Reviews of Number 3 / Le 3me Homme / The Third Man (1985)
by Caron

I was so damned disappointed with this one...it almost broke my heart LOL.

Most reviews and advice from people who had tested it in person lead me to believe that this would be smooth, soft, creamy, warm and sweet...gentlemanly and refined - dignified in an 80s way, but not an 80s way...I had set myelf up for all this!

This was just, and I say this with great emphasis, "BLEH"...

The smell is acceptble, but the blend is too pervasively compromised by Geranium, Oakmoss, Aniseed and Cedar...it smells, "dry", "dusty", "run-of-the-mill 70s/80s"...blended with yet another pervasively disappointing note: SPICED GREEN APPLES... that have sat on the kitchen bench all day...

It could be a LOT better if these notes were toned down, significantly!

I am over my disappointment now, and have since taken to using it to scent my bedroom carpet before vacuuming, and spritzing over my matress before laying down fresh linen.

The old old old lady t my work loves the smell of this. This actually has nothing to do with age - but she happens to smell like spiced green apples and Tabu...

"Beau_mode_arome" is totally right - it's trying to accomplish too much.

Le 3ème Homme is the ‘third fragrance’ of Caron for men, and is situated between the pretty, powdery Pour un Homme and the hyper-masculine Yatagan. The opening is dry and aromatic, with hits of lavender, herbs, anise. There are good woody spices in the middle, clove and coriander. Clove gives this an old-school, confident barbershop vibe; and as it grows it puts this next door to Rive Gauche pour Homme. I think this OK but I’m not enthusiastic about it.

The film was better.
Ah! the 80's And what did that decade produce, old man? The cuckoo clock--no wait, that's from the film . . .

Ok 80's powerhouse scents like Santos de Cartier (original formula), Francesco Smalto , Pascal Morabito Or Black, Versace l'Homme, Esencia Loewe-- and stinkers like Quorum.

Chypre, Fougere, Animalistic! The Drakkar Noir decade. Bring the outdoors home The Hills are Alive---and it's very frightening.
Will Fern and Oakmoss take over The World?
This one is light for its time, not bad at all but nothing to write home about, old man. Though I suppose by today's bland standards some would consider it quite bold. Good drydown.

I was convinced that I had found my holy grail scent when I first tried 3rd Man. But, within a month, it bored me. I'd pick up the bottle stare it it for a few seconds and put it back down and pick something offering more of a thrill. As the cliche goes, "too many cooks spoil the pot". Yes, in the end, there's really nothing/everything to focus on in this potion, it's sweet, it's floral, it's woody, it's well done, it's high quality. Zzzz..........

I have a huge problem with Caron’s men’s fragrances. My problem? I tried Yatagan first. How any fragrance house could adequately follow Yatagan’s magnificent savagery is hard to imagine. The outrageous animalism of Lutens and Sheldrake’s Muscs Kublai Khan? The ethereal beauty of Dominique Ropion’s Carnal Flower? The briny austerity of Creed’s Erolfa? The barbaric opulence of Montale’s Black Aoud? Caron’s answer was The Third Man.

The Third Man opens with a potent, but fairly standard lavender and bergamot accord, underscored by just a hint of woods and smoky leather. The middle notes include a very sharp cedar, some lush vanilla or tonka, and a hefty dose of carnation or clove on top of the persistent lavender. I sense some rose at the heart, too, accented by a deep fennel seed or anise note. The drydown is mostly moss and woods, with lingering anise and a distinct vanilla/musk counterpoint. The result is an outstanding fragrance, but very heavy and opaque, in the manner of Creed’s Santal Imperial and Bois du Portugal.

Temperamentally, The Third Man is the exact opposite of the wild Yatagan: rich, and cultured, but also utterly conventional. Me? I’ll take Yatagan.

First impression: Just received the bottle from Ebay, and sprayed some on a piece of paper.
The scent is not as sharp as Yatagan, that I bought in the same batch and also somewhat more powdery, but yet quite likeable and distinctive. I detect in this phase a pleasant top note of lavender also a mid range of rosemary and fern, all on a quite distinctive back drop of primarily vanilla, but also amber and tonka. Other ingredients in the pyramid are not distinguishable to me at this point. At this stage my closest earlier encounter of a reminiscent fragrance would be Must Pour Homme by Cartier, but yet quite different.
Second impression: sprayed some on the back of my hand. Different to Yatagan, this scent does not bring me a lot further and does not strike as many accords. It is by all means quite nice, but not extravagant in a manner that I would like.
Third and final impression: This does not bring me to places in my mind and hence blocks me from contemplating it further. As my first impression, I find it to be slightly similar to one of Cartier’s scents, which have never been any particular favourite, and I don’t believe this one will either. By all means a nice fragrance, but next to Yatagan it is a pale beauty!

Maybe my sample was bad or something but I can't relate to all the glowing reviews on this juice. To me it's a competent, spice and woods mix with sharp lavender and herbs. Very eigthties mood to it. The bottle has been replaced and the juice is now presented in the same clean looking transparent bottle as it's siblings PuH and Yatagan.