212 Men (1999)
by Carolina Herrera

I used to have a bottle of this pretty early in my fragrance obsession. A fresh aromatic blend of florals and woods. Pretty decent stuff.

After a bland, kind of sheer and clear fruity/floral opening that reminds me of a stronger and more synthetic version of L'Eau Par Kenzo, we get a heart and base with a shocking lack of blandness!

I always just assumed that the base would be that ambery-wood accord that perfumers seem to toss around so often, which is why I never really gave it the time of day. But 212 turns very dry with (just as jenson says) incense and sandalwood, softened slightly with some sort of clear musk - exactly as the pyramid says (which certainly doesn't happen often for me). Excellent! It smells rich without being overbearing.

I'm still not a huge fan of the opening, but the outstanding base smells like it could have come from something much more expensive and well-regarded.

What a discovery this has been for me...i know i know, this sounds like i was born just yesterday! i mean this has been around for so long and somehow, i just ended up dimissing it on card test/opening accords.. well, today, i had my arms free for 4 scents (sampling session in a mall)...very randomly i chose to spray 212 on my upper Palm... 1 minute into the scent and i felt, hmmf..wasted one spot..i should have tested something else, coz it felt very generic..fresh, musky, gingery green accord..i had sampled a lot of other scents in between and had almost forgot what i had on my left upper palm towards the end...i just kept on going back to it..what was generic an hour ago had morphhed into a pretty "Sandalwoody"+incense+white clouds kinda accord. an accord that i could compare with Tam Dao or a Gucci Rush with bits of Kenzo Air in there...absolutely lovely! just goes on to show how skin test is the only way to judge a fragrance...i was late to sample this scent, a scent which probably everyone on Basenotes has tried/sampled decades back//

Has a fuzzy, powdery fresh green grass smell that's accentuated by sweet bamboo juice and a touch of incense. Great for spring. Longevity is okay, average. All in all, not too sweet and not too dry. Not bad, but still not too amazing. Worth a go. I still prefer vetiver scents, but this is pretty close. Great bottle, too.

An uninteresting, unengaging piece of synthetic perfumery. The notes would suggest that this had great potential, but at no stage is there anything to arouse ones interest. It starts brashly with a hostile green accord, then quickly plummets into woody insignificance.

212 Men is a reasonable fresh scent but unbelievably synthetic and generic. I like my fragrances to be more distinctive and of a higher quality, thank you very much.

[Original submission date: 31 October 2006]