Fragrance Reviews by nout

Nice bottle.
Low price.

The smell is a mixed bag.
Natural, organic and non-synthetic on one hand (yes I can sense the cucumber, but maybe only because I know it is one of the notes)
On the other hand it unfortunately has a weird sweet/sour-note which is very off-putting.
Not a recognizable fresh sour by any means...frozen yoghurt at best, though the association with vomit is easily made also and I honestly am not making this up to be funny
To me it's sourish base is very reminiscent to Joop!'s dry-down, a nauseating cloying stink.

I'll keep the nice bottle though, but for a decorative reason only.

I used to like it, had a miniature, but never bought a full bottle and I honestly cannot believe the universal praise this fragrance gets.

This scent is somewhat archetypical fresh.
Not a fougere like Cacharel Pour Homme or Eau Sauvage.
Not a citrus like Armani Pour un Homme or YSL Live Jazz.
XS smells too undefined, it lacks prominent natural smelling ingredients, it is an odd fresh mixture, but a very common one.

To my nose it does the same thing as cheap supermarket deodorants, it doesn't really smell like an Eau de Toilette, it's just a bit more refined and sophisticated than those cheap deodorants and it obviously lasts longer.
Pretty reminiscent to the strong, bright and sharp scents I smelled in the boys locker room when I was a kid, back in the 80's
None of the kids used designer frags at that time, today it is pretty common for youngsters to use Adidas, Puma, Polo Blue, Diesel or even Allure sport.
We all used Fa, Fresh Up and something similar like Rexona (I can't remember the name).
Very strong, bright and sharp fresheners but you couldn't tell what those deodorants smelled like, only that is was kinda fresh.
XS has that typical kind of fresh and it never settles down into a softer and more textured scent, it stays fresh in a loud and linear way,

Citrus? Not really, it smells kinda sourish and musky, but when you've tried YSL Live Jazz or even better Mugler Cologne you know what true citrus is supposed to smell like.
Mugler Cologne has a true, authentic lemon note, Live Jazz a credible grapefruit note.

Sandalwood and cedarwood?
When the scent is nearly gone, after 5 hours or so, a very subte hint of a woodsy note is noticeab..ehm..conceivable at best, but you have to get past the musk first which isn't that easy.

I am not trying to suggest that I only like fragrances that do smell real and natural, nor am I trying to suggest that I can sense every single ingredient in the ones I like.
But at least they smell like something I know of, something tangible.
DKNY Men for instance smells like Earl Grey tea to me, Mugler Cologne like grass and lemon and even Chrome, the most synthetic fragrance I know, at least smells like something familiar: metal.

XS smells musky and fresh, an undefined and loud fresh, almost at the level of becoming unpleasant.

Joop! can smell really nice.

A colleague of mine wore this one day and I really liked the smell, fresh, with notes of incense, like a nice razor cream.
I asked him what it was, expecting an old classic quality fragrance and then he mentioned Joop!.
What?, the fragrance many detest of being aggressively sweet and cloying?

The next day he wore it again and while I was working with him that day the smell began to irritate me, yes there's some nice freshness, but it has an odd sour note to the scent and not exactly a fresh citrus one, but rather a gourmandish sweet frozen-yoghurt note.

The top notes seem capable of covering it up for a good period, so when someone who's wearing Joop! walks by you it can smell nice, but staying in the same room for a longer time with that person the smell definitely can become intolerable.
After 10 minutes even the association with frozen yoghurt is gone, it then starts to smell like vomit, covered up by a strong and sweet perfume.

Nice, not spectacular, weak sillage, I like the grapefruit note a lot.
Just like other EDTs (from the 90's) I tried from Yves Rocher this one smells very natural, organic and non-synthetic, but still succeeds in smelling pretty cheap...it's an enigma to me.

Cinnamon, sugar and water.
Zero sillage, sticks to the skin.
Weak smell, though thumbs up for not smelling synthetic, it really smells natural, but still I get a cheap vibe of this one.
Non offensive, non attrative also.
2 Stars.

At first I thought it was very similar to Paco Rabane's XS, but when comparing both fragrances side by side, XS on my left arm, 212 Men on my right I came to the conclusion that 212 Men is a more unique scent.
(XS is sort of an archetype of a fresh scent to me, but a type of fresh I find too common to like, not enough spice also)
212 Men has a nice touch of 'milky' green which reminds me a lot of Yves Rocher's Nature for women, a fragrance I liked very much (beautiful bottle as well), but is discontinued for some odd reason. It is not a men's fragrance per se, more a unisex.

Well I don't think the scent will suit me wearing it for a longer period, but I'm enjoying sniffing at the sample or at a tiny drop of juice on my wrist.

It's not strange at all this fragrance is popular, it really is a very nice discrete, soft and light citrus tea scent.

It is very strange this fragrance is so popular, because it doesn't stand out, it is too discrete and light and doesn't contain a sharp musk note.
(And I thought "good taste" was a quality that only concerned a happy few)

It is unfortunate that this fragrance is so popular, because I like it very much, but do not wanna smell like everybody else.

Oh well, DKNY Men is similar in a way, but less floral and with an even stronger tea scent.

Not impressed.
Yes it is better than Boss Botled in one aspect, not as nauseating sweet (still way too sweet though), but more importantly it lacks some spicy or herbal notes, it really needs a good kick in the butt: what is left on my skin is all sweets without a proper base.
Where Boss bottled at least had its base right from the start, vanilla and musk, this one is undefined, only sweet and musky, like a bar of cheap toilet soap.

There's one fragrance, apart from Boss Botled, this cologne reminds me of:
Maxim's Pour Homme, a very sweet and fresh scent, but aggressively sharp.

Be ware, Baldessarini is definitely one that may cause a migraine.

A wonderful fragrance.
A green soapy scent, very similar to Lancome's Miracle L'aquatonic.
I've had a difficult time deciding which I like better.

Mugler is lighter and fresher, the citrus defintely is much more prominent from the beginning till the end and the dry-down is more woodsy than L'aquatonic.
But this strong citrus note is something thst unfortunately doesn't seem to work well on my skin, too sharp and musky.
(I wrote a very favourable review for Live jazz but I no longer seem to care for it because of the strong citrus note)

L'aquatonic is Mugler cologne without the citrus and without the transformation into a woodsy scent near the end.
It is more linear and remains green till the end with a stronger vetiver note.

Still I sense most will prefer Mugler Cologne over L'Aquatonic, because it is fresher, lighter and more a cologne where L'Aquatonic pretty much wears like an eau de parfum (if applied wrongly)

I really wanted to like this woodsy fragrance, because there's nothing quite similar out there.

Not many will agree with me, but i think this fragrance does kinda have a resemblance with its predecessor Fahrenheit, although they smell very different.
Both have an odd, unique distinct paper-like note to it, like papier macher or like those old fragranced books in which you can smell an illustrated object by rubbing your fingernail over the drawing.

Both can give me a hint of shoe polish...a hint?...Dune actually very obvious, it lacks Fahrenheits sweetness and on my skin it smells like shoe polish from start till finnish, I most definitely agree with GeorgeBernard on this.

It could (have) be(en) a high quality alternative to other quality woodsy scents like Gucci PH and especially Tam Dao, but try before you buy, I have great difficulty getting past the shoe shine association

Fahrenheit revisited after a long period.
In my memory it smelled kinda like Roma Uoma and Minotaur...was I wrong.

A unique smell, it could smell absolutely gorgeous on the right person I suppose, on me however it smells like perfumed papier macher (paper and glue) at first.
Or like a tiny drop of shoe polish on a fresh washed cotton cloth.

After that the fragrance transforms in a more bitter scent, yes motor oil and burned wood, it even smells like burned rubber tires.
Not exactly something I wanna smell like.

The dry-down is softer, gone is the motor oil but the smell remains rather bitter to my nose.

One of the few fragrances of which the opening I like better than the middle and dry-down.

One of the popular fragrances, along with Polo, Boss, Drakkar Noir and Armani in my school years the 80's.

Not a bad smell per se, but Paco smells pretty similar to a toilet freshener, not a nice association.
Out of the fragrances mentioned Armani is the one I like the best, the more subtle one.

I do not detect any rose note in this fragrance, but do I care?

Scentemental wrote an eloquent review and obviously his nose is much better than mine, but I really like this fragrance very much.

"In its contemporaneity *Amor Pour Homme*, and Cacharel itself, assumes that those who will buy this fragrance will probably have never tried *Cacharel Pour L’Homme* nor will really want to."

I actually tried the original, owned a bottle in the 80's and loved it, because it wasn't that outspoken, cloying and powerful as other 80's fougeres (Drakkar noir, Polo, Paco Rabane, Trophee Lancome and even Lacoste original)

To my nose Amor is a very 'neutral' and extremely ordinary fougere.
It isn't innovative, doesn't smell different and is easily to dismiss as a generic, boring scent.
But I simply cannot come up with one fragrance that smells like this one.
I feel this fragrance, of all the fougere-like fragrances I tried, is the ultimate average, it seems to strive for an average of all good things.
Amor smells pretty timeless, whereas the original Cacharel Pour Homme is easily recognized as an 80's fragrance.

I want to make an analogy.
Some audiophiles have a certain auditioning rule: if the hifi-set audiotioned in the store doesn't sound that special, if it doesn't really stand out, it most likely will be the best choice.
The hifi components that did sound spectacular at first may irritate, cause listening fatigue when living with it for a longer period.

Not a strong analogy I guess, but what I am trying to say is that when I'm wearing a fragrance for a longer period the balance must be right, I have to feel at ease with it and not get annoyed by a certain distinctive note that is claiming its attention.

To me Amor is a great every day fragrance, nothing more and nothing less.

Got a sample with my recently bought bottle of Cacharel's (highly underrated) Amor.

The best way I can describe this fragrance: it is like a higher quality Vesace Blue Jeans that seems to be made entirely out of natural gourmandish ingresients.
Where Blue jeans is a synthetic vanilla with some undefined marine notes added, Black Code is vanilla and almond macarons ("bitterkoekjes" in Dutch), very eatable.
A high quality fragrance, just not my taste.

I love this scent.
Just the right balance between fresh and gourmandish.

The opening is pretty loud and when I am forcing my nose to adjust to the busy notes interacting with each other, inhale them real deep, all at the same time instead of sensing every note individually, it really does smell like a stable!
(this similar sensation, smelling the sum of all the notes when inhaled very deep I have with Polo(Green), to me it then smells exactly like an ashtray, no kidding)

The stable scent doesn't last for long (fortunately), it soon settles down to a rich and balanced mixture of orange, vanilla and sandalwood.
So warm and deep, but not cloying in any way.
It has a nice sillage as-well, but a discrete one, a pleasantly warm aura, not offensive in any way.

The smell is addictive and I have to force myself not to sniff it every single second, because there can be something off-putting about this fragrance.
Like the stable smell in the beginnig when deeply inhaled, the middle notes can give of a strong alcohol scent if inhaled too long, too often and too close to the skin.

Yes, this scent is very similar to Biagiotti's Roma Uomo, but less sweet on my skin, the dry-down is richer though a tad dryer.

A very excentric scent when you're used to smell fragrances like Chrome, AdG and Coolwater.

I didn't like it at first, the opning and middle is so much more expressive than most any other fragrance I tested and in the drydown the strong citrus note keeps its position rock steady instead of quickly giving it away to an inoffensive save mix of musk, vanilla and/or wood.

I like inoffensive in a scent and do not particularly care about bright and outgoing.
My first impression was obviously negative, but while wearing it on my chest, instead of just smelling it on my arm, my opinion took a big turn.

I am actually enjoying this edt very, very much, it smells great on me and being one of the lucky few: it stays long on my skin, one spray is enough to last at least 6 to 7 hours.

This was the first fragrance I bought after 5 years or so living without any.
Before that I was satisfied with Caractere and Boss Elements, but Caractere was discontinued and Elements nowhere to be found.
I had my mind pretty much set on Paco Rabane's XS of which I had a miniature.

**at the time I found it more fun to collect miniatures, for the bottle itself rather than the scent which I felt were awful most of the time (Armani, Polo, Boss, Drakar Noir...bleh!) but XS was one of the few I liked**

At the shop I tried different EDTs including XS, all were too sweet for my taste.
Higher was the only fragrance which reminded me of Caractere and Boss Elements
Those EDTs were a bit darker and less cloying than the usual loud popular ones.
The only thing I didn't like about those fragrances was the poor sillage and lack of some sharpness.
I don't mean sharpness in the sense of nose-aching sweetness or a heavy citrus blast, but more a pointy sensation, some texture at the heart of the scent, which both Caracter and Boss Elements lacked.

Higher, being a more modern fragrance and probably more synthetic than Caracter and Elements did have that bite, (ozonic perhaps?) which pretty much seems to mark or direct the scent instead of remaining vaguely atmospheric.
The sillage seemed much better too.

The dry-down of this one is really nice on my skin
Dark, woodsy, mossy and, similar to Caractere and Elements, but with a note of citrus added.
So yes you could say it turns a bit sour on the skin, but in a very natural citrussy and pleasant way.

I like it better than XS's, less sweet and warmer.
But the sillage is still too narrow, a private affair, no one except me seems to smell it.

Unlike most I don't like the bottle that much, I much prefer old fashiond, straight glass bottles

This in essence beautiful fragrance works a bit strange on my skin.
Athough it is marketed as a fresh summer scent, at first it doesn't appear that way.
It isn't as light and fresh as say a Mugler's Cologne.
On mild spring days, without much sun and on colder days it wears pretty heavy and 'perfumy' on my skin, not exactly masculine.
Very sweet and thick smelling, as if I am wearing a green gourmand.

But when it's hot outside something strange happens, the sweat and warmth of my body seems to neutralize the sweetness and makes room for the vetiver and wood note.
The scent becomes much lighter and fresher instead of becoming thicker - what usually happens to overly sweet and heavy evening edts.

The juice is pretty concentrated, on my skin two spritzs are more than enough to last around 10 hours, I am not kidding.

I recommend this EDT, but I'd strongly advise you to not buy it blind, there's a reasonable chance you may find the scent to sweet and perfumy.
But do me a favour, IF you try this EDT, do it on a warm day, you'll be surprised how good it smells.

This scent really has nothing to do with the tough looking bottle.

It is very very sweet.
Nothing wrong with sweet, but there has to be some roundness, softness to it just to smoothen things a bit, fortunately there is, though still way to sweet for my taste.

This scent is way better than my recently tried sampler of CK IN2U, it is a bit richer,deeper and rounder, but still fresh enough for spring evenings.

In fact it really is reminiscent of Minotaur, a light and sharper version that is and because I have Minotaur at hand I'll try to describe some differences.

Minotaur is much warmer and deeper in its base, probably just a sweet as this new Armani, but without the sharp sting you'll get in your nose.

The opening of Minotaur is very different, more spicey and lemmony, very rich and expressive scents.
Armani's attitude is all candy in the beginning, very pink and sharp smelling but (luckily) dries down soon in a pleasant mix of (correct me if I'm wrong) cinnamon, musk, wood and a touch vanilla, but unfortunately too sweet for me

I agree with "the slomotion" that Armani Attitude lasts longer than Minotaur, but I wouldn't say Minotaur smells synthetic, on the contrary: on my skin it smells much more natural and organic than Armani's latest offering.

Now here's a smell I seem to like quite a lot.

I only recently discovered this site and have been overwhelmed by the huge amount of reviews and different perfums.
I got interested again in scents, so I dug up some samplers form years ago, which I had put aside with the same comment as always: too sweet and similar.

DKNY For Men deserves a second chance.
Don't mind the first thing you smell when you put it on, just like every other edt the smell is overwhelmingly fresh, citrussy and sweet...I almost had to cough.

But once it had settled and I didn't put my nose too close and too often on it to test it, but rather going outside and leave it to breath, the smell turned out to really pleasant,
Sweet and citrussy? Only in the beginning, after that the scent became very woodsy and dry, very reminiscent of good incense and a shaving cream from a major drugstore in my country.

I think I'll go out and buy a bottle!

Got a free sampler with my recently ordered Minotaure (which apparantly is no longer discontinued!)

The opnening is pretty standard stuff; fresh, spicey, citrus...(I never like openings in perfums that much because it's often too sharp)
The middle is warmer, rounder with a nice hint of chocolate, milk chocolate that is - a touch more cacao would've been nice, but the scent rapidly settles down in a generic soft powdery musk, which is way too sweet for my taste, it stings my nose in an unplesant way.
It isn't masculine at all (though there are many more woodsy scents which are too sweet as well, like Lancome trophee or Polo for instance) and I would detest an overly sweet smell on any woman as-well.

Finally the round, powdery quality, which softened the sharp sweetness a bit, only lasts 3 hours and what remains for the rest of the time is an equivalent of plain sugar made into a scent.
I hope it didn't ruin my nose.

This probably is the worst edt I have ever used.

Isolated from any other perfume, edt or deodorant, if possible, this scent is tolerable.
A typical masculine character, reminiscent of many other edts from the 80's, a lavender cologne spiced-up with herbs and moss.
Pretty one-dimensional and heavy in the opening and middle, leaving only a vaguely sweet/sour musk on me when dried up.

Back in the 80's
I was looking swift in my new clothes, the dj was playing some of my favorite songs and around me people were having a good time, nicely dressed and sweet smells of perfume everywhere - warm and sweet fragrants that were mixed into one big perfumed cloud.

All of the sudden I began sniffing, looking around me...what was that ?
On top of that pink perfume cloud surroundig me something was claiming its attention with a strong and vicious force.
Someone obviously must have peed his pants...or had I accidentally peed over my shoes?
I sniffed at my hands and arms. Nothing.
I sniffed at my chest...there it was: Boss No.1.

This probably is the most masculine scent out there.
It sure does a very good job in marking the male's territory.

I got this as a gift
At first I didn't like it at all, sprayed on paper or wrist didn't gave me a good 1st impression, rather synthetic smelling, with a strange sour musky scent.

Another thing is that you have to be really careful not to spray too much, otherwise you smell like you want to cover something up, like you didn't shower for weeks for instance
The sourness in the top and middle notes can be easily associated with body odour, the synthetic note pretty much does the "cover-up"

One spray however and covered by a shirt the smell is really nice: discreet and soft.
Dried down on the skin the synthetic note and the sour musk aren't there.

Not a spectacular fragrance, but to me it smells just that bit more sophisticated (if used in small doses) and different than scents like Aqua di Gio and CK one/be.

It won't be a classic (although it exists 10 years already) but I am enjoying it while my botle last - very likely not going to buy a new bottle.