Jade East (1964)
by Regency (orig. by Swank)

I would like to get a whiff of Jade East again and see how it affects me now. I liked it so much when I was 15 that I used to wear it. It turned me on to smell it, I guess because it was a fad for the boys to wear it at the time and the raging hormone thing, etc.

This isn't really a bad fragrance at all. It's obvious this is a fougere from the minute you spray it, and the initial topnotes are reminiscent of Canoe.

To my nose bits of it almost seem to suggest an Arab or Indian attar, even faint notes that are reminiscent of oud attars complete with sandalwood and faint floral notes such as jasmine or rose, and also in the overall sweetness of the whole fragrance. However, it only hints at that and it's obfuscated by a potpouri of Western sensibilities, especially in the topnotes that to me smell like every other older fougere- powerful citrusy-lemon.

It seems to be playing with alot of things at once, doesn't quite understand what it wants to be, and the initial topnote is blatantly deceptive. It's also fairly weak in its smell, being more cologne strength than EDT. I may change my opinion as I try this fragrance more.

I think it's odd that this smells close to Brut. Actually, Jade East smells really close to the "new" Brut (in the plastic bottle after the reformulation). Jade East feels like a muskier cousin of the "new" Brut". A musky fourgere. Mossy, musky and a sweetness that turns me off.

Personal note: my mother (youngest of 13, born in 1951) said one of my uncles wore Jade East exclusively.

In 1965-6 when Jade East became popular, I bought a bottle and wore it sporadically even though I didn’t like it very much. I found it extremely sharp, gaudy, cheap, and it had an unappealing dry down—entirely too over the top even for the 60’s. (Later I found it was mild and discreet compared to Hai Karate.) Jade East was THE male mass-market scent to have among my group of non-sophisticates, and I guess I was just another lemming heading over the cliff. It wasn’t long before I gave it up in spite of the fact that it was popular. I tossed it and either went back to good old Old Spice or started using Canoe—I can’t remember which. After over forty years I can close my eyes, concentrate, and still smell that piercing sweetness and its cloying personality. (But it was better than Hai Karate.)

The bottles shown in the picture on this page are not like the ones I remember—I think that the bottles pictured were a much later edition. The one I remember had about the same kind of cap but with a horizontal black stripe in it, and the bottle itself was basically cylindrical—the label here is similar to the one that I recall. The juice was an emerald green—in my probably exaggerated visual memory.

works for me. sure i like stetson but who wants to pay 25 buck for a stinkin bottle of cologne. this product is ok for the money