Reviews of Caron Pour Un Homme (1934)
by Caron

An elegant lavender and vanilla scent, which starts out full of promise but wimps out on my skin. If it had better lasting power, I wouldn’t hesitate in buying a bottle.

Such a pity.

[Original submission date: 29 December 2007]

I hate lavender gourmands (Chinatown, Animale Animale for men, Rochas Man) because they really nauseate me, and this one is no exception. However, it also has a synthetic quality that makes it even worse, and it's boring too. There are just too many better alternatives now, such as Ciel Mon Jardin or Amour de Cacao, to take this one seriously. I can't speak to longevity because I can't deal with it for any significant length of time. I also can't imagine this one working with anybody's skin chemistry (unless your skin just "eats it up" and you don't smell anything), so sample first and see how others respond to it. This is one of the most unbalanced fragrances from a major house that I've ever sampled.

I am on the fence on this cologne. I love the lavender, but after 30 minutes it starts to smell like mildewy lavender that has been peed on....
sometimes the pee is less pronounced, but it is usually there, lurking in the background, like piccadilly station. My wife hates it.

feels exactly the way a new born baby smells after a nice bath, with lil talc on. no more, no less. go figure :) initial 5 minutes into this scent is....argh...is that a scent?? smell like a carton full of rubber glows....give it a good 15 minutes and this one turns into a very comforting, round, powdery smell. somtimes i get a feelin there is no smell at all...every note has this smooth round blunt feel to it....well, very hard to judge this one. please try this, maybe you were lookin for soemthin like this. i would give it a neutral for my lack for exposure to scents.

I bought this blind as I had been going through a phase of retro fragrances. I'd been through a purple patch of blind-buying and had bought some fabulous fragrances.

So when I opened this one up I was not prepared for the astringent blast of lavender which threatened to peel the skin from my eyeballs. Mon Dieu! That's some lavender!

Now don't get me wrong, I like Lavender, but not when it's as literally in your face as this one.

What is interesting is the artistry of the cross over between Lavender (are there really other notes supposed to be present in the opening???) and the emergence of Clary Sage and Cedar Wood in the heart-notes. To my nose I can't detect rose in there, but that maybe because my nose was still sulking from the assault from the Lavender.

It's quite a clever story being told really, because if you didn't know what the ending was you would never realise it was going to end up as vanilla, because the ending is kept really well, with none of the heart-notes letting on what's coming.

However, the vanilla is not a nice vanilla. This is a sickly sweet Givenchy Pi vanilla (which I hate). It's just too sweet. I like a slightly manlier, dirtier vanilla than this and just does work for me in this day and age - and it's so soft too when you get to the vanilla, it's barely there. The problem is too, that you don't want to reapply because then you have to go through the Pearl Harbour like attack on the senses from the Lavender again.

I gave this a fair go before deciding to sell it. In the end I did, because I couldn't live with it.

For the fragrance on it's own it's a thumbs-down. For the artistry of the progression from Lavender to vanilla and the very well articulated stages in-between it gets a thumbs-up. So overall it's in the middle.

Not what I was expecting: the lavander is a tad to sweet in my opinion. The sage, rosewood, cedar, rosemary and citrus don't seem to temper the very floral-sweet lavander/vanilla combo as they should.

Theoretically, they should add some dryness and restraint to the blend - which is fine as it is, but I feel it could be richer in refinement.

I guess when it comes down to it - I would have to agree with the majority of reviewers here - it is elegent, masculine, and very veryu period 30s.

I must have fallen for the brainwashing of recent perfume marketing because although I like lavender, I associate it with the old days, or old ladies. In 1934 flowers were far more accepted as men's fragrance notes. The lavender here overstays its welcome to the topnotes and slowly creeps into the other two levels and makes its presence known. However, very smooth, subtle yet projected and quite unique in my opinion for a man's perfume. I really appreciate the niceness here, but I just couldn't wear this everyday, once in a blue moon maybe.

Very strong and very classic scent but way to strong for this young'un.

The opening takes me aback as it's shockingly strong. Maybe it's my American nose trying to get my head around a French fragrance. This is nothing but a powdery lavender, I'd rather go with Endymion by Penhaligon's for that. I don't detect much anything else.

a sober, gentlemanly scent that makes me feel as though there's a bristle brush about to officiously wipe the stray hairs off my face and the back of my neck and then give me a lollipop.

I don’t really get much citrus out of the opening, I mainly get a startling lavender / rose / herb accord. The accord soon joins with the vanilla from the base to form a pleasant barbershop-like, sweet, powdery lavender that holds well. This is basically ‘the’ scent for an hour or two. I am rather undecided about this lavender accord—at times I really like it and at others I find it cloying. When the scent seems to disappear, it really hasn’t—there is a dry down where a sweet powdery lavender hugs the skin for several hours: You (or anyone else) have to get up close and personal to smell it. In spite of my ambivalence, I consider this a classic that no collection should be without—especially considering the price.