Fracas for Men
by Robert Piguet

The opening mixes a ripe-fruit accord - mandarin and a hint of apple mainly - with labdanum and bergamot, a pleasant, nice impression; I also get a distinct licorice tone. The drydown loses the freshness and changes to a patchouli with rose, the latter being a rather poor, generic and dull example of its genre. Labdanum remains present throughout that phase. The base is more wood-enriched with vanilla and peters out gradually. Projection and silage are very good for the first half of its overall longevity of nearly seven hours. In summary, the initial phase is nice, the rest quite average with some distinct weaknesses. Clearly the latter stages do not use ingredients of very high quality, but the opening is not without originality, and in some aspects reminds me of scents that were more common in the 1980s and early 1990s. Overall this hovers at the borderline between neutral and just positive, and the first phase and decent longevity make it scrape into the thumbs-up - just.

Decent tobacco leather scent

The fact that this is discontinued is nothing to cry over. CUBA RED's practically identical in its tobacco/leather accord and that costs under $10, the only successful CUBA product in my book.

Why after a company take over did the new owners choose to saddle this with the name of a classic woman's scent, with which it has nothing in common, is a mystery. Perhaps they thought ladies who loved the original FRACAS, would buy this blind for the men in their lives. It didn't work.

It seems only to have been manufactured as an edc, and as such is as long lasting as CUBA RED, about half an hour.

If you can find a bottle, and want to experience it, buy it cheap, under $10, or go with CUBA RED. With both buys, you get a decent tobacco/leather scent, but nothing to rave about - no complexity at all.

Too bad it has the Piguet label on it as it would discourage first exposures to try the brand again and that would be a shame.

Pros: Decent blend of tobacco and leather - masculine but subtle
Cons: As an edc, it does not last long"

How can you mess up the rose/patchouli accord

I love the rose and patchouli notes together in the same fragrance, they seem to meld in a glorious accord that is beautiful and almost heavenly. Take the rose/patchouli of Ungaro III, the rose/patchouli of Zino, the rose/patchouli of Habit Rouge, of Giorgio for Men, of Van Cleef and Arpels pH, of Krizia's Moods, of Tsar, etc, etc, etc... wonderful perfumes that I love dearly. So I thought, well, you can't go wrong with the rose/patchouli accord, right?

Well, Fracas proved me wrong, although it is a rose/patchouli scent, it is a mess. It is not disgusting by any means, but it is so weird that I doubt I will wear it in public.

If you were to ask me as soon as I spray it, then I would hardy give half a star to this fragrance, if at all, but to be fair, although it will shock you on opening, it keeps improving with time and after a couple of hours it will be half decent at least. That's why I am giving two stars to this perfume.

Pros: Rose and patchouli
Cons: Weird

This one smells just plain weird. I usually have an open mind about fragrances, but this smells like a huge mess to me. The notes clash drastically and never seem to sort themselves out. The dry-down is the best part of the scent, but even that is a huge disappointment and not worth the wait. Fracas for men is powerful, I'll give it that.

Take this as a very personal opinion on the reviews posted: perceptions can be biased by false leads. In this case, there are plenty of grounds for them...

1. The blend was developed after the original brand name, Fracas, a classic women's scent.
2. The company in charge of its release was not the original company manufacturing and distributing the products under the brandname "Piguet", it was a licensee.
3. Piguet was later licensed to another company who relaunched the line according to the original concept - namely, manufacturing and selling high-quality scents.

Thus far, Fracas for Men is not listed in their product portfolio.

So we have a potentially failed case in here: Fracas for Men does not have anything to do with the real Fracas, and for worst, it has been blended by a company with a business strategy at odds with the present one. The result? The wearer will get a very bad first impression due to poor quality packaging issues mentioned by many reviewers.

Now, what about the blend? On first impressions, you might as well take Lomani Lomani for Men (this one: http://www.basenotes.net/ID26121011.html) and strip the very strong citric / lemon-like top notes. Make these more spicy with some fruit accords to the point of avoiding any annoyment. Later, make this notes morph slowly into slight floral and strong woody notes, albeit subtle. It somehow smells like a toned-down or a mellowed traditional aromatic fougere because of the spices.

As a conclusion, it is a well blended scent along classic perfume making, it def, does not smell edgy, at all. It does lack the sillage many fragrance aficionados demand of their perfumes, but alas, men are supposed to smell nice in a subtle fashion. Longevity is along the norm, 4 hours in acidic skin like mine. Add to all these the fact that it sold under a very convenient price. Thus, I think it would be a good choice for a "no frills" fragrance wearer seduced at the idea of using a traditional scent that is not widely known at all.