Reviews of Sander for Man (1998)
by Jil Sander

For about fifteen minutes, Sander for Man flirts with greatness. The cool minted citrus and aromatic opening is a little shy on me, but the scent soon opens up to expose a brisk combination of green herbaceous notes, conifer wood, and spices. Pepper and cypress keep things crisp and clean, while a hint of smoky incense throws an intriguing shadow over the olfactory landscape. At this stage Sander for Man resembles several of the early Comme des Garçons scents, not only in content, but in its overall style: an unabashedly synthetic composition that strives for novelty without trying to smell even remotely like anything in nature.

Then, rather suddenly, the whole structure is swamped by a wave of standard issue fruity-green fougère accord. From that point on, it’s just another banal Cool Water wannabe, made more disappointing perhaps by the occasional hints of cypress, pepper, or incense that remind me what Sander for Man could have been. Never mind “For god, for country, and for Yale,” Sander for Man should be in the dictionary under “anticlimax.”

Sander opens with a relatively sharp, fresh opening that is immediately green and somewhat aquatic. I would not categorize this fragrance as aquatic, but it does smell watery – unlike most aquatics which simply attempt to imitate watery, fruity freshness. The ivy and mint combination in the top notes create the green, fresh opening. The ivy dominates as the scent transitions into the heart of spicy coriander, cardamom, and pepper. My untrained noise perceives the pepper note with only a vague discernment of the cardamom. Finally, I get cashmere, myrrh, and some woods in the base. The base is definitely familiar; the references to Gucci PH II and Hugo Boss Dark Blue are spot on (especially for GPH II).

The overall experience is pleasant enough: an urban, trendy, fresh yet sexy eau de toilette. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like this cologne offers enough punch to spark my interest. It smells good, but it doesn’t deliver enough smell for the nose to enjoy. No wander this one came and went without anyone noticing. For me, it’s a neutral due to its anemic nature.

Intensely sharp, minty, woody and very modern scent that is both different from anything else out there -- yet not so strikingly different that it really sticks in your memory. In spite of having just a touch of sweetness to it, Sander for Man is anything but creamy and cloying -- it is aggressively dry and has a sharpness to it that can stun your olfactory senses for a good fifteen minutes if you overspray and aren't careful. Sillage is outrageous - you can almost see the molecules radiating out and infiltrating your victims' lungs. I find it hard to place this one. Thanks to the mint it's a bit too cold for a snuggly scent (no warm, gourmand-y, or animalic vibes here) - yet a touch too spicy and powerful for office wear, although when I've used it it's mostly been for the latter purpose. Incredible value for money given the size of the bottle and the power of the juice -- but probably still a "try before you buy" scent. And don't get too trigger-happy with the spray button -- your friends will be in pain.

Aromatic and fresh FiFi winner. Not a bad scent.

I keep getting this cold, and metallic citrus smell out of it. It doesn’t make it actually bad, but it makes the structure very sharp, thin and eventually even quite cheap smelling.

Spiciness is close to being nostril burningly harsh. Woods are very watery; makes me think of long soaked driftwood now drifted to the shore.

The thing I like most in this is the strange and oddly unreachable exotic general tone. That’s why it’s kind of hard to keep my nose out of my wrist. It smells mysterious in the end, very familiar and yet so misty at the same time.

Good stuff, but I don’t personally need a bottle mainly because of that tendency to make my nose sting.

I really love fresh and ligtht fragances but I don't know what this one is and why!
Luckly it was a discreet one but not only that it doesn't last I'm afraid it acctually doesn't exist it's so weak.
Wearing this one you just smell like nothing so you could as well use a simple (cheaper ) department store deodorant.

the spicy middle note and the base notes of incense and myrrh are magical. very unique scent. i would not say (green) but a very romantic and uncasual scent. wear this one out with your lady friend to get her in the mood.

I have a freaky trifecta thing going on with this one and two other scents. When I wear Sander for Man, I feel like I'm wearing Guiice pour Homme II or Hugo Dark Blue. I love the note in all three that they seemingly have in common. My guess it's a combination of mint and incense/myrrh. I like all three equally (and they all have the same juice color).

Sander for Man has a nice sweet but cutting scent with a mint of mint that fades. Very casual and likable.

Fresh and green opening—quite a vegetal feel to it. I get more ivy than mint, and I don’t get very much spice—the whole accord is invigoratingly and uniquely green. Immediately rising from the base is a clean cypress note supporting the ivy and adding more dimension and aromatics to the greenness. When the touch of incense begins to rise up from the base, the whole fragrance takes a turn — it begins to get an other worldly feeling to it, and, together with the wood from the base, forms a rich and rather exotic platform for the higher vibrancy greens that continue to dominate. A one-of-a-kind scent, which, as others have pointed out, has a very urban feel to it, and it’s the urban feel that allows it to get away with the synthetic undertones of the ivy, which is a very difficult note to employ in a fragrance. I enjoy Sander for Men: This is a unique and creative fragrance, tinged with mystique; it has strong sillage, but it is wearable, and it boasts almost supernatural longevity (Obviously! Oberon would require that.)

I don't understand how a perfumer of the calibre of Jacques Cavallier can be so uneven and erratic in his performance as such, as a perfumer. While his L'eau D'Issey and Bvlgari pour homme are distinctive and exquisite, this one, Sander, comes as a dissapointment. No individuality, or distinctiveness, no class, it's gray and opaque.

Im not sure what this was....I sprayed it.....and......it smelled like air, lime, and...water, seriously...I wasted my money on this one from a "blind" order.
Jil Sander recommends, SUNMEN!
also 'Background' if you can find it.....

Reminds me of a fresh pack of minty gum, only it is accompanied by some pepper and some sweetness. Definately unique.

I wanted desperately to like Jil Sander Man, because I loved Jil Sander’s men’s fashion line. Unfortunately, smelling it for the first time, it seemed just like the myriad other bland, sporty, fresh, detergent-like scents on the market. In some ways, I can understand why this is, because Sander’s designs have always been about understatement and subtlety, but nevertheless this one just seems bland (almost, but not as bad as the Jil Sander Pure scent). A scent like Chanel’s original Pour Monsieur is also understated and subtle, but still has a certain distinctiveness to it that doesn’t dissolve the wearer into oblivion. Overall, this one (like all of Sander’s fragrances) was a huge disappointment.

Nothing special abou this one, yet not bad either. The typical "neutral" scent, it is inconspicous and evaporates extremely quick. Cooling, refreshing, clean yet rather plain.

Quite simply a divine fragrance which works well as both a daytime and an evening scent, depending on how much you spray on. I absolutely love it, it is one of the most distinctive modern 'urban' fragrances available in my view, an intense fusion of notes which combine in quietly masculine way. The bottle and packaging are a treat too. It seems to be getting easier to get hold of - I notice Harvey Nicolls stock it - so there's no excuse not to try it!

A pretty good scent, it`s quite a different from common hugos and armanis

To me this doesn't seem quite as original as the others think. Sander for men is a sympathetic fusion of coriander, cedar and Chanel's Allure. It really resembles that fragrance but it's lighter, less cloying and without the tonka-bonanza. It does last well, and gives the wearer a distinctively urban feeling. An enjoyable modern eau de toilette.

The Baron de Charlus once told me: 'It was in the forest of Fontainbleu that I first encountered Sander for Men. It appeared magically by my right elbow as I lay reclining against a tree. I knew immediately that I was in fairyland. Judicious application to both wrists served only to confirm this impression. "Messieurs and mesdames," I intoned to myself, "dear hearts, wunderkind, there is a quirky, delicate, elusive quality to this fragrance that distinguishes it from others of this ilk, from the run of the mill of modern airy scents that bespeak all too often only of sythetic scenarios lacking any real heart or mystery." Whilst I was thus nodding my approval, an ancient peasant hobbled by. When he was almost out of sight, he turned, winked and waved, transmuting into a being of beauty. It was, of course, Oberon, indisputable King of the Fairies.'

I tend to agree with Paul on being uncertain on this one. Considering the list of ingredients, it seems sweeter and more fruity to me than the ingredients would lead me to believe. That is not necessarily a bad thing tho. It has a nice sort of sharpish mid note that tingles the nose, and dries down fairly soft and unobtrusively. It is a good scent in that I haven't found much like it out there on the market.

I go back and forth on this scent. One minute I wonder what I was thinking and other times I think it's one of the cooler scents out there. It's also one of the more potent scents I've ever encountered. It lasts forever. It's intensely woody and spicy. I think of it more as a cool spring/summer night scent. It's very well made and you'll definitely stand out wearing it.