Chamade pour Homme (1999)
by Guerlain

Most of time I wear this fragrance in the evening, as I find it has a romantic note. To me it smells initially floral, a strong scent of hyacinth, violet and rose, pleasant and refined. After a while it becomes even more sensual, with a leathery tone to it.

19th September, 2010.

I too have done a side by side comparison of Chamade pour Homme and Coriolan. They do belong to the same family, and have some things in common, but the difference between them is significant as far as I'm concerned. I find CPH to be much more refined and elegant than Coriolan. Whereas Coriolan is a bitter spicy chypre, CPH is a much more green floral chypre.

Coriolan opens with smack in the face of lemon leaves and petigrain on top of a plethora of spices beneath a base of austere leather and patchouli (which notes are evident from the opening).

CPH, on the other hand opens with a very elegant black pepper and bergamot. The heart is green floral: A perfect blend of hyacinth and violet notes with a hint of nutmeg and green aldehydes. The leather in the base of CPH has none of the rawness of Coriolan and it sits on a bed of sandal and vetiver rather than the patchouli of Coriolan.

Are there some similarities between the two fragrances? You bet. How similar are they? Well, unlike many of my friends, I actually happen to like Coriolan, but it has none of the refinement or elegance of Chamade Pour Homme. CPH is a green floral chypre, whereas Coriolan is a bitter, spicy leather chypre. Is CPH worth a trip to Paris? I think so. In fact I just got back home with a bottle!

12nd July, 2010.

Side-by-side comparison confirmed for me what others have attested: that Chamade pour Homme is more or less the same scent as the defunct Coriolan and the limited distribution L’Ame d’un Héros. If Chamade pour Homme differs at all from L’Ame d’un Héros (besides in color), it’s in the drydown, which might be slightly less refined, less powdery, and less animalic. The very subtle difference may just as well be due to batch variation in ingredients or sample age as to any difference in composition, and I see no reason for anyone to own both of these scents.

11th December, 2009.

A leathery chypre that's well blended. The scent seems to appear all at once like Bulgari Black. The leather is a dominant player here and it's not a dirty leather nor a sexy leather, just a fine rich leather that teeters on herbs on florals. Good longevity on me.

25th October, 2008.

Chamade pour Homme was composed by Jean-Paul Guerlain in 1999 as a masculine version of Chamade from 1969 and originally sold as a romantic pair for Valentine's Day. Given that Guerlain is famous for the oriental scents, also for men, it's surprising that he with Chamade pour Homme chose to completely abandon the vanilla that is such a decisive characteristic of Chamade. He kept the central hyacinth theme but added bergamot, pepper, nutmeg and leather to end up with a spicy, leathery and almost bitter chypre. Not unlike the warmer part of the almost concurrent Coriolan, but far away from Chamade's sweet hay and blackcurrant. In short, this pair is an example of how very differently one can interpret hyacinth. It's said that women and men live on different planets – maybe this was what Jean-Paul Guerlain had in mind while creating Chamade pour Homme. It's more likely, however, that he simply wanted to stress the difference between man and woman to let them unite in a so much more exciting love affair. Now Chamade pour Homme is made part of the collection 'Les Parisiennes'.

18th April, 2007. (Last Edited: 12nd April, 2008.)

recently relaunched in Paris, in the same collection as Derby
it's worth trying it
maybe a little bit too 80's fashioned but magistrally crafted

14th March, 2007.