Van Cleef & Arpels pour Homme (1978)
by Van Cleef & Arpels

VC&A ph was released the same year as Polo Green. Polo Green went on to become one of the best sellers of all time. VC&A ph, on the other hand, became an obscure and hard-to-find fragrance that has survived, despite it's unpopularity. I think there are pockets of men hidden in Europe who secretly horde VC&A ph, which can only explain it's longevity.

So, what's VC&A ph like these days? Deep, dark and haunting, like a black panther hunting it's prey in a rose bush. A sinister tincture of castoreum and musk anchor this beast to a chain of rose, majorjam and balsam fir. Unlike Polo Green, VC&A ph has largely been untampered with and is still bares quite the bite. VC&A ph could be the most animalic designer men's fragrance on the market after Kouros. Its complexity defies explanation. Get it while you can while you can before that European horde starts to die off.

15th November, 2011.

This is an excellent fragrance, a powerhouse without a doubt, and with as much, if not more, attitude than Quorum and Lapidus pH.
This is a perfume for manly men, not for wimps.
It reminds me many other powerhouses, but it combines the best of each in one truly magnificent fragrance. The coniferous accord of Krizia Uomo, the rose of Ungaro III, the opening of Quorum, the "on your face" attitude of Lapidus pH, the complexity of One Man Show (Fendi Uomo, Azzaro pH, etc.) so why having all those (and more) if you can have it all in just one fragrance
Is this my Holy Grail?
It well may be, I liked it from the get go and went right to my top 5 list

6th August, 2011.

An ancient rose, filtered through grey gauze. Sober enough, and abstract, but pervaded by a stuffy Victorian sweetness. A gathering of diplomats on the lawn of an old chateau. An elderly aristocrat reading metaphysics in his paneled library. A hint of realms beyond. A smell of the grave almost. Distinguished and immaculate, but is it my imagination tells me that a bottle of this scent, presented to me in the 1980s by a certain Monsieur Suleiman, had much more depth and authority, but lacked that deathbed touch of sickly rose?

5th July, 2011.

Smoky. Dark. Forbidding. I wear this when I want to take no prisoners at work. Did I mention smoky? This smells like a man would have smelled in the 1950s, and I don't think that's a bad thing (occasionally). As you would expect, sillage and longevity are excellent -- I can still smell this on my shirt at the bottom of the laundry hamper after a day or two.

27th May, 2011.

A masculine soapy-herbal-rose fragrance with animalic hints (castoreum?) and leather in the middle phase . Nice, well crafted but IMo not as much compelling as other perfumes of the same family.

4th May, 2011.

VC & A certainly hits the ground running, and the general darkness that shrouds it is quickly evident. At times it is as black and dusty as running your tongue down a blackboard, but it also has a slightly smoky quality, like charred wood slowly cooling. It operates in quite narrow parameters, with little or no softness or vestiges of sentimentality.

This is perhaps more rugged than handsome, rough around the edges, and not quite polished enough to sit at the top table.

11th April, 2011.