity.
Nice bottle, good tactile feel. I also like the mechanism that blocks the spray
opening. Now put something worthwhile in it!
⁝
Meh. Aquatic, blue, somewhat sporty... doesn't last long. You could safely
spill the bottle all over yourself. Very mass market, unimpressive. Not my
thing at all.
Lime? Really? Okay, I guess there is some in this, but it doesn't strike me as
a lime scent at all. Very synthetic.
Guerlain Homme is SO much better than this, with the same intended vibe.
I suspect that the Tommy Bahama line isn't for me at all.
⁝
Hmmmm. On my arm, yes, it is a nice, lemon meringue scent. Pleasant. My
wife's verdict, however, was harsh: "lemon dish soap." And, indeed,
on my neck where I sprayed, a bit of perspiration seemed to have rendered it
somewhat soapy.
The jury is still out on this one.
p.s. When I first put it on, it made my wife sneeze. Not good.
⁝
My mother-in-law's favorite perfume. It smells wonderful! I can see why
it's so popular for women.
But for me - not so much.
I like the powdery vanilla, but I think the incense notes are the deal-breakers
for me. There's something in this that kind of hits me in the side of the head.
I couldn't wear it.
⁝
After seeing "DHI" getting endlessly recommended around these
parts, I finally decided to try it via a Nordstrom sample.
I can see what all the hype is about; this stuff is quite nice and one of the
very few florals I am willing to wear. (Although I suppose it's really a
gourmandy floral.)
The vanilla/cocoa drydown is very pleasant. And it's long-lasting! That's rare.
Well done, House of Dior!
⁝
For years in stores I would spray some on myself thinking that it was
classy somehow (I was subject to the marketing from my youth: "So fine a
gift it's even sold in jewelry stores") and my wife would report, "I
like it. It's okay." But no Mmmmmmmmmmmm from her like I got with Antaeus,
Santos, Bel Ami or Tuscan Leather.
So last year I got myself a little bottle of it at a colossal discount store in
North Carolina off I-95; I may have paid $3! I'm wearing it today, as it turns
out.
karlovonamesti nails it: "A cheap, hollow forgettable fougere." Yeah,
that's my opinion, too. I don't like it and I don't dislike it. Just sort of
"meh." I have moved on.
I suppose I might say that it represents a sort of absolute minimum of
acceptability for a men's fragrance. Any lower than shalt I not go.
(Actually - I can't see myself ever wearing this ever again. There are far too
many better scents out there.)
⁝
Not bad - but not especially good, either. It begins very astringent and
sharp, then settles down, more or less, to the same fougere vibe as the
original Drakkar. But I'm pretty sure I prefer the original.
Longevity on me is not good; in about an hour it becomes a very subtle skin
scent.
⁝
Yawnnnnnn.
Doesn't have much character or personality. Generic woody/ambery. And it's gone
from my skin in about an hour or two.
But then, I didn't like the original Pasha, either.
"...freshness in green and fresh citruses, balanced perfectly with warm
and cuddly aromas": How is this even remotely "noire?"
Fail.
⁝
The top notes and heart notes are pleasant enough, and this has a kind of
Son of Derby/Son of Polo Green vibe going for it with additional sweet boozy
notes. Nice. The basenotes begin to smell a bit cheap, synthetic and
overly-familiar, however. Not a fan of those.
The real problem here is longevity and sillage, which is tragic. This stuff is
just way too faint. It's still barely on my cotton shirt an hour after
spraying.
So... no. If this kind of formulation is your thing try Polo Green, Derby or
even Mugler Pure Malt instead. And if you're on a budget, try Tim McGraw
Southern Comfort (another boozy scent that doesn't last long - but it costs
less).
⁝
Inoffensive, light, safe for work - and boring. Yes, for beginners. Yes,
generic. Yes, disappointing.
Soon to be found at a Ross near you.
I can understand the comparisons to Chanel Bleu; I don't care for that one,
either.
Still, this one did firm up a suspicion I had: I need to avoid fragrances with
pineapple notes and the great majority of the ones with grapefruit notes
(exception: Hermes Pamplemousse and Rose). Those just do not work for me at
all.
⁝
My wife is away for a week so I'm taking this opportunity to try certain
women's scents. I don't normally like them (I am not a floral person at all),
but.. what the heck.
Look - there's my wife's Guerlain Shalimar Parfum Initial sitting on the
bathroom sink. One spray, that's all. It's a powdery vanilla Guerlain; I'm sure
that might be good. Smells good on her. Why not? One spray.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Well. I won't ever make that mistake again.
p.s. It smells terrific on my wife, where it belongs.
⁝
At the urging of some women on the men's forum here, I tried this. (I don't
normally like women's perfumes or florals.)
My wife is away for a week. I got home from work and took off my dress shirt; I
could smell some of the Declaration L'Eau on it from this morning but none on
my skin or tee shirt, as I suspected might be the case.
I looked at my wife's bottle of Chanel No. 5 and it looked at me. After some
hesitation I sprayed one spray.
BANG! MOM. Seriously, MOM. My wife wears this all the time and she smells like
my wife wearing Chanel No. 5. I wear it and I get an instant olfactory
impression of my mother! At some point in my life she must have worn this - I
don't remember when - but when I wear it I smell exactly like my mother.
Moral: When my daughter was a cute little four year old, she used to suck her
thumb. One night, when I put her to bed, she was sucking her thumb, and I told
her that that thumb was vanilla and this one - taking one thumb out of her
mouth and putting in the other - was chocolate. What did she think?
She pulled the thumb out of her mouth, said, "I don't wike it," and
put back in the original thumb.
Chanel No. 5 on me and smelling like my mother? I don't wike it.
⁝
It opens with that horrible, synthetic, not at all convincing grapefruit
note I have smelled way too often in modern mainstream perfumery (Hermes Eau de
Pamplemousse Rose gets grapefruit right - this one doesn't), and closes with an
equally annoying marine scent that sours on me very quickly.
This stuff is nasty and repulsive, cheap-smelling and common. It's a cacophony
of unfortunate ingredients. And, what's more, its mother dressed it funny in a
silly bottle that looks like the little plastic "just being there"
awards my kids used to bring home from elementary school.
Paugh.
("Haters gotta hate." Translation: "I don't agree with
you." Can we please retire this phrase?)
⁝
I was prepared to like this one: I own and love Pure Malt and I also like
A-Men.
The initial blast of Pure Wood is nice - I get the caramel A-Men base quite
strongly. But it soon subsides and one can indeed detect wood. But the notes
are very quickly experienced and disappear. It dries down to... what? I'm not
sure. A indefinite sort of woody note that becomes faint pretty quickly.
I am just not impressed. Not much wood here, and there's little WOW factor. And
it's way too faint - on me it becomes a skin scent very quickly.
Much better woods are found in Le Labo Chant de Bois and even Tom Ford Sahara
Noir. As for Mugler, I'll stick with Pure Malt.
I don't really "hate" it, but I don't especially "like" it,
either.
----------
Update: I wore some again, and on the second wearing the woody notes seemed
more pronounced. My daughter likes it a lot on me. I still prefer Pure Malt...
⁝
After all these reviews I was really prepared to smell something, well,
amazing. So I get to the Scent Bar in Los Angeles, where they have a bottle. A
paper strip is dipped in and handed to me. With some wariness I raise it to my
nose and... nothing. I can smell nothing. What's going on, here? So I give the
strip to my wife. She, too, smells nothing. The sales assistant sniffs -
nothing. Is this a joke?
⁝
Yes, indeed, this is what the California coast smells like! I used to work
at Camp Pendleton (near San Onofre) when I was a Marine, and vividly remember
this green, pungent, sagebrush and camphorous (eucalyptus) note. Takes me right
back... very evocative.
It goes on quite strong, but then settles down. On cotton it will last for many
hours - on skin, not so much.
$60/ounce? Not a bad price to revive one's twentysomething memories!
----------------
Update: I bought a bottle. Had to have it.
⁝
It's a very nice, unusual, exotic, woody scent which opens green and
mellows into my olfactory memory of the wooden items (boxes, etc.) and oils
available at The Akron, a place in my home town not unlike Pier One Imports. I
can see why Luca Turin - and everyone else - rates this one so highly.
It is the smell of faraway places, of jungle woods.
Alas!, it is faint. I put it on two hours ago and it is gone, even on cotton. I'd
need to use a lot more than the tester I got at the Scent Bar in L.A., I think.
----------
A different tester: Uh-oh. After a couple of hours this one got unpleasantly
soapy on me. Not so good.
⁝
The title suggests that it's an orange scent, and indeed it is. It's not a
bad one - and it lasts somewhat better than average - but I don't think there's
anything really special here to justify the $200+ price.
I do not smell civet - not at all.
If I want an orange scent that lasts at a reasonable price, I think I'd pick up
a bottle of the justifiably popular Terre d'Hermes.
Pretty bottle.
⁝
Nothing real exciting here. It's nice and I like it... is there such a
thing as a neroli soliflor? If so, this is an example of one. I don't smell
anything here other than citrus (but it's a good citrus!) and an undefined
"green" note. No, it doesn't last long on my skin. I didn't expect it
to. It's good for an hour or so, which is pretty standard for colognes and
citrus-based scents.
It does not smell like Spray and Wash, which is what the sharper and more
pungent Tom Ford Neroli Portofino is for me, so this neroli is a success!
Would I buy a bottle? No. I'd opt instead for Eau Sauvage, which is a more
refined and longer lasting citrus scent. Or Terre d'Hermes Eau Tres Fraiche,
which has the same vibe and decent longevity.
⁝
I have a sample of the extrait, not the EdP - but I don't see it on the
database.
It smells great, but on me it's all rose, powder and vanilla. Way soft - and I
usually don't care for soft. This would smell wonderful on my wife and I think
I'd prefer to smell it on her than on myself.
Oud? I don't get any of that at all. A slight leather note, yes, but, again,
it's very soft.
I'm somewhat conflicted about Habit Rouge and its variants, I see.
⁝
When is extreme not extreme? When the word is used in the perfume industry,
that's when.
I got my sample of this from the Guerlain boutique in Toronto, so I know it's
legit. Problem is, it's very timid. I have a bottle of the 1959 Guerlain
Vetiver that inspired this, and it is almost an all-day fragrance, even on my
fragrance-neutralizing skin. It's rooty, pungent, woody, green and all around
delightful. This "extreme" flanker, however, has great top notes and
that's about it.
Seriously, about an hour after I sprayed it - on cotton, yet - it's essentially
gone. What gives?
What a disappointment! I'll be sticking to plain old original Guerlain Vetiver,
which is a masterpiece.
⁝
I first tried this one at the Guerlain Boutique in the French section of
EPCOT and was won over. It's a delightful citrus and mint scent; it reminds me
a bit of Dior's Eau Sauvage and a bit of Cartier Roadster - but it smells
distinctively elegant and well-wrought, like a Guerlain.
However, my fragrance-absorbing skin does it again: longevity is not good
unless I spray it on my cotton tee shirt top. This is the fate of all such
light cologne scents on me, I am sorry to say.
So - I'll just stick with my inexpensive 4711. Same vibe, costs little, use
lots.
⁝
I like the top notes! Dried fruit and incense, which to me always smells
woody, so I interpret this as a fruity-woody scent. Nice!
But Pure Malt it ain't. I have a bottle of that. Pure Malt is much more complex
and better.
The deal-breaker arrives as it dries down about a half hour later - then I get
that all too common synthetic note that I associate with the inexpensive scents
always found in Ross. It's sort of a pungent "yellow" note. I suppose
it's used in perfumery to suggest tobacco. Anyway, I dislike it. It says
"I'm cheap."
Projection and longevity is about the usual thing, which is to say
disappointing.
⁝
"Lovers of Tuscan Leather will be enamored by this one."
Well... not quite. I vastly prefer Tuscan Leather, which smells like sheer
luxury to me. This is a good leather scent - make no mistake - but it doesn't
have the amazing WOW factor that TL and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Montale
Aoud Leather have. Instant Mmmmmmm.
This is a very good leather scent, but I'd rather have a bottle of the Montale
or, best of all, TL.
Longevity and silage are better with TL, too.
-------------------
Subsequent wearing, years later: Yep. Exactly the same response. A good leather
but no WOW factor and I don't like it as much as Tuscan Leather.
⁝
Very strongly cacao, very gourmandy and very nice - if you like that sort
of thing. I've decided that I do; A-Men finally sold me. (I have the Pure Malt
flanker.) My wife also likes it, but thinks it a bit too soft for me; she
thinks it would work better as a woman's perfume. I'm inclined to agree.
Not sure whether or not I'd buy myself a bottle of this.
It reminds me somewhat of CK Shock, only without the tobacco note.
Interesting bottle!
⁝
Tested on an arm: Will wonders never cease? I normally don't like fresh,
clean light "blue"/"water" scents - but I like this one. It
starts out citrusy and eventually makes its way to the mild spices of familiar
Declaration territory.
That means that I still like the original Declaration (I have a bottle) and all
of the flankers.
I'm not sure if I could wear this one, however. I suspect it's better on a
younger guy. Longevity and silage are about average for a modern scent.
-------
All day wearing via a Nordstrom sample: Scratch that last part about longevity.
I own a bottle of Declaration - it's one of my "go to" frags - but
the longevity on this flanker is just not as good. I'll stick with the original
Declaration, thank you very much.
Pretty bottle hue, though.
I prefer Terre d'Hermes Eau Tres Fraiche or Eau Sauvage for the same sort of
vibe.
⁝
Like Hermes Equipage, this is one of those soft, cuddly, reassuring scents.
It's... okay. Not really my thing. (Yes - we need an "indifferent"
selection. I don't like this but I don't dislike it, either.) I suppose there
might be a situation where I'd want to wear this - but it's not coming to mind.
Sunday in a suit? I'm a hard sell when it comes to florals, even understated
florals such as this.
Still, I might revisit this fragrance.
I think my favorite in this Hermes series of colognes is the d'Orange Verte.
Longevity is pretty bad unless you spray on cotton.
------
Second wearing: Even on cotton it's pretty bad. I get, maybe, two hours.
⁝
Not bad. No wow factor here, but not bad. I read it as primarily as a
juniper berry scent. It doesn't last very long on my skin, but you can also use
the Cade bath gel, shampoo and all the other associated products to boost the
scent, I suppose.
I get the impression this is good for men who don't especially care about
fragrance, or for very young men.
I prefer Eau des Baux from this house. I suspect most do as well.
⁝
Very much like AdG except it seems to last somewhat longer on my skin. I'd
have to do a direct comparison... they smell pretty much the same. Maybe this
one has a tad more spice notes?
I think I prefer this to the original - but that's not saying a lot. I'd
probably never buy a bottle of either.
⁝
Apparently most people smell orange in this, some get grapefruit, but to me
it's more lemony. Whatever they are, the citrus top notes are really zingy and
nice - precisely the thing you'd want on a hot, summery day. It dries down to a
cedary note (the Iso E Super, I'd imagine) and a light floral base. (Wait.
There's geranium in this? Geranium was what was objectionable to me with Tsar,
or so I thought - but I don't detect anything here I don't like. Perhaps it
wasn't the geranium after all...) A wonderful scent!
It is more reminiscent of Eau Sauvage to me than Declaration, but I suppose I'd
need to try both on subsequent days to test.
An excellent summer fragrance! I think I need a bottle...
---------------
Second test wearing (on an incredibly hot day); Yep, this is the stuff I want
for days like this. This one now goes into my "want" list.
⁝
Yet another blah, way overpriced Bond No. 9 scent. This one is woody, but
is not very interesting. On me it's rather timid.
Much better to my nose is the woody incense of Tom Ford Sahara Noir or Le
Labo's Chant de Bois.
Not a supporter of same sex marriage so... not a fan of the concept, either.
⁝
It doesn't smell fresh, spicy, floral, interesting, intriguing, original or
even natural. It smells like a hodge-podge of synthetic notes which I suppose
*could* be an apple, or mint or lavender if one exercised a suspension of
disbelief. But to me it's just a jumble of unidentifiable smelly things.
It's just sort of generic and BLAH.
It could work for a very young man, I suppose; the ad video suggests that. A
young man who is handsome enough or wealthy enough not to need to smell
especially interesting.
⁝
I was going to wear this for a day via a sample, but I got suspicious and
sprayed some on the back of my hand first. Good thing! This is a loathsome and
gagging medicinal rose scent; it would have been a very long day if I had to
smell this on myself for eight hours or more.
Simply put, it is the worst rose scent I have ever smelled. Way too floral, way
too sickening. People write that some fragrances give them headaches... that
has never happened to me, but if it could, this is probably the one to do it.
Awful.
⁝
A very timid fragrance... on me it's almost not there. It's mildly
suggestive of a summer oceanside, but, sorry, it really doesn't make much of an
impression.
Much more bang for the buck with the same sort of vibe can be gained with one
of Guerlain's superlative L'Homme mojito fragrances. This is summer done right!
This reminds people of Creed's Silver Mountain Water - I suppose I agree. I
thought that was a nebbish, indifferent fragrance as well.
⁝
This is one of the better Bond No. 9 scents I've tried; on me it's
primarily a wood scent. It's not the clean pine plank note of Tom Ford Sahara
Noir nor is it the strongly woodsy note of Le Labo's Chant de Bois - it's more
subtle than those two. I don't detect any gin, which is probably a good thing
because in the Tokyo milk gin scents it sours on my skin. I also don't detect
any grapefruit - once again, probably a good thing. The only respectably real
grapefruit scent I've ever smelled is Hermes' Eau de Pamplemouse Rose. The
others just smell badly synthetic and common to me.
Unfortunately it's not so good with longevity. It turns into a skin scent
rather quickly, and then is apparent only on cotton after a couple of hours -
which causes me to question the value of this rather expensive fragrance.
The bottle is... interesting. If you like grafitti.
My Dad was from Brooklyn. I suppose, were he alive, he'd wear this simply
because of that fact.
⁝
Somewhat suspicious of this house, I tried this on my wrist before spraying
the sample all over myself and having to live with it a for a day. I'm very
glad I did! That generic clean fresh note smells just like a dozen other
fragrances I have tried. There is nothing interesting or unique in this at all.
Boring. I'm giving my sample away.
⁝
The girl at Sephora assured me that this is a unisex scent when she made up
the sample. It isn't, not at all.
It's a white flower scent - and a mediocre one at that. There are any number of
better white flower/tuberose fragrances: Chanel #5, Alien, and Amarige spring
to mind... this is way too flowery for my use. By the way, as other reviewers
have pointed out, there is no discernable green notes in this green bottle.
Fortunately, longevity and sillage aren't all that great, so I didn't have to
live with this for long.
I must confess a certain degree of bias against this perfume house and its
politically correct, sloganized concept fragrances. How come no "I (Heart)
High Taxes" or "I (Heart) the Nanny State?"
⁝
Spraying this on myself I was immediately taken back to an impression of
the flowery powders (Here's My Heart? Topaze? I forget.) my mother used to buy
from Avon when I was a small child. At the risk of insult to describe exactly
what I mean, this therefore smells old-ladyish to me. I can see how others
might describe this as "elegant" on a gentleman, but this just isn't
for me at all. Too fussy.
Another problem: Unlike all other fragrances I have sprayed on myself after
shaving, this one burned my neck. There is apparently something in here that my
skin has a mild reaction to.
If I have to wear something powdery I much prefer Royal Copenhagen Cologne.
⁝
I like this one! The nutmeat note isn't as obnoxious as Parfumerie
Generale's Praline de Santal, it's subdued and pleasant, and the rest of the
gourmand mix makes for a nice drydown. (I think I get somewhat more leather
than chocolate, however. I just barely smell the coffee notes.)
Given that, at first, I didn't care for gourmands I've obviously come a long
way in liking this one. It's persuasive.
The bottle is pleasant to hold, too.
⁝
Eucalyptus? Really? I'm from Southern California and I used to play among
eucalyptus trees and leaves all the time when I was a kid. I know very well
what they smell like, and I detected none in this. On me this was a very subtle,
mild incense note and that's about it. It's barely there, it doesn't project
and it doesn't last long.
I was really underwhelmed.
⁝
I got a sample of this and it stood out for two reasons: 1.) It's made in
Ireland, and 2.) It's sold in Hallmark stores in the U.S.
It's... nice. Yes, it is evocative of the breezy, salty sea. This supposedly
has oakmoss in it, but, nahhh. I don't detect that at all. For me it is a
linear sea smell.
But of all the oceanics/aquatics I've tried, I still like Outremer's
French-made "Oceane" best, which is available (in the U.S.) in
Anthopologie stores for a pittance. ($18 large bottle, $10 small bottle.)
Oceane also wins the sillage and longevity award.
NOTE: It has now been about four hours since I applied this, and the basenote
on my cotton tee shirt has turned decidedly nasty. Oceane doesn't do that. I am
changing this from "like" to "dislike."
⁝
I like it - the top notes are very fresh, citrusy and nice - but the
basenotes just don't last. This scent is gone in about an hour, even on cotton.
(And I'm not playing that Creed Aventus "If you can't smell it it must be
olfactory fatigue" game.)
If it comes to a summery, beach-invoking boozy scent, I am far more impressed
with Guerlain l'Homme, Guerlain l'Homme Intense and Guerlain l'Homme l'Eau
Boisee. Those mojito scents have the same summery, beachy vibes and last far
longer.
The cost differential gives the win to Guerlain.
⁝
Extreme? Really? This reminds me of Inigo Montoya's celebrated quote in
"The Princess Bride": "You keep using that word. I do not think
it means what you think it means."
The original Tom Ford for Men was promising, but ridiculously faint and timid.
One would suppose that for an "extreme" flanker Ford organized a
focus group or two, learned that his original stuff evaporated to nothingness
in an hour or so and decided that a stronger juice would be a marketable idea.
Hence, "extreme."
But no. As is stated elswhere here by other reviewers, this stuff is also timid
and has little longevity and no sillage.
A pity.
It reminds me of one of those Gucci scents, faintly leathery. It's nice - but
it really doesn't justify its cost - or the word "extreme."
⁝
While at JR, the big discount place alongside I-95 in North Carolina, I
smelled this on a paper strip for the first time.
I have been avoiding the Copenhagen line for no good reason, really. I have it
in my head that they probably smell badly dated and are fit only for older men
who have gone to seed, or do not possess the mental dexterity to try something
else after a few decades of dedicated use. (You know, you've seen old men
wearing vinyl shoes. Those guys.) And, besides, this stuff is blue. Experience
teaches me again and again that I don't like scents for men which are blue.
And doesn't the Royal Copenhagen line have a rather bad reputation among
perfumistos and perfumistas?
But, hey. It's... kind of nice. Very soft, very powdery. I suppose merely
spraying a liquid baby powder on myself is not advisable, but... I need to give
this a better try.
---------------
Tried on wrist: Wow - liquid vanilla baby powder! I like this, but I'd probably
never wear it. It smells too much like baby powder. It's in the same category
as the cuddly Hermes Equipage, the soft Hermes Narcisse Bleu and Avon Wild
Country, which smells not wild but like baby wipes.
⁝
I'm greatly impressed with the Guerlain Homme and Guerlain Homme Intense
versions, so it stands to reason I like this as well. It's the same
mint-lime-rum mix as the other two but with a bit more vetiver notes, which
means it's greener and somewhat more pungently woody on the top. Quite nice! I
got my bottle in the winter, and it's great now - but I'm sure this will really
shine as a summer/hot weather scent.
A Guerlain masterpiece!
Come to think about it - have I encountered a Guerlain that I haven't liked? I
don't think so...
⁝
Pfew, scrubber!
In the past decades I have gotten good at being able to judge whether or not
I'd like a film just by the cast, plot, advertising, etc. I'm beginning to
attain that ability with fragrances. I put off trying Nautica scents because I
suspected I wouldn't like them. I couldn't be more accurate with this one! On
me it smells pissy and cheap. (My daughter agrees: cheap.)
I can't imagine any man that this would smell good on.
And the usual law applies: Because I hate it, longevity seems to be excellent.
⁝
Nothing to become maniacal about, but not bad. It doesn't strike me as
being especially unique or individual, and went on smelling somewhat mass
market and uninteresting. The key is in the drydown, when it eventually arrives
at a nice, understated woodsy note. At least it does on my skin.
This is one of those countless "safe for office" scents which I
normally scorn. But on me it smells calculatedly pleasant, like one of those
Jack Black "Mark" scents.
I wouldn't run out and buy a bottle, but I wouldn't spurn one, either.
No sillage to speak of, longevity is a few hours.
⁝
This is an odd one; I sprayed it on my wrist but had a difficult time
detecting it from my skin. It almost seems like it replicates my skin to some
extent. There seemed to be no real scent here, other than a somewhat shabby and
faded patchouli of some variety.
Whatever it costs, it's not worth it to me. It just doesn't stand out as a
separate fragrance from my skin - as odd as that sounds.
I didn't detect any strong citrus notes.
-----------------
Worn for a day: My initial impression was correct. This is yet another one of
those Bvlgari scents that pretty much just isn't there. It's too timid to make
much of an impression on me. On spraying I can detect the faintest of citrus
notes, then it pretty much just disappears until the long term scent arrives,
which is a rather blah aquatic - and that only on cotton, not skin.
So... I say no to Bvlgari's copper hockey puck.
⁝
A delightful scent that is a perfect olfactory impression of oranges. I
don't know if these are, in fact, oranges from Capri, but they don't smell like
oranges from Florida, so I'm buying the whole Italian pitch. This stuff is
great!
Sadly, like 90% of all the fragrances I try these days (and almost 100% of the
citrus-based ones) it lasts a hour or two then, pow, it's gone, like the clutch
on a Fiat.
Caramel basenotes? No... I don't get any caramel basenotes.
⁝
This is a subtle orange scent. It doesn't knock you off your feet with the
full force and weight of a sunny orange grove like Acqua di Parma Blu
Mediterraneo Arancia di Capri, and it doesn't linger as a note like Terre
d'Hermes. It also doesn't have an ambery orange haze like a Varvatos fragrance.
On me this juice is about half orange and half cedar - and sadly, timid and
faint. It seems to disappear quickly on my skin and remains as an elusive note
on cotton.
So... I like it. But if I'm in the mood for orange-cedar I'd select the Terre
d'Hermes variation, which is apparently strengthened by vetiver. (It's worth
noting that, like this, TdH also has a cedar note - the Iso E Super.)
My wife, when queried, made a "Meh" face after leaning over for a
sniff.
⁝
I don't drink, so I don't know what a Mojhito is or what it tastes like,
but I know that I greatly like this fragrance! It is a delightfully fresh
citrus and mint scent that smells very good on me, indeed. It's a nice break
away from the heavy leathers and animalics I normally favor. An excellent warm
weather fragrance that also works in cold weather. (I am testing it on a very
cold day, indeed.)
I also like the Intense flanker, but I'm not sure which I like better. I'd have
to smell them side by side. But Guerlain does it once again. This stuff is
heavenly. I want a bottle!
Note: I detect nothing animalic or peppery in it at all. For me it is a bright
citrus-mint-vetiver scent.
⁝
At first I detected really nice woodsy notes that became
smoky/leathery/piney - very pleasant! Promising! However, this phase lasted for
all of about a half hour, then it got faint. I'm writing just over an hour
after I sprayed it on, and I can barely smell it on my shirt. This stuff
doesn't even last on fabric, let alone skin.
Bottega Veneta: I barely knew ye!
As another reviewer wrote, this has tragically bad projection and longevity.
It's yet another timid fragrance in a market saturated with fragrances that
don't project and don't last. Punch up the concentration a bit and maybe we'll
have something to work with...
⁝
I find this blah and forgettable. It goes on smelling vaguely
spicy/gourmandy and just sort of barely exists, leaving not much of an
impression. Timid, unimpressive and overpriced. Is it "safe for
work?" Yes. Very much so. In fact, corporations could issue it to
employees.
And come on... the juice color... an albino noir?
⁝
I read this mostly as a patchouli scent with a little oakmoss. Longevity
is, indeed, poor. I suspect this will be a much more successful scent for the
spring or summer than in the dead of winter.
It's kind of blah; it doesn't really stand out from the crowd.
It was a blind buy - in fact, a Christmas present. I won't do a blind buy ever
again, so this was probably worth the money.
I "like" it - but just barely.
---------
I traded this and some Halston 1-12 I didn't like for some vintage Antaeus.
MUCH better. No more blind buys!
⁝
From 2013:
Hey, the Seventies called: they want their aromatic fougeres back!
This stuff, in addition to having a pretentious name, is badly dated. Think
disco. Yes, it smells like Drakkar Noir. (But I actually like current
formulation Drakkar.)
In a word, this is obnoxious. Up to this point I thought that, being a 57 year
old guy, I'd like just about any fragrance for men from my youth. Wrong.
When I was more or less freshly sprayed and walking around like Pepe LePew this
morning, a guy plunked himself down in the seat next to me on the Metro. I
wanted to turn to him and say, "Do you want to reconsider? You'll be
sorry."
-----------
Fast forward to 2020. In "Perfumes - The Guide (2018)" Luca Turin
writes, "...still unsurpassed in my experience as the worst-ever
masculine." Hahahaha!
⁝
Smelled on a paper strip: Nice, but somewhat indifferent. It didn't make
much of an impression on me. My take on what I've smelled from these newer Tom
Ford scents in the smoky bottles is that Tobacco Oud is the star, but I need to
wear a sample of this for a day.
----------
Update
I'm not sure I get this one at all. It's just kind of... BLAH. It doesn't smell
woody to my nose as much as it smells faintly of tobacco notes. It doesn't seem
to evolve much, either - it seems quite linear. One reviewer detected a sort of
coconut oil... I'm almost getting that, but this really doesn't smell like
anything I'm familiar with. As for an oud scent, okay, this smells like a first
or second cousin to a bottle of oud attar I once smelled, but, once again, it
doesn't strike me as remarkable in any way.
This is not one of the stars of the Tom Ford line up as far as I'm concerned. I
like Tobacco Vanille, Oud Tobacco, Tuscan Leather and Italian Cypress best.
Oud Wood seems to have little sillage on me and longevity is disappointing.
⁝
Smelled on a paper strip: My first take was that, 1.) Tom Ford seems to do
tobacco scents well (Tobacco Vanille is great), and 2.) He managed to avoid the
nasty medicinal note that oud scents sometimes have. I need to wear a sample of
this for a day.
------
Update wearing sample:
Mmmmmmmmm. In attempting to figure out what fragrances I like I've developed
what I call my "Mmmmmm Test." It is simply this: Spray on. Wait.
Smell skin and shirt. If you spontaneously go "Mmmmmmm" you have a
winner. If you do not, try again.
I got my Tom Ford Tobacco Oud sample from - where else? - Nordstrom. It was
Mmmmmmm at first sniff. This is a wonderfully evocative tobacco scent, more
suggestive of a cigar than pipe tobacco, I think. It is fairly strong and linear.
If there is a change over time it is that the tobacco notes fade a bit and the
oud becomes apparent.
But I'll be honest: I write this not knowing precisely what oud smells like! As
I have smelled it in many fragrances it varies to the point to almost unrecognizability.
But I will say this: the oud in this Tom Ford scent is not the nasty cough
medicine note that it is in vintage M7. (Thank goodness.) And it's also not the
rotting wood note found in oud attar.
No, what we get here is something that reminds me of my favorite tobacco scent,
the now sadly discontinued Monotheme Tabaco Latino (not on the fragrantica
database). A deep and sweet cigar note. Very nice. I don't know to what extent
the (almost certainly synthetic) oud influences the overall presentation - but
this is great stuff.
And - sigh - as usual with Tom Ford fragrances, it's overpriced. What I'd
rather do is find an old bottle of Tabaco Latino. Anybody got some they hate
and simply cannot abide having on their bathroom shelf?
-----
Update: I found a bottle of Monotheme (Mavive) Tabaco Latino for sale on amazon
and got a bottle. TOBACCO HEAVEN. This is the stuff! Beats Aramis Havane,
Mugler Pure Havane, Tabac, the two Tom Ford scents listed above and CK Shock.
-------
Update: I sprayed some of this on my arm and it was coming at me for the next
couple of hours. Strong and loud tobacco. I like this less than the first time
I tried it. Not sure I could live with it
-------
Another sample wearing: I love this one, and now I fully appreciate the whiskey
notes, but do I need it? I've decided: No. It doesn't do any tobacco things for
me that Tabaco Latino doesn't do.
⁝
Like Guerlain Heritage, this is one of the great sandalwood scents. Very
woody and yet... it's also delicious, like a gourmand. I get a nutmeatty,
praline note from it. Very, very nice.
Longevity on me isn't bad - about four hours. Not much sillage. And I don't
smell roses, either. But perhaps they're in there playing an invisible part. A
success!
⁝
I've smelled some faint and timid scents before, but this one takes first
prize! My wife could barely smell anything and neither could I. It barely has a
scent.
Essentially - this is perfumer's alcohol. That's it.
Okay, perfume industry: are you done atoning for the 70's and 80's yet? Can we
go back to fragrances which actually have some smell, longevity and sillage
again?
⁝
This is not a bad scent, but compared to Guerlain's Vetiver (1959), it's a
disappointment. It just doesn't have that zingy vetiver pungent brightness. In
fact, on me it smells more like a vanilla scent or a gourmand than it does
anything green.
I am increasingly finding out that Luca Turin is correct: Guerlain's is the
reference vetiver.
⁝
When I was a kid I remember lime scents for men smelled wonderful; they
smelled like you had just sliced one open. This does not. It smells more like a
gently limed soap, or even a bit like key lime pie. In other words, there's
something getting in the way of the citric freshness. There's no slap.
Longevity is not good - on my skin it's gone in under an hour. (Not unlike the
bottle of Royall Bay Rhum I once had.) And silage on me is non-existent.
So... no.
⁝
Is there leather in this? Not that I can smell. In fact, I'm having a
difficult time picking out any real notes in this. It's just sort of
generically "masculine." Kind of ambery. Boring. Projection is poor,
and as for longevity, it becomes weak pretty quickly.
"This rebellious scent..." Haw! Hahahahaha!
⁝
It goes on smelling sweet like a cake, which is kind of nice. Then, after
about twenty minutes, there's a period when it begins to sour a bit on my skin,
then mellows out acceptably. All this in about an hour. Poor longevity, no
sillage. Another one of those modern frags that has me wondering, "What's
the point?"
Green is my favorite color so I must admit to liking the bottle and the simple
typeface!
⁝
All I get out of this is a very subtle mint of no sillage and poor
longevity. (It's almost entirely gone from my arm in about a half hour.) This
stuff is okay, I suppose, but I might just as well spill some mouthwash on
myself and let it dry. So... dislike because, what's the point?
⁝
It starts out nice, with a mildly leather note that reminded me of some
Gucci scents. Masculine and deep.
Then, after about an hour, that miserable apple note takes over. At least I
*think* it's an apple note, or, probably more accurately, the aroma molecule
that's intended to be an apple note. But to me it smells synthetic and
unnatural. I've smelled it before in too many other scents and I just don't
like it. So that ruins this fragrance for me.
⁝
Earlier this year I hated A-Men. Then it grew on me, and I got to like it.
So I wasn't sure what I'd get from this. I see it talked about a lot on the
fragrantica forum - almost always in a good sense - so I gave it a try.
I like it! Love it, even! Actually, I think I prefer it to A-Men. Yes... it's
malty/woody with a bit of the A-Men caramel base. (Or am I just imagining this,
since it isn't listed as a note?) It's an unusual scent, but a good one. I
don't get any pronounced fruit notes, which is all to the good since I don't
care for fruity scents.
I think I shall get a bottle someday!
-----
Update: I got a bottle of this for Christmas! It's wonderful... a lovely
boozy/woody/peaty/caramel fragrance. My favorite gourmand scent by far! What's
more, everyone I've asked likes it on me.
Longevity is about average for scents these days: a few hours. This is this
scent's biggest drawback.
⁝
Is this the Tuscan Leather beater/alternative? Well... perhaps. As the
numerical scores on the user-perceived notes suggest, this could be considered
a berry-leather scent while Tuscan Leather is a leather-berry scent. Charles
Street is sweeter. It goes on with an interesting, boozy, berry liqueur note
that lasts for only a few moments - very interesting. And I like the subtle
coffee note.
A winner!
But. Truth to tell? I prefer Tuscan Leather.
⁝
It's claimed to be for women but is really unisex, I think. It's meant to
invoke the smells of the circus: hay, candy apple, caramel. Does it? I have no
idea; I've never been to a circus. It's sweet and very odd, I'll give it that.
The notes are hard to place. Is that a sweet leather I'm getting? Or a slightly
woody caramel? I like it - but probably not enough to buy it.
⁝
I told luckyscents that I was interested in a fragrance that suggested a campfire,
and they told me about this one. So I bought a sample. Yep - campfire it is!
Smoke and wood. Since I love the smell of a campfire I quite like this one.
I see one of the basenotes is described as incense, and to my nose it smells
like the same clean wood/pine plank smell I detect in Tom Ford Sahara Noir and
Tauer 02 L'Air du desert Marocain. (To Catholics it smells like Mass, to me it
smells like pine plank.) This fragrance goes on very smoky but after about an
hour the main note is this one.
I barely detect a tobacco scent and for me there is no whiskey note.
My wife hates it, and gives it the same verdict she gives to the smoky notes in
Encre Noire: "Dirty ashtrays at Grandma and Tony's!"
⁝
It's amazing how a perfumer of talent can take the usual suspects -
bergamot, amber, cinnamon, pepper, lavender, cloves - and create something that
stands head and shoulders above the usual crowd containing exactly the same
ingredients!
Simply put, this is one of the best, if not THE best, spicy men's fragrances I
have ever smelled. Wonderful.
Yes, it is somewhat reminiscent of Creed Bois du Portugal and, yes, some of the
notes are like the ones in Chanel Pour Monsieur Concentree (which I wear and
love). And yes, this can be considered an upmarket Old Spice. But so what? I
love it!
UPDATE: I bought a bottle. This stuff is wonderful. I can see why Luca Turin
wore it for ten years.
⁝
My search for the perfect leather fragrance continues with a wearing of the
very well-regarded Knize Ten. I like how it says "Toilet Water" on
the label.
I'm not sure I like it. I certainly don't understand it! The reviewers who
don't like it claim this has a public washroom and oily leather jacket vibe,
and I get that. That is to say that there's some institutional cleaner notes in
here which suggest a public washroom. There is a mildly skanky note to this
stuff that's throwing the whole fragrance off for me.
OR, conversely, it can also smell vintagey, old school and and elegant.
This was reportedly worn by James Dean and David Niven - which captures the
dichotomy of this fragrance nicely.
It doesn't pass my Mmmmm test. (That is, after a while putting my nose to where
I sprayed it and going Mmmmm.) So I won't be buying a bottle.
-----------
Well, on a visit to the Scent Bar in Los Angeles I did buy a small bottle. But
with it on my hand and repeatedly sniffing, I realized that I couldn't live
with this stuff and returned it for a Shay and Blue leather scent. So my
experimentation with this famous scent is over. No. Done. I don't like it at
all.
⁝
It smells too much like the pine trees people hang from their rear-view
windows, or the stuff in the can you spray on artificial Christmas trees. It's
kind of crass. Needs more oakmoss or herbs, maybe. A little less literal
representation, a little more art is what's called for.
Pino Silvestre does a much better job with the pine idea; so does Tom Ford
Italian Cypress and D&G Anthology L'Amoureux #6.
Still, it doesn't jam a pine tree up your nostrils like Slumberhouse Norne, so
that's something.
⁝
I'd be able to tell the difference between this and the regular classic
Colonia if I were to smell them side by side, but my memory of them is that
they are similar. Both are wonderful citrus colognes in the grand old fashion.
This is quite nice.
Perhaps there is a more prominent rose note in this than usual.
As was noted elsewhere, this one seems to last like an EdT, at least on
clothing.
⁝
I've seen this recommended so often on this page's forum that I had to
smell it.
It's... softly ambery. That's all I read. I need to try it again to really
appreciate and understand it.
Longevity on my skin is mediocre.
I really like the bottle!
Bvlgari Black?!? Really? I don't get that at all. BB smells like rubber, then
nothing. This is much better than that!
---------
Okay, I tried another shot on my arm. It's vaguely gourmandy; I must be getting
the Tonka bean note. I don't smell much leather in this one, and it smells
somewhat citrusy/bright. This one is hard to figure!
⁝
I got a vintage bottle of this (marked cologne - made in the US) at a yard
sale. It goes on smelling like Lemon Pledge, strident and nasty. My wife thinks
it smells like Scrubbing Bubbles. The basenotes are mainly okay, but there are
some clunkers in there.
In preparation for a day's wearing I put some on my wrist. No - I do not think
I can endure this on myself all day.
It has a skunky, sour off-note that reminds me of Paul Sebastian Fine Cologne
(YUCK) or a sweaty old man. I rarely use this term because I like most old
scents, but this stuff smells dated.
"Swept floor": Hahaha! Yes, it smells like that as well.
I'm glad I only paid 75 cents for the bottle!
UPDATE: I gave it away.
⁝
What a disappointment this was! After seeing it continually suggested in
the "Club" postings I was hoping for something good. What I got
instead on my arm was an initial blast of interesting mildly skanky notes,
followed by a drydown of some nasty, overused synthetic chemical smell. This is
an oud scent? Nahhhh.
The whole thing disappeared within an hour.
It has been discontinued in the Juicy stores in the U.S. No big loss.
⁝
A perfectly-conceived and executed product turned into a joke.
Encre Noire is not about "sport." It's like Porsche coming out with
an SUV (which, by the way, I call the Porsche Bandwagon): "Let's jump on
this trend, whether it fits the product's concept or not!"
Bad idea, Lalique.
--------
I suppose I'll smell it when it comes out, but it's not something I'm looking
forward to. I am indifferent to this bit of marketing.
⁝
The shock for me was that I liked this! I had low expectations - Calvin
Klein scents are generally not favorites - and the spray paint graffiti on the
bottle didn't suggest a quality mix, but, as is sometimes the case, the juice
triumphs over the marketing.
This is nothing more nor less than a decent tobacco/gourmand scent. You can get
a 100 ml bottle at a Ross for $25.
-------
I bought a bottle. My wife isn't a fan, but I like it. At first it's very
gourmandy, then it turns into a pretty good tobacco scent. Once again, a
surprise considering the bottle and how it's marketed.
Longevity is not especially good - at about the two hour point this stuff
starts disappearing - even on a cotton tee shirt. As always, one gets what one
pays for.
⁝
One of the most timid fragrances I have tried so far; it barely registers
on me at all - and that's with spraying a healthy amount on cotton! It seems to
be taking the industry's current passion for faint scents to a new extreme.
Perhaps it's just as well... if they cranked up the concentration level it
would smell undistinguished and conventional. It smells like a leather jacket
and perhaps some lavender from about a mile away, caught on the briefest of
breezes.
Don't bother. If you have to have a Gucci scent, get the inifinitely better
Pour Homme II.
⁝
Citrus and a bit of cedar wood... It's not bad, but it's not especially
good, either. An indifferent scent; not distinctive at all. I think it's really
designed for a younger guy.
Problem: After some hours that overly-familiar and nastily synthetic smelling
citrus aroma molecule comes to the fore - bleah. That ruins it for me.
⁝
Bandit is a well-known women's perfume that celebrated perfume reviewer
Luca Turin claims is butch enough for a man to wear. And it is. It's a mossy,
dirty chypre... it's okay. I like it. However, I find it rather soft despite
its well-known skankiness.
I prefer Estee Lauder Azuree Pure, which people claim Bandit reminds them of.
That's the one for me, I think.
Aramis? People think this reminds them of Aramis? I don't see that at all!
Note: My favorite leather scent is Tom Ford Tuscan Leather - but in cold
weather Elsha works very well, too.
I wish I could get my florals-only wife to wear this...
----------
Tried it again on a paper strip. This stuff is the Oakmoss Queen! I'm liking it
more and more.
⁝
This isn't the worse scrubber I've ever tried (that would be Paul Sebastian
Fine Cologne) but it's not far from it.
Holy Mackerel! On me it opens with an intense cat pee/bitter pungency and dries
with an overbearing jasmine soapiness. I could only take so much of it before I
ran into the bathroom and scrubbed my arm down with soap and water.
Wow. Haven't had that kind of response in a while!
⁝
Smelled good going on but after about twenty minutes it began to take on a
pissy, acrid, sour note on my arm.
Surprise! After a few hours everything sort of modulated and that edge went
away and it smelled good. But, no, I can't deal with that middle section.
I don't care for this, and it reinforces my opinion that most "sport"
scents aren't for me.
⁝
At first I thought this was mainly a tobacco scent, but, yes, I can detect
the black tea in it now. A nice mix of both. The best Gucci fragrance for me -
I like this stuff.
Also, in addition to Outremer Oceane, one of my favorite blue-colored
fragrances. (Those tend to be clean/fresh/sporty/acquatic, which I don't care
for.)
Sits close to the skin on me, like 95% of the stuff I try.
The bottle has a very nice heft - feels solid. Good work, there!
My wife did a prolonged Mmmmmmm when she smelled it on me. She doesn't do that
very often. Maybe I should get a bottle of this, huh?
---------
Second wearing: I like this stuff even more. For a recent scent, it's unusual.
Not the same old thing at all. Lasts on my skin, too - a notable feat for a
newer fragrance.
⁝
I like the way this one smells simultaneously like violets, (synthetic) oud
and incense without any one of the notes predominating with a sort of smoky
suggestion overall; a skilled blend! I'm also happy to note that the medicinal
note that synthetic oud can take on (YSL M7) is absent from this creation.
It's not quite my thing, but I like this one better than the Fahrenheit
original... Very pleasant and very wearable with good longevity.
⁝
Not bad, but not original at all. It starts out with citrus and becomes
woody, like a million other scents. Inoffensive, understated, safe for work.
But I think I'd rather wear one of the Jack Black "Mark" scents,
which seem to be the best of the inoffensive-understated-safe for work legion.
In terms of this being a vetiver scent, Guerlain Vetiver and Encre Noire are
light years better.
⁝
Nasty and cheap. It goes on promisingly enough, but after about twenty
minutes it dries down to a synthetic note I have smelled before in poorly
wrought scents that represents nothing in nature I am familiar with. The
basenotes are mildly sour, mildewy and awful; it smells like I've splashed some
kind of - I don't know - commercial fabric cleaner on myself.
⁝
Not very impressive. It's an overly subtle and undistinguished woody/spicy
thing. I can smell it every now and then during the day, but it's too common,
too little, too seldom.
Unobtrusive, inoffensive - boring.
And, a side note: I am now convinced that the term "noir" in
perfumery means nothing. It's a marketing gimmick.
Interesting bottle, however...
⁝
Calvin and I don't normally get along, but this one is well wrought and
suits me. It's spicy/dirty... there's a touch of Estee Lauder Azuree Pure in
this one. At first I thought it was a bit oakmossy or animalic, but, no, it's
something else. What am I smelling? The musk or patchouli? I don't know... but
I like it. It has an austere, understated vibe. It smells mature but not old,
vintage but not dated.
A good fragrance... but the only thing that keeps me from loving it instead of
merely liking it is that it turns mildly soapy after an hour or so.
⁝
A warm ambery scent my wife likes but, alas, I do not. It reminds me too
much of John Varvatos Platinum, a sample of which got on my nerves during the
day. This will, too.
--------
Second wearing: This is probably the highest quality amber scent I have ever
smelled - and now I get the white chocolate notes... very nice.
But... no. I just can't accommodate myself to amber scents, even good ones. I'd
probably love them on other people, but I don't enjoy smelling it on myself.
⁝
I don't care for this. It smells too much like too many other scents.
Generically woody, generically sweet apple, generically spicy. I'm really not
smelling any artfulness, here.
However, that being said I suspect this might make a suitable starter scent for
a very young man...
My son-in-law has a bottle of this. I bet it works for him a lot better than it
would for me!
⁝
The first time I tried this I couldn't smell much. As it's not in a spray
bottle I simply wasn't getting enough on myself to judge. So I revisited.
Essentially, it's pine sawdust with, if I'm not mistaken, some Iso E Super
(with its very mild cedar note that can also be interpreted as warm skin in
flannel). As is noted elsewhere on the web, it mildly resembles Terre d'Hermes.
It might be a cross of Tom Ford Sahara Noir (pine) and Terre d'Hermes (cedar).
It doesn't project much...
It's not bad - but it's not exceptional, either.
⁝
A wonderful, deeply aromatic scent - the oud puts it over the top and lends
a woody, ever so slightly medicinal (but medicinal in a good way) note. But I'm
not sure whether I like this more as a leather scent or as an oud scent - it's
both at the same time. A skilful mix and one of the best oud scents I've ever
tried.
Yes, it reminds me of Tuscan Leather.
⁝
Now THIS is a good musk! I well remember the musk-mania of the 1970's - a
female friend of mine used to wear it heavily - and I always thought it smelled
great. But for some reason I haven't smelled anything as good since until I
smelled this stuff on paper.
I need to get a sample for a test wearing for a day. I don't have any musks in
my collection of fragrances; I think this will be the one.
Worn on my wrist: Initial opinion confirmed - this is a great musk! Good
longevity - and is only forty some odd bucks for a bottle.
Update: I got a sample to wear and it's as good as I thought it would be. A
very pleasant, animalic-but-civilized musk. Nobody will think you've just
tramped in from a week with the animals with this. The best on the market. The
only downside is that my wife smells it and thinks it's soapy, or like an
ingredient in a detergent. (They put musks in detergents sometimes, don't
they?)
Sillage on me is that it's a skin scent, like just about everything else I've
tried.
⁝
That opening was pretty fierce, but I didn't get citrus out of it. I was
mentally taken back to when I worked maintenance jobs at Lockheed Aircraft.
This smelled like some kind of solvent I used to use. (Methyl ethyl ketone,
perhaps.)
Then it turns into a strong, hideous, sickening floral... by then I realized
that I'd had enough.
Scrubber.
This stuff is expensive? Hm. I have learned that the worst fragrances aren't
the cheapest ones and the best fragrances aren't the most expensive ones.
⁝
What's not to like? It's a refreshing citrus scent that lasts for more than
an hour. Very nice - especially on hot days.
Weird bottle and ad campaign, however. C'mon, Armani, what's so dramatic about
a citrus scent?
(What's not to like? I just answered my own question when I saw what they're
asking for it. Overpriced!)
⁝
It's okay. Mildly cedar/woodsy. Obviously, it didn't make much of an
impression on me.
Second wearing: Okay, I now like this stuff. It's a clean wood smell somewhere
between pine boards and pencil shavings. It's not quite like opening a cedar
chest or box, but it's not far from it. It's casual, wearable and pleasant. One
of the better woody scents I've tried.
Third wearing: I guess I need to get down to an Anthropologie and get a bottle
- assuming it's still available...
⁝
I see that nobody else yet has drawn the comparison, but I will: this
smells very much like Tom Ford's Sahara Noir. (That is, Sahara Noir smells like
this since this is the earlier launch.)
It's got the very same incense note that reminds Catholics of mass but makes me
think of nothing so much as a clean, dry pine plank. (I'm not Catholic so I
don't get the reference.) For me this is very woody. Actually, it takes me
right back to junior high wood shop class.
My nose doesn't detect much difference between the two scents... I suppose if I
had them sprayed side by side on paper strips it would be a different matter.
That being said - I like this!
⁝
An odd and somewhat disconcerting scent. On me it is mostly all nutmeat -
far more praline than santal. (Will I be pursued by squirrels?) Any woody notes
are very subtle. It represents a interesting change of pace for the gourmand
scent lover, but since I am not one of those, this isn't for me.
Still, as I've tried a sequence of boring, unoriginal scents recently, I have
to give the house credit for originality!
⁝
NICE. My favorite Tokyo Milk thus far. I like the engagingly woody scent,
the skull and crossbones on the back of the bottle and the modest price.
Successful all around!
Well...not quite. Longevity isn't great.
(Like Bvlgari Black? Rubbery? Never! Isn't it funny how we all read scents
differently?)
⁝
Very mildly coconut or woody. It's hard to tell because this is so timid.
It's boring, has no longevity at all (it's gone on me within an hour) and no
sillage. To quote Luca Turin about another fragrance, about the most you can
say for this is that it has a smell.
Why are there so many of these glutting up the market?
⁝
My favorite of the Burberrys I have tried thus far.
This is primarily a tobacco scent, but one could be forgiven for also detecting
it as a woody scent - for me the woody notes make somewhat more of an
impression than the tobacco notes.
This reminds me of Tom Ford's Sahara Noir, which has a nice pine plank/cut
wood/sawdust note to it. (Others think it smells like the incense used in a
Catholic mass.)
A nice scent! Sadly, longevity is bad. On me it's gone in a couple of hours; I
can just barely smell it on my cotton tee shirt after then. Sillage is pretty
low, too.
A note about that distinctive Burberry plaid or tartan used to cover this
bottle: at a Trademark Expo in Alexandria, VA, where the Patent and Trademark
Office is located, I once chatted with a Burberry representative. She said that
the company calls it a Burberry "cheque," and that they not only hold
a Trademark on it for the tan and black color scheme, but also for any other
colors used in that particular pattern. So perhaps someday you may see a
Burberry Green, Red or Pink flanker.
⁝
At last! A Bvlgari scent I like! I knew there had to be one.
This one smells like an Hermes, which is hardly surprising since it's one of
(Hermes head perfumer) Jean-Claude Ellena's characteristic light, transparent constructions.
I get the tea smell and I get the green notes... and it's also a wee bit floral
as well. A good, summery scent, quite nice.
--------
Second wearing: It's awfully light. Seems I have to use a lot to make it
"register."
⁝
A woody/clean fragrance that is like many other scents out there. I've
smelled this or something very like it before and didn't care for it then,
either. The usual thing with the usual sour basenotes.
The most remarkable aspect of this fragrance is the name - which I find to be a
mere marketing ploy.
⁝
I found this one in the men's store in my university's bookstore; it's the
only fragrance they sell! $20 a bottle! My friend's grandfather wore this so I
bought him a bottle. I'm told it's something of a favorite among a certain
class of men in Utah...
It's a nice, creamy leather scent - same as it always was, apparently. It
compares favorably, I think, with Chanel's Cuir de Russie (which I find too
floral) and Hermes' Bel Ami - that's how good this is. What's more, it lasts a
lot longer. It is absolutely not one of those reformulated into nothingness
scents. On my wrist I can spray it and seven hours later it's still there -
this is rare for me. It's built with good, old-fashioned longevity.
I agree with the reviewer who stated that Elsha 1776 decanted into an expensive
bottle with fancier labeling, etc. would make a great showing.
I have decanted some from the splash bottle into an atomizer - it goes on
better that way.
The only con: It gets unbearably soapy after a few hours in summer heat. So
this is definitely not a warm weather scent. Cold weather only - fall and
winter. Maybe sweat spoils it? I don't know. But it wears MUCH better when it's
cold.
---
Update: This is really a marvelous winter fragrance. (It's been an unusually
cold winter.) The more I use it, the happier I am with it. Longevity is old
school great, and in cold weather it smells just delightful.
⁝
It seems to be more or less the same orange and amber scent that forms the
base notes for the tenth anniversary edition, except without that nasty opening
blast. I do not detect much leather or cinnamon here, mostly amber. My wife
likes it more than I do. I think it's okay, if a tiny bit cloying.
It lasts! Good longevity. I've gotten 12+ hours on my tee shirt.
⁝
I'm not normally a fan of Calvin Klein scents; I also like CK One Shock,
but that's it. This one, however, is not bad! It's green - a synthetic green,
but, overall, a wearable scent with (on me, with my scent-eating skin) good
longevity. What's especially notable about it is that it's light and
transparent in the style of a Jean-Claude Ellena-designed Hermes scent.
This is really a warm weather fragrance. It seems to come alive when it's hot.
When it's cold, it just sort of - sullenly lurks.
My son wears it - fortunately for me he has two bottles and gave me one!
⁝
Aquatic - yes, it does indeed smell like the ocean. Nice, inexpensive.
Lasts longer than the Bath and Body Works ocean scent. I bought myself a little
bottle for the summer.
----
A later wearing: For what it claims to do, what it does and how little it
costs, it's probably the best fragrance made. As the title suggests, it is a
straight up ocean ("marine") scent. When I sprayed it on my chest
this morning it was a perfect olfactory representation of being slapped in the
chest by a cold wave. A total success. Made in France. You can get a small
bottle at an Anthropologie store for $10 U.S.; a larger one is $18.
---
Update: For me, this is primarily a warm weather fragrance. When it's warm it
invokes the ocean. When it's cold it smells indistinctly floral, not so much
oceanic.
⁝
Well, it's unique, I'll give it that!
Fruity, sweet gourmand. Major kitchen smell. It's complex, yes... and I'm not
sure I'm getting all the notes. But it's just too much food for me. If I wear a
gourmand (not a genre I really like) I want it more spare than this. I smell
like a fruit cake.
⁝
Strongly citrus, and it does indeed last better than Voyage EDT. I barely
get the spice note, and I don't smell cardamom at all. But this is a very nice
fragrance.
I do have a peeve about this, however... You have to pay more money to get a
Voyage citrus scent that lasts more than an hour or so? Why not simply make the
fragrance work at the EdT concentration?
It's kind of like buying a car with a two gallon gas tank. You have to pay more
for the model with the twelve gallon gas tank so you can actually go places.
⁝
What a disappointment this was!
I was prepared to like it based on my reading about it, but when I finally
tried it on my arm I was put off by how thoroughly feminine and flowery the top
notes are. It takes about a half hour for it to dry to the basenotes, which
remind me powerfully of Estee Lauder Azuree Pure. (Which is, by the way, $44 at
Macy's.)
Sadly, this is almost gone off my arm in about an hour - the same cannot be
said for the Lauder product, which lasts for hours and hours.
I'd wear the Estee Lauder product except that it smells just a little too
feminine. (My wife disagrees.) But it's way more butch than this is!
I suspect my desire for a quality leather fragrance will result in the purchase
of a bottle of Hermes Bel Ami.
⁝
I sprayed at bit of this on my arm at a Sears (!). I suspect that some
reviewers will claim it's a dated, old school scent - and I couldn't really
disagree. Problem is I don't remember what notes it had. As I recall it was a
woody/spicy.
I suspect that if you like and wear, say, Aramis, you might like this.
⁝
Wild, indeed, and very green. The minute I smelled this it reminded me very
strongly of a vacant lot in Los Angeles where me and my childhood friend Jimmy
used to play. The lot was full of weeds and grasses, and more often than not
we'd come home dirty smelling just like this.
That being said, I wouldn't want to wear it as a fragrance.
⁝
This has the very same citrus opening and what Luca Turin calls a
"hissy steam iron" aroma molecule and light white musk basenote in
common with Mugler Cologne. It reminds me very strongly of that successful
fragrance.
So - you can pay more for this (it was $140 retail where I saw it) or simply
get the Mugler Cologne for less than half the price.
⁝
I'm wondering if this is a bad batch issue, a tester bottle gone bad or
just a joke. (But the reviews preceding mine suggest that it isn't an isolated
bad tester.)
What I got was an unbelievably vile opening blast, very animalic. It's the
famous Guerlin Jicky vomit/fecal/cat urine note times twenty. "Off the
chart pungent" in the words of one reviewer, indeed. Then - nothing. Or
almost noting. A faint orange-amber note of no projection but good longevity
remains. I didn't mind it but my friend whom I tried it on tells me it has the
cat urine smell to him.
If that was the celebratory anniversary fragrance, I wonder what the party was
like. Happy anniversary!
⁝
The opening is a wonderfully accurate citrus smell; it was almost like I
split open a fruit upon my arm. A very convincing olfactory impression. Then it
just sort of turned into a fruity mess that did not mix well with my skin.
I don't care for fruity scents and this doesn't convert me.
Interesting bottle, though.
⁝
A rapidly evaporating citrus; I don't even get a half hour on my skin. I
like it but I haven't bought any because I wonder what the point is. When I
want to be refreshed I open a can of Diet Coke and lay under a ceiling fan -
I'm positive that works better than splashing my face with smelly water and
trying to psych myself out that I feel cooler.
----------
Bought a bottle anyway. It's not pricey at all and smells great for summer.
Besides - I need more summer scents. And I just like the idea of having
something formulated in 1792, okay?
⁝
First cousin to Avon Wild County, second cousin to Stetson.
A soft, powdery, barbershoppy vanilla scent. It doesn't last long at all and
stays close to the skin. It smells... cheap.
It's funny... thirty years ago or so I thought this stuff was desirable. How
far I've come. Well... at least you get the nice Art Deco label and bottle.
⁝
This smells more or less like you spilled a Starbucks product upon
yourself. In other words, it has a mild, creamy, coffee note. It's okay...
nice. It doesn't project much, however. The bottle is meant to excite the
imaginations of modern twentysomethings: it looks vaguely like an mp3 player.
Former boybander Justin Timberlake was selected as the face of the ad campaign;
be still my beating heart.
From the ad copy, about the bottle: "It is made of milky glass, with
cafalonium frame and rubber button to press." As near as I can tell from a
google search, cafalonium (if it exists at all) simply means
"plastic" and the button doesn't do anything.
Play!
⁝
A clinker-built Viking long boat pulls out of the fjord, bent for pillage
and conquest. NORNE!
Merciful HEAVENS, this stuff is strong! I've yet to classify a fragrance as
being "headache-inducing," but this comes close. I put less than a
drop on my wrist and that was driving me nuts. Scrub, scrub, scrub.
A tall blond man, his beard in braids, sharpens his battle-axe. NORNE!
It's unbearably coniferous and makes me think of institutional use compounds
rather than perfumery. It reminds me of some industrial grade pine-scented
degreaser I once had to work with when I was a maintenance worker at Lockheed.
My wife took one sniff and issued her verdict: "Vicks Vapo-Rub"
(picking up on the camphorous notes, obviously).
The monks scatter as the berserkers emerge from the ship, plug their guitars
into the amps and begin playing. It's loud, hate-filled and obnoxious. It's
NORNE!
Not safe for work, certainly not a safe blind buy and since this stuff is
greenish-black like the goo issuing from Woden's wounded eye, probably not safe
to be sprayed upon clothing, either.
NORNE!
Unless I was dressed as a pine tree for some Halloween party I'd never ever
wear it, but, actually, I have a use for Norne. Climb into the infrastructure
where the heating/air conditioning system is located at some concert hall just
before the orchestra plays a piece by Sibelius - preferably "Tapiola"
op. 112 - and dump a few milliliters onto the filters to invoke the
terrifyingly endless northwoods of Finland.
NORNE!
⁝
Nice, but not very interesting. For me it's a generic sort of
woodsy/spicy/green smell. "Safe for work" and, no, it won't offend
anyone.
It's better than the Bvlgari and Gucci generically woodsy/spicy fragrances I
have tried, I'll give it that. But I won't be running out to buy a bottle of
it.
Speaking of the bottle, what's with that clear plastic washer at the top? Odd.
⁝
I didn't think I'd like this and wasn't fast enough to halt the young woman
from putting it on a paper strip. I'm glad - it was a pleasant surprise. Yep,
it's a cherry blossom, and if I could render the smell as a color it would be
the very pale pink of the trees around the Tidal Basin in D.C. for an
all-too-short week or so every March or April.
A nice scent. More of a body spray than a formal perfume, but, whatever.
Spritzy spritz spritz.
⁝
I've smelled a number of variations upon a vanilla scent, and this is yet
another: CRASS vanilla. Or NASTY VANILLA. Or even THE VANILLA FROM HELL.
But it fits in well with the Lush house aesthetic. (This is not an
endorsement.)
Awful stuff. I don't think I'd even spray this on my worst enemy. There would
be too much danger of his slugging me in response, and then I might get some
transferred onto my clothing, or, worse, body.
⁝
I'm not a big fan of lavender, but this stuff is okay. Not at all
blow-you-away good, but wearable. As others have noted, it has an old school
feel to it (Guerlain Lite?) and is presentable.
Now that I think about it, it beats many of the larger, more better known
house's current offerings for men. (I'm looking at you, Bvlgari, Calvin Klein
and YSL.)
After a tour of L'Occitane's scents I came away concluding that the best of the
lot was Eau des Baux, which is unique. But this is good.
⁝
Skank, not bug. Skank.
A "protest perfume," indeed. I would strongly protest if my wife were
to find within her a sudden desire to smell like this.
Here's what Bug smells like: When I was a twelve year old living in Los Angeles
in 1968, my best friend Jimmy lived just off of Sunset Boulevard more or less
behind the Egyptian Theater. He lived in a rather shabby apartment with his
mother and grandmother. Next door to him was an even shabbier apartment
building recently vacated by some hippies. They left the door open one day and
we went inside to explore.
Within was old dog food, newspapers flung about, a cigarette and full ashtray
smell, 1950's Mad magazines, patchouli oil, discarded tee shirts and the
flotsam and jetsam of drug use. The place smelled like Lush Bug. It was such an
objectionable odor that we didn't even take the old Mad magazines.
Yeah, it's different. But so was Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" -
who listens to it? Yeah, it's avant garde. But so is Yoko Ono - how many
multi-CD sets of her music does anyone own?
⁝
You know that animated youtube character Annoying Orange? (Basically, an
orange with a face superimposed thereupon.) This is his scent. It is crass and
in your face, which seems to be very much the Lush house style.
And this is one of the *better* ones...
My guess is that these Lush Gorilla perfumes would ideally suit an edgy young
woman with spiky hair and a sort of early 1980's Joan Jett persona. Or,
conversely, a matron with a the-hell-with-you attitude who is badly in need of
sensible style advice. There seems to be no subtlety to these scents at all.
⁝
A legendary fragrance!
It starts out decidedly nasty, with the infamous animalic Guerlain cat
pee/vomit/fecal note. I am not certain why Aimee Guerlain designed this into
it. The French have entirely different aesthetic ideas about scents than do
Anglo-Saxons. But - be patient! - it soon develops into a
lavender/vanilla/powder accord, which is sometimes called
"barbershoppy."
I'm not a big fan of it. There are other Guerlains I like better (Heritage,
Bois d"Armenie), and I do not especially like lavender scents, which I
consider dandyish. It ain't me. But I tried this on as a sort of historical
experience. It's like saying you're interested in classical music but have
never heard Beethoven's Ninth... you have to hear it. Likewise, if you say
you're interested in fragrances you have to try Jicky.
----
Second wearing: It's growing on me. I like lavender scents more now than I did
a year ago...
⁝
I kept seeing this recommended by reviewers whose opinions I respected, and
so I became curious as to why. Having sprayed some on my arm, now I know.
It's a lovely, unusual scent. At first spray it smelled like a coconutty suntan
oil (or am I being persuaded by the look of the bottle, which looks like it
contains suntan oil?), and took on what I thought were some camphor or
eucalyptus notes, which must have been the incense. Finally it dried down to a
nice vanilla. A very clever take on a vanilla scent!
My wife likes it on me, too, but we both agree that, at first, it's Coppertone.
⁝
It goes on citrusy and dries down mildly sweet and somewhat rosy. It's
boring - like any number of other mass market fragrances for men. I agree with
benzippo: "...this is just another safe composition in tried and tested
safe territory."
295 reviewers think this smells like Chanel Allure Homme Sport? Good - then I
don't have to bother with that one.
----------
Second wearing: I'm struck by just how much the citrus notes predominate, which
makes this an acceptable warm weather scent. But, other than that - it's still
boring.
---------
Third wearing: Okay, I like it somewhat better. But it's really not my thing
and I'll probably never buy a bottle. Still... I can recommend it for others...
⁝
It went on with a woody/spicy note, so I thought that's what I was getting.
(Oh, no - another boring generic woody/spicy scent.) But then it morphed into a
vanilla fragrance, which was a mild surprise akin to learning that your aunt is
now playing bingo across town rather than where she was.
⁝
I'm not a fan of this one at all; it smells like some food combination I
wouldn't want to eat. (I should mention that I am not fond of gourmand scents -
and this one doesn't convert me.) The notes are sort of an unharmonious mess -
I get the feeling that perhaps the lavender is in the way, or is souring
things.
I much prefer HiM.
⁝
I keep looking for a Bvlgari I like - but this isn't it, either. (Can't say
as how I was surprised as I'm not a big fan of aquatics.)
Yes, it smells marine/oceanic for a while, then it kind of... goes off. I
couldn't figure out if I was smelling candy or herbs or what after about a half
hour. And then it disappeared... it didn't last long.
The M&M bottle is interesting.
⁝
Oh, this is nice stuff!
It goes on unremarkably and I'm thinking, "Another ho hum generic
fragrance." But in about an hour it takes on the woodsy/spicy notes I
recall from the way men's fragrances used to smell in the 1960's. (Could it be
that once, long ago, Old Spice smelled this good?) Not dated - classic. Very
nice, very masculine.
I understand that Frank Sinatra used this fragrance, so there's a bit of Rat
Pack at the Sands 1962 Ring a Ding Ding to this. (To paraphrase a quote another
reviewer used.)
But wait! In the best tradition of the Chairman of the Board, the show's not
over. At the three or four hour mark it morphs into what smells a lot like a
Guerlain to me: a powdery lavender sandalwood scent that reminds me a lot of
Heritage. And that's great, too!
Did I finally find a Creed that's worth what they're asking?
⁝
I tried Tabarone Millesime via a 1 ml Nordstom sample.
I'm not impressed with it. I get the tobacco, ginger and tea notes (more tea
than ginger, I think); it's very soft. But, sadly, it fades very quickly. It's
not an especially memorable scent and, frankly, I don't think it's worth
Creed's asking price.
⁝
I tried Bvlgari Man some months ago and found it timid and watery. Not much
scent there. Seeing this flanker on the shelf at Ulta, I decided to give it a
whirl. Perhaps making it extreme improves it.
No, it doesn't... I'm sorry, calling this stuff "extreme" in any way,
shape or form does injustice to the word. Words, after all, have meaning.
This stuff is as timid and as forgettable as anything I have ever smelled.
What, precisely, is "extreme" about it?
For me these Bvlgaris are unimpressive, period.
Needless to say, not much sillage.
⁝
It makes an imposing bottle on the shelf in Ulta, all blue with
"BLV" (pronounced "bliv") thereupon in Roman caps. So I
tried some on my arm.
For me it smells of my wife's meat marinade. Not a bad smell, but I'm
overweight and my appetite needs no further inducements. When I offered my arm
to my wife she made a stink face and said, "Hot metal."
So number us among the unconverted.
Not much sillage, and it's nearly gone on me after about an hour.
⁝
From the ad copy: "...the Eau de gentiane blanche revisits freshness
with a mixture of boldness and delicacy." No, it doesn't. There's no
boldness at this address. This is a floral that's way too fey and faint for me.
I do not understand how anyone can claim this is masculine.
And I don't understand the "blanche" in the title. Doesn't that refer
to white flowers? Gentiana are blue. Or is it the musk?
And, confusingly, reviewers here assert that this is a green fragrance - or
redolent of brown earth. Will the real color please stand up?
I don't understand this; I don't like it.
⁝
I think I prefer Guerlain's L'Eau de Cologne Imperiale somewhat better, but
that's probably because I'm attracted to the whole product (the bee bottle, the
Napoleonic connection, the 1860 historicity of it) rather than by a purely
olfactory preference. But this is also quite nice. A classic cologne.
Fact is, I'm not a big fan of the cologne genre. They all disappear within an
hour or so leaving me to wonder, "What's the point?" My wife says,
"Just smear yourself with a cut lemon."
But that being said, yes, this is another winner from Guerlain and yes, this is
a noble scent.
⁝
A reviewer suggested this to me as a good inexpensive leather fragrance. I
tried it at the local Macy's: $46 for 2 oz. Price is great!
This is far more oakmossy to my nose than leather. (I confirmed by looking at
the ingredients on the box, yep - oakmoss is in there.) And, I hate to use this
word, I truly do, but upon spraying it on my arm it smelled
"perfumey" and not as masculine as I was led to believe it was. So -
not for me. But it's a good, distinctive woman's scent! I do like it. This is a
long-lasting scent and a good buy.
Note: My wife sniffed the Bel Ami I'm wearing on my neck and this on my arm and
declared that they smell similar. She's getting something I'm not.
I like the upper part of the bottle; it looks like a crescent wrench is needed
there.
---------
I tried it again on my arm while my wife was with me. She says it doesn't smell
feminine at all on me. Three other women behind the counter agree. (One took a
look at me and said "Nothing could be feminine on you.") One other
women thought it was too feminine. So that's 4 against 1.
But, to me, I just can't rid myself of that perfumey note I associate with
feminine scents from my youth.
So... no. But I might come around some day.
---------
Tried it yet again! This stuff is really growing on me. I wish my wife would
wear it. It is a seriously good perfume...
---------
Tried it again on an arm. Okay, I'm sold. I want a bottle.
⁝
A nice tobacco scent - and I agree with the reviewer who claims that it
smells more of cigar than pipe tobacco.
This is the scent to accompany one of those white, short-sleeved cotton Cuban
tobacco plantation owner shirts, you know, the ones with all the white
embroidery thereupon. Wear a beard while you wear this, too, to complete the
effect.
My favorite of the Aramis line thus far.
⁝
This fragrance starts out promisingly enough, with lime and lemongrass so
persistent that you'll be lulled into believing you might have found a cologne
that will last for more than a hour. Then there's a really inept transition to
a horrible caramel note. The two co-exist for a time - which is a real stink.
Strong and nasty stuff.
Question: What kind of a perfumer brags about the short amount of time it took
him to throw together a fragrance?
Answer: One who is being way too clever for his own good.
⁝
It's blue but it doesn't smell blue, that is, aquatic/fresh. It's not as
bad as I thought it would be, but on me it's cloying and kind of sour.
Not quite a scrubber, but almost.
"The result is quite special and can be compared with a new dimension
created between time and space." Uh, no, it can't.
--------
Second wearing: I forget that I tried this stuff before! Anyway, now it reminds
me of a Versace (Pour Homme, Eau Fraiche or Eros). Sme general vibe. I like it
better than I did on the first wearing, but, nio, not enough to ever buy it or
wear it again. Unless I forgot I did again.
I get no metallic notes from this at all.
⁝
My nose read this flanker as spicy. For me it's mainly vetiver and tea.
Perhaps more tea than vetiver. It's a very nice scent; I like it. This is the
third Declaration I've tried and I like them all - good work from Cartier. I guess
I need to try the cologne variation.
I do not get any animalic or citrus notes in this at all - or perhaps I didn't
really pay attention when I sprayed it on.
(Update: I sprayed more on later in the day - I got them then. The animalic/BO
notes weren't offensive at all, just unusual. It made this particular flanker
more interesting.)
Why is the bottle a blue fade? It should be a tan fade, I think.
⁝
I have nothing to add to the comments here which explain the smoky/creamy
benzoin/vanilla and incense notes save that I have yet to smell anything quite
like this. I can't decide if it's a metaphysically religious scent (the
incense) or a gourmand. It seems quite original to me and very nice.
It passes my Mmmm test: I flutter my shirt front and go Mmmm when I smell the
released scent.
Guerlain does it again!
-------
Update: I wore this a second time and found it somewhat cloying. I guess I
totally changed my opinion about it.
My wife claims that it smells like an old lady's house.
⁝
I'm getting better at this game: Five minutes after spraying this on myself
I guessed that it would be an unmemorable, generic woodsy/spicy scent. And so
it is. Reviewer Luca Turin says it best, however: "The fragrance is so unmemorable
that the only appropriate review is, 'It has a smell.'"
It doesn't have much longevity or sillage - so after some hours pass by you can
spray on something you like a lot better that will dominate. (I find that
Yatagan is my go to champion for this.)
I "disliked" it, but that doesn't tell the whole story. I neither
liked it nor disliked it. I will simply forget about it. So not only is there
no Romance here - there isn't any love, either.
I don't do well with these Ralph Laurens... the only one I like is Polo Green -
and I think I'm mildly allergic to it.
⁝
Very puzzling, this one. I think I may have encountered a reformulation
issue.
First encounter: A gal sprayed some of this on my wrist tonight... it smelled
darn familiar but I couldn't immediately place it. Then I got it: Guerlain
Heritage. It smells like Guerlain Heritage. But I like Heritage better.
Second encounter: This is something a fellow fragrantican called
"original" Zeno - it smells nothing like the other stuff I tried.
Nothing like Heritage, in other words. This is very strongly a rose scent to my
nose. It's quite nice - a msaculine floral - but wholly unlike the other Zino I
tried.
I don't think I'd buy a bottle of this one unless I was absolutely sure of what
it was I was getting!
⁝
At first I didn't detect the rose notes; I was mainly getting a lovely,
soft, spicy, peppery scent. (I do not detect any pine or conifer at all.) But a
few hours into it, yes!, I get the rose note now. Since I'm not a floral wearer
I've forgotten just how nice roses smell!
What strikes me most about this is how thoroughly modern and light it is. It
may be Laurent's work, but I can detect the original touch of Jean-Claude
Hellena, "The Master of Transparency"; it smells very much like his
work with Hermes. I know that Declaration has Iso E Super in it - does this?
It's a favorite component of Ellena's. It would account for the velvety feel.
This - and Declaration - may be the two best Cartier fragrances right now,
since they reformulated and ruined Santos, which was a favorite. This is lovely
stuff - when I sprayed it on this morning I smiled and, now dressed, I ruffle
my shirt top to release more of the scent. Very pleasant. A success. This,
along with Guerlain Heritage, is another floral I could see myself - or smell
myself - wearing.
But... what makes it "soir?" It smells perfectly jour to me.
⁝
It opens with a rather unpleasant note, but this doesn't last long at all,
however - just upon initial spraying - and the narrative moves on to a rather
dusty antique floral of lavender and iris scent that stays close to the skin.
As time passes, the vanilla note becomes more noticable.
It's not bad; I do feel dressy when smelling of it - but it's not my thing. I
prefer Guerlain's Heritage.
UPDATE: I have sprayed this on myself a few more times. I no longer find the
initial spray unpleasant; I've grown used to it.
⁝
Heritage is wonderful stuff!
It starts out with an olfactory trick or a misapprehsion on my part: I think I
smell cacao bean (a vaguely chocolate smell), but it can't be. It's mildy
gourmand, like Guerlain L'Instant. Then it softly becomes what I detect as
floral - lavender. And then, at the end, it makes an undetectable transition to
the same soft white musk that forms the basenote for Mugler Cologne. Or is it
sandalwood and powder? I'm not sure! This scent is a trickster... note all the
reviews below mentioning a vanilla note. And yet there's no vanilla or even
tonka bean listed on the pyramid (but they are mentioned in the text).
I'm new to fragrances; understanding what this scent is all about is a really good
test for me.
As other reviewers note, Heritage is symphonic. It's richly textured and
subtle. It reminds me of Yatagan in that respect (understanding that Yatagan is
an entirely different genre)... I'm pretty sure I'm not getting all that it
contains. It needs repeated "playings."
The sillage isn't extreme on me; it seems to sit close to my skin, as just
about all scents do. I did four sprays on skin and two on a cotton tee shirt.
MASTERPIECE.
⁝
Hermes needs to sell this by the gallon, because if this is your thing
you'll be using a lot of it.
The grapefruit (pamplemousse - I had to look it up) lasts, oh, about a minute
or two. Then it's gone. (It's a wonderful smelling grapefruit, however - not at
all synthetic.) I do believe this is a new evaporation speed record for any
scent I've tried.
The rosy scent lingers for an hour or two, then that's gone, too. Time for
more!
I like this stuff - it's one of the few florals I can stand smelling on myself
- but, wow, longevity is awful. I ought to time this and 4711, Guerlain's Eau
de Cologne Imperiale and Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte to see which one disappears
the most quickly.
⁝
Finally - a gourmand scent I like!
It's a soft scent... it starts with citrus and progresses to a very subtle
cacao (chocolate) note. But it's not in your face like some modern gourmand
fragrances that make me feel like I'm a grocery store product.
Problem is, however, it barely registers on me - after a couple of hours it's
almost like I didn't spray anything on. And it's essentially gone from my
cotton tee-shirt as well. It's TOO subtle. Very little sillage and longevity.
Drat my scent-eating skin! OR... is it just modern perfumery?
⁝
An overly sharp top note and a cloying drydown. This also has that fake
synthetic pineapple note I have come to hate. Smells cheap and pungent like
Curve. In a word: pissy.
I really dislike these dihydromyrcenol compositions... not my thing at all. The
Nineties are over - let them die.
⁝
You know, it's funny. This stuff, on me, has a kind of a sour, wild smell
that I wasn't able to place. But as soon as I started reading the reviews here,
I got it. Juniper. Yes - it smells like juniper. This scent is very green and
herbal.
That being said, it's... okay. I'm not sure if I like smelling like a COSTCO
Christmas wreath. Perhaps this is a good December scent. L'Amoureux, the
lovers: Mr. and Mrs Claus.
I like The Fool better in the series. And as far as pine notes are concerned, I
like Pino Silvestre, Tom Ford Italian Cypress and Halston Z-14 better.
⁝
I first tried this at a Neiman-Marcus store, thinking that this was the
Luca Turin five star rated "Best Masculines" Pour Monsieur. It
wasn't. It's the one star rated Concentree - I called later to confirm that
this was the case. I have never smelled the original Pour Monsieur, and,
looking at Chanel's website, you cannot have them send it to you in the States.
Only the Concentree.
Anyway, while it raised a smile it didn't quite knock me dead until I smelled
it a few hours later on my arm, when it dried down to that opoponax (sweet
myrrh) note. A delightful scent; my wife and I both loved it. It's balmy and
comforting.
For my birthday my wife bought me a bottle. Hooray!
I also like Dior Eau Sauvage Parfum - the other day I realized that the final
note in Concentree and the predominant note in Eau Sauvage Parfum are the same
thing.
I believe Luca Turin is way off the mark in giving this one star; to me it's
wonderful. But then, he claims that Azzaro Pour Homme is a five star scent. My
nose tells me NO. I can't bear the stuff.
Moral: One has to believe what one's nose tells him and to ignore the critics!
After all, "Nobody ever erected a statue to the memory of a critic."
- Jean Sibelius
⁝
I normally find fresh/clean/sporty scents boring, so I didn't have high
expectations for this. My initial take, just after spraying, was that this is
one of the better such fragrances I have tried. I expect no less from the House
of Chanel.
But, uh-oh, about an hour after spraying a sour note arrived (is that the salty
marine note?) accompanied by that annoying clean/fresh/sporty scent (scent
molecule, probably) I think is overused in modern masculine scents.
So, for me, no good.
⁝
A happy scent! Citrus! Putting it on I had the distinct feeling that, like
other citrus scents I've tried, it wouldn't last long, and I was right.
Longevity is an issue.
This is okay. My take on it is that it's good for young men - very young men -
and maybe as a summer scent for hot tee-shirt days.
It lasts longer than does Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte, I'll give it that...
⁝
Is this a joke? I mean, this IS a joke, right?
I sprayed this on myself - five or six close sprays, including on my tee shirt.
I got a citrus/pineapple scent at first and a nice smoky note I liked - then it
was gone. In about an hour and a half. I can barely smell it on my cotton
tee-shirt.
No longevity, no sillage. This was from a Nordstrom sample, by the way. A
premium department store selling premium scents.
What is all the hype about?
My wife says it's "woodsy." She's as unimpressed as I am.
$300+ a bottle? Really?
⁝
You can't judge a fragrance by its bottle any more than you can judge a
book by its cover, but that doesn't stop me from trying. This one comes in a
bottle that looks like it was inspired by junior high school metal shop - very
clever. This is what attracted me to the scent.
It starts with something periously close to pepper spray - this quickly
dissipates and moves onto woodsy notes that smell a lot like a pine board.
Then, in less than an hour, it's almost entirely gone, probably leaving
purchasers to wonder, "Why did I buy that?"
They really need to ratchet up the longevity and projection on this one. Bang!
It's gone in a flash.
⁝
I took a whiff of this on a paper strip and was immediately transported
back to junior high school WOODSHOP. (This is a good thing.) It's for women?
Really? I'm not too sure about that. Could be unisex. I got a sample. I shall
try wearing it. Stand by.
------
Now wearing it: Tom Ford's triple deception. There's nothing "sahara"
about it, it isn't "noir" and it's not just for women - it's a
masculine scent.
What this is, is nothing more nor less than pine board - specifically, eighth
grade wood shop at Luther Burbank Junior High School in Burbank, California.
The first time I smelled this - POW! - that's what I got transported back to.
See, it's Tom Ford's little joke: the bottle even resembles a pine plank
somewhat.
Don't misunderstand me: this is a wonderful, happy scent (more happy than
Clinique Happy), since I like working with wood! I like this stuff.
As others state, it is very linear, long-lasting and it projects. I'm now
sitting at my office at work. I half expect some guy to stroll in and ask,
"Did some work in the garage, did you?"
Feminine scent my foot - this is as much a guy scent as it gets!
Tom Ford ought to re-launch this as a celebrity scent for Tim "the Tool
Man" Taylor.
-----
Subsequent smellings: I love this stuff.
⁝
I came across a page somewhere describing what it is celebrities wear, and
knowing this could be had for a song, was surprised to see it appear so often
alongside Creed Green Irish Tweed, Acqua di Parma Colonia and Chanel Pour
Monsieur. After all, these folks can afford any scent they want. Is this some
kind of a Hollywood joke? So I tried it on my arm.
It's an absolutely generic clean/fresh/sporty scent. I dislike those intensely.
Bah! Scrubber!
⁝
SCRUBBER!
The opening was like taking a deep whiff into a chemical plant. Nasty. One
reviewer called it "brusque," and brusque it is. Drydown reminds me
of Van Cleef and Arpels Pour Homme (not good) or Salvador Dali Pour Homme (also
not good) - not sure which.
Normally a "dated" scent doesn't faze me as long as it's a classic -
but this is just dated, period. Awful.
⁝
This one is decidedly odd. It goes on with a citrus blast which seems to
remain on my tee shirt but not on my skin, where, instead, a smoky leather note
develops. And then some misplaced floral note appears - or is that the basil?
The scent I get off my clothing seems to be at odds with what's going on
elsewhere (I've never experienced that before) and the whole thing results in
an unpleasant mix.
But wait! Three hours after spraying the whole thing is morphing into a burned,
corky smell (leather notes?) which isn't too bad. But it was nasty getting
there.
Four and a half hours: Just burned leather. Not bad.
I didn't care for the reformulated Fahrenheit (I'd probably like the vintage
original) and liked the Fahrenheit 32 flanker - so I guess 32 wins. Hooray for
vanilla!
(I didn't know how to spell "fahrenheit" before I tried these. Now I
do.)
⁝
Reviewers report melon, suede, pineapple and pepper notes. On me it smells
vaguely woody and vaguely spicy. It's absolutely undistinguished... it smells
like any number of other men's fragrances.
It dries down to an unpleasant scent molecule I have smelled way too many times
before.
Poor longevity, not much sillage.
I like the bottle - that's attractive and well designed, anyway.
I pass.
My son likes it. I thought I raised him better than that.
-----------
I tried a spray from my son's bottle on my arm, just to confirm my opinion
(which does change). Pfew! Stuff smells like old urine.
⁝
A very nice, balanced mix of flowers, citrus, powder and green things. It's
claimed to be unisex, and so it is.
When a scent this good veers this close to being feminine it stays acceptably
masculine but magically becomes elegant. It is very dressy and nice - like
emerging from an unusually classy barbershop.
Well done, Guerlain!
⁝
I don't like this.
I don't like the spice note mixed with the mint - a sort of messy mint. It
reminds me of an unpleasant kitchen drawer that I was exposed to at some point
in my young life, where greasy utensils and spilled spices all combined. The
last note on my tee shirt is that overused clean/fresh/sporty note or molecule
I've smelled way too often.
This also fails my M Test. With stuff I like, I smell the top of my tee shirt
at the end of the day and go Mmmmmm. I'm not doing that with this.
Finally, the bottle makes me think of a baby bottle - that doesn't help sell
it. So it's FAIL/FAIL.
⁝
Note: I did not buy this fragrance - I made it myself with some Iso E Super
from the perfumer's apprentice and Everclear 190. Molecule 01 is a 10%
dilution; mine was 15%.
Yes, I can smell the molecule undiluted in the bottle despite the fact that the
molecules are large and are reputedly not detectable undiluted, and yes, I
could smell it going on me and on my skin. This stuff has very good longevity.
To my nose it smells like warm skin in flannel or, alternatively, like a very
faint cedar smell. It has a warm, soft "snuggly" smell. I don't get
musk, pepper or amber. It's probably the warm skin impression that gives this
scent its reputed "sexiness."
It's nice - a good smell. Not, "I HAVE to have it," just nice.
Reputedly, you can use this to layer and give your favorite scent a velvety
quality. So I tried it with Chanel Pour Monsieur, and, yes, it kind of
"smudged" the scent. I got the impression that the layered mix was
now Pour Monsieur upon skin - not just Pour Monsieur. The Iso E Super also
outlasted the Pour Monsieur on my wrist.
I had a pregnant friend of mine sniff this - she liked it. Her husband paused,
considered, and said, "bug spray." To my wife it smells like
something in a cleaning agent and somewhat soapy.
An odd molecule, this!
--------------
I finally was able to smell this product in a store. Yep. My home brew Iso E
Super and Everclear alcohol is the very same stuff! I can make it for about
$20...
⁝
An honest, likable scent. Even the bottle is appealing. To me, yep, it
smells like the ocean.
To my wife, however, it smells like soap.
Longevity is a drawback: on my arm it's gone in an hour. No projection to speak
of. A pity. If Bath and Body Works sent this back for reformulation to torque
up the concentration and make it last longer they'd have a winner.
⁝
Apple top notes, yes. And not just apples, but apple *pie.* Was there ever
such a gap between persona and execution? This isn't James Bond of the British
Secret Service. It's Aunt Bee of Mayberry.
Fully dried it smells like that wretched clean/fresh/sporty scent molecule I
smell too much of these days.
Back in 1966 they came out with 007 cologne (google it) - as I recall, it
smelled a WHOLE lot better than this!
⁝
One of Tom Ford's better scents; I like this. But my olfactory memory is
that it's more or less the same as Guerlain's Vetiver. Maybe I need to do a
side by side sniff test on paper strips...
-----
Update: I did that. Of the Creed, Guerlain and Tom Ford vetivers, To my nose
the Guerlain and the TF do smell similar. But I prefer the Guerlain. It's
sharper, wilder. The Creed smells like lime/vetiver. On a paper card the
Guerlain lasts longer, too.
-----
I wonder about Tom Ford naming conventions. As with Azure Lime, what makes this
"Gray," exactly?
-----
Third sample wearing: I still prefer the Guerlain. My wife sniffed and
shrugged, "Ordinary."
⁝
One of Tom Ford's aptly and literally named scents. I like it! Quite
pleasant, and it has good sillage and longevity. (I could still smell it on
myself 24 hours later!) It's linear; I don't detect much change in it as the
day goes on.
My wife likes it.
Second wearing: Uh, it's getting on my nerves. I'm finding it somewhat cloying.
I think I've changed my opinion about this one...
⁝
A very unimpressive fragrance. It smells generically spicy, and, as others
have reported, is timid and doesn't last long. I sprayed it on about an hour
ago and it's nearly gone.
No sillage to speak of, so if you're at the office and want to cringe in your
cubicle unnoticed, why, this is just the sauce!
I was under the impression that naming a scent "(Name of House or
Designer) For Men" (or "...Pour Homme") was a sort of a flagship
scent; that this is where a house or perfumer put the best foot forward and
made a definitive statement about what a man should smell like. So... what went
wrong here? Withdraw this and start over, Mr. Ford.
But re-use the bottle! I like the vertical ridges; it has a nice feel.
---
You might know, however... a woman at work emphatically likes this stuff on me
and thinks it's great. Sheesh. I will never understand fragrances.
⁝
Smelled on a paper strip: I like it, it's promising, but I need to smell it
on skin.
Smelled on skin: I like it! The vetiver makes its appearance after an hour or
so really strongly. It's a nice scent. I may buy it.
Wife: "It's okay." "Smells like ashtrays."
BOUGHT IT: It's wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I love the smoky beginning
that transitions into vetiver. And yes, it can smell a bit inky - or is that
merely the power of suggestion? Others have called it mysterious, and I guess
it is. It smells a bit antique to me, like an old wooden object with a history.
Name, scent, bottle - a triumph! MASTERPIECE.
BTW: Chanel Sycomore smells just like this except it's a lot more expensive and
doesn't last as long.
-----
Subsequent wearings: This stuff, along with Chanel Pour Monsieur Concentree, is
one of the two best frags I own. It's like a love of classical music - it has
enhanced my life. Honest. One reviewer, talking me into buying it, once said,
"It's the best niche perfumery at an amazing budget price!" He was
absolutely right.
⁝
Received as a Christmas present!
I had a chance to smell it months ago on a paper strip at a specialty perfume
store at a mall. I liked it - upon spraying, I immediately detected oakmoss (I
looked at the box and confirmed that, yes, oakmoss was listed as an ingredient)
and quickly jotted down a review note that this is one I had to revisit. When I
got home I put it into my amazon.com Wish List. And Santa brought it!
I think my wife may have paid $10 for it, but it's just as likely she paid
somewhat less. But, anyway, this stuff is very inexpensive.
I am very sorry to say, however, that the code on my bottle indicates that my
juice was manufactured in October 2013 - and no oakmoss is listed on the box.
Not even treemoss (which is the oakmoss substitute on 1-12's stablemate Z-14).
The dreaded reformulation; I am guessing that the people at EA are in fear of
the bureaucratic control freaks at IFRA, who seem hellbent on making oakmoss
Perfumery Public Enemy Number One.
So - what's Halston 1-12 smell like nowadays? Hard to tell, really. It's an
exceptionally light fougere of indistinct green notes. It's even lighter than a
Jo Malone scent. I sprayed my skin and my tee shirt with about ten (!) sprays;
a half hour later I can barely smell it. It might possibly make a room scent.
It's a perfume for guys who hate perfumes. Look at the box... if it doesn't
list oakmoss DON'T BOTHER. It's gutless.
So, FAIL. Thanks a lot for ruining another fine scent, EA. Here's another one
you can avoid, perfumistas and perfumistos. My advice (and this is getting
tiresome): Look for a vintage box with oakmoss listed.
Well - if there's is one truth I have personally observed over and over again,
it's "You get what you pay for."
--------
Update: I traded this and some other stuff I didn't care for for about 60 ml of
vintage Antaeus. NOW we're talkin'!
⁝
Smelled on a paper strip: YES! I need to get this on my skin for a proper
test. Citrus and then a leather. Very nice!
Smelled on my skin: NO! I hate to use this word, I really do, but it just
smells *dated* to me. That particular leather is all wrong on my skin. It's
sweaty 1970's leather watchband leather. Not a fine smell at all.
⁝
Yes, I know... one of the greats. But I just don't like it at all. I guess
I'm not a lavender-vanilla guy. A disappointment. In fact, I'm a bit surprised
by how much I dislike it!
And yes, I agree, it does end up smelling reminiscent of Play-Doh.
My wife was surprised I allowed this on my wrist as it's more for her.
-----------
Second try, on a paper strip: the topmost notes on this smelled like a fizzy
lemon-lime soda! Is that even possible? Wow. A different thing than the first
time I smelled it.
------------
A proper wearing, thanks to a generous fragrantican who sent me a sample: Yep,
there's that fizzy lemon-lime soda again, at the very top. I like it! But it is
fleeting. Pour Un Homme de Caron dries down to an apparently inescapable
Play-Doh note - the deal-breaker in this scent.
I know that some have described this fragrance as "comforting," but
to me it's juvenile.
Nope. Not for me.
⁝
Wowee - what an opening! Great stuff... but I need to wear it on my skin to
really formulate my opinion. But I was impressed with it on a paper strip.
"This could be the inspiration for Salvador Dali Pour Homme" - YES. I
do smell that very odd scent there as well!
-------
Second wearing, on skin. I love that powerful citrus opening... it is as
intense a citrus as anything I've ever smelled. But then, after about a half
hour, uh oh... on me it turns skanky. And not a good skank, either. Unwashed
old man skank. A pity.
--------
Another arm test, years later: Yes, same intense wonderful citrus opening.
Really memorable and good. And then it evaporates away to a very faint skank
smell. I asked my wife if she liked it. No, she did not.
Note: The comments above are about the old, pre-reformulation scent in the
semi-circular bottle. The new one doesn't have the citrus at all. Just a mild
skank note. It is entirely forgettable.
⁝
Essentially a citrus smell, and a nasty, soapy one at that. When my wife
first sniffed this she made a confused face, and then a face of recognition -
she nailed the scent with a side by side smell test we performed: this stuff
smells just like Spray and Wash! Try it and see for yourself!
How does one market a $200+ bottle of Spray and Wash? With a nude man and woman
cavorting around dumping enormous bottles of the stuff on one another.
Advertising doesn't get much more cynical than that.
⁝
Yes sir, it goes on as lime, all right, no mistaking that. The top notes
remind me strongly of the Hai Karate Lime we once bought my Dad for Christmas.
It dries down into something my wife calls "soapy," and indeed it is.
An hour or so after that it morphs into an unpleasant dirty smell.
I am SO not impressed - especially at over $200 a bottle retail. And how
precisely is it "azure?"
⁝
I had my wife try some Mitsouko on her arm. Wow! Wild, dirty smell -
oakmoss! I wasn't expecting that! I thought it would be conventional, flowery,
French. She didn't like it at all, but I liked it on her. Luca Turin says this
is a feminine for men (yeah, I get that), so I got a sample and I'm going to
try it on myself! Update to come...
---
Well, *that* little experiment didn't work out. I got a nice oakmoss blast upon
spraying this stuff on myself, but it quickly disappeared - which is
unfortunate because I happen to like oakmoss. After about an hour or so what
remained was the faint smell of peach - undecalactone. Since I don't like
fruity scents, I sprayed on Halston Z-14 to mask it. Much better. (This may
mortally offend some of you, using a Ross-obtained scent to mask one of the
Guerlain greats. Sorry.)
Oh, well - credit me with trying!
⁝
I am totally unimpressed. Goes on with a nice citrus smell but it's very
weak. An hour later I can barely detect a slight spicy scent. No tobacco. Not
much of an olfactory impression at all.
"Safe for work?" I should say so. I half expect corporations to hand
this stuff out to employees.
⁝
(NOTE: My sample - from Ulta - was from a bottle that was tall like a
celery stalk and looked like the Summer Flash flanker, not like the one
pictured here. But it wasn't Summer Flash, I double checked. This was simply
marked Mugler Cologne.)
I like this... a nice, citrusy, light scent which dries down to a pleasant
musk. I can see myself wearing this.
I'd like to put this on a paper strip alongside Acqua di Parma Colonia to see
how they are alike and how they differ. My olfactory memory is that they are
alike. Same effect on me, anyway: cologne satisfaction.
A bit stronger than I would have predicted - I thought it would be gone in two
hours or less, but no - so go easy on the trigger.
My wife didn't care for it - too soapy, she says. Yes, the base is, rather, but
I like it.
(Secret "S" molecule? It's nothing of the kind! Every competitor of
Mugler shot this juice in a gas chromatograph and knows precisely what it is
and how much is there!)
⁝
Reformulated stuff: I like it! Very nice! And it dries down to a nice,
aromatic oud. It doesn't last long, however.
But, problem. I offered my arm hopefully to my wife (without telling her what
it is) and she made a stink face: "Yuck! Grandma's house - ashtrays!"
For some reason it appears my wife reads oud scent like ashtrays, which is what
happened when I once applied Creed Royal Oud in her presence. A very great
pity. (Although she liked the Creed after it thoroughly dried.)
I like this but I still prefer the Creed Royal Oud. It smells richer, more
luxurious and less sweet.
-------
Update: Today I obtained a sample of the original "vintage" M7... I
do not understand the love for this at all. It is gagging. Too sweet, too
medicinal, too much like cherry cough syrup. I haven't disliked the way I smell
this much since I tried Jo Malone's Pomegranate Noir.
I guess this is one instance where I prefer the reformulated stuff to the
original!
⁝
The initial blast is nasty, but, I have to admit, interesting: what IS that
I'm smelling? A huge pepper or spice? It then dries down to something very
unpleasant.
Somebody wrote that this is a love it or hate it scent. Well, I hate it. It's
too weird for me. I couldn't bear smelling this on myself all day.
⁝
Yes, it starts off dark, mysterious, antique and musty. Profoundly odd, in
fact. The only scent I have smelled remotely like it is Lush's Breath of God.
This is what a ghost smells like. Or, as somebody pointed out, Nosferatu.
But wait! Within a half hour or so it gets powdery and feminine as the floral
notes come up. And it is this feminine base that turns me off as a candidate
man's fragrance.
My wife likes it, but agrees: it's really a feminine scent.
A similarity to Antaeus? Never! I don't get that at all, and I've worn Antaeus
for years. One reviewer cited a similarity to Van Cleef and Arpels Pour Homme -
yes, I agree.
I must admit, however... this scent is certainly Daliesque and the bottle suits
it very well indeed. Surreal. The total package is most convincing. I'd think a
Goth chick would love this.
⁝
Spicy, nice. Smells pretty much indistinguishable with Jack Black Blue Mark
and Jack Black Silver Mark to me. (My favorite is Jack Black Black Mark.) I
suppose if I had them on paper strips next to each other I could tell, but I
detect a definite family similarity.
These are unobjectionable and pleasant scents for just about any man. I can't
imagine anyone not liking these. But then again I can't imagine anyone falling
in love with them, either.
------------
Another wearing. I'm starting to like this stuff!
⁝
Very nice, but... just over the edge of being a bit too feminine on me.
Or perhaps it suffers in comparison to the Bel Ami I sprayed on the other arm
while visiting the Hermes store.
Perhaps I should simply try it on its own...
----
Tried it for a day. It's... soft. Somewhat floral and mildly mossy. Perhaps it
has been tweaked and reformulated from whatever it was before by Jean-Claude
Ellena, the current Hermes head nose, so that it bears some resemblance to the
other light and transparent Hermes scents.
It's sort of the Perry Como of men's fragrances: restrained, understated,
nothing virile, quietly modulated. How mild is this stuff? I tried some and
asked my wife what she thought: "It reminds me of my grandmother."
Will I be buying a bottle? Nahhhhh.
⁝
Tried some of this on my arm at the Hermes store. It is WONDERFUL. A nice,
rich leather. I like it better than Tom Ford Tuscan Leather, which smells
great, too, but more bookish or perhaps like suede. Bel Ami smells more like
luxury and quality to me - which is interesting because it's less expensive
than the Tom Ford scent!
I WANT A BOTTLE!
My wife says it's the best thing I've tried thus far, so my chances of getting
it are good.
UPDATE: I noticed that it has notes in common with Tom Ford Sahara Noir, a sort
of pine board/sawdust smell. This is a good thing, by the way.
Also, it doesn't seem to project much on me.
⁝
I have no cultural knowledge of Drakkar Noir (I never wore it and never
knew anyone who did), so it was a complete unknown to me. I was expecting a
real gasser.
But, to my nose, Drakkar Noir smells quite nice and, unlike Aramis and Azzaro,
has no wrong notes on me. It's a good composition. I could wear this!
I detect some leather, but it isn't overwhelming. I like the fir note. And I
can smell some citrus at the start.
One reviewer made the astute observation that Drakkar seems to be the bridge
between the old school fragrances for men and the current style, and I agree.
It's assertive but not overbearing. But then... I didn't use the entire bottle.
Four sprays. And I'm pretty sure that what I tried isn't the vintage high
octane mix, but a reformulation. It's not toxic at all and doesn't seem to
project.
Longevity and sillage are about on par with modern fragrances; six hours after
application I am primarily smelling it on my cotton tee shirt, not on my skin.
I can see why Guy Laroche sold scads of this stuff.
My wife, when smelling it on me, simply shrugged. "Meh."
⁝
On me, it has a sweaty 1970's leather watch band note. Kind of skanky. I
don't feel composed, elegant or dressy wearing this. I just feel dated - which,
for me, is odd because I normally like retro things and am not ashamed to wear
an old powerhouse fragrance.
Also, there's some greasy/foody note I don't like.
So, no, not for me.
-----------------------------------
Paper and skin re-test years later: Hey! Could this be the same stuff? I got no
negative vibes out of it at all this time. In fact, I could wear this stuff!
What happened?
⁝
Smells pretty much the same to me as Le Male, which is to say vanilla. So
there's citrus rather than mint and some pepper in this - okay. That makes it
"terrible?" Whatever.
It seems like an especially cynical and crass attempt at market extension to
me. Once again, this scent, too, is nice... but that bottle. Nope. Don't want
to look at that bottle every morning.
⁝
I wish I could smell all the notes you other reviewers get out of this one.
I don't get leather at all - and I especially don't smell Antaeus (which I
love)!
After a really interesting, dark and complex initial spray I get a dreadful,
overpowering SOAP smell. It caused both my wife and daughter-in-law to make
stink faces.
A total scrubber, I am sorry to report. I had high hopes for it.
⁝
Spicy? Woody? No - not at all. I get citrus with a hint of ginger. I
wondered whether I got a sample of Declaration Cologne, which this descriptions
fits, but, no, the Sephora I used only had Declaration. So I believe I smelled
the new formulation.
That being said, I like it. A good summertime scent.
However my wife's assessment - "cleaning product" - suggested I won't
be buying any.
-------
Update: A woman at a counter gave me a little glass sample bottle of this. Same
citrus/ginger scent - no spice or woods.
-------
Second wearing: I get some tea or floral notes now. But my impression of this
frag is still good.
----------
I own it; I bought a tester at a good price. Now that I'm used to this stuff I
get the spices. It took me some time to figure out that spicy didn't
automatically mean peppery. And I can see how people might get a stale sweat
note out of it. I don't - at least, my sweat doesn't smell like this, but I
quite like this fragrance. It'll be great in the hot weather, I think.
----------
I now love this stuff! Good for winter or summer, casual or dressy, young or
mature. This is often my "go to" fragrance. Masterpiece!
⁝
This smells like a household scent: dish soap, air freshener, a thing you
dangle from the rear view mirror, etc. It's artless.
I don't like the lime Kool-Aide color, either.
"Ulysse is a man's perfume created for a woman's pleasure" ...which,
sadly, the man will have to smell on himself all day.
⁝
Wow! After a long spell smelling clean/fresh/sporty/citrus variations this
was much appreciated!
It smells antique. Somewhat musty. Like old incense and mummy wrappings,
perhaps. This is what Morticia Addams smells like. My take is that it's just
the thing for a Goth girl Poe reader. They could have named this
"Ligeia."
The most unique fragrance I have smelled so far.
But will I wear it? Not likely. I don't want to smell like this!
UPDATE, about six months later: Has this been reformulated, or have I changed?
The first time it was astonishing. The second time was just sort of
"Eh."
⁝
Clean/fresh/oceanic/citrus... it's not my thing. In the words of Luca
Turin, it's one of those fragrances for men who don't like fragrances and who
suspect none of their friends do, either.
How overly popular is this fragrance?
1.) You can buy a little packet of this in the D.C. Zoo men's room for 75
cents. (So you don't smell like a resident of the Great Ape House.)
2.) The number of reviews on this particular page cause my PC to run slow.
--------
Okay, I needed some summer scents to make my wardrobe more diverse, so I traded
a 1 oz. bottle of Tsar for a 1 oz. bottle of this. Number me among the billions
who wear it.
⁝
Smells rather feminine and cheap. I wasn't impressed by it and neither was
my wife, who made a stink face when she smelled my arm.
------
Update: On a whim, while in a Wal-Mart, I tried it again on my arm. For some
reason it now smells better to me! Did I have a bad tester before or... what?
Anyway, it's a nice spicy scent... with good longevity. I've come around to
Tania Sanchez' way of thinking on this one. I now believe that this is one of
the better drugstore scents.
I don't smell anything "green" in this, either. It's all spices.
⁝
Oh, my gosh... this is the scrubber of all scrubbers. Normally I like
retro, classic scents of projection and longevity - but this stuff is VILE.
I was going to wear it for a day but something told me to try it on my arm
first. Man, I'm glad I did.
I sometimes see the phrase "old man scent" used pejoratively with
stuff I like, but I'm in full agreement with applying it to this one. It has an
awful hair oil vibe. Or like it was designed to mask sweat (unsuccessfully). Or
the Hotel for Men lobby long ago in my hometown smelled like this. (Guys who
adopted the bouffant in 1961 and never changed. C. 1944 USN tattoos. Reading
the Hollywood Park tip sheet. Porn mags on the tables.) Or like the grease
traps over the grill in the hamburger joint my Mom ran. Or a feral cat yet
again urinated in the bushes in front of my house. Something awful.
Myrrh? Old Spice? No, a thousand times no! Those are *good* smells!
I may have a history of some kind with this; in other words, an older man I
knew but didn't like from my youth smelled like this or something. It smells
horribly familiar.
Oddly enough my wife didn't object to this - she just said it smelled
"ordinary."
⁝
Goes on powdery and has a pleasant sandalwood/peppery smell. After some
hours it turns to balmy powder - no pepper. It's nice but it's unremarkable and
not worth the $200+ premium that Guerlain is asking for it.
------------
Second wearing: Whoa! What happened here? I got a sample from a good source -
the Guerlain Boutique in Las Vegas - but this seems like a much less impressive
fragrance. Not only do I not get the Guerlainade, but it doesn't even smell
like a Guerlain - it smells cheap and mass market. This other stuff is heavily
citrus. No pepper to speak of, very little sandalwood, almost no longevity.
Hmmmm... Now it's not even nice.
⁝
"Intense?" You have got to be kidding, Jo Malone.
It's way too faint. It goes on smelling of bergamot and very faintly of oud -
then disappears within an hour. I even sprayed some on my tee short top and
it's gone.
On me, no projection and no longevity.
Creed's Royal Oud is still the best oud I've smelled. Much better than this.
Rich and aromatic.
⁝
Smelled on a paper strip: Smells like every other trendy clean/fresh/sporty
fragrance. I'm really tired of this genre.
***Mavens of Scent: It's well past time to go elsewhere on the fragrance
wheel!***
Just looking at the bottle I wouldn't have bothered but it was one of those
situations where the gal behind the counter quickly grabbed it and said
"Here, try this!" without ever asking me what I like. Why don't they
ever ask first?
⁝
Meh. A starter fragrance for a teen, perhaps. Nice but not very
interesting. Sort of the olfactory equivalent of a mid 1970's Paul McCartney
song. I wouldn't want to smell this on myself all day any more than I'd want to
hear "Let 'em in" over and over again.
Avon's knocking at the door/Avon's ringing the bell...
My wife likes it.
⁝
I like this a lot better than (what I suppose is the reformulated)
Fahrenheit!
I didn't smell orange blossom when I sprayed it - I smelled a light mint which
dried down to a mildly floral vanilla. Nice. Not great, but nice.
Note: There's vetiver in this? The same rather pungent grass that's in
Guerlain's Vetiver? Wow. I do not smell any at all!
-------
Today I sat next to a man for three hours, he was wearing Paco Rabanne Million,
so it was a sillage battle between my Fahrenheit 32 and his Million. I could
barely smell myself; Million won by a clear margin. That stuff projects like a
toxic waste dump.
⁝
For the first few hours this smells floral/powdery/soapy; I didn't care for
the floral part. It's just over the borderline of being too feminine. Later on
it seems to become powdery/balmy, which is better.
It's a pleasant scent but it's just not my thing. Complicating things, my wife
likes it on me.
When it comes to the Prada scents I prefer Infusion d'Homme (Italian
barbershop) or Amber Intense (myrrh). Those suit me better, especially the Amber
Intense.
⁝
At first try I didn't get the petroleum/oil/gasoline notes, but now I do. I
kind of like it!
What spoils things for me is the violet leaf. This fragrance and Grey Flannel
has taught me something: I don't like violets or violet leaf!
One reviewer wrote, "Fahrenheit only asks one question. It asks it loud
and it asks it clear. Do You Have The Balls?" Wow, really? This stuff
isn't nearly that challenging. (Slumberhouse Norne is challenging.)
Not for me.
I like the bottle. Looks like a flame. Very nice.
⁝
Hey, wait a minute... This isn't how I remember musk smelling. In the
Seventies, when it became popular, musk smelled deep, mysterious and fetching.
This just smells cheap and perfumey, like the proverbial old lady scent. Not
masculine at all.
It's linear: cloying when new, cloying later. Same smell, no evolution.
A scrubber.
⁝
It's nice. Soft and powdery (at least that's how it starts) - the kind of
thing Prada seems to do so well.
However, it dries down to that overused fresh scent I smell too often. (I wish
I knew what it was. Some captive molecule perhaps?) It's not a bad scent, it's
just that I'm a bit tired of smelling it.
⁝
Luca Turin calls this "brilliantly inventive," and I suppose it
is, but I don't like the prominent fruity note at all. Smelling like a My
Little Pony is not what I'm about. A scrubber.
(Come to think of it, this exact same thing happened to me when I tried Jo
Malone's Pomegranate Noir. You'd think I'd learn.)
Odd bottle. Looks like it should be suspended from Robin Hood's belt.
⁝
The top notes are a little musty, and then it dries down as a musty citrus
vetiver-green. Hard to describe, really!
It doesn't smell so much masculine to me as it does vintage, or from a
different age. But perhaps I'm being influenced by the Guerlain story rather
than the scent itself.
It's okay. It doesn't send me.
Sillage and longevity are not good... which is especially a negative at the
premium price Guerlain is asking for this. There are more interesting and more
masculine men's fragrances for a lot less money.
⁝
Take a Voyage with Hermes! It goes on bright and citrusy like the cheerful
start of a vacation but then almost entirely disappears a couple of hours later
- like your excitement when you've discovered the Carnival cruise ship you've
booked passage upon developed power and waste disposal problems.
Voyage comes in a clever swivel travel bottle that you can throw into your
luggage for the TSA employee to steal during his inspection. (I lost a point
and shoot camera that way once.)
A nice fragrance, but, really, Jean-Claude Ellena, the perfumer for Hermes,
needs to work on longevity. This juice is like their d'Orange Verte - a great,
light, citrus scent but gone in no time at all. For the price point, this
represents bad value for the dollar.
Second wearing: Here's how to make it last - don't spray it on your skin, spray
it on your cotton shirt. I put it on at 6:15 AM this morning and I can still
smell it at 3:15 PM.
⁝
I smell this as woody/fruity, with a mild leather note. I think the most
apt description of it is one reviewer's, "It smells kind of like how a Dr.
Pepper soda tastes." (That would be a prune note, I believe. I once read
that prune extract is one of the flavors in a Dr. Pepper.)
For me it's only somewhat interesting and generally undistinguished. Also, it
doesn't project and doesn't last. So, no - John Varvatos is fun to test but I'm
not buying it.
⁝
Yes, vanilla mint. That's what I get on the paper strip and on my wrist. I
like this stuff! A good candidate for a summer scent. I want some in a little
sample bottle to try wearing all day...
I definitely like the mid-century modern industrial bottle design. It and the
name invokes the idea of a vintage Porsche. (I'd like this even more if it
smelled like a vintage Porsche.) Nice work.
-------------
This may be the only perfume with mint in it I like. Generally minty perfumes
remind me too much of toothpaste.
⁝
Freedom from... well, any scent at all, really. Is there some kind of
contest going on for the most non-existent, underwhelming and watery fragrance
for men? This one almost beats Bulgari Man - that, too, was almost like
spraying water on my arm.
Or is Freedom an olfactory metaphor for the sorry state of affairs men are in
these days? Sort of not there?
⁝
Pallid fruity. More or less like fruit cocktail water, but far less intense.
The bottle and cap are notable in that they seem miniaturized. I was somewhat
afraid of braking something as I removed the cap; the sprayer seemed to be
scaled down as well.
All in all, an underwhelming experience, trying this. Not at all for me.
-----------
Second wearing: WHOA. I must have gotten a sample that's gone off or something.
Cat piss! No, no, no!
⁝
This is interesting stuff! It starts out rather pungent and green but dries
down oakmossy and leathery - a nice masculine fragrance. Yep - I could wear
this!
It IS complex - note the 28 notes that reviewers here notice. But, remarkably,
it's not a mess. Reminds me a little of Quorum, a little of Halson Z14, a
little of this, a little of that... a well-wrought fragrance.
------
UPDATE: I found a 1 oz. bottle at Ross for $20 and so I bought it. I think the
bottle I have is slightly different than the stuff I tried initially. And if
this has been reformulated, it's still a good reformulation.
This is such an amazing, wild fragrance! It goes on very dirty and somewhat
forbidding - for mature men only. I get coconut, a bitter chocolate, leather, oakmoss
and some other green things I can't identify. Wow.
The funny thing is, on my skin it dries rather quickly to a nice tobacco - but
is this an olfactory illusion? No tobacco is listed. On my cotton tee shirt,
however, I get a bitter chocolate for a couple of hours before, it, too, turns
into the most amazingly intense tobacco.
This stuff and Antaeus are the most thoroughly masculine scents I have yet to
try. Tsar, however, is more dynamic in that there are a lot of things going on.
This isn't a fragrance - it's an olfactory dark house ride!
---
Okay, I've got it figured out. Tsar is an inverted Ralph Lauren Polo. Polo is
leather, tobacco and green notes. Tsar is green notes, tobacco and leather.
More or less!
---
That's it. I now hate this stuff. That carnation note is awful. A real
deal-killer. I liked it initially but now - I can't bear it on me. Ugh.
⁝
A lovely oud scent! This smells linear to me, that is, the top, middle and
base notes all smell pretty much of oud wood.
While this Tom Ford oud scent is wonderful, I prefer Creed's Royal Oud, which
seems richer and deeper. It's divine, that's the only way I can describe it.
You smell it and cannot be kept from uttering "Mmmmmm." The first
time I smelled it was kind of like the first time I bit into a prime rib: a
sensory milestone.
This product seems to be a bit underpowered; it fades fast on me. Not much sillage,
either.
⁝
I first became curious about this fragrance via Luca Turin's writing.
Pre-reformulation Cartier Santos was a favorite of mine; Turin wrote, "If
this is the sort of thing you like try Yatagan instead."
The first time I smelled it was on a test strip - it smelled complex and heady
- nice, just my kind of thing. The second time I had it sprayed on my wrist,
just to be sure I liked it. And I did and do. During a day of repeatedly
smelling the same old clean/fresh/aqua scents, this was distinctive and
welcome, like spending a day listening to adenoidal teens and suddenly hearing
a rich baritone voice.
My wife gets it as a leather scent... but leather isn't one of the notes...
--------
Now I own it; a birthday present from my daughter.
I wore it today for the first time; having no meetings I figured it was
"safe" to do so. When I first received it in the mail I sprayed some
on a business card and noted that it was strong and persistent. I've learned
that sometimes you have to figure out how to wear a specific scent: how many
squirts do you use, whether or not you spray it on your tee shirt for added
longevity, etc.
Yatagan is a very complex scent; when I first smelled it on a paper strip my
first thought was, "Oh, this is good stuff" as the notes hit my nose
sequentially: bitter herbs, leather, animalic notes, woods, etc. Speaking in
terms of music, it is not a solo instrument sonata, it is a symphonic movement.
What's more, it's in an unusual key. Yatagan is very controversial; note all
the lengthy reviews here. Some use the word "infamous."
I am convinced that Luca Turin is right when he calls it a five star
masterpiece. A paper strip representation of it is incomplete - it has to be
worn on the skin.
On me it's wonderful. That is, the scent I'm getting from it on myself. The
ultimate judge is my wife. Yatagan's "head space," that is, the scent
of it in the air, is warm and well modulated, woodsy and a bit herbal. When I
smell the inside of my tee shirt top, however, I get smoky, deep notes and a
tone (once again using musical metaphors) that I recognize from Chanel Antaeus,
which I've loved for years. This, I suspect, is the castoreum.
You have to be confident to wear this stuff; I suppose it helps that I have a
rather big personality. It is very masculine - I cannot imagine a woman wearing
this and successfully pulling it off. It would also be unseemly on young men, I
think.
I love it!
⁝
"Masculine with an unexpected freshness, it leaves a very seductive
trace."
Wrong on all counts! It isn't masculine at all, the freshness is not only
expected, it's a cliché, and seduction is far from this scent's emotional
signature. The bottle I smelled had a terrible BO note. It must have gone off
somehow. It's what? Intended for a wedding? What a bizarre promotional
campaign.
⁝
Woodsy/powdery/patchouli pretty much describes this one. It smells somewhat
feminine to me. I don't like it but I'm not sure why. I kept sniffing the test
card and getting a negative reaction. At times it smelled like burnt
gingerbread, kind of foul.
NOTE: I saw this at Ross for $7. Paying more than that would be a mistake, I
think.
-------
I see there's a Kanon Agarwood (not on the Fragrantica database) at a Marshall.
Agarwood is oud, but this smells nothing like oud. But it does smell like I'd
imagine Scandanavian armpit might smell.
⁝
Onyx? As in black? I don't think so. This stuff smells relentlessly
cheerful and fresh - like any number of other such scents.
Funny: I threw the test strip in the trash. Days later I go to empty the trash
and get a sudden blast of Calone. Not entirely a bad thing for trash to smell
like.
⁝
Undistinguished. It opens with gingery citrus notes, and smells
clean/fresh/sporty for a few hours. Then it's gone.
There are any number of scents on the market that have this exact same
olfactory signature. Free Time smells like what jaded reviewers call a
"Calone Clone." Oceanic/marine/fresh... to my nose boring.
If you are a small insect walking across the body part you have sprayed this
upon, then it has sillage. Otherwise not.
"Safe for the office" - a place where tedium reigns. Fits right in.
Nice bottle. Looks kind of like a Star Trek prop, or what a house stager would
put atop a beach house bedroom dresser.
⁝
A tatty lemon smell followed by some olive. In other words, you just had a
lemonade and the bread dipped in olive oil at Romano's Macaroni Grill and you
burped. I am not encouraged to buy this.
Second wearing: It goes on nice and is encouraging, but after a half hour or so
it dries down to over-familiar aroma molecules. I have smelled this too often
in other fragrances. What's more, I've never smelled this as a natural smell,
which suggests I'm really smelling a synthetic, chemical scent. In other words,
it doesn't smell like vanilla, or food, or spices, or leather or tobacco - it
smells like a mass market fragrance.
⁝
This is a mess. Hideousness in a bottle. Cheap, cloying, pungent and - did
I say cheap? No manners whatsoever.
Naturally, it's enormously popular.
I have a sample bottle of this I'll give to the spouse of somebody I don't
like.
The bottle goes for Fort Knox but hits Las Vegas instead.
------------
It's going to be a long day. I finally tried the infamous Paco Rabanne 1
Million. Rather than a nice gourmand scent (cinnamon or cocoa, perhaps) that
this is supposed to be, what I mainly have on me is a nasty, synthetic
"fresh" or sharp aroma molecule that I am too familiar with from
other cheap fragrances. I'm going to have to smell this on myself all day until
I get home and bomb myself with something that will overwhelm it. My prized
bottle of vintage (circa 1983) French-made Halston Z-14 comes to mind.
------------------
Second (and last) wearing: I know how to tame the sweet beast that is 1
Million. Have a head cold. I can barely smell it. Cool.
⁝
The day before I tried this I wore Eau Sauvage Parfum, a far more recent
flanker which has a nice, warm myrrh base note.
Today I wore the 1966 original which, yes, has a citrus note, but it also has
the warm, balmy smell. They smell more alike than different. Both are
wonderful, well modulated and elegant.
I think I prefer the parfum flanker, but I'd take either one!
--------
Second wearing: I must have gotten a tired tester before. This has a fantastic
lemony punch. I was surprised at how complete the olfactory representation is -
this is LEMON. Really, really good. An undisputed classic since 1966 - now I
truly see why.
⁝
First of all, don't go by the misleading "parfum" designation.
This is not a more concentrated version of Eau Sauvage. This is a flanker.
Different notes/a reinterpretation/an hommage - call it what you will. They
should have called it something other than "Parfum" - that confuses
people.
It's a lovely, warm, soft, balmy smell. Not aggressively masculine, but dressy,
finished and presentable. The myrrh note dominates and is quite pleasant. It's
one of those scents I like to sniff on myself; in fact, I've been doing this
all day. Lovely. My wife likes it a lot, too.
This has some aromatheraputic qualities, I think. It's calming.
I don't get the vetiver note at all, by the way. Vetiver has a pungency that
this simply does not have. This is smooth and elegant.
I did write that I wanted this one, but now I'm not so sure. I have Chanel Pour
Monsieur Concentree, which finishes with the same sweet myrrh note. The
difference is that this stuff gets there directly while Pour Monsieur
Concentree has an evolution through other notes. But it's the same destination.
⁝
I love this stuff! It smells summery, dressy, classy and refreshing. The
bottle it comes in is excellent, too; it makes me think of Napoleonic history.
(Did Marshal Ney wear this?) A winner on both counts.
But, uh-oh... it starts disappearing as it hits my skin. Lasts, maybe, an hour
or two. That's it. No longevity - the 4711 Factor. What a pity! If Guerlain
could figure out how to better this, Cologne Imperiale would be worth what
they're asking for it.
⁝
Funny thing - I normally like the classic fragrances for men. But some of
this was put on a test strip for me and it just about seared my nostrils.
PUHWOW! This smells exactly like one of my mother's kitchen drawers in the old
house we rented when I was a small child, an awful, greasy-spicy messy smell. I
drew back and crossed my eyes it was so bad. Hideous.
The stuff in the tester must have been bad or gone off. I cannot believe, given
the reviews here, that we are all smelling the same thing. I plan to find this
somewhere else and give it another try.
⁝
A villainous smell, way too sweet and cloying. Smells like a nasty hard
candy, or the "cherry" flavor of Nyquil.
I sniffed it on a test strip - it's never going to make to any part of my skin.
Never. If you see it on a counter, walk away and leave it be.
UPDATE: A friend of mine who was in a horrible apartment in Germany was once
given a number of bottles of this stuff. He discovered that it kills maggots on
contact. My opinion is that it nearly has the same effect on humans.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another friend of mine is in the printing industry, and the
nastiest solvent he has ever come into contact with is called
"Deglazinator." A squirt of it can strip the paint off a car where it
touches, pronto. He showed me a bottle of it, once. IT LOOKS JUST LIKE JOOP!
⁝
This is intended to be a masculine scent? Really? It smells flowery,
somewhat sweet, fey and light on me, like an especially transparent Jo Malone
fragrance. Don't get me wrong: it's not a bad smell, but I think it would make
a far more appropriate woman's scent than a man's.
To be honest, I'm thinking that it's a good teenage girl's first perfume. It's
not for me at all.
(I'm a rugby player but I shall forbear making the usual taunting rugby vs.
soccer comments regarding anything with a soccer player's name upon it.)
⁝
Oh, this is wonderful stuff, even reformulated. (I bought the treemoss
cologne version at Ross for only $17!)
It's exactly the kind of scent I was looking for: deep, heady, aromatic and
masculine. No sweetness, no flowers... nothing fresh, sporty or blue about
this. I primarily detect the moss and pine notes, with some leather and
cinnamon thrown in for good measure. (On me it does NOT smell like Big Red -
not at all.) When you first spray it on it's an exceedingly heady, complex mix
that dries down very nicely.
It's certainly not a young guy's scent - this is a mature man's cologne. I
suppose it is evocative of the Seventies, but I don't care. A well-wrought
classic is a classic, and this is a classic.
And yes, amazingly, when it has dried it smells a lot like Tom Ford's Italian
Cypress ($200).
Halston Z-14: It sounds like a plot device in a spy film, but it's a great
scent for men at an amazing price.
---
Smells like Mister Blass? Never! This is *far* more complex than Mister Blass
and has notes MB does not have...
----
UPDATE: "I'd like to get a hold of a vintage bottle; with the IFRA-banned
oakmoss. This must have been killer."
I did! I got a bottle of the French-manufactured stuff on e-Bay for a song and
it arrived today. The bottle is different in that it has an extension on the
cap with the spray nozzle. I did a quick side by side wearing; current USA
formulation on my right arm, vintage French on the left.
My first take is that the vintage stuff smells like serious perfumery. There's
a note that I don't think I've encountered in that form yet. It's deep and
strong. A dirty leathery smell, perhaps? It's bolder. Compared to it the
current stuff dries in a less complicated, somewhat more modern fashion -
cinnamon and cypress. (In warm weather it seems more cinnamon than cypress on
me. I distinctly recall it drying down more cypress when I first bought it in
February.)
In the vintage there is a Mitsouko resemblance... it's dry and just a little
bit off-putting.
Before I say which one I really prefer I'm going to wear the vintage all day in
my usual test. I will say, however, that the current stuff does smell more like
modern style fragrances. It's lighter, less dirty. The vintage has a somewhat
alarming and more deeply pungent note that is entirely missing in the current
stuff.
But here's the weird thing! I tried some vintage Z-14 in Richmond, VA and it's
different yet. It's certainly not current and it isn't this French mix, either.
It has an initial oakmoss blast that is absent from both.
Odd!
But this vintage brew is wonderful. It doesn't smell modern at all!
⁝
A boring, generic, undistinguished scent. Smells like everything else on
the market. That's what it's guilty of.
Another thing: It doesn't last. Longevity is poor.
Finally, if I were the head lawyer at D.C. Comics, I'd sue. This bottle looks
like something that would be affixed to Batman's utility belt.
⁝
It's nice and light, citrusy and summery. A good formulation.
My wife sometimes likes it and is sometimes indifferent to it, so there's no
sales pressure from that corner!
But, no, it's not for me.
Update: On a second wearing on a summer's day, yeah, it is. I like it better on
a second wearing than I did on a first. Probably the best of the Jo Malone's
I've tried.
⁝
It look a while for me to come to terms with this one. I prefer it to Versace
Pour Homme or Eau Fraiche, but I'm not likely to buy a bottle of it as it
really doesn't smell like something I especially want to smell on myself all
day.
In short, it's okay. It reminds me of Le Male - but I think I prefer Le Male.
There is a certain tactile joy in handling the bottle, however.
⁝
Soapy, generic, boring. On me it's nearly gone after two hours. This is my
least favorite Prada I have tried thus far. The bottle is interesting and has a
nice machined tactile feel to it. If Kraftwerk had a scent, it would come in a
bottle like this. But who buys a scent for the bottle?
⁝
Tested on an arm: Fresh, clean, BORING.
-------
Tested for a day via sample: When I was a little boy there was a drawer in our
kitchen that had, as a result of some spill, perhaps, a nasty and dirty spice
smell. This is what Eternity reminds me of. (Cartier Pasha has this same dirty
kitchen drawer note.) Add in a mild dollop of sour. I like the citrus top notes
to this one a whole lot better than I do the drydown.
I don't liike this stuff at all.
As is often the case with fragrances we don't like, longevity is longer than we
would wish. (It seems to be a perfume rule of some kind.)
⁝
I was in a Sears and, on a whim, sprayed some of this on a card. "I
probably won't like it," thought I. But I immediately took to what I
thought was a soft honey smell... not bad, not bad at all! I am agreeably
surprised. I see the reviewers here identify the note for me: whiskey. Yes,
that's what it is! Nice...
I normally avoid celebrity fragrances because I don't like the whole notion of
celebrity-endorsed anything. The fastest way for me to want to avoid something
is by seeing some vacuous star in the advertising. But I'm trying to judge
scents wholly on what my nose tells me and not by packaging, advertising,
history, cost or celebrity, so I think this stuff can stand on its own. Well
done Richard Herpin of Firmenich!
Now I'll have to get around to trying it on myself and not just on a paper.
---------
Update: I sprayed some of this on my arm. Still smells nice! A bit pungent when
just sprayed, but nice. A boozy distilled smell. My wife likes it, too. A
winner! Hey, I may buy some of this...
---------
Bought a small bottle for next to nothing! I like this stuff - but I wish it
lasted longer and radiated more...
----------
Finished my bottle. My final assessment: An excellent budget fragrance, but it
really, really needs to longevity and sillage punched up. For that reason I
won't buy another bottle. It just doesn't last.
⁝
Comes in a ridiculous "faux elegant" bottle. Most reviewers
detect a leather scent, but I'm getting lavender-citrus. It's not bad, but it's
not especially good, either. Kind of trashy. It smells mass market to me. Clean
up on Aisle 4 of the T.J. Maxx.
My wife is okay with it.
It was amusing watching the personable young gal at Sephora decant this into a
sample spray bottle - it just about gagged her, and she made various stink
faces. (Single guys take note: This is never a good sign if you intend to use
cologne to attract women.) Her co-worker, when called over, agreed and made
stink faces of her own.
⁝
A soft fragrance, powdery/woody. At first comforting. I'd say it's a first
or second cousin to Stetson (which costs far less), except there's a pungent
element that enters into things - the bitter orange note, I suppose. It gives
it added interest. But by the time seven hours or so have elapsed this scent -
on me - is all sour. Pfew.
I don't like this stuff!
⁝
I wanted to like this more than I did because what I read about the late,
lamented M7 intrigues me. It's complex, I'll give it that. The top notes/heart
notes of this are rather flowery and feminine - the base note smells like
vanilla to me. I don't know if I want this...
When it comes to oud, I greatly prefer Creed Royal Oud.
⁝
I had the bottle shown in the image, which I suppose is the new
reformulation. The box is different; I don't have the "Puig." On the
bottom is says "Copyright 2003." I bought it at Ross for $15
("compare at $41")!
This was a major disappointment.
I like the deep mossy/aromatic scent - since I like Antaeus it's my kind of
thing - but Quorum has been apparently refomulated into almost non-existence.
After a couple of hours it's pretty much gone on me. Threatening? Sillage
monster? Powerhouse 80's scent? Hardly. It's weak. What a pity. I bet I'd
really like the vintage version of the original fragrance.
I took it back. Why buy a scent (at any price) that you can only smell for an
hour or two?
------------
Update: I found an 1 oz. bottle in a box marked 1993 for $2 and bought it. MUCH
better! Nice and oakmossy. SCORE.
⁝
I'm not sure what I think about this one because I am attracted to it and
repelled by it at the same time. I started out liking it. It's a nicely
modulated leather scent and certainly smells unlike most of the
fresh/blue/sport stuff that seems to dominate the market.
On the other hand, as the day wore on I started to get an "old man"
vibe off it. There's a nagging note there that smelled like poor hygiene to me.
I guess it doesn't work with whatever my skin exudes or something. Weird. It
smells just fine on a friend of mine...
I see this reminds people of Azzaro pour homme. I don't like Azzaro pour homme.
Perhaps I'm objecting to the same thing in both.
⁝
Mmmmm. The first Creed I've smelled where I've thought *YES.* I can see why
oud gets so much praise and attention in the perfume world. This is a lovely,
wonderful smell.
$325/bottle at Nordstrom. Ouch. I'm not going to maintain that it's worth that
- but it certainly smells rich and luxurious.
Upon a first spray my wife was reminded strongly of the ashtrays in her
grandmother's house and recoiled dramatically. But she likes the base note. I
note no ashtray top notes.
-----------
A proper wearing: I've only worn this before as a spray on my arm; I liked it a
lot. Spraying more and wearing it generally, however, is a bit different. Now I
detect a rather unpleasant cooked vegetable note that resembles a Givaudan
leather base I'm familiar with... is this the angelica I'm noticing? When it
dries down, however, it's a great dry cedary wood smell. Lovely.
⁝
BLEAH! It's like being trapped in a Hershey factory with a whole bunch of old
guys who smoke pipes. Awful. In fact... the smell of it on me is making me
queasy. I am no doubt betraying my age, here, but I cannot figure out who would
want to intentionally smell like this.
When I gave my arm to my wife to sniff, she made what we call a "stink
face." My baby grandson does it from time to time.
⁝
I like this better than Egoiste, although I like Egoiste. There's a pungent
woodiness to Egoiste which has been tuned to a sort of citric metallic
sharpness in this flanker.
It's in the clean/fresh/citrus genre of scents that are overly popular in
today's market (everyone makes a "blue" or "sport"
variation - it's like the SUV of the fragrance world), but to me it smells of a
greater quality than other such scents I've tried. Or perhaps I'm being misled
by Chanel's reputation.
Speaking colorwise, if Chanel Antaeus (1981) is dark and deep, Egoiste Platinum
is on the opposite end of the spectrum, bright and piercing. Pour Monsieur
(1955) - the other Chanel I have grown to really like - is mellow, restrained,
classic and perfectly modulated and fits nicely between the two. You wear that
when something really important is taking place.
-----
I wrote the text above a couple of months ago. I sprayed some of this on my arm
today and was very turned off by the basenotes, which I have smelled too many times
before in other clean/fresh/sporty scents. I'm told this - the metallic
sharpness I mentioned - is dihydromyrcenol. UGH. I take it back: Not only do I
not like this better than Egoiste - I don't like it any more, period.
My taste has changed. What a difference a couple of months make!
-----
Tried it again on my arm, just to check. Yep. I still dislike it!
⁝
Deeper and darker than her other stuff, but the attempt it makes to be
unlike the rest of the Malones seems unauthentic. I liked this when I first
tried it, but I have subsequently smelled too many other scents that get the
masculine notes right. This is like Pee Wee Herman driving a tank.
⁝
I'm not a big fan of the green, piney top notes in this one, but I do like
the base notes - a nice, aromatic tobacco and leather scent. My wife likes it,
too and says she can probably live with it. Also, a little goes a long way...
no need to overspray.
But I don't plan to acquire it. I suspect that to women my daughter's age I'll
smell like an enormous fourteen year-old. This stuff was (and perhaps still is)
quite popular among the middle school crowd.
Also - I'm mildly allergic to it. The first time I sprayed it on, after a few
hours, I felt rather itchy. To confirm I tried it again.. and yes, I feel
somewhat itchy again. I know grass makes me itch mildly - maybe this and that
share a common molecule.
⁝
At least I *think* this is the one the lady at the Creed counter put into a
tester for me. I remember a vivid green bottle.
Anyway, this is good, but I prefer Guerlain's Vetiver. This seems to be a
somewhat more citrus take on the vetiver note. Guerlain's product seems to be
woodier and is more long-lasting.
This doesn't last for long on me; it's better applied to clothing than skin in
my case.
------
Second wearing: Compared to Guerlain Vetiver (which I now own), this is crass.
An also-ran.
⁝
Not "intensa" at all. It goes on strongly citrus and quicky dries
down to... almost nothing at all. On me I'd have to use up a lot of this stuff
to make any impression.
The base note is nice woody-aromatic, but it's barely there.
I like the original colonia formulation best of the AdP's I've tried.
⁝
A clean soapy scent, and a nice one. Call it Italian barbershop, maybe? A
sort of buttoned-down smell. I wore it to work in freshly pressed shirt and
trousers and felt very squared away and presentable - this despite having to
overcome bronchitis and strep throat at the time! Good stuff.
---
Second wearing: I still like it. I want a bottle.
⁝
Citrus, flowers, spices. A classic - it was formulated in 1916 - it smells
wonderful, exactly what a good men's scent should smell like. I like it a lot.
Sadly, my wife is indifferent to it. Her initial comment about it was
"Eh," modulating later on to "I like it."
I feel very dressy wearing it.
⁝
A Luca Turin five star masterpiece, and for good reason. It's well named: I
have never smelled anything so redolent of the ocean - the marine base is very
evocative. Also, I can detect the mint. Very nice! My wife likes it, too,
although it's not her favorite.
This is kind of a young guy scent, but I might consider it for the hot weather
months.
⁝
I wore this all day. I had never smelled vetiver before, let alone lived
with it on myself, but I like this. A woody, somewhat pungent scent - but
appealing.
Sadly, my wife is neutral about it.
Vetiver reminded me of Edward I's Palace in the Tower of London - this is a
good thing. I picked up some unique wood smell there I really found
distinctive. It smelled like *history* to me and conjured up all kinds of
interesting mental associations and fancies.
Anyway, I like Guerlain Vetiver. Quite nice.
----
Second wearing: I am REALLY impressed with this. Someday I shall own a bottle.
Update: Just bought a bottle. It's wonderful! A spirit lifter. I shall wear
this for the rest of my life, I think. The more I wear it, the more I'm
convinced that this could be the ONE scent. Gorgeous!
⁝
A reviewer called this a total leather bomb - and so it is. It is a very nice
leather bomb, however. The scent is that of fine, expensive things. It is
strong - a couple of sprays are enough. And I can still smell it on myself and
my shirt after 14 hours, so great longevity.
It goes on leathery, the heart note is leather and once it has dried to the
base note, there's a hint of berry there. But rather than attempt to dissect
it, I shall state that this just smells like luxury to me - like the interior
of a very fine car, or a very nice leather bound volume. The main note is *luxury.*
I like it a lot - it is very rich smelling - but my wife isn't sure she likes
it. That and the cost -$300/bottle - will probably preclude my ever buying it.
But gosh - it's wonderful!
--------
Update: It's too wonderful *not* to buy. So I sold a reproduction flintlock I
wasn't using (perhaps the first time in the history of masculinity that a guy
sold a gun to buy a perfume) and got myself a 3.4 oz,. bottle. In summary, I
have not smelled a leather scent that smells as good as this!
p.s. My wife now goes Mmmmmmmm when she smells it on me. I go Mmmmmmmmm when I
smell it on myself, too.
⁝
One of Luca Turin’s five star masterpiece scents for men. It’s expensive:
the Neiman-Marcus price is $245.
I tried it out on myself. It is… wonderful. It went on kind of dirty - is that
tobacco or ashtrays I smell? - and when dried smells old school masculine in
the very best way. I detect tobacco, cognac or brandy, wood, some leather,
maybe a little musk or resin... very nice.
I can see why this one has a reputation.
⁝
This is a soft, diaphanous mixture of spices that barely radiates,
described as having an ozonic note (ozone is air). It's "safe for
work," which means it's the olfactory equivalent of a nap.
I'm amazed at the wide variety of how reviewers read this smell. What I detect
as soft spices reviewers here detect as pickles, violets, cucumbers, old books,
basil, red wine, mildew, pineapple, berries, pepper and even toilet cleaner!
I think it's way too soft. Others think it's very strong. It gives one person
headaches; another person assures us that it will not give anyone headaches.
Wow. Are we all smelling the same thing, here?
My wife is indifferent to it.
⁝
I had an interesting conversation with a pretty young woman at the counter
in a Fragrance Outlet. "What men's fragrance do you sell the most
of?" I asked. "Whatever I want them to buy," was the answer.
"I can get any male to buy Dolce and Gabbana's The One," she said. (I
told her, "Not me - I've smelled it.")
But I know what's going in the average young guy's mind: "If she likes
this stuff maybe I'll find a girl like her wearing it. Or even her!" Thus
yet again we see the power of a pretty face over the average male. Are the
perfume houses aware of this phenomenon, I wonder? Payola.
----
So, remembering the pretty gal at the fragrance counter I'm trying out The One
for a day. It's the scent of spices with a mild tobacco note. It's... okay.
It's safe. It's a men's fragrance for men who aren't really interested in
fragrances.
This one doesn't project much, so it would be hard, I think, to get enough of
this on yourself to become an olfactory nuisance.
From the promotional copy: "The model of the fragrance advertising
campaign will be the actor Matthew McConaughey ... the Dolce & Gabbana
designers said that they wanted to have the sexiest man on the planet. And with
regards to that, Gabbana adds that this is the first time that a model in one
of D&G men's fragrance campaigns appears in clothes." Clothes! Gosh.
That's mighty bold of them.
So, is this... The One? No. Not for me, anyway.
⁝
Boredom. It smelled generically spicy for about an hour and then almost
totally disappeared on me, leaving only a scent molecule or two.
This is like one of those timid little personalities who enter into your life
for a moment, make no impression at all, and then leave to be quickly forgotten.
It does achieve something, however: my MAWBW (Might As Well Be Water)
Designation.
--------
Second test wearing: As unimpressive as the first. A yawner of a fragrance.
Seriously, the same house who made this also made Kouros?!?
⁝
I like Volkswagens, so when I saw a funny Avon bottle in the shape of a
Bug, I bought it. The Avon Wild Country in it is gone, but the approximately
forty year old scent remains, capped and secure. It's a good scent, but I think
a bit too baby powdery for me.
-----
Update: Just tried a spray from a fresh bottle onto my wrist. Yes - the very
same smell. Hasn't changed at all.
-----
Yes, it's a "barbershop" smell. But... wait. One reviewer said it
reminded him of baby wipes. Yep - that's it! Wild Country smells like baby
wipes! (I had three kids and am well acquainted with the smell.) Do I want to
smell like baby wipes? No, I don't think so.
This is a scent that I'll have but never wear.
⁝
My favorite of the three Jack Blacks (silver, black and blue). This one is
more typical of the leathery/woody scents I tend to like.
Projectionwise it's well-behaved - perhaps a bit TOO well-behaved. After five
or six spritzes on myself and a few hours I have to smell hard to get it, even
after spraying on my shirt top.
⁝
It's about the same as Jack Black Silver Mark on me. Nice, but, as one
reviewer notes, no WOW factor. My wife gets the mint note ("I smell
toothpaste") but I don't. For me it's more or less interchangeable with JB
Silver.
------
This is a scent for men who don't like scent. Sort of an upmarket Old Spice. As
others have observed, it doesn't last - which is why I gave up on this hobby.
I'm tired of paying good money to wear stuff that doesn't last!
⁝
Meh. Generic. Doesn't make much of an impression on me.
-------
Second wearing: I watched the two minute promotional video. (It looks like the
girl lives in a James Bond villain bunkered headquarters.) So. What sort of a
scent do you suppose accompanies this video? Well, I'll tell you: a completely
generic, wishy-washy one. It goes on rather nice, with a barely detectable
orange and rum scent, and then quickly resolves to the briefest of woody notes,
then... nothing. What a disappointment! When will perfume houses figure out
that people tire of spraying $100/bottle perfumer's alcohol on themselves?
⁝
A bit confusing, this one. I'm not sure I like the somewhat acrid and sour
base note. Where is that coming from? Leather? Oakmoss? This reminds me of some
astringent I used to put on my face. It's a complex men's fragrance, I'll give
it that.
Perhaps if I owned it I'd get to like it... Well - it doesn't matter. This
stuff is hugely popular and Chanel doesn't need me to wear it.
⁝
Just tried it on me this morning from a little test bottle. I like it fine
on a card but, wow, not on me!
It's too perfumey, too fruity, too feminine, too I don't know what. Too much
pomegranate, too little noir, I guess. I smell like a 6' 4", 260 lb.
fruitcake! Not for me at all. I had to live with it the rest of the day. Phew.
I gave the remainder to my visiting daughter, who liked it... until she
realized that it reminded her of a particular scented hamster bedding! :)
⁝
One of Jean-Claude Ellena's minimalist works. I took home a sample from
Nordstrom in one of their little giveaway test sprayers. I completely
misunderstood this fragrance the first time I wore it for a day since, at the
time, I had an untrained nose. Now I think I "get" it.
What I primarily detect in this is orange, enlivened with a bright vetiver note
and softened with cedar - which could very well come from this fragrance's
celebrated use of Iso E Super. (I have a vial of it, to me it smells like a very
mild cedar - or, alternatively, warm skin in flannel.)
This is a lovely, light, transparent scent. It strikes me that this could be
worn in any weather and for any occasion. I could gladly wear this.
Anecdote: I once encountered a man looking at pictures on the wall of a museum.
He was radiating a warm scent that smelled to me of intimacy - fragrant, warm
skin. When I asked what it was he was wearing, he admitted it was something his
wife selected for him, and mispronounced "Terre d'Hermes." I figured
it out and smiled... Iso E Super is sometimes the smell of intimacy.
Interesting stuff!
⁝
EGAD, what a hideous opening! Lacquer thinner and rubber. I used to work
with solvents at Lockheed and this is what it invoked.
On me it dried down to virtually nothing. There's something left that I have a
hard time smelling and it's barely there.
So, no.
Funny bottle. Looks like a hockey puck, or a tire. I suppose the tire reference
was intentional.
⁝
I just had to try something like that, in a pine cone bottle. Like most of
the reviewers here, I found it rather nice. A sharp herbal opening... my wife
likes the base notes.
I can still smell it on the sniffer strip 30 hours later.
That bottle is amazing. A pine cone. Hahaha! And I have to confess I like the
whole presentation and box art - green is my favorite color and this is GREEN.
---------
Bought it. This stuff is GREAT! I can see why it's been popular since 1955. And
I only paid $20 for 4 ounces! I was going to make it my Christmas season scent
- but it's not that type of piney. As others have noticed, it more of a
pine-herbal. A delicious scent.
⁝
I tried a test sprayer at Nordstroms, being dubious of a scent with the
word "bomb" in it. (Am I a cockroach, to be bombed?)
It's sort of like a peppier Old Spice, but on steroids. My wife liked the base
notes and so did I, but it's overpriced, I think. And that bottle - ridiculous.
I'd feel silly having it on my bathroom counter.
For twentysomething males, I suspect. Once again I am not in the intended
demographic. NFM. (Not for me.)
---
Second wearing: my opinion hasn't changed. This stuff smells great but is too
faint. Little longevity, no sillage.
⁝
Part of my Luca Turin Best Masculines test tour.
Spray on the wrist: I didn't like it. On my arm it dried down to what smelled
like a really rosy feminine scent.
Later test: I got some in a little spray bottle to test and put 3-4 sprays on
myself. It's only been an hour and I can't smell anything at all! It went on
citrusy and disappeared. Weird.
Yet another test: I don't know what the deal was before, but this time I got a
good sample from Nordstrom and tried it on for a day. The structure is apparent
to me now: the top is citrus, the drydown is a rosy vanilla - almost a
gourmandy floral. Or perhaps a floral gourmand! I don't know why I failed to
appreciate this one before - I guess my nose is developing and I'm acquiring a
taste for restrained florals - but this stuff is, indeed, as wonderful as
everyone claims it is. I'll have to buy a bottle!
⁝
This fragrance is cherry pipe tobacco. Very linear. That's pretty much all
I smell from beginning until nearly the end, when it smells less like cherry
tobacco and more like Tonka bean/vanilla.
Very nice and, to my nose, very masculine. Not a scent for young men.
One, or, at most, two light sprays to where your throat meets your chest -
that's all you need. This stuff is no Jo Malone scent; it's incredibly potent.
A bottle will last forever. I once sprayed one squirt onto my inner elbow. It
made its way to my shirt. It was there for a week until I got it laundered!
I love it. And I paid all of $17 for my bottle online. Wow.
⁝
Another stop on the Luca Turin Best Masculines tour, so I looked forward to
smelling it. I sprayed some on a card at Ulta and sniffed. My initial
impression was not totally good. Whoa. Is that... lacquer? Okay, wait for a
while, let it dry down. Try some on my wrist. Two hours later I was frantically
washing it off. A scrubber.
You know the opening scene in "Saturday Night Fever," where John
Travola is walking down a Brooklyn street? That's what it invoked. An ethnic
hair oil vibe. I was trying to remember what this stuff reminded me of, and
finally it hit me. When I was a teen my Dad used to work with a guy who wore
Tres Flores hair oil (you won't find it in the fragrantica database). I used to
sniff some when I was in drugstores, just because it smelled so bad - I was
astonished that anyone would buy it. That's what the Azzaro base notes reminds
me of.
Needless to say, this is not for me. I couldn't live with it. No, no, no.
------------
Update: Thinking that Luca Turin certainly *must* know what he's talking about
and being aware that some people have different experiences with a fragrance on
a second try, I tried wearing this for a day. Big mistake. It's still awful. He
called it "slightly vulgar and delicious." Not enough on the first
count and wrong on the second.
But it inspired me. I came up with a product that desperately needs to be
marketed: Scrubber For Men. It's Arm and Hammer baking soda in a suspension
solution to neutralize scents like Joop! or Azzaro which one has unthinkingly
and unfortunately sprayed upon oneself.
The ad campaign: "Scrubber For Men - We all make mistakes. But they don't
have to last all day."
---------------
Update to the update: I put this stuff on at 6:30 AM. It is now 11:16 PM after
I scrubbed my neck. I. Can. Still. Smell. It. It's like the Mafia: You can
never voluntarily leave it.
⁝
Sprayed this on a piece of cardstock at Ulta. My first whiff was a very
negative reaction. Woodsy? Incense? No! It smelled positively FECAL to me,
unbearably so. (Indole?) Is this a joke I'm not getting?
I have never smelled anything I have taken such an immediate strong dislike to
as this.
Then my sprayed piece of card dried down to almost nothing... faintly
woody/incense. I get it now, and it's faint but not bad. But, oy, those top
notes. Unendurable.
My wife doesn't like it either. She made a face on a wniff, then said
"ashtray." I sniffed again and darned if I didn't notice it as well.
(Which makes me wonder - how much of this is psychosomatic?)
No. Not at all for me
⁝
The first time I smelled this stuff I recoiled. It was WAY too sweet,
drying down to a caramel note. Why would anyone want to smell like this?, I
wondered.
Then, many moths later, I gave it a chance and tried it on an arm. Hmmmm. I
could get to like this. Does my wife like it? Yes, she does. Hmmm.
Finally, I wore it for a day. What can I say? It grew on me.
I like it and understand it now. Would I buy myself a bottle of it? Probably
not. If somebody gave me a bottle would I wear it? Sure! But I like the Pure
Malt flanker (which I own) more.
One last note: It a field of weak fragrances which last for a few hours then
are gone, this stuff has outstanding longevity; a real throw back to the
1980's. I appreciate that.
⁝
I went a-sniffing fragrances one day with my wife and this was one of the
surprise discoveries. My first thought was antique wood, like poking my nose
into the works of my 100 year old grandfather clock.
I sprayed some on my wrist and all that day I was trying to pin down the source
of the bitter note, when Turin's guide helpfully told me: thyme and herbes de
Provence.
I can wear Egoiste; it's very presentable.
I also like Antaeus and Pour Monsieur, so me and the Chanels are sympatico, I
guess!
------
I wore Egoiste today; I like it...
Wore Egoiste again: Okay, it's settled. I LOVE this stuff. I sprayed some on my
arm at 2:30 PM and it's 12:39 AM now. (Ten hours later.) There is *the* most
wonderful tobacco basenote left on my arm; I can I smell it from time to time.
How could I have once written that I liked the Platinum flanker more? This is
so much nicer!
I WANT A BOTTLE.
⁝
My father used to wear this - and, weirdly, cut out the image of the ship
on the box and frame it on the living room wall! (I am serious.)
In the 80's I once read a book entitled "Dress for Success," and in
the cologne/after shave section the writer was surprised to note that in his
testing, this particular scent tested very high. Well, of course it did! It's a
successful classic and has been since the 1930's. Smells great!
I'd like to test it on myself but I suspect I won't get past the first bottle.
I tried it once and discovered to my dismay that it almost vanishes immediately
on me. (Frowny face.)
Also - the stuff you can buy currently is in a plastic bottle rather than the
old glass/ceramic one. Tactile turn off. And I like Luca Turin's
"weird" little cap/plug.
On the box currently is this: "If your grandfather hadn't worn it you
wouldn't exist." Hahaha!
------------
Update: I scored a bottle of vintage Shulton Old Spice from the 1960s or 1970s.
It smells *wonderful!* Much more complex than the current formulation. And it
lasts better, too.
⁝
I must agree with the other reviewers - this is an excellent scent for the
money. I bought a tester to try it out and I am impressed. Long lasting, too...
on me it lasts 15 hours. I think I'll buy a bottle. (It certainly won't set me
back.)
In the bottle it smells somewhat floral and feminine. But as the hours pass by
it smells... nice. Somewhat unisex, but nice. Certainly not assertively
masculine. I smell powdery vanilla and musk, quite pleasant.
The dried down scent of Stetson reminds me of when I was a teenager and kept my
favorite tarot card deck in a little cedar box. Warm and woody.
The masculine advertising is funny... this could easily also be a feminine
scent.
------
Update: My wife, smelling it on me, now thinks it smells "cheap." The
more I wear it the more I smell the baby powder note.
-------
Holy cow! This humble Coty frag for under $20 a bottle, made in the US, still
has real oakmoss in it!
⁝
Whoa... an awful, awful smell. Opening a bottle of it and sniffing instantly
reminded me of the Christmas of 1970, when I bought some for my Dad. I
possessed all of the mature judgment of a fourteen year old. What's worse - he
wore it.
Nowadays I smell this in elevators when a certain class of men were therein
about an hour prior. Not good.
⁝
A reviewer wrote: "This WAS the fragrance of the mid-to-late 70's in
my Hollywood (you had to have been there)." I was, in Los Angeles. That's
one of my problems with this scent, I guess.
I wore this back in 1978 and 1979 - but then I also wore polyester shirts and
pants, too. And I was a total jerk. I didn't like myself much back then and
smelling this these days reminds me how far I've come.
A lot of the time it's good to be 63 rather than 22.
I'd never ever wear it again. And my wife made a face when I let her smell an
open bottle at a store. So that's nix for both of us.
⁝
A lovely scent but on me it doesn't last at all. Within an hour or so it's
gone. So why bother?
Much better: Pinaud's Bay Rum. Used in barbershops. Lasts somewhat longer than
the Royall product, smells about the same and costs next to nothing for a huge
bottle. To paraphrase Ricardo Montalban in those great old Chrysler Cordoba
ads, I know my own needs, and what I need from a bay rum scent I get from the
Pinaud product. Deal!
⁝
English Leather! Haha! When my son was a teen I found a bottle of this at a
yard sale and, on a whim, I bought it for him. For a while he practically
*bathed* himself in it. So, for me, it smells like a teenage male.
I would never ever wear it. Cheap but not really good.
Update: This has been reformulated, and not well. The new stuff smells
dreadful.
⁝
I used to wear it in the 1980s - in my newly-married college years - but
have grown past it. I sniffed it recently... it brought back pleasant memories,
but it's certainly not something I would wear now. I've since gravitated
towards darker, less green and soapy scents. Chypres, not fougeres.
I smell this now and think, "Why did I ever wear this?" Because I had
the perception that people thought it was good, that's why. I had an immature,
untrained nose compared to what I have now. I'm more confident about my taste
nowadays and I'm more assured about what I like - the happy result of smelling
lots of fragrances.
⁝
With Antaeus, another favorite scent. I used to wear this in the early
2000's. That is, the *vintage* Santos - a wonderful masculine fragrance of
complexity and longevity, known for being unabashedly masculine. It was deep
and complex back then, with spicy/woody/amber notes. When I sprayed it on from
my sample I expected the recognition akin to re-meeting an old friend. But,
uh-oh... it's been reformulated. And badly reformulated.
I could tell right away - I barely recognize it anymore. It went on fumey and
feminine (a negative jolt) and dried down to a primarily soapy smell. The notes
are all wrong and its legendary longevity is gone; it starts disappearing after
an hour. They've ruined it! What a pity... like Quorum, another wonderful Eighties
fragrance gone.
-----
Update : Turns out, there are two Santos scents for sale: a silver one and a
gold (concentree) one. The gold one is more like the c. 1999 version I liked.
It smells great! This is the stuff, all right. About as good as it ever was
with good longevity and sillage. But... wearing it, I had forgotten how peppery
it was. That seems to be the main note.
Will I be buying a new bottle of this? Probably not. The stuff smells good but
I'm moving on to other scents and other types of scents.
⁝
My signature scent... the first time I sniffed it I loved that mysterious
dark smoky/musky and slightly animalic scent. It makes me think of burnt cork.
It suits me very well and I'm comfortable wearing it. When I hug my wife she
takes a deep breath and assures me that it smells very good.
I discovered it in 1999. Like Cartier Santos (my other main fragrance), it,
too, has been reformulated. I am certain of this. (For one thing, the box no
longer lists oakmoss as an ingredient.)
Vintage juice: Powerful, deep, dark, somewhat animalic, smoky and absolutely
masculine. Use too much of it you'll be smelled a city block away.
Reformulated juice: Very nearly the same thing but much reduced in strength,
according to current trends. Antaeus Lite. This morning I did about six sprays
on myself but the scent is confined to close to the skin; I can only smell it
when I move my shirt front like a bellows. That much of the old stuff would be
discotheque-grade killer.
Why was it reformulated? Did Chanel do it to make Antaeus less of a dated
Eighties scent?
I called Chanel Customer Care and they told me that there has been no
refomulation of it since it was introduced in 1981. I just don't believe them,
and it's apparent from the comments here that others are sure that a
reformulation has taken place as well. I asked them about oakmoss restrictions,
and the woman on the line had no information about that other than to maintain
that it's the same 1981 stuff.
Update: I bought a bottle today. How I missed it!
--------
I found a bottle of vintage (I'm guessing mid to late 1980's) Antaeus. Anyone
who doesn't think this has been drastically refomulated just needs to get a
whiff of the old stuff. Like night and day.
---------
Big disappointment yesterday. A few years ago I traded a couple of bottles of
perfumes I didn't really like for a half bottle of vintage (1980's, I think)
Chanel Antaeus - the stuff with the real castoreum and oakmoss in it. The
bergamot citrus top notes had evaporated away, but that's okay, the heart and
base notes were still intact and much better than the current greatly lightened
and oakmoss-free formulation. Problem was, though, the bottle's sprayer cap was
a bit funky and leaky; I could smell vintage Antaeus when it sat in the
cabinet. No problem, thought I, someday I'll simply go to Whole Foods, get a
new sprayer bottle and transfer the stuff. I did that yesterday - and was
heartbroken to discover that most of the juice had evaporated away! I figured I
had about 2 ounces left - in reality, I had perhaps an eighth ounce. DANG.
So what have I learned? Alcohol-based scents need to be kept in airtight
bottles!
Also, tempus fugit.
----------
BTW: Current formulation Antaeus no longer has oakmoss in it. Look at the
ingredients. No oakmoss listed. If it had it it would be on the box.
⁝
After reading the polarized reviews on this scent I looked forward to
testing it - so test it I did at a giant perfume discounter alongside I-95 in
North Carolina.
My wife was with me; neither of us got the cat urine/urine cake smell that is
described for this. Or the industrial floor wax smell. So our first response
was positive. I sprayed some on me and occasionally checked back with my wife
as we shopped - "Still like it?" She nodded okay. But only okay, not
"You have GOT to buy this."
The problem emerged during the remaining three hours of the trip in the car as
the base notes began to get on my nerves. By the time we got home I quickly
took off my shirt and scrubbed my neck. I could still smell it on me the
following morning - this stuff has longevity.
But it isn't for me. My wife is neutral about it. I read somewhere that if you
wear this in a restaurant you may be asked to leave. I totally don't get that.
-------
Second wearing: Holy cow! Now I get the urinal cake note. Ugh. No, no, no.