Gucci pour Homme (2003)
by Gucci

Pencil shavings, pencil shavings, pencil shavings… Hmmmm…

Personally, Gucci pour Homme reminds me of the smell of those classrooms in my old Roman Catholic secondary school (but minus the bad smells, generated by pubescent schoolboys). Do you remember the smell of inside one of those old wooden school desks (the ones with the hinged tops which, when raised, revealed a storage area for all your exercise books)? Well, that’s what immediately springs to mind whenever I smell this.

For something more sensual and longer lasting, go for Rochas Lui instead.

[Original submission date: 25 May 2008]

It seems I can never stress enough how certain scents will force an immediate deja vu that conjures up memories so long forgotten you weren't sure whether you dreamed it or if it actually happened. I just got a bottle of GPH today, and excited as I was from both the reviews and the perceived pyramid I was not quite ready for the mental fatigue I've just gone through for an hour. Since I was already wearing my SOTD (creed chevrefeuille, although by this point in the day the relatively weak longevity had long since rendered it imperceivable to my nose) I decided to spray the back of my hand... just to get a feel for it before I showered and could enjoy a full wearing. The first couple of minutes I wasn't really impressed, as the weak capsaicin in the pepper mixed with the tiniest whiff of ginger didn't really do much for me... after five minutes I found myself absolutely entrenched in my own wrist (luckily the geriatric playing golf didn't notice me inhaling my arm from my balcony, but whatever I wouldn't really care if they did). Something in this kept stoking my memories... at first I went through every single fragrance I've ever sampled, worn, smelled on someone else, you name it... I was left with nothing. I started to get a bit angry that something that smelled so familiar was lost in my memory banks. Then, alas, a revelation. I was probably around ten years old visiting my Nana up in Connecticut, and we went to a "true" Catholic church... being a florida boy I was raised in a "progressive Catholic church", whereas everything was a bit watered down to compete with big boy Baptist right across the road. Anyways my first journey to the "real" church was incredibly intimidating for me, with the massive architecture, the massive ensemble of choral units, and the 3 story organ pipes that seemed to erupt from the organ and blast the hymns straight to heaven. Needless to say I was blown away by the sheer immensity of it all; the most intriguing part of the entire visit, however, was the priest wading through the crowd of pews with the ball of insence hanging from the chain, filling the entire structure with the most putrid, irritating, yet pleasurable fragrance I had yet known... After that whenever my family went back north to visit, all I wanted to do was to go back to that church. Not for the rhetoric, not for the incessant kneeling, standing, sitting and watching what everyone else did just so that you wouldn't make the wrong move. I begged to go because although the fragrance hurt my eyes, although it burned my nostrils, and although it left a pasty film on the back of my tongue it was the most exhilarating nuisance I had ever felt. After an hour into GPH I'm left with that same sort of irritated satisfaction. The scent pyramid from the middle down is absolutely worthless to me, because I have no idea whatsoever how orris rhizome smells in its natural state, and if there is amber in this I cannot feel it. What I do get is a tremendous amount of pew wood, leather from the "books of the lord", and that powerful incense that psychosomatically never really goes away. The irrational thing is that I can almost smell the top notes of Tommy Bahama in the drydown, which makes absolutely no sense at all, but somehow that which I loved in the latter is that which I love in the former... All in all I can't really make a solid recommendation for this fragrance, because so much lies in the subjective manifestation that causes me to love it, but I could never see this as getting a negative comment it is just too beautiful. Thumbs up for yet another unexpected trip down memory lane

A pleasant, inoffensive offering from Gucci, which might find favour among those that seek something sweet and woody. The opening is more frusctose than sucrose, with a Pink Grapefruit type sweetness which in no way ever becomes sentimental or cloying. A slightly dried timber note from the Papyrus wood, augments the fading nectar from the opening, to provide a warm, affable fragrance. One to reach for when you don't want to stand out from the crowd, but still smell alluring.

Bold and glorious scent. So hot, so strong. The cinnamon, cedar and pepper carry me off. But to wear it in public would be downright rude.

The spicy, gingery opening soon gives way to a slightly vanilla-tinged wood smell. On my skin, the drydown is a lovely, intense, sweet olibanum that results in frequent wrist-sniffing. Not to everyone's taste, but for lovers of woody, incense frags, this one is up there, and costs less than some of the other incense frags on the market.

My new signature scent for my 30s. I could bathe in this!

Class in a bottle. By far a much better scent than Dirty English or any other newer mass distributed woodsy scent. Must own.