KL Homme (1986)
by Lagerfeld

KL Homme is smooth and classy-smelling; there's no doubt about that. At the same time, it's a bit too powdery and borderline-feminine for my taste. I hate to be the first neutral on this one, but it's not something I'd wear. If I want a powdery fragrance, I'd much sooner reach for Tiffany for Men.

Don't let my opinion worry any hopes you might have about this - it's still worth trying and you may strike gold when you smell this. I didn't.

9th February, 2011.

By Man, Gucci Nobile and yes KL Homme.

This is a beautiful woody oriental that blends so smoothly to a dry down that is rich in vanilla and oriental spices. It's has elements of the best parts of the Lagerfeld Classic drydown, but is smoother than honey running down velvet.

It's beautiful and should never have been discontinued. I have a bottle. I want more, but sadly the world's stocks are running very very low.

And that, my friends, is a crime.

10th June, 2010.

I cannot overstate how great this is.

KL Homme is a beautiful, smouldering, and mysterious oriental fragrance which exudes an amazing sense of warmth that is hard to adequately describe in words. I smell a lot of similarities to Habit Rouge in this, but without the bitterness or powderiness of Habit Rouge - this scent is unbelievably smooth. Whereas Habit Rouge is a refined, well-mannered aristocrat, KL Homme is a sly, restrained sexual animal on the prowl. It has a beautiful orange-tinged woody opening and middle accord, which morphs into an exotic, spicy vanillic drydown.

Although I don't quite consider this a "powerhouse" - it's just too damn smooth and silky to qualify - it has very good longevity and radiance. If I were to describe the overall feel of this fragrance, I'd say it's heat. Sexual heat. Unlike many of the masculine scents from this era, KL Homme doesn't kill you with harsh spiciness - rather, it slowly entices you, drawing you in with its deep, rich, hazy warmth.

Many thanks to AromiErotici for sending me a sample of this beauty.

9th November, 2009.

Another little gem from the '80s pushed to the side by modern tastes, KL Homme seems to draw some of its inspiration from an even earlier fragrance - Estee Lauder's feminine classic, Youth Dew. The top notes draw on a very similar bergamot meets spiced, floral amber, but toned down in terms of volume and amped up on brightness via a fizzy burst of aldehydes. In the drydown KL Homme changes character, becoming an amber driven by patchouli and opoponax, a slight rosy hint making a showing in the heart before it becomes smoothly animalic in the base. It has a hint of smokiness and soapiness that gives it a slight synthetic vibe, but I find it quite wearable none the less. The longevity and sillage are quite robust, as many of this style and era are.

27th September, 2009.

A great oriental blend featuring lots of strong, contrasting notes that nevertheless work well together. However, some may need to wear it a few times and to get acquainted with it. I can detect spices, geranium, lavender, wood, castoreum, and a little syrupy sweetness with a hint of vanilla. There are also clearly softening floral elements. In some ways, fragrances like this represent the pinnacle of the "art" of perfumery. If you didn't like the original Lagerfeld men's fragrance, that doesn't matter, because they are quite distinct. That one (the original, not "Classic") is drier, doesn't have the strong lavender or geranium, and is subtler. Nor does it have an animalic note. It does have strong opoponax, however, which KL Homme lacks. I enjoy both, but if you want to avoid loud fragrances, KL Homme is probably not for you. After a couple hours or so, it mellows out quite a bit, but the longevity is quite good.

My old review, from August, 2009: This is just too strong for me (even one spray), so I tried diluting it and also mixing it with a similar fragrance that is much gentler. If I get it just right, it's a great combination of notes. The geranium, which I hate if too strong, really brings the other notes out. However, if I didn't dilute it, the geranium and amber would be too much (the aldehydes might also be part of this problem). A newbie might like this at first, but then find it unbearable a month later (which is what happened to me), but I'm glad I have a bottle of this one, even if I can't use it as is.

I think it's worth comparing this to another "power frag," in this case, I'll mention Horizon. With Horizon, if you don't like the marine notes or the lavender, you are done with it. There is no way (AFAIK) to diminish certain notes while keeping the others intact, and even if you could, what would you get with Horizon then? KL Homme, by contrast, is just too strong. If I tried to adjust to it, then other fragrances in my rotation would be perceived as too weak, so dilution is the only option that makes sense for me. Putting so many strong notes in a fragrance is quite a risk, but this one was successful, though too much more today's less pungent olfactory sensibilities.

One last point, which is that I can understand this being compared to several other fragrances. One that hasn't been mentioned is Jovan's Sex Appeal for him. I prefer KL Homme to these, some of which have a sickly sweet "synthetic" quality that nauseates me (even if diluted) or have a "nose twisting" quality, such as Habit Rouge. I think I'd like KL Homme more if there was less amber, which does seem to be oppressing most of the other notes (though the geranium more than holds its own), but I don't mind having to dilute it, because that just means it's costing me less, so the tradeoff is acceptable. Longevity and sillage are excellent.

22nd August, 2009. (Last Edited: 3rd July, 2011.)

I think this is one of the best mens fragrances of all time, period. It does have similarities to all of the fragrances it has been compared to but beats them all. It is the only one of it's kind I've ever liked at all and I really love it. I still have an unopened bottle in the fridge. Just can't bring myself to open it! I'm hoping that if Giorgio for Men and New West can be resurrected, maybe KL Homme can be too.

22nd August, 2009. (Last Edited: 22nd November, 2009.)