M; Men (2006)
by Masakï Matsushïma

This is excellent. Refined, clever, slightly strange but so, so wearable.

It's dusty, musky citrus filtered through the mulch of hedgerows and laced with shitake mushrooms. Superb, Japanese elegance, like yesterday's Comme des Garcons shirt, left outside overnight.

Or maybe like a big, cuddly Panda supplemented its usual diet of bamboo shoots with a cup of good quality tea and a nice, ripe grapefruit - and then burped. Or maybe not.

Sad this lives for so short of a time. It's a wonderful citrus opening with qualities like Guerlain's Vetiver but it's missing key components making it NOT a vetiver scent (even though there is vetiver). Maybe I'm rambling but when I first sprayed this I thought it was Guerlain. No wait it's Vetiver Glacee! No wait... M; Men? What the heck? It's a lovely light-hearted scent and stereotypical of most Japanese designer scents. It simply doesn't last long enough to be enjoyed thoroughly. What a great opening act. Too bad the headlining bad was terrible.

This is a tart yet refeshing grapefruit and lemon with some light woods, vetiver, and Bond No. 9-ish unisex musk lying underneath. But, the real star is the citrus; everything else is almost incidental. It is natural-smelling, simple, and linear - a perfect summer frag. No frills here, people. It's almost as though it's saying, "Don't overanalyze me. Just frolic."

If the good folks at Ocean Spray ever decide to create a fragrance, they should buy this recipe and market it using television ads scored to Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Very nice intial blast of citrus but just doesn't last long on my skin. Almost gone after 30 minutes. A shame b/c it definitely has potential.

My wife absolutely abhors high sillage scents and as such, I have been on a quest to try some scents I like without having a large area of scent space. I have tried some of the Kenzo scents without finding a keeper for me. This scent is a keeper. I was a big fan of Issey Miyake about 10 years ago and feel M:Men has some of the same Japanese character. M:Men is less sweet and less floral with a little grapefruit on the opening and a nice woody tone on drydown. Longevity is good with just one or two sprays at about 6-8 hours. Nice work scent IMHO, and my wife asked about it without prompting. That is a positive. Try it if you like unique masculine scents that are fresh and not overpowering.

Lemon and grapefruit making way for a light vetiver and white musk. Very tastefully done. A bit introverted. Seems like this could be unisex. I like it very much.