Reviews of Cravache (1963)
by Robert Piguet

This review is for the reissued Cravache. The original, as I’m told, had a definite leather note while this one doesn’t. My first sniff of Cravache brought to mind a more sedate Chanel Pour Monsieur – I don’t know why I thought that because they are not really alike. Cravache is missing the warmth of Monsieur and it is a little more formal, but there’s a certain dignity, a certain masculinity, a certain distance, and a certain history about it that that tie it to the classics and make it one of the more intriguing fragrances I’ve tried in a long time. Caltha mentions aldehydes and powder and I don’t get those, although I do get the mentioned freshness. I don’t get an overload of spices because I find the sage, lavender, and nutmeg quite reticent, very smooth, and superbly balanced. The dry down is just plain graceful: a soft cushion of patchouli and vetiver surrounding that cool core of dignified and softly fresh masculinity. Yet all the while the fragrance holds in the far background something that is a tiny bit out of place – it has just enough offness that I never surrender completely to the siren song of the fragrance; I keep half alert listening to, hesitating about that distance drum beat… In other words, it is a very masculine scent.

A powdery, aldehydic, soapy, slightly nose-tickling citrus with lavender. In the "fresh" category, not the butch woody/spicy/musky one, yet dry and warm instead of cool and aquatic like most men's colognes nowadays. Original by today's standards! Might remind me a little bit of classic citrusy/herbal scents like Eau Savage, but much more powdery and aldehydic than most of them. Not unisex though, something in it makes it feel very masculine, gentlemanly. I like it!