212 Men (1999)
by Carolina Herrera

The fall from grace after the rather lovely 'Herrera for Men' is egregious. Talk about being populist and chasing the money -- this is a nailed on 'what women like to smell on a man' notion, rather than what men would actually like to wear. It's generic laziness and smells ghastly. Avoid.

Kaern

I have nothing positive to say about this. A nondescript chalky, woody green that I think smells awful. The girlfriend likes it though so I guess that's a positive.

When I first smelled this on a piece of paper, I thought it smelled odd. Eventually a month later, I had finally gotten a sample of it and sprayed it on myself. The first thought was "wow, this is nice". The initial blast of crispness was refreshing and it had a nice metallic feel to it. The dry down is a soothing incense with the light musk. This cologne is very well rounded and modern. It doesn't seem like the typical aquatic to me and it smells different than anything else I've tried (except CK Eurphoria, but it doesn't pull off the mossy-green fresh thing as well as 212). Another plus side about this is the longevity. It typically lasts 10-12 hours (or even more, I'm just being modest here). My skin usually drinks fragrances like crazy and this is one of the handful that actually does stick and I can still smell it fairly well the morning after.

Nice fragrance - I think there is a touch of Fahrenheit in there - not too long lasting on me - yeah - it's OK

I see some complaining about the originality and distinctiveness of 212. Well, I'm a "fresh scent" junkie and have yet to come across anything similar to this one. Citrus, Fresh cut Grass, and Pepper notes done so well.

Like AdG, it's probably disliked more for it's popularity than anything, but make no mistake about it, it really is a quality frag.

I struggle with this fragrance, because to my nose, I get this distinct fried something smell. It's like wearing a nice powdery cologne to work...at Burger King or KFC for 8 hours and then capturing the resulting smell and bottling it. And most of C Herrera's line is like that. It seems to have a great following though, and it has been copied time and time again. Lanvin L'homme comes to mind, so does Society (tall cylindrical bottle). Others include Paco Rabanne XS and DKNY Men in the funky long and skinny rectangular bottle.