Unforgivable (2005)
by Sean John

To me this fragrance is quite synthetic and not unique in any why, however thats not to say it doesnt smell nice. I only wear this fragrance when im lounging around the house and dont want to waste the better fragrances in my collection. Its a safe day to day scent that smells decent and has decent projection and longevity.

It opens with a citrus note with a hint of lavender that just gets deeper as it drys down. Nothing special but nothing bad either.

My score: Projection 7/10
Longevity 6/10
fragrance 6/10

8th January, 2012.

This is a scent that's sweet and while it does smell similar to M.I, to me is has a richer and deeper smell that stays with you more than M.I. M.I, is lighter and less sweet to my senses.

If you want a reasonably priced semi-sweet smell, that drys down to a very neutral smell that lasts for half a day, you can't go wrong with Unforgivable.

Just to give you an idea of the type of scents I like, I enjoy scents such as L'Homme by YSL, True Religion, and AMen, 212 and Rochas Man.

15th December, 2011.

I was on the fence with this one for a while, decided to break it out again, dust it off.. I was certainly surprised how much I had "missed" it. Great fall scent, albeit, not the greatest.. It's un-offensive, and very safe. If not for the price, this would make an EXCELLENT scent for someone in High School.

Projection: 6/10
Longevity: 4/10
Versatility: 8/10
Smell: 7/10
Overall: 6/10

6th November, 2011.

I realy like this one.. I think it makes a good signature.. A very good quality fragrance.. Would highly recommend.. One of my all time fragrance..

24th September, 2011.

This gets hated on because of its similarities to creed but I think it does a great job of copying a very expensive fragrance and making it more affordable. You can get a 1.7 oz bottle of this for $20 where I live. The smallest creed 1.0 oz bottle is about $100 on sale. I guess I can kind of see where the hate is coming from fans of creed as it devalues this expensive smell and now most people would think you are wearing unforgivable instead of silver mountain water. Further testing is needed but my first impression smelling these two together is that they are almost the same, with the creed being slightly better and higher quality. Creed wins for being the first to make the scent, being a little stronger, and having a much better looking bottle but for me if all you are looking for is a nice smell that smells expensive but it's not, I would go for unforgivable.

23rd September, 2011.

Liking Unforgivable all depends on how well I like Millesime Imperial. Which is to say, not really all that much. But given that the former is less than half the price of the latter, and achieves almost the exact same effect, I have to vouch for Sean John's juice. I also agree with jcastano's review - the negative press here is unwarranted. I also feel it's a little hypocritical of the basenotes community to be lambasting this scent, when acclaim for its progenitor is so overwhelming. If there was this kind of disparity between the number of positives vs. negatives between Green Irish Tweed and Cool Water, I'd have to abandon this forum completely. It would be impossible to have faith in the collective opinion. But in the case of Unforgivable and MI, there's not much of a difference - it's pretty much the exact same kind of comparison. Yet this fragrance is 50/50 on love and hate, while GIT and CW share a majority thumbs up vote. I really don't get it.

Unforgivable, however, doesn't exactly capture the magic of MI. It's basically a cruder, louder, scratchier version of the Creed. Unlike some reviewers here who call it a "watered-down" MI (I find this claim true for Cool Water against GIT), I find Sean John's version to be far stronger than MI, and much more in-your-face. This is club juice in the tradition of Joop! Homme and Le Male. It's all muscle shirt and brash. Yet its elements are following an elegant blueprint; Unforgivable begins with a green-studded iris/citrus/melon melange, which sheds its lemony posture after several minutes to become an utterly linear affair. Aside from a half-hearted and chemical suggestion of amber, there's no evolution from the top to the base. The scent, however, stays fresh, and for all intents and purposes, smells good.

Unfortunately, I'm not someone who finds much to love in fruity floral '90s fragrances, although I do sometimes enjoy them. Incense Ultramarine by Givenchy yields a similar effect on my skin, although it must be a chameleon to others, as it garners very little praise here and elsewhere online. The same must be said for Unforgivable, as the fragrance that emanated off my skin today can't possibly be the same juice emanating off others. Unless, of course, statistics lie.

In this case, I have to wonder.

15th August, 2011.