Reviews of Maxims pour Homme (1988)
by Maxims

While I don’t find the leather in Maxims pour Homme dislikeable (in fact, I enjoy it… just as I often enjoy mild leather notes in the older fragrances), the leather dominates my sense of smell over many of the other notes and accords of the fragrance. I can tell four minutes into the opening that this is about all this I am going to get from this fragrance: leather and the indoles from the heart jasmine. To me this is an extremely animalic fragrance. I don’t at all get any fruit note of any sort in the opening: I get a smooth, deep leather and a rather strong indole note from the jasmine… And “sweet”?… in no way does anything smell sweet. The leather and indoles override everything to my nose. No other florals than jasmine from the heart either. Occasionally throughout the long run of Maxims, I think that I can smell a bit of patchouli, then cedar, then amber… but they are gone so fast, I’m not sure I smelled them. I get no moss or musk. This is a linear leather fragrance with a strong jasmine indole note. I like it and I don’t say that often about a leather fragrance. Although I do enjoy it, eventually its linearity becomes more uninteresting than anything else. The age of my sample might also have something to do with the reduction of top and middle notes… Hard to tell…

Maxims Pour homme: have you ever heard an SA say "this scent has a BURST of fresh notes"..all the time eh..but never convinced with what you sniffed..? ok, now smell this :) Powdery sweet accords of intense green notes with an equally intense accord of "fresh" florals, which by the way is not really able to shake that color green out of my head...all with a cool breeze sandalwood..the powderiness, needless to repeat, stays throughout the entire progression of this scent...one aspect, which really grabbed my attention was this persistent accord of steel to this whole equation..like smelling this accord thru a sterilized, perforated tube of space age steel tube... this feel gives this scent a somewhat unique, fresh in a very shiny, sophisticated kinda feel. The basenotes is lush, mossy, powdery with hints of patchouli and mostly mossy with hints of leather.

I am not a 'connoisseur', but I know what I like.
What's with the positive reviews? and probably written people who have a better, more trained nose than I have.
???
I thought this was a clear one
I looked up Maxims (the last time I checked there weren't any reviews written), just to confirm I wasn't the only poor soul who ever had the misfortune to smells this ghastly EDT.
Yes I was in for a laugh, I love to read bad reviews.
I owned a 30 ml bottle of it , it was sold cheap for 10 guilders (which is about 5 US Dollar) at the time and while everyone liked it, mostly girls and women ("what a sweet scent!") I loathed it and gave it to my mother.

She still had the botle and only recently I took it back, just curious if my taste had changed over the years?
Nope.
Maxims is probably the most aggressively sweet and sharp scent I ever smelled.
I don't smell any notes, just a splash of sweets and 'fresh'
What kind of "fresh" is it?
Honestly, I cannot come up with anything.

It is discontinued (obviously for a good reason) but anyone who is curious about this scent should try out Boss' Baldessarini, which is almost as nauseating sweet and a true migraine trigger as Maxims is/was.

Maxim's pour Homme

When it comes to discontinued colognes there seem to be cults that spring up, the Patouists, the Montanaites, and the Maximistas. There is always the curiousity about whether it is just misplaced emotion or is the juice really that good. Maxim's pour Homme seems to be the victim of a grand plan gone bust. Dimitri in his Sorcery of Scent blog relates that Maxim's was created by Pierre Cardin in 1988 after acquiring the French restaurant Maxim's with dreams of taking it worldwide. The fact that there is no Maxim's in your local area should indicate the success of this venture. What I find interesting is the thought that a scent would be the first step to creating a brand. Nevertheless that was the path taken in 1988 and Maxim's pour Homme was created. The top of this is a solid lavender which leads striaght to a heart of jasmine and spicy carnation. According to the notes bergamot and a "fruit note" are supposed to be present but right from the beginning I get a strong floral character. It takes a while but the sandalwood and cedar appear and move this into a different stage as they eventually push the floral notes to the background. The base is a delicately balanced patchouli and musk on me which is really nice. I like that this scent has three distinct stages from floral to woody to musky. It doesn't feel like the longevity is going to be very good as two hours in I'm already feeling it is starting to fade away. This is a good scent and if you see a bottle floating around your local flea market or at a discounter I'd say go for it. If this ever becomes one of those scents that commands a premium because it is discontinued that's when I'd say buyer beware. For me, I don't think I'm joining the ranks of the Maximistas just yet but over time they may get me yet.

In 1988, Cardin teamed up with bottle designer Pierre Dinard, and created the wonderful Maxim's Pour Homme - a lush floral fougere that embraced the Art Nouveau design ethic of highly stylised flowing organic lines and forms. The scent itself can, in hindsight, be characterised as being very 80's in style... full-bodied and excessive, much like other colognes of its time. But this fragrance, now regrettably discontinued, can still hold its own alongside other 80's greats such as Chanel's Antaeus and YSL's Kouros, when pitted against many modern mainstream releases.

A exuberant opening of wet lavender and lush fruits blossom on the skin over a mildly indolic heart of jasmine, sharp muguet and peppery carnation. There is also an unmistakable core of mossy cedarwood and sandalwood that act as the framework for this scent. The basenotes are characterised by dark patchouli and musk accords that dip and dive between the ornate leathery pillars that hold the roof of this composition aloft. On paper, the individual elements might appear to be an erratic assortment, but after 20 or 30 minutes on the skin, there is a wonderful synthesis of these accords that work phenomenally well together.
If I were to find fault in it, perhaps its only short-coming is in its longevity, which is approximately 4 hours on my skin.

An eruption of scent the first few minutes. Reminds me of a melee with notes fighting for predominance. The fruit note (?) eludes me, but the lavender is ever-present throughout the floral accord, keeping pace with the carnation & Jasmin.

To me, it felt like the heartnotes were staggered somehow with the florals showing up before the wood makes its appearance. This juice has 4 stages on me,not 3.

mrclmind says that it reminds him of Patou PH. As the wearing was going through its process, I was wondering what he was thinking...until the drydown. Once the basenotes came on, it reminded me also of Patou....a poor mans version if you will ( and I don't say that in a derogatory manner). It seems to me a matter of slightly higher quality ingredients is all.

Nice frag here. Like alot of others, the beginning really is a cacophony and a bit dis-harmonious, but the ride is worth it.

Maxims pour Homme is one of those elusive, discontinued 1980s fragrances most often spoken of among connoisseurs in tones of awe and reverence. In other words, the kind of scent of which I’m instinctively suspicious. Maxims goes on in a cacophonous explosion that recalls the opening of the equally revered Havana: bergamot, aromatics, larger-than-life lavender, and clouds of tobacco smoke. It’s enough to make noses accustomed to Jean-Claude Ellena and Olivia Giacobetti scents recoil in horror.

Maxims takes its time getting sorted out, and remains harsh and disorganized long enough, I sure, to try some wearers’ patience. Once it settles down, Maxims reveals itself as a big, savory leather-tobacco scent with a distinctive smoky-salty accent. It’s still not worlds away from Havana in its overall structure, though its obviously more “savory,” more animalic, and more of an outright leather scent than the Aramis. Over the course of hours Maxims goes its own way, ending in a plush, smoky, animalic leather drydown of great dignity and distinction. I’m happy to report that my suspicions are allayed: Maxims pour Homme is a marvelous fragrance, and it’s a shame that it’s no longer made.

Maxim's PH reminds me a lot of the experience I get when I wear Patou PH. Not as spicy, but many similarities. It is absolutely lovely. I don't really smell the 80's in this one at all. It smells extremely classic, elegant and French. From the lavender/citrus opening through the masculine florals into the delicious woods and resins in its base, this is a real winner. Maxim's is one of my very favorite masculine scents.

A bold, chypre masculine. Nice mix of lavender and carnation and a dominant oakmoss and musk base with a typical leather note thrown in. I usually dislike these chypres but this is pretty good.

A big thumbs up to this masterpeice !
It was love at first sniff .
I disagree completely with TV's absurd comparison to it being a combo of F Smalto & Montana ,, this is nothing of the sort .
Incredible opening & rich throughout the drydown , with a musk that just really must be worn to be appreciated
***** This is in my top five *****

Think Francesco Smalto pour Homme married to Montana Parfum d'Homme and you pretty much have all the olfactory info you need to peg this one.

Sadly, discontinued.

One of my top 5 favorites. It very much reminds me of the men in my life (my father and grandfather) Maxims pH opens a little loudly and with a touch of sweetness, but quickly tones down into what is the most pleasent scents I know. Because it reminds me of my grandfather, it is comforting, warm, safe and secure. Buy it while you still can, if you don't like it...I'll buy it from you.

Both previous reviewer's make good points. Maxim's, produced by Pierre Cardin, is unquestionably a typical supercharged 80s fagrance. It is, however, one of the best of its kind and unjustly forgotten. It does begin with an overwhelmingly heady confusion of bergamot, clary sage, lavender nto which the rich middle notes of jasmine, carnation and cedar already interfere, enfolding its wearer in an almost headache-inducing cloud of sweet-spicyness. But once the dust settles, there remains a beautifully crafted composition perfectly blending floral, wood and spice, shifting accents beautifully through the drydown into the ambery base. This deserves to be up there with the dearly sought Havanna and every lover of complex scents should seek it ought.

This one is lovely, starts off strong, but then calms down to a wonderfull musky woody smell. Very warm like I would assume a mature gentelman to wear

Truly a representative fragrance of the Chypre-laden eighties-style scents. Not bad on occasion, but incredibly heavy with very little development overall.