Givenchy Gentleman (1974)
by Givenchy

I bought this blind because of many positive reviews and also the Cinnamon!
Start strange and spicy but soon will turn to smell like Acid!
What the hell is this?!
I can't get any cinnamon! The only thing I can smell is strong Acid scent that burns your nose!
I don't know what to do with it!
I can't even spray it to my socks, because they are gonna kill me because of this terrible smell!
Four thumbs down! (Two by my hands and two by my feet)
--------- EDIT -----------
I don't know why but after wearing this fragrance several times now I like it!
The first time I smelled it ....... oh shit! what is this?!
But for unknown reason I like it so much now!

30th October, 2011. (Last Edited: 28th November, 2011.)

I have the re-formulated version.

This one smells very smooth, nearly 'buttery'. What I smell mostly is strong vetiver with a hint of peppery notes. The drydown shows leather, but just a bit. To me this scent brings up warm/nolstalgic feelings. Not exactly a hiper-masculine fragrance, I find this kinda sweet and old-style. Proper name for the juice. I enjoy it quite much.

21st October, 2011.

This review is for the original fragrance. I had a bottle of Givenchy Gentleman as a gift the year it was issued. The horror! I smelled like a lousy hippy. Patchouli, patchouli, patchouli. That's the only note that stood out. I know some guys have great results with Gentleman. As a matter of fact, this fragrance is absolutely stunning when worn by someone who can handle it. That's not me, unfortunately. And I smelled other guys who reeked with patchouli as well. I would have given Gentleman a big Thumbs down, but because results can range from awful to wonderful, I will give it a neutral rating.

19th October, 2011.

I imagine that this one has not so much been reformulated as fallen prey to the Humpty Dumpty syndrome.

Was this really an animalic, patchouli leather? Filthy in that perfect way? It’s now a triple S-bomb: shrill, saccharine, scary. GG takes all the potential off notes of patchouli, groups them together, and then makes a point of adding nothing that might mitigate this fingers-on-a-chalkboard calamity.

5th August, 2011.

I remember the patchouli, vetiver and leather smell, the heady intoxicating "yes I own a stable of horses and I have a roomful of gold bullion" feeling, that smelling Gentleman, evoked (for me anyway). I agree with what MJW77 said "masculine gentle-manliness". In the 70's and 80's Ii vividly remember walking up to men wearing this and practically shouting "what is that fragrance that you are wearing?" I am not kidding when I say that I wanted to marry any man, even if he was an old man, who wore this (all 7 of them that I ever met, haha).
It just goes to show that how someone smells can make you love them :) Especially if you have a heightened olfactory sensitivity, as most of us on this forum probably do.

30th July, 2011.

I first purchased this in high school during the early 1970s. Scroll forward 30 years and Ive purchased two more bottles recently (off eBay) hoping to get the vintage version that I remember and not the latest reformulation that lacks the intense civety animalism of the original. The bottles I acquired appear to be vintage and the fragrance smells good, though not as long-lasting as I remember. Interesting -- one bottle seems to smell much more intensely of patchouli and the other has a richer, though smoother, more animalic fragrance. Clearly, a lot of variation over the years, but it remains a high watermark in men's fragrances.

4th June, 2011.