Deseo for Men (2008)
by Jennifer Lopez

Screw you guys! I like this. I'd buy it if I didn't have about 20 other scents just like it. It's a competent fresh woody fragrance (with a price tag), I don't find it overly sweet at all. Aimed for the younger crowd that would like Usher and that ilk (of fragrances). I'd feel kooky just telling people what I'm wearing.

Deseo really caught my nose at Macys and ever since then all I could think was that I wanted this. It is sweet and woodsy...like none other. It reminds me of Hollisters Jake except that instead of citrus as in 'Jake', there is sweetness in Deseo.
It smells good and is for the more youthful crowd similar to diesel fuel and hollister scents.

I feel bad for J Lo. It was a nice try but this first venture into mens' frags is a D, very close to an F.
First, this is a barely remixed copy of Tommy Bahama Very Cool plus Set Sail South Seas. So much so that I swore Coty Prestige must also own T. Bahama and they just sold the TB juice under a different label.
The frag opens up a dark sweet green, very relaxed and attractive, inviting you to keep sniffing. Then about 30 mins into its life, the Set Sail South Seas shows up...then the Very cool. Super synthetic, the cool mint from TB Very cool assaulting your nose so much so that you just can't stand it anymore.
Sorry J Lo. but this is not a winner. Hire me, and I will give you the hook up.

Yes, Shaheen, I know exactly what you mean. This is all sweetness--and tobacco! It was too much from the first spray and that sensation never went away.

It's too bad that this is J Lo's first foray into men's fragrances. What a terrible debut. Even the department store display seemed rather lonely. Deseo had its own counter space, but it looked a little cheesy. And for a fragrance that was just released, the saleswoman didn't seem too interested in promoting it. My guess is that she had experienced her share of bad reactions to it.

This is overly sweet, quite cloying, and a tad bit synthetic. I like the opening spray which is quite fruity and candy-like. However a few minutes into the dry-down and it just starts becoming "too much." It's difficult for me to explain, but the sweetness is just too "high pitched," if that makes any sense. I guess it's the combination of the fragrance's cloying nature coupled with its synthetic "chemical fruit" notes.

I thought I was going to like this one (God forbid, I can't stand J. Lo), but the dry-down sucks.

For a fruity fragrance, I found Fuel For Life to be much, much better.

The girl from the block takes a first stab at a men's scent...AND SHE HAS JUST MISSED MY JUGULAR! HA!, don't get me wrong, I just didn't know what direction she was heading with this one, and it was a scary ride in the "Hood" at certain points on the progression of the scent.

Overall, the scent reminds me of the warm spicy-sporty scents of the 90's, something like Tommy and Hilfiger Athletics (remember that one?).

The opening was a strange musty odor, a cross between construction dust and waterfall mist (big contrast between the two, eh?). There's a berry note in there, but my nose thought it more a tropical fruit (another big contrast). Mild at first, then it started to intensify. I thought it was heading full bore this way. I stuck it out, resisting the temptation to wipe the berry bomb off my wrist, but it leveled off. Beautiful woods peek out, but barely any strength to redeem any refined (underscore refined, please, because at this point it is smelling brutish) masculinity about this scent. I suspect they were cutting down on costs by keeping the base rather thin. Typical MO on celebriscent fashion, I'd say, but the rest of the notes seem pretty tenacious, especially that spicy aspect. Beautiful notes, but terrible execution and the proportions need tweaking.

I wanted to blame the summer heat for doing such strange things to this scent because it seemed to smell fine in an air-conditioned environment, but it was total pimp-juice in the heat.

I'm giving it a neutral rating because somehow, despite the bashing assessment, my mind thinks that the composition is an amorphous fantasy of what desire is all about, like a reverie--the notes are like little dream sequences flitting in and out. But it was also like a car ride with beginner car driver. So many near-missed brushes with disaster!