Reviews by pluran

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    pluran
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    Showing 1 to 18 of 18.
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    Tiffany for Men by Tiffany

    One of the better men's chypres, an oriental Pour Monsieur (Chanel) with the complexity and blending of the best women's chypres. The smell and feel of chypre (bergamot-labdanum-oakmoss) is here with the right balance and abstraction, and the aromatic spices are as smooth as a freshly powdered bottom. The fragrance is understated and refined but rich and long lasting with the right amount of sillage - more than just becoming a part of you, yet never surrounding you like a halo, sending you to the shower, or making it impossible to wear something else later on. It's a perfect oriental composition, really. It's subtle, smells good, isn't overtly distracting, and has just enough powder for softness. As my girlfriend said, "Hard to get powdery so good. It's like having really good music in the background, but you don't notice it other than that it's setting a good mood."

    Edit: The fragrance would probably make a better feminine. And as well made as it is, there are times when it feels irritatingly foppish and reminds me of people I’ve seen who are rushing to be part of a mindless flock of status obsessed nouveau riche.

    12nd December, 2009. (Last Edited: 11th February, 2012.)

    rating

    Yohji Homme by Yohji Yamamoto

    Yohji Homme is an amazing balancing act between the comfort of light and easy abstract gourmand notes and the silvery soapy effervescence of an energetic fougere (a mostly masculine genre based on the interplay between an accord of lavender, coumarin and oakmoss). The immediate vetiver-coffee-rum accord with some fresh bergamot and lavender is still one of the best things I’ve ever smelled, but it’s only one of many parts of the overall fragrance. It’s a serious fragrance that’s much darker, pricklier and more mono-maniacally focused than first impressions might lead you to believe. The accords are rich, natural and complex on a level with Patou pour Homme, and while they feel comfortable and smell outrageously good, the fragrance wears relatively deep, dark, grey and aloof like any good fougere should. It’s an oriental x fougere hybrid, but references to gourmand are misleading in many ways, primarily due to the fact that there are no heavy oriental basenotes in Yohji Homme. Once you’re into the genius middle whose spices and florals are such a paragon of blending, the fragrance also begins to smell like the anisic-salty accord of Rive Gauche pour Homme. It then morphs into a woody-earthy-leathery base of natural woods, oakmoss, vetiver, light amber, the fleshy warmth of castoreum, and soft leather; all of it as plush, smooth and compelling as the most perfect feminine bottom after a day at the spa. It’s rich and durable but wears easy enough to take you almost anywhere. The longevity is good for seven or eight hours, never loud or bothersome, and with sillage radiating at an appropriate masculine range of no more than three or four feet. There are few to compare with its quality, and there aren’t many better examples of masterful blending. It was years in the making by the great Jean Kerleo (Patou pour Homme), although the official perfumer is listed as Jean-Michel Duriez due the departure of Kerleo before the fragrance launched. Duriez definitely contibuted a major accord to the fragrance, but it was mosly designed by Kerleo. And while it’s a different structure than Patou pour Homme, Yohji’s heart reveals a big whiff of Patou pour Homme’s most compelling accord.

    It shares some congruence with a couple of the fragrances with which it’s often compared to, but I don’t find any major similarities in the overall quality or ultimate feel of any of them. Yohji Homme is a great one, and here's a big, slick thumb coming at you for this luxurious masterstroke fragrance.

    7th December, 2009. (Last Edited: 3rd May, 2011.)

    rating

    Jubilation XXV by Amouage

    Jubilation XXV puts out some excellent sillage that smells like a magical pulsating bubble of plump dried fruits, woods and incense. My girlfriend wears it a lot and it can be slightly mesmerizing. But as good as it smells on her I’ve never loved to wear it. I always figured it had something to with the synthetic pre-composed woody amber, and the fact that in edp’s especially, woody ambers can intensify over time and be a serious pain in the ass. But lately my perceptions are different and the fragrance wears a lot more like I always imagined it should: more like it smells on my girlfriend. It’s just another example of why it’s often good to smell the fragrance on someone else before coming to any major conclusions. It has a great boozy davana note that’s evident as soon as you spray it and it lasts for varying amounts of time depending on the day. I like many things about Jubilation XXV, not the least of which is that most of its sweetness relies on a variety of primo balsams rather than the typical amber/vanilla kind of thing. The spices are smooth and the fragrance never really suffers from any kind of seriously tiresome affability. The spices just warm it up, make it smell good and give it a little more diffusive capacity. It also contains a lot of guaiac wood which comes from the Palo Santo tree, and I like that because I burn Palo Santo wood all the time. It’s cheap, effective, and leaves a great smelling and long- lasting sandalwood-like smell in your room. It’s a quality oriental that’s easy to wear, never makes you want to take a shower, or gets so heavy that it makes it impossible to wear something else later on. It smells good on clothes, and it’s a fairly intelligent scent with a mildly contemplative intellectual dimension that I always like. But as good as it is I still don’t wear it that much. Right now I just think of it as an alternative for vintage Egoiste, but vintage Egoiste is more musky, dynamic and satisfying overall.

    Here’s a thumbs up for Bertrand and this rich and luxurious fragrance that smells amazing on my girlfriend.

    2nd November, 2009. (Last Edited: 19th September, 2011.)

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    Or Black by Pascal Morabito

    "The northern face of leather chypre". It’s dark, green, and bitter, extremely dry and astringent, with barely an atom of sweetness. It’s bleak, Plutonian and monomaniacally focused. The smoke is persistent but soft. It smolders the scent of liquid grey suede, but it’s a little too clean for a leather chypre, with a dusty, peppered sage and well-integrated vetiver working throughout the development. The vetiver smells Haitian, and it’s responsible for some of the smoke, because it’s not the robust smoke you get from Knize Ten and a few others. Either way, the birch tar (the leather smells like it’s from birch tar rather than isoquinolines) is putting out its share. There’s little sign of anything overtly animalic but I’m sure there’s a few drops of castoreum in there to smooth things out. Luca Turin compared elements of Or Black to Rive Gauche pour Homme, “…like triple-distilled Earl Grey, a step beyond even Rive Gauche pour Homme in its saturine glory” and I can understand it. It’s grey and aloof like any good fougere should be, and it more effervescent than the average chypre. Another reason sampling is so deceptive. Because when you actually wear it, it can be a lot more aromatic (an energetic, fougere-like aromatic) than you may have been led to believe; and along with its dry, bitter, astringent nature, you’ll probably even taste it for a while.

    But classifying it doesn’t really matter. Mainly it just works its way down the road in a killer ride, smoother as it goes, a little rough at times, but mainly just delta waves and the occasional theta, until the suede’s so soft I could make love to it, or make pillows out of it so I can hold onto ‘em as I sleep on my furry bed. The evolution moves pretty fast, and even though the drydown isn’t all that interesting, it’s as clear and smooth as my girlfriend’s freshly powdered bottom. The balsamic labdanum softens everything, as a dusty oakmoss and a high quality and somewhat sensual musk hang around with woody vetiver and a drop of benzoin and amber. The stuff is seriously well blended. It’s also a decent example of the chypric balance and abstraction of bergamot, oakmoss, and labdanum. Or Black has bite, and it’s a great fragrance for getting out and taking care of business. It would also smell great on women. It might even work better on them. Women can wear any masculine fragrance, and they often smell more alluring than many of the feminines. Nothing's more sexy on a woman than a leather chypre. It also smells amazing on clothes as it deepens, softens, and maintains the scent of rich suede. That's true of most leathers. They smell great on clothes.

    Or Black is an excellent fragrance.

    10th October, 2009. (Last Edited: 23rd September, 2011.)

    rating

    Azzaro pour Homme by Azzaro

    I was wild as hell at fifteen, and my black concert t-shirts were saturated with all kinds of things, Azzaro pour Homme being one of them. Waking up was a challenge, but Azzaro PH gave me the bump I needed and always did the job at any time. I still wear it at forty and it’s as good as ever. It’s hale, clean, suitably gray and aloof, but with a laser focus that most fougères don’t deliver. Both are in the matte-black stealth category, and while Rive Gauche pour Homme is excellent, it works on a duller edge. But Azzaro PH never loses its edge, maintaining a sharp connection at all times. It’s still the best fougère out there, and it’s also one of the few definitive paragons of men’s fragrances. If there were an official fragrance for movies like Heat, Deep Cover, and King of New York, Azzaro pour Homme would be at the front of the line.

    6th July, 2008.

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    Tommy Girl by Tommy Hilfiger

    Clean, green and beautiful as a mountain girl’s radiance during a late Spring afternoon deep in the Ventana National Wildnerness via Big Sur, CA. Tommy Girl smells a lot like it, it's still one of most exhilarating florals there is, and there are few things I'd rather smell on a woman. I don't listen to a lot of classical music, but TG is supposed to be a lot like Prokofiev's First Symphony. So check it out. I'm going to.

    28th June, 2008. (Last Edited: 12nd November, 2011.)

    rating

    Jules by Christian Dior

    Jules was made by Jean Martel (Paco Rabanne pour Homme). It's one of the few resolutely masculine fragrances of any real quality. A previous reviewer described it as raunchy, and fortunately it is. Should men and women smell like cotton candy and laundry detergent? I don't think so, but it's heading that way.

    Jules is a little dark and dirty, but it’s also some of the most sublime and uplifting nose candy imaginable. It’s reminiscent of that masculine, hard working yesterday's shirt smell, such as Patou pour Homme and others from that time period. Jules is a leather chypre gone lively, full of sexy cool-warm notes that put it squarely in the aromatic fougère category. It manages to disguise minor structural poverty behind an abundance of mystery, melancholy, and some of the most distinguished top notes in all of perfumery. It’s brilliant stuff, full of galbanum, sage, black caraway, black pepper, birch tar, castoreum, among other things; a paragon of herbal, spicy and woody, with the right amount of florals to amplify it but keep it even darker. Almost all great men’s fragrances contain a solid floral component in the heart notes, and Jules is one of them. It also contains a lot of geranium, probably the real kind (at least in the original stuff) that contains geranamine, which made up as much as 15-25% of the compositions of the great fougères like the original Azzaro pour Homme, Paco Rabanne pour Homme and others. But geranamine is now known as a powerful stimulant, euphoric and boosting physical performance. It’s actually banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and isn’t used in fragrances anymore, so don’t get excited. The geraniol used today doesn’t have those effects.

    Luca Turin once classified five or six men's fragrances as ones that just smelled great. Among them were Pour Monsieur, New York (de Nicolai), Jicky, and Jules. And he was right on. Jules won’t win any awards for its structure, but it's vibrant, manly, unique, and works with the rugged outdoors in a way that few can match. Like any good fougère, it's grey and aloof and fuels a little testosterone, and I’m inclined to think that anyone who hasn't known some extensive hard physical labor might not enjoy it as much as those who have.

    Jules is sexy.

    18th June, 2008. (Last Edited: 8th November, 2011.)

    rating

    New York by Parfums de Nicolaï

    If you took some of the best parts of the classic Guerlains such as pre-2005 Mitsouko, pre-1996 Habit Rouge, and vintage Vol de Nuit; amplified the virility by hardening it up with spices off a welder’s rod, kept them lively with citrus and the right amount of dry herbs, balanced the clean woods and resinous amber to a frequency that resonated within a semi-sweet, gingerbread-like mysterious powdery core, then blended it all to perfection and provided enough contrast to keep it glowing until the end, you’d end up with something a lot like New York. It’s a spicy oriental with enough of the intelligence of chypre that makes for something cool-calm-collected-pensive-cerebral-agile-evocative-charming and intensely wearable. Like so many great fragrances, it benefits greatly from the animalic castoreum that gives it a fleshy warmth and a smooth, velvety, oozing from the pores feel. The construction is flawless and the drydown is relatively cool, never heavy or flat, with “complexity, heft, and the captivating, charming, mesmeric, persistent quiddity of the basenote accord.” Like Patou pour Homme and other greats, “it has an equivalent olfactory viscosity and density, as well as a deftness of touch and the genius of compositional balance to offset any heaviness”. It puts out solid redolent output for the ten to twelve hour duration, and while the sillage is always perceptible it never becomes annoying even if it might not be the right fragrance for you on that day. It’s one of the best ever made, and it’s one of the few that manages to keep my interest over time. It has the same kind of vibe as Chanel Pour Monsieur but New York far more spicy, oriental, and in general performs a lot better and gives more satisfaction. Both smell great, have sufficient panache, and speak of mature gentlemanliness in way that few others can. And even though I’m not into talking about about compliments I receive while wearing fragrances (unless it’s something I’m telling my girlfriend about, or whatever) this one is liked by a wide variety of women, from the hottest young babes on up.

    Edit: New York is often compared to Bois du Portugal, and vice versa, and even though I like Bois du Portugal to some extent, it feels doughy, formless, pampered and confused compared to New York. For overall quality and a variety of other reasons (“the understated deft interplay of spice and herbal elements, the smouldering slow release of it all, the level of salience and extensiveness”, and many others), I’d be far more likely to compare New York to something like Patou pour Homme rather than Bois du Portugal.

    As well, New York has been reformulated within the last couple of years and supposedly it isn’t as good, but hopefully it isn’t that big a deal.

    11th April, 2008. (Last Edited: 20th December, 2011.)

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    Blenheim Bouquet by Penhaligon's

    Some mild florals would amplify the other notes and make it slightly more interesting, but it would also change its character and I like it the way it is. Whoever made it handled the spices with some finesse. Raw materials aren't its strong point as it lacks any kind of real texture; but it's a no-nonsense fragrance that's cool, cerebral and distant yet also warm and bracing, making for adequate company in beautiful places. It can become a little routine but it has sufficient panache and manages to keep my interest at least to some extent. I wore it during an intense legal deposition not long ago in a hot city and it felt good while holding my own, even turning things around. Some people have mentioned that they think women don't like it, but my girlfriend loves it. There are better citruses: Eau de Guerlain, Eau Sauvage and Eau de Rochas Homme for example, but Blenheim Bouquet definitely deserves an erect thumb. I don't know the vintage formulations, but for the most part Penhaligon's really is a second rate perfume house. It actually makes Creed look good.

    9th April, 2008. (Last Edited: 24th April, 2011.)

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    L'Anarchiste by Caron

    Spices often blur a fragrance, but whoever made this handled them with a relative degree of finesse, allowing for some clarity and enough dissonance between the citrus, spices, and wood to keep it interesting for a while. The spices dominate the scent and are followed closely by a lot of wood and something that gives it a little too much comfort and sweetness for a fragrance called L’Anarchiste. The only thing of any interest during the initial drydown is a vetiver note that peeks out a little further trying to establish itself. It never really does, and what you end up with is the remnants of a fragrance dominated by spices, the woods that have accompanied them, and a good deal of musk. It’s not a bad scent by any means, but it suffers from the tiresome affability of spices early on and never really recovers. Either way, if you like spices, woods, and musk, you might like it. It also works better in cooler temperatures giving liveliness to the spices, making it feel more brisk, and perhaps even a little edgy if you try hard enough.

    9th April, 2008.

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    Citrus Bigarrade by Creed

    Another Creed that's sort of like sucking wind through a bent straw. This one is rendered inchoate by any number of citruses.

    7th November, 2007.

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    Tabu by Dana

    Smelling Tabu on a woman always makes me horny and there's nothing better than being horny, so I'd say there's real value in this perfume.

    Slut city, cheap hooker, nasty whore, whatever you want to call it. It's a good one. It moves me.

    13rd October, 2007.

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    Patou pour Homme Privé by Jean Patou

    They're completely different fragrances but Patou Pour Homme Privé is every bit as good as Patou Pour Homme, and it's significantly more unique as well. Privé is a fougère (fougère means fern). Fougères are based on an interplay between fresh, herbal, woody and mossy notes such as bergamot, oakmoss, geranium, lavender, clary sage, tarragon, and coumarin. Privé starts off with a sharp, green, pungent galbanum note, along with the usual bergamot, a few drops of mandarin, one of the most beautiful lavender notes in all of perfumery, some oakmoss (it appears fast here), and other mysterious things. The accord is sublime and lasts for a good while until the sharpness fades, leaving the galbanum more leafy green, and the lavender much like it was. But this lavender doesn't smell like regular lavender because it is juxtaposing oakmoss, coumarin (new mown hay), and other things. It's just an integral part of a complex accord that is earthy, sensual, and starting to smell more and more like the forest floor that fougères are intended to smell like. The drydown reveals some mild vetiver and an ever increasing high quality, deep, balsamic and tenacious sandalwood that cools and softens while doing its part to maintain one of the smoothest accords there is. Kerleo must have used the best iris known to man, because the woody, powdery/dusty, violet-like quality it adds to the scent is something you rarely experience in even the best fragrances. It would be nearly impossible to blend a fragrance any better, and Jean Kerleo is one of the few blacksmiths who could do it. The longevity is good, the output is redolent for the duration, and the sillage is always perceptible though never surrounding you like a halo. The best fougéres are hale and clean while remaining suitably grey and aloof, and while Privé is typical of most of these qualities, it stands in a class by itself. It's also sensual, cerebral, magnetic, and as smooth as a beautiful woman's freshly powdered bottom. It's one of the best fragrances I've ever worn, and while there a few others of its quality, I don't know of anything else that's all that similar. Check out Privé. You'll be glad that you did.

    9th August, 2007. (Last Edited: 4th July, 2008.)

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    Chanel Pour Monsieur by Chanel

    A hale, clean and virile chypre (mossy woods) that just smells great. Never sweet or loud, it just becomes a part of you rather than surrounding you like a halo. “Contrasted on clear and moderately powdery notes, it recalls the workshop of a cabinetmaker.” The opening is still one of the most confidently balanced and uplifting accords I know: a fresh-floral-woody-herbaceous slightly spicy balsamic citrus bolstered by the warmth of clove-like carnation. The heart is brisk but refined, with the low hum of soothing spices, the masculine floral carnation, and a few drops of stimulating basil. A subtle wooden breeze of cedar and vetiver move through the evolution as the earthy oakmoss becomes clearer and a semi-sweet labdanum smoothes and gives a little sweetness. The musk is efficient, but almost entirely clean. There's nothing animalic about the fragrance, especially not the new stuff. Pour Monsieur (1955) has always been the closest thing the original Chypre de Coty (1917), and while Pour Monsieur is the same basic size and still feels like a pure chypre: resinous and web-like, the main components (bergamot-oakmoss-labdanum) working to keep it balanced and abstract; it isn’t as rich and chypric as many of the older formulations. So rather than feeling like a classic chypre, it’s a little less deep, making it more of a fresh/crisp chypre with a slightly lighter base. Its stucture is still excellent, but it was never intended to have the same complex design as something like Patou pour Homme. Either way, it still smells great, and like many chypres, it might be good to avoid if you feel as though it has seen more of the world than you have. It’s still better than ninety nine percent of the masculine fragrances being made today, and if Chanel would increase the oakmoss, and the bump up the concentration by even half a percent, it would be something hard to approximate. Henri Robert was an overlooked genius. It must have felt pretty good to have been able to make three masterpieces in Chanel Pour Monsieur, No. 19, and Cristalle.

    28th July, 2007. (Last Edited: 28th March, 2011.)

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    Costes by Hôtel Costes

    An evocative, well constructed fragrance, crisp and clean with a subtle darkness that reminds me of being in a deep alley in a certain part of Paris. The sun's going down, smell of wet stone, beautiful people and creature comforts not far away. You can take a Mercedes or just walk. Same difference. All is well. Sillage is moderate, sublime. Longevity is excellent. My friend told me this is her favorite skin scent, and I understand why. I don't wear it much because Giacobetti could have handled the spices with a little more finesse, and those spices become a little tiresome. But many people love those spices, and that's good, because it's quality stuff that smells sublime on a woman I know. Clean and soapy with an edge.

    17th May, 2007. (Last Edited: 20th June, 2008.)

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    Habit Rouge Eau de Toilette Légère by Guerlain

    Citron, Bergamot, Orange, Lime
    Neroli, Patchouli, Spices
    Vanilla, Leather, Cedar, White Musk

    The top notes have a fizzy, almost metallic lemon-lime accord. It's Habit Rouge adulterated, modulated to a much brighter key. Extremely well made, high quality ingredients, good development and drydown, lasts forever. It's a good scent, but has a perfumey quality about it (perhaps from the kind of neroli used) that I can't get on with. I'm also not into white musk and it doesn't belong here. Either way, the sillage is profound and compelling. A girl walked past me several times one day while I had it on. She smelled damn good. It didn't take long to figure out that it wasn't her that smelled good. It was me. The thing is, I perceived the scent as something better suited for a woman. Smells fine on man, just better on a woman.

    Significantly different (75% or so) from the original, Eau Légère lacks all of the animalic qualities, and a good deal of the earthy, root-like accord.

    Regarding the previous poster's claim that this fragrance is better blended, smoother, base notes not as sharp than the original (have no idea what that means). I would only say that this fragrance, while still full of quality, is inferior in all respects compared to the original Habit Rouge (especially the vintage formula).

    The feel of two fragrances is completely diferent. Habit Rouge is one of the best I own. Habit Rouge Eau Légère is one I own yet never even wear.

    5th May, 2007.

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    Patou pour Homme by Jean Patou

    When all the others let you down
    Patou Pour Homme came to town
    It’s deep and complex
    As good as some sex
    Herbal, spicy, and woody
    Oh man, it’s a goody
    The evolution’s profound
    Tenacious and sound
    The drydown’s outrageous
    Extended and contagious
    It makes you feel good
    The way that you should
    There’s no doubt about it
    It’ll give you some wood
    It’s the bomb
    Exotic, and full of aplomb
    The best I’ve worn
    And I’ve no need to mourn
    For I own five bottles
    And can spray with full throttle

    16th April, 2007. (Last Edited: 1st December, 2011.)

    rating

    No. 19 by Chanel

    Overcast October skies
    New York cool wind
    Leaves and leather on your feet
    A million dollars in your room
    Iris narcotic...No.19

    13rd September, 2006.

    Showing 1 to 18 of 18.

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