Reviews of L'Eau D'Issey pour Homme (1994)
by Issey Miyake

A relative gave me this one with the supplementary shower gel. I enjoyed the shower gel, but did not like this cologne at all.

For a guy to wear a cologne, you want somethhing to make you stand out you know. This was just awful - its pretty much a feminine perfume, very girly smelling scent indeed.

I am very shocked when I go to the store and find that this scent is actually one of the most expensive out. To think that I threw out half a bottle of it!

Definitely a misunderstood scent - Do Not touch this one people

I wore this for a week and tried to like because so many said it was the best thing going. This stuff smells like salt water from the initial spritz until the end of the day. There is definitely a spicy note within the fragrance but generally it smells like ocean water to me. It actually made my stomach turn one day after applying it. I really wanted to make it a signature scent but you have to settle on what works for you.

The citrus-laden opening is admittedly somewhat enjoyable, but this one quickly goes south on my skin after the top notes flash off, leaving behind a scent that I can only describe as Rotting Plastic Flowers on the Planet Mars. Really, this is vile.

Popular with the ladies? If wearing this scent caused the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders to magically appear in U.S. Marine Corps Hueys and rappel through my windows...well, I would probably wear it in that case, BUT I WOULD HAVE MIXED EMOTIONS!!

I was given a huge bottle of L'Eau D'Issey EDT, and I have only worn it three times. It's just far too overbearing and I just don't get it at all. It just smells like an aquatic explosion and that opening never seems to leave it. I'm just too into bone-dry Chypre, fragrances to appreciate this one. Not a winner.

A very synthetic fragrance,good for headaches.Only good thing would be a decent woody drydown if you can make it that far

This fragrance has a strong current of Japanese Juniper Berry - it is overpowering and nauseating and gives me a headache.

I don't know Vibert nor am I am I as articulate about fragrances as Vibert but I have to agree about L'Eau D'Issey pour Homme. Can't take the fragrance. I don't care who wears it it smells like chemicals to me and I've tried it on my skin and it did nothing for me. I've smelled it on countless (COUNTLESS) others and didn't care for the smell on them either so it must be the fragrance. Some things are for some people and some things aren't I guess. For those who love this fragrance, and obviously most here love it, enjoy it in good health.

Anyone who follows my Basenotes posts and reviews knows that I’m no fan of aquatic scents, and hence not predisposed to enjoy L’Eau d’Issey. Indeed, I find its brash, synthetic, calone drenched opening repugnant. To me it smells less like the ocean than like an industrial chemical – which I suppose is exactly what calone is. I don’t detect much change as the scent ages, except perhaps for a few bright flowers and a helping of artificial fruit flavoring. (Think green Lifesavers.) Two or three hours later I’m left with a harsh woody (cypress?) base, but as Issey transforms it passes through a phase that I can best describe as rotting seaweed.

One thing I dislike about L’Eau d’Issey is that its ozonic note is not even minimally blended. The result is crass and crude, as if L’Eau d’Issey has its naked butt up against the school bus window, mooning any motorist unlucky enough to pass. Paradoxically, I have to give the scent some credit for its brashness – it’s far less bland than the thousands of limp aquatic imitators that have come in its wake. As much as I dislike it, I must also acknowledge L’Eau d’Issey’s significance in the history of scent. It is a landmark composition that epitomizes the past decade’s dominant fragrance genre. So though I rate it very low, it’s not so much because I think it smells bad (which I do), but because there are so many more well-constructed, nuanced, and sophisticated clean aquatic scents to choose from.

I really wanted to like this fragrance... I really did.... but the descriptions given here must have bypassed my olfactory system. All I could smell was a lemon-squash type of odor, very light and quite flimsy, and with not much else going on underneath.

What a dichotomy. This is the scent that started me on my path of fragrance collection and connoisseurship, a perennial favorite of mine, yet I couldn't get rid of it soon enough.

Like all aquatic citrus scents this one is overly popular with the Abercrombie Generation, alongside Aqua de Gio you will smell this one everywhere.

I got the most compliments on this scent, but I just can't wear it anymore. I try to stay as far away from scents like this as possible now.

Good for the Sheeple, not for me.

Sour lemon. Perhaps too feminine for me

Way over-hyped. I tried this at Dillards and couldn't believe how terrible this stuff really smelled. Reading about it you would think it's sex in a bottle. Maybe if you have this plus $50 in your hand.

I've smelled this fragrance several times on other persons. A very recognizable aroma, and a very strong trail.

The head is based on citric notes, persisting for a long time during middle and base notes. The middle note feels aquatic and floral, and the base note is green tending to vetiver. When smelled can't get spicy notes, but the trail it leaves is mainly citrus fruits.

Extremely strong (or maybe used in excess by everyone on whom I smelled it), it have a established niche of fans and it's well accepted by women. For me the citric is pungent, opposite Boucheron Homme which is also based on citric notes but well blended with woods. Unisex style, it's recommended for summer times, daytime and evening occasions ... it's so much strong for an office use. Age range around 20-35 years old.

On the plus side: It lasted for ages on me. 24 hours at least, and that is after I washed my hand.

On the down side: It just didn't appeal to me. Smelled like very nice soap.

I really wanted to like this one when it first came out because it was so self-consciously artsy or rather, fragrance as "art". I tried some at the local scent counter and liked it at first but then it started to annoy me and it just wouldn't go away. Then, like so many others have mentioned, I literally got a headache from it and felt kind of nauseated.
It was like my head was a Janpanese tea house and those naked guys who bang gongs and hang upside down came in and drank way too much sake with the geishas who were wearing way too much gardenia and then the tea house caught fire and burned to the ground.
It's the Hiroshima of men's fragrance.

Uuuuuuhhhhhh… Nooo!!! This water with light floral is definitely not sexy and not for me! This cologne smells like some old chemical that will nauseate everyone you and everyone around you. I've smelled cleaning solvents that smell better than this. Wear it with caution. Although it's a very popular name in the men cologne industry, I think this light floral water is overrated for what it is and definitely not worth the money. This fragrance has to be one of the vilest and worst ever.

Chalk up one more headache victim.
I read about people getting migraine from it on another forum as well, so I would definitely disadvise this as a present. The chance seems comparatively high that person will not be able to wear this scent. Maybe try one of the myriad of less cloying aquatics.

It was awful on my skin and gave me a headache. Nothing fresh was in it. It was a cloying smell

interesting at first....but it gets very boring...its almost difficult describing it....but it smells too fresh and fruity in a very synthetic way....

My advice about this one: if you first tried it on - and actually liked it. Buy the smallest bottle that you can find. I found that while I liked the smell, I actually became sick and got a headache after several times of using it. I am not sensitive and have never been sick of colognes, but this is the first one. I am not that great at identifying smells (probably making me a lousy cologne reviewer) however, there is one part of this cologne that seems to steamroll over the other pieces. I had no idea it had so many notes - I could not smell them. I think it might have been the vetiver. Anyway, you have been warned.

Total CRAP, man this stuff gave me a headache wore it once in a hot day and it made me sick when mixed with heat.

P.S

Kids lvoe this stuff

I initially loved this, but sadly, the novelty soon wore off. It is remarkably persistent and now i can't even bear to smell it on someone else as it gives me a filthy headache........aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

Girls may like it, and it may be in most every collector's homes. But wow, it gives me a headache! :-o I bought it because it seemed so popular at the time, and it did seems nice after my first spritz from a friend's bottle. However, the headache thing was intolerable, and I sold it. I think I'm one of the few dissenters here. :-o

I have to say this is a boring fragrance. Anticlimatic in every way. Every other boy wears it and that in itself is unappealling as well.

Distinctive and pleasant enough when you get used to it but there is something about it that doesn't ring true . Maybe it's just becoming a little boring .