Allure Homme (1999)
by Chanel

I'm a woman and I love the idea of wearing cologne. As many BNers have pointed out, many fragrances can be considered unisex and the rule of thumb seems to be: wear what you like. Well, I like Chanel's Allure Homme but I don't love it. It's a nice, well-blended and eminently wearable fragrance. Pleasant, but not particularly interesting. On me it opens with a rather strong, aromatic burst of lemon and slight greenness. I'm not good at distinguishing notes but I guess it's from the lavender or geranium. For me this stage has the most silage and the lemon is very enjoyable; it's fresh and bright without being too sharp and it is not at all sweet, in the way many citrus openings in women's fragrances are. After a while I get a cool, somewhat powdery note reminiscent of iris, even though that's not supposed to be in there. I also get a faintly sweet and woody background at this point, still with a light citrus sheen. I get no pepper, and aside from a very quiet/skin scent of wood and citrus, I don't get any drydown.

Basically, this is a nice herby-lemon and faint-wood scent. It has moderate sillage and longevity but wears very close to the skin after only a few hours. A safe scent, and somewhat generic except for its smoothness.

29th January, 2012.

I blind bought this fragrance today, based on the good reviews I have read and the fact that I love Bleu de Chanel I decided to take a chance.
The citrus and peppery opening of this fragrance was a bit of a nostril burner for me which to me was not as pleasent as I had hoped, The mandrin is quite prominent) however once the fragrance started to dry down I began to understand why it had got such good reviews.
The dry down to me has a warm creamy syrup like aroma with a hint of cinnamon which I really like but now and again the pepper would begin to come through and in my opinion its the pepper that I think lets the fragrance down slightly.
With that said I still think this fragrance has a very nice dry down which is
very classy.
The projection on this fragrance is good enough and the longevity is also quite good, however if I had to pick between Chanel allure homme and Bleu de Chanel, Bleu de Chanel would win hands down in every aspect.

Overall I wouldnt say that this is a classic fragrance but im not sorry I bought it however I would make sure the dry down has started before getting close to a lady.
I would recommend that this fragrance be worn in the autum or winter and would be ideal for a romantic stroll in the park before dropping by a diner for a hot cup of coffee.

My score:
Projection:7
Longevity:8
Fragrance:8

27th January, 2012.

This is the scent if you want a bit of everything, perfected. I love this fragrance. So classy with the perfect amount of sweetness, woodness and freshness. Great projection and a really good longetivity. Definetaly worth the price!

15th January, 2012.

Versatile for sure, not groundbreaking for sure again and anyway a bit generic and mediocre for a brand as Chanel. Probably over the previous great stars as Egoiste and Antaeus, Chanel was just looking for an olfactory common versatility and that's all. This fragrance is another attempt to conjugate initial and stable freshness and citrusy-peppery modern dynamism with a final smooth, appealing, semi-oriental base of woods (mostly sandalwood in here), ambery patchouli and tonka. Mr. Polge manages to create a smooth, pleasant, contemporary and averagely classy concoction which is anyway a bit lacking of personality, and more similar (as quality and texture) to Ferrari Red and Paul Smith London that to great beasts as Japuir Homme, Obsession or New York Parfums de Nicolai. Pepper, bergamot and labdanum are barely notable and i had liked those were more stressed together with some spices, animal elements, leather and may be some dirty fruits. The smell is linear (any element is starring and for many this is a merit), cool, grassy (finally reminds a sort of oily smoky vetiver) and honestly sometimes i'd say edible in its dense citrusy oil but is just that, any serious innovation, strict balance, any wonderful Heliotrope (Japuir Homme) or spicy myrrh (Obsession for man), any element of "clever carnality, complex exoticism (Heritage with its blend of spicy lavender, bergamot and balsams), dissonance or animalism" but this elements nobody at Chanel was probably looking for. Simply not bad.

14th January, 2012.

Definitely one of my go to fragrances for a night out, especially when it's cold out. Always gets me compliments. Projection is good and longevity is good, lasts a while on me.

5th January, 2012.

This stuff is just glorious. It's a little bit of everything...rich, deep, woody, sweet, smooth. Really well balanced, exceptional quality. Projection is decent and longevity is just average.

A night time scent for me. Expensive, but worth it for the Chanel quality.

20th November, 2011.