Je Suis Un Homme (2006)
by Etat Libre d'Orange

Je Suis Un Homme is a fleeting citrus, woods, spices and leather eau de cologne, which smells acceptable during the opening but fails to stick around for you to finish your full assessment of it. Personally, there are far better alternatives out there, if you’re really looking for a citrus cologne (especially from superior houses such as Guerlain, Christian Dior, Roger et Gallet, Penhaligons and even The Different Company).

So, you're a man, are you?! More like you're hardly there…

[Original submission date: 10 December 2008]

Hah! I was interested to read bbBD's comments about differing fragrances. This was exactly my own experience.

After sniffing and dabbing my “American” sample for some time, I decided that I'd like to purchase a bottle of this, so I trotted along to Harvey Nicholl's in Knightsbridge and was shocked to find that their Je Suis un Homme was not at all like the sample I had. The "English" one was ordinary, flat, eau de cologne; nothing special at all. Now I realised how a scent that I really liked could have received the poor reviews that I had seen. My lush, patchouli laden sample, couldn’t possibly be the same fragrance. Convinced I’d been given something else by mistake, I obtained another sample from the USA to see if this was the case. It turned out to be exactly the same as the first one; lush & almost transparent with a slightly bitter camphorated note from the patchouli and a crystalised floral undertone. Very elegant.

I hope this wasn’t just a rogue batch.

I’m amazed that I have such a different response to what is listed below. I don’t see ANY similarity to Eau Sauvage, not do I detect much citrus at all. On me, this is a long-lived and powerful scent. I would characterize it as spicy rather than leathery or patchouli-prominent.
It has a manly, powerful old-school vibe. I enjoy the myrtle which gives a green, slightly coniferous note to cool the abundant warm spice notes. I think this is quite well done, and a worthy and similar sibling to Eloge du Traitre.

Je Suis un Homme presents a great men's cologne, though as with most ELDO fragrances there is a twist that allows it to stand apart. In his case the traditional generic woods base is replaced with a patchouli/leather accord. The citrus/herbal top notes are reminiscent of Eau Sauvage, but drier (perhaps the lack of hedione?) and less tart. Within 10-20 minutes little hints of patchouli appear and from there the citrus fades out over the next hour into the patchouli/leather base, the start of which features a particularly prominent patchouli note*. As someone who likes patchouli, this is a great alternative to traditional cologne. Longevity and sillage are both very good, especially for a "cologne" (probably because it's not an EdC concentration, but EdP I believe). Therefore while there are certainly any number of cologne options, this is the only one with the patchouli 'twist' that I'm aware of (even from so-called 'superior' houses, as if the house is relevant to the review itself). As with all the ELDOs, the cost is very reasonable for niche.

* A note on the patchouli/leather base. Before purchasing a bottle, I tend to first purchase a sample, then a decant, then a bottle if all I still think the fragrance is bottle worthy by the time I'm done with the decant. For JSUH, my sample and decant were from different sources, one of which was US based, the other from Europe. There is something of a difference between the two sources with respect to how prominent the patchouli base presents itself, particularly at first. I personally prefer the stronger patchouli and would buy a bottle without hesitation if I knew for sure that the stronger-base version is the one I'd be buying, not that the other is bad, it's just that I would be buying it expressly because of the patchouli-cologne 'twist'. I have no idea whether there are different formulas released in different markets or if one of the samples I received had turned bad for some reason. I'm noting this in case your experience with respect to the base differs from the one I describe in the review, above.

Smells like a mixture of Eau Sauvage and the smell of absolutely everything at once, like when you walk past the doors of a branch of "Lush".

At first sniff I thought Je Suis Un Homme would be an excellent scent. The opening is quite impressive – might even be called “classic” because of its excellent citrus with spices and florals. But within five minutes, the fragrance had all but disappeared, leaving only a few traces of some leather, some patchouli, and a brief and rapidly fading memory…………

So… apparently, this is a statement about what a man is: five minutes of rapture, then a speedy and expeditious disappearance.


… works for me…