Davidoff (1984)
by Davidoff

Ugh. Probably one of the worst fragrances I have ever tried. A total failure.

To my nose this is a 80s leathery-chypre done completely wrong.

Sharp, raw citruses, bitter old woods, withered herbs, dried up tobacco leafs, stiff moth eaten leather jackets……

Horrible balance with bitter and astringent overtones.


It’s so bad I doubt the juice in my 7ml mini bottle must be turned off. I’m afraid its not, but if it is then my apologies for this scent and its friends.


Rubbish.

Shoot me down in flames for this bhut, as an old user of Davidoff Classic, when they discontinued it I noticed a distinct resemblence between this and Tommy Hilfiger Boy fragrance. Then as insider friend of mine claimed that Davidoff had sold the Classic recipe to Tommy Hilgifer.

I remember once, when in Selfridges department store, and I managed to pickthe last Davidoff Classic, sprayed it on one wrist, then sprayed the Tommy Hilfiger on the other wrist, went to both Davidoff and Hilfiger counters asking them to tell the differemce. None of them could.

Case solved?

Old. Doesn't stand up to the entropy effect. This develops the infamous civet note effect i.e. it smells a bit like unrine. There are some fragrances that pull this off like Ungaro II and Kouros (the two biggest ones talked about on Basenotes) abut this is just awful. It remains throughout and stays there until your next shower. Also has an ink like quality to it that's saturated and black like biting mossy scent in the heart but there's that odoriferous civet note that lingers everywhere. No wonder it was discontinued since it was competing with things like Tuscany and Quorum.

An old classic here — gives me even more of the kind of response that Quorum does — not that they smell alike. Davidoff is not extensively refined, not at all subtle: It’s just a solid block of traditional odoriferous masculinity. It begins with a citrus / basil accord whose delicacy is immediately threatened by the castoreum, leather, and moss from the base which remain a constant through the run of the fragrance. Those “threatening” basenotes deliver an almost dirty background to everything else going on. The middle notes have a strong floral element — rose, carnation, and orris — but even those florals are decidedly masculine, thanks to the carnation and the rest of the middle notes; the middle also contains herbals and coniferous notes, and hay: all of which are the yang to the floral yin, but they don’t overwhelm the florals, they just give the florals a masculine bent. The dry down in notes, if not in density, is typical for the time it was made and not very original — it’s substantial but by now its heaviness has become a bit boring. There’s even a touch of incense in the base, but it doesn’t have enough oomph to come out very strongly. Surprisingly, as stolid as this fragrance is, it doesn’t have much longevity. There are still lots of these old time classics left, and, although Davidoff is not really a bad fragrance, most of the classics are better. My own occasional nostalgia for the good old days of rough and tough masculine fragrances is more than satisfied by the bottle of Quorum I keep on the shelf behind the fragrances that I use regularly. I’m happy with this one being a memory.

clasical and traditional scent that smells dated and old- a typical 80ies scent.not bad but nothing special or outstanding.somehow boring....

I bought 125mL of this blind since it was at a ridiculously low price on ebay. I love most Davidoff's, and this one was discontinued, so I'd probably never get to try it otherwise. Yikes!

This is one of those rare one that I can't even bear to smell in the bottle. My female friend who's a men's fragrance demo seemed to enjoy it, but I can't even bear to try it after the first time, which was a real shower inducer. I think I lasted 8 minutes before the shower reflex became insurmountable. Each time I go to the cabinet, and think "hmm, I really should give this another try" I smell the bottle and shiver.

It's a very, very sharp mossy smell. I'd guess there's a lot of pine, but there doesn't seem to be any from the list above. A "mature man" kind of fragrance. It probably smells great to and on people who smoke Davidoff cigars, which is who I imagine it was made for. I can imgine it blendind really well with cigar smoke.

When I was a kid I used to play with He-Man toys, and there was one ape-like man called "Moss-man" who was covered in a strange green synthetic moss, complete with mossy aroma. This is "Eau de Moss-Man" straight out of the package...