Pleasures for Men (1997)
by Estée Lauder

An energizing, fruity and airy fougere with a plain synthetic temperament.
I smell grapefruit, ginger, pepper and smoky sandalwood. There are some ozonic notes exuded in the air and some smokey bitterness balancing the chemical sweetness of nectarine. The slightly fizzy effect is  made by the combination of ginger, pepper and lavender. Pleasures for man is declaratedly plastic but carelessly pleasant.

25th June, 2011. (Last Edited: 2nd July, 2011.)

I simply cannot derive the slightest satisfaction from this. It has a powdery sourness that I do not care for - a blend of foundation and putrifying fruit. Add a little calone, and voila!

It's continued popularity is depressing.

15th April, 2011.

I think Lauder's Pleasures for Men is the best FRESH scent from the 90's, which let's face it, was the FRESH decade. Cool Water was the touchstone for this family and some other notables are Polo Sport, Aqua di Gio, Eternity, CK One, Issey for Men and Azarro Chrome. They all sort of smell like one another. Let's call it the "fresh aldehyde" that runs through them all, including Pleasures. They all are blaringly synthetic, so I suppose the top prizes go to those that are most able not to smell like cleaning products. Pleasures has a bit of that classic Coppertone Suntan lotion thing happening, which might be why I like it. Because I really could live without this fresh family of fragrances. I'll take a good, citrusy, classic cologne any day over one of these. Hermes Eau Orange Vert for example...now that's fresh without being fake. The saving grace of Pleasures is that it has the faintest whisper of spice throughout the entrie composition. The "red ginger"? It's so faint you can barely detect it; but it keeps the fragrance from being just purely sweet, like Polo Sport.
My boyfriend likes Pleasures, and it's the only fresh frag I like to smell coming off him...so, it's grown on me. I buy a gift set every couple of years and he gets the EDT and I take the after shave. It's light and, uhm, fresh. Fresh! Yeah, that's it...FRESH! Perfect for the summer.

15th April, 2011.

Pleasures for Men smells exactly like any another generic Cool Water clone, or if you prefer like a cheaper (a lot cheaper) version of Creed's Erolfa. Should be better named as "Pleasures For Nobody".

PFM actually smells ok but this is a very crowded territory and it's completely undistinguishable from other billions of perfumes of the same cathegory / family.

13rd April, 2011. (Last Edited: 15th April, 2011.)

Especially in light of the quality of other Lauder fragrances and their Aramis subsidiary (Lauder For Men, Havana, Aramis) this one is a disappointment. I'd call it a poor man's Eternity For Men, except it costs as much as Calvin Klein's bestseller.

It fades so quickly that it is hard to address the notes. Sweet and synthetic like CK Eternity - it must be the "Sky Air Accord" that predominates and makes it smell like...not much. I don't need a fragrance to be hyper-masculine (I enjoy Fleur Du Male, Mitsouko, Jean Nate, among others) but if it isn't it should at least be artful. Light-sillage, close to the vest scents also are fine when the stuff on simmer is of top quality (see Bulgari Man, Derby or Monsieur De Givenchy for reference). Pleasures does not qualify. For $32, one should smell a bit better than a Hot Dog On A Stick lemonade.

8th October, 2010.

I bought this one right when it hit the shelves in 1997. I don't know how it happened, but I think the clerk just suggested it to me because it was new, and my sister's girlfriends liked it....so I figured I better buy it.

I only wore it for a couple years, but I definitely went through several bottles.

I've met countless females who simply LOVE this stuff. I tried to relive the experience and picked up a bottle off eBay for a good price. Pleasures seems to be one of the few scents that smells best in the bottle, or right after you spray it on.

I rarely enjoy the top notes, but I still do like this one. The thing is, I found out that I cannot last long wearing this stuff. It simply overwhelms me after a while. I guess it all just molds into this soft little scent that makes me want to run.

In the end, I sold that bottle, and will never bother to use Pleasures again. Funny thing is I have a friend who has a bottle of this stuff on his bathroom counter and it is his only cologne. I pity him!

16th September, 2010.