Fragrance Reviews by David McReynolds

In 1951, when I was an innocent youth of 21 and in Paris for the
first time, I was "adopted" by a few days by a fellow, traveling with
his mother, who had designs on my innocence. Despite a lunch at the George Cinc Hotel his designs fell on barren ground. However he left me a bottle of the old Zizanie. It was the old
aluminum bottle with a cork top. I didn't like it then, but it brought
back memories of Paris. When the bottle was used up I bought
a new one, for the sake of nostalgia. Can someone confirm that
the formula was radically changed? If I didn't like it in 1951 I loathe
it in 2008. A men's fragrance, indeed, for men who have no friends
and no sense of smell. A heavy fragrance which, alas, doesn't
dissipate but has a truly nasty end note.

I bought this a good thirty or more years ago while visiting
my parents in Montecito, California. It struck me as smelling
of the area, the eucalyptus trees, the sage, the dryness of
Santa Barbara.

It remains a favorite of mine - a fragrance devoid of sweetness,
makes a statement (not to everyone's liking). I think it must
have been off the market at one point because it was being
remaindered but it seems back in production.

It is in a category quite it's own.