Anthracite pour L'Homme (1991)
by Jacomo

This scent is as smooth to the nose as the bottle is on the fingers. In the realm of bartending there are certain counters one can employ to take the bite out of citrus drinks, vodkas, and general low shelf liquors. Anthracite deftly uses a counterweight to literally all of the more spiky ingredients, and it is ingeniously done. Most noticeable here is the exceptional use of pineapple, to which I am not usually very partial. Angelica, again, is ingenious; I have made absinthe before, and angelica is key in that it not only lends its trademark color to the liquid, but it tones down the unreasonably bitter taste of wormwood.
What this creates is a restrained green floral with a touch of fruit, but there's more. The cypress and pepper are immediately noticeable and work in concert with the clove and rose to create a semi-sweet cinnamon accord. The drydown is a soft, mossy musk, and is mercifully light despite just barely missing the 80's. Projection is polite - small but there. This is a Swiss-Army, all-occasion self-pleaser for a classy guy, combining 'inoffensive' with 'interesting,'
which is uncommon. If only the opening accord would stay longer I might hoard this little gem like a greedy dragon.

20th December, 2011.

What I get from Anthracite is floral fougère with a bit of spicy fruit sweetness. Very nicely put-together, and shows great evolution with a coherent dry-down. I know that Luca Turin has referred to this as one of the artful late 80s-early 90s men’s fragrances that that were influential critically, but not commercial successes. Given the others similarly noted (Insensé, Heritage, Ténéré) I looked forward to trying Anthracite. While the florals here (mostly rose to me, but also something tropical, or is that the fruit?) are interesting for the fact that they eventually replace the lavender in the fougère accord, Anthracite falls into the category of harmonious fougères for me. I prefer starker, rougher fougères, so I don’t mean this as a compliment. When a fougère is blended to removed the sharp edges left by the collision of lavender and coumarin, it seems too restrained. Reserved in a way that might suit a chypre, but not a fougère .

Sorry. I don’t want to get to dogmatic here, but I’m really trying to make these distinctions clearer in my own head.

Stark: Rive Gauche pour Homme, Azzaro pour Homme, Paco Rabanne pour Homme, PR Ténéré, and Caron's Troisième Homme (the last two stark in spite of their florals.) Harmonious: YSL Jazz, Drakkar Noir (loud, yes, but focused on blend) and Anthracite. I’ve left out Cool Water here, because despite its well-earned success, and despite the fact it’s held out as the iconic fresh, aromatic fougère, it just does’t seem like a fougère to my nose---its innovative water fruit vibe made it qualitatively something different from fougère.

So where does this leave Anthracite? It’s got some of the fruit that Cool Water has. It’s got the non-lavender floral, like Ténéré. In execution of the fougère accord, it’s a little meek like Jazz. In some ways it’s similar to Givenchy’s Xeryus, a floral with a healthy nod to the fougère. But Xeryus’s use of florals and coumarin is much ballsier than Anthracite.

I could argue with myself here that Anthracite is in fact the best use of all the various elements I’ve mentioned above. It certainly is my bias that I want a rough ride from a fougère and I could just be blind to Anthracite’s charm. But Anthracite does seem like a bit of the cross-bred mule here. Close enough for the parents to reproduce, but Anthracite leaves us with no direct descendants. I guess I’m left undecided.

18th December, 2010. (Last Edited: 26th January, 2011.)

Looking like a slab of deep red rock, the box cuts quite an imposing presence on the shelf. It even feels as solid as it looks, like a block of well, anthracite. Inside is a pebble- shaped bottle in matted black. It feels hefty despite its small size, and rock-solid. As affordable as they come, it seems Jacomo doesn't stinge on packaging. You can actually ship this across the world without protective bubble-wraps.

Well, enough about the packaging. What about the scent?

On my skin I get a spicy blend of lavender with hints of cypress over a fougere frame, fleshed out with some vague florals and oakmoss. Nothing sweet in here, just a clean and slightly musky masculine fragrance with a barber shop-ish vibe. If you like Rive Gauche pour Homme, you'll probably love this. I can't tolerate the YSL but I'll gladly wear this Jacomo, so go figure. It might feel a little 'old school' for some so I doubt if it will appeal to the boys. But I can already see some smiles among the gentlemen out there...

4th December, 2010.

Really is a shame this was discontinued and all that's left is a mess.

4th May, 2008.

Pity they (Jacomo) discontinued their best scent. Aside from Rouge, it (Anthracite) was/is really their only great coup, come to think of it.

9th October, 2006.

Very good floral spicy mossy scent.
Very masculine use of florals.
Sad it's discontinued!

27th September, 2004.