Fragrance Reviews by colormechris

Epitomizes the Liz Claiborne "house style" of fragrance. Targeted clearly at teens and twenty somethings, the whole group of scents "Curve" etc. are annoyingly fresh and "modern". Candies is perhaps the worst offender. They are drugstore scents at a higher price point. Actually, that's a diss to drugstores everywhere.
There's a cheap artificiality to everything I've ever smelled from this house, but maybe that's to drown out the target customer's B.O. Okay, now I'm just being mean, but no man over twenty-five should wear any of La Liz's concotions. If you are a little older and insist on being "fresh", at the very least try something from Calvin Klein.

Bought this blind and kind of sorry I did. Not what I was expecting, but nothing ever is. Similar to the original Armani for men, but that one, as much as I like it, seems to be missing something.
Versace Homme seems to have a little something extra, something I don't like...as though cats have been peeing in that tall Italian grass.
Doesn't have that "X" luxury factor (which I suppose is top of the line ingredients) you expect of a designer fragrance. Smells a bit third tier to me. Like a Designer Imposter.

Too often over applied, and it's legions of lousy imitators have not helped this fragrances reputation; but if used sparingly a whole other world of scent. A sensual experience unto itself. This is what I imagine the spice from Dune smells like (the book, not the perfume by Dior).
Saint Laurent botched the male version, unfortunately. He needs to introduce a unisex version of the original that's a little more suited to a man. Many men love the original Opium, but are held back from wearing it by the more overtly floral elements. However, I used to know a black guy who was a real macho deliveryman, and he had absolutely no qualms or embarrassment about wearing it. It was always a pleasure when he was around.
Get rid of that ghastly Opium Pour Homme, please. It was a mistake! House of Yves, are you listening?

Jay Gatsby would've loved this one, and that's who I think of when I smell this (or more precisely, Robert Redford in the 1974 movie version). A lovely warm weather fragrance that works great from late spring to early fall. It could've been called "Tennis". Perfect for those hot days when you want to smell good (and fresh) and don't want perfume getting all up in your serve.
It's the best fresh, green, clean, woodsy, sporty scent I've had the pleasure of having my nose next to.
It is the exact equivalent fragrancewise of a bright white Lacoste polo shirt...and maybe even after a couple of hours on the courts in the July sun, having peeled it off and casually tossed it across a lawn chaise to trot into the locker room and take a nice, long cool shower.

This smells like your granfather after he gets a shave and a haircut...
That is, if your grandfather was French and a sixty something silver fox with mistresses of both sexes and he gets his haircut at the most exclusive Paris salon on the Champs Elysee before he goes to work as a foreign dignitary or male model or Art dealer or perhaps all three. Menage a trois anyone?
This is the kind of scent that makes you want to get busy with a sexy Senior; but say it in French, oui? And if you're younger and you wear it, it makes you seem all grown up. Maybe a wee bit stodgy at times...but just because it's so good, eight and half stars out of ten. You really just can't go wrong with the Saint Larent fragrances. Do they use better ingredients than everyone else? What's their secret? Nevermind...it should be mysterious!

Perfect hot weather scent. The best fresh citrus out there, no question. It couldn't be simpler. Almost impossible to overapply, but does have a tendency to fade fast. Does have a very uplifting tonic affect, like when you're in the produce section on a hot summer day and the sprinkler comes on when you're reaching for a cucumber. Simple yes, but does have a certain complexity. It's certainly not a thought provoking fragrance, but maybe that's the point.

This is one of the true greats of mens fragrance. One of the most potent ever made, so if you do find it use only one or two drops or if you're spraying, one spritz at arms length and walk into the cloud. It makes this rare gem last longer, in the long run. The scent itself lasts all day without any help.
It's rather odd that Calvin Klein brought us those iconic in your crotch jeans and two of the most in your face scents (Obsession being the other)when his true forte was minimalism. Sleek, pared down sophistication and clean lines in the clothes. I suppose, in their way, the scents are very basic too. They have a true distinction that is never going to be confused with anything else. calvin and Obsession are both masterpieces of heady, sensual, seductive spice. Strong, oh yes, and dirty too...but in the long run, somehow clean. How very American.

Hmmmm....
Ungaro III. Based on the reviews, I bought this one for that special someone. And although I rather like it on him (every now and then) I can't stand to smell it on myself. I find it is only tolerable in its final phases, which do not appear for several hours. It is not worth the wait.
As many have said, it is indeed very "gothic". In fact, it is what I imagine Dracula's coffin lining might smell like--all subtext intended.
Intellectually I understand the appeal and can see why it is a favorite of many; but I just find it sort of off putting. Much like the decapitated android in "Alien" speaking his last words about the otherworldly monster:"...I admire its purity..." I do just that. However, I'd prefer it to be trapped in the airlock before landing.

Smalto, you make me weak!
Remember that one? The ad showed a Felliniesque female rolling in bedsheets as she bit her finger in either heightened anticipation or post coital afterglow. Clearly the house of Smalto was attempting to position this brew as a late '80's player, but the late 80's were a transitional period for fragrance...and just who exactly was Francesco Smalto, anyways? He sounded made up. And was Smalto a power fragrance or a new fresh face on the block? It couldn't seem to make up it's mind and neither could the perfume buying public.
A small bottle was given to me by a fragrance promoter and I immediately liked it, but hardly ever wore it. It became more of a high end air freshner sitting on my bureau.
Smalto hung around for a while, but he never really caught on big. He managed to fly under the radar...but then, he apparently crashed somewhere over the
Atlantic and was never seen again. Gone, but not forgotten. But was he DISCONTINUED?
There still seems to be no clear answer on that one, but he is available dirt cheap on many websites. And what a bargain he is. I revisited Francesco Smalto Pour Homme and not only was I pleasantly surprised, I was shocked at how good he actually was (I feel like I'm talking about a gigolo whose come out of retirement...
This is by far the best of what I call the "Purple" fragrances. They usually come in purple colored bottles and often feature lavender as a major component. Things like Xereus and Very Valentino and Ungaro III and Versace Man. Smalto trumps these and all others by actually being subtle. He was never a power fragrance at all, but a beautiful balance of strength and softness. A mixture of smoke, leather, and lavender it's sort of like riding side saddle through an Italian garden at dusk.
Smalto would be perfect for the office as he calls to mind a fine Italian suit or an evening out, because he likes to dance all night at the swingingest hot spots.
All corniness aside, I would put FSPH way up on the list of great fragrances...maybe even in the top ten. He's that good.

It's a Friday night in 1980. Your best friend calls you and asks you if you want to go to the roller rink and hang out. Cool, you say. What time will you and your Mom pick me up? (Hey, it's a five mile walk...) As you look into your closet trying to decide what to wear, you start thinking of that girl who hangs out a the roller rink and is always checking you out. Maybe she'll be there tonight. You take extra care in picking out your clothes: a skin tight pair of Jordache jeans, a plaid Daniel Hechter sports shirt and your prized gold serpentine chain. As you're putting it on, your eyes fall on the little bottle of Pierre Cardin cologne that you swiped from Woolworth's at the mall. You pick it up and unscrew the chrome top and sniff of it. The aroma is heady. It's kind of lemony and kind of spicy and rich. Nothing like that stuff your Dad has under his bathroom cabinet. That smells like the barber shop. This smells classy, even though it's sort of cheap and you could've paid for it; but after you smelled it in the store something excited you and stealing it only added to the excitement.
You hear the car horn and run downstairs and throw on your red bomber jacket and get in the car. Your friends mother tells you how nice you smell. You blush. Your friend says something about hockey practice. When his Mom drops you off she tells you to keep warm because it's late October and it really is starting to get cold. You go into the rink and it's the usual. Round and round in circles to songs like "I'm Turning Japanese" and "Heart of Glass".
That girl you were thinking about isn't there. There are other girls, equally as interested...but your heart was set on her. Finally, after the hundredth circuit, your friend gets bored and whispers to ask if you want to go behind the building and smoke a joint. Why not?
When you get out there, it's almost too cold to smoke, but you can clearly smell your cologne, almost as strong as when you put it on and somehow even better smelling in the cold air. Your best friend lights the joint and suggests that he shot-gun it to you. You nod. He inhales and you both move in until your faces are almost touching... The next thing you know his lips are on yours. You're full on making out. Your best friend is telling you how awesome you smell and it's like the world has turned upside down in three seconds. Is it your Pierre Cardin? Maybe not...but so much for that girl.

Total 70's enigma. Does anyone remember what this smelled like? What I remember is Tom Selleck, pre-Magnum P.I. as the man from Chaz. That chest hair! That Speedo! That mustache! If the juice smelled anything like Eau de Tom it had to have been awesome! Does Tom realize it was because of this ad campaign that he was the unofficial poster-stud for the Gay Revolution? And did Revlon realize that Ralph Lauren stole their Chaz mojo with Chaps? (right down to the name...they must've settled out of court).

Perhaps the King of Cologne, and I say this not because Polo is the best smelling of all time (it's up there, but it's not)but because it was the first cologne for men that ushered in the CRAZE. I have a theory. Polo came out in 1978, at the height of disco when it seemed that it was finally okay for men to act like women (in that even the most MACHO of men could preen and dance, and blow-dry their hair and wear jewelery without discretion and splash and spray and spritz cologne with abandon). That, combined with the Golden years of the GAY revolution-where millions of gay men could finally move their passion for parfume out of the closet-facillitated this craze. And Polo was there. Up 'til then, most men would slap on a little Aqua Velva or Old Spice or Brut and not make a big deal out of it, maybe even still be a little ashamed that they liked smelling good (if those scents could be argued to be good...but you know what I mean) But it wasn't until all these factors converged that the VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICAN MEN would create the CRAZE. Didn't it seem that around 1982 people like your Dad or your Uncle Lou or even your grand-father were asking for cologne for Christmas or marching down to the local department store for a bottle of "the good stuff"? That was the CRAZE! And what did all these men reach for? Why, the $36.00 four ounce bottle of Polo! That's why it was the KING! That's why everyone and their grandfather wore it! It was strong, but men were used to slapping on palmfuls of cologne, so all these men put on way too much of the stuff. And that's my theory (hold for APPLAUSE). Actually, it was one of my first high-end scents. What was I, like sixteen? Way too mature a scent for a teen, but hey...I still have a soft spot for the stuff.
What else can I say? It's the King. It's an all time classic. Yes, it's super strong...almost a concentrate and so distinctive it's almost too distinct (thus, the "cliche" diss). This is one scent that I think would really benefit from a "light" version, maybe turn the pine way down and tweak it a bit so that it's not too different from the original, just lighter. I would buy that. Maybe a Summer version.

It would be sad if Casa de Halston discontinued 1-12, but it would be understandable. 1-12 has always been overshadowed by its evil twin, Z-14. The identical bottles have never helped 1-12's cause either. Now it seems that Halston Inc. has gotten behind Z-14 big time, what with the NASCAR connection and the free hat with purchase (really, how tacky! I bet Halston would be aghast. Or maybe he would think it was pure genius, who knows? (he definitely had his white trashy side!) So, 1-12 has been flooding the discount bins at local low-end fashion chains probably en route to wherever Halston is now. Which is great news for lovers of 1-12, of which I am one. Actually, I thought it was all ready gone, but one day I found a big bottle of it in Ross and I wasn't even looking for it! It was kind of by accident, which is the same story as to my original circa 1983 acquisition. In truth I had asked for Z-14 for Christmas and wound up with 1-12, a mistake anyone could make, especially my mother. I ended up loving it.
Halston 1-12 is the very definition of "crisp". It's like the olfactory equivalent of a starched shirt. But it's not fussy or twee. Just clean, almost to the point of medicinal, but then after a while a kind of sexy note kicks in. It's kind of intellectual, if a fragrance can be that. Nothing like it's dirty older brother (he was born a minute earlier, and thus got all the attention). It's one of the few colognes you can use with a heavy hand and still not overpower innocent passersby. And it seems to change with the amount you use. A little or a lot, either way it's great. It even layers really well with Z-14, if you're feeling kinky. Or thoughtful. Or thoughtfully kinky.
The bottle is fabulous too. Pure 70's (oooh, that smoky brown glass!) but a classic for the ages. It has great "hand feel" too! Not much of a fan of the other Halston's though.

I've always loved the original Opium,and even though it's for women, I've always thought there was something very sexually "male" about it. But I was too chicken-s*** to wear it. When it was announced that Yves was bringing out "Opium for Men" I was truly excited.
At last I could get my Opium mojo on and not feel like a girly-man. I even bought it blind from one of those department store bill envelope offers (without the benefit of a test strip). That's how much I wanted it. I just knew it was going to be a MANLY version of the original. And I just knew it was going to be great!
As I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new purchase through the mail, I was driving along in my car one day when a bus pulled up next to me. I turned and who was pouting out at me from the ad on the side of the bus but a naked and coy Rupert Everett. Eccch!
And OHMIGOD he's pushing opium--I mean Opium for Men. Now I was worried. This was not a good omen. I mean, who could be more insincere and full of themselves than him. Who could be more of a girlyman? This did not bode well for the cologne.
My Opium for Men finally arrived and now, with some reservation, I opened the box. I smelled the juice. "Gee," I thought, "This doesn't smell anything like the original." It wasn't bad though. I decided to give it a go. And at first I really liked it. But as the minutes progressed into hours and the hours turned into an evening, I began to hate it. I mean, I could tell what they were going for but...Gadzooks it was sweet! And nothing to temper that sweetness. I used to work next to a candy factory and you could tell what they were making on certain days because the smell would envelope the neighborhood like an atomic cloud. Opium for Men smelled like the candy factory was making Toffifay or one of those other candies that old people love (even though they usually pour them into a candy dish and then never touch them for a couple of years until they have to chisel the candy out and throw it away...but I digress).
Suffice to say, my Dad, who was 3000 miles away at the time, got an entire 3.3 ounce bottle of cologne for his birthday. And I bought a mini of Opium for Women and started wearing it around the house. Maybe someday this girlyman will grow a pair and take it outside.

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about fragrance is that it both creates and recalls memories. Unfortunately, some memories can be unpleasant.
I cannot be objective about Angel because I cannot smell it or even think about it without remembering the first time I (for lack of a better word) experienced it.
I was working at an editing house in Hollywood that specialized in "adult entertainment". One of the clients was a thoroughly loathsome person. The type who smoked cigars not because he enjoyed them, but because he thought he looked "cool" smoking them. The first time I met him, he arrived in a cloud of the strongest cologne I had ever smelled. You couldn't not comment on his "scent". "Don't you just love it!" he would say. "It's called Angel Men by this fabulous designer named Thierry Mugler!" A name dropper through and through. Then he would billow out some foul cigar smoke and the three (him, his Angel Men, and his cigar smoke) would compete for what little oxygen was left in the cramped office.
You could always tell when he was coming as his Angel cloud would arrive ten minutes before he did, and we were on the twelfth floor!
Several years passed and I attempted to reassess Angel Men for myself, but I couldn't divorce this person from the scent. Was it because of him I thought the scent was obnoxious, over the top, cloying, insincere, and trying way too hard to be amazing? Or was it just these things on it's own?
From other peoples comments I've read here, I have to conclude that it is indeed those things on it's own. Minus the cigar smoke top-note.
But, I will give credit where credit is due. Angel Men is an amazing creation. Absolutely an animal unto itself, albeit one that should be caged. A first of its kind that has created a whole new category of scents. Perhaps, an important fragrance in the history of fragrance. There are certain things about it that I admire, but as the old Paco ad says..."What is remembered is up to you."

Paco Rabanne's best men's fragrance since his original 1973 masterpiece. Truly unique and unto itself, this one almost defies description. It must be experienced on the skin. Highly unusual, perhaps a bit too heavy, none the less an amazing and (I think) highly underrated creation.
I can only put it in the category of "weird"; but good weird. Not bad weird, like Angel for men. Why is Angel so wildly popular and this one not? I think Ultraviolet is what Angel ought to be...of course, that doesn't make any sense, but neither does this type of fragrance. I love it, but I don't own it. Why? Because I wouldn't even begin to know when it was appropriate to wear it. Maybe just every now and then out of the bottle or to bed.

Green Irish Tweed seems to have become a cult of sorts in the world of fragrance. So much so that I was tempted to buy it blind. Join a cult? What the heck! But a hundred bucks? Then I was at the mall and stumbled upon a little fragrance kiosk. I was perusing the men's scents and then was shocked to see it sitting there. With a trembling finger I pointed to it and asked the girl if I could try it. She said "Sure..." and proceeded to get the box. She was so non-chalant about it. Did she not know what she was holding in her hand? The Rosetta Stone of scent? The Gutenberg Bible of fragrance? The Holy Grail of the Art of Perfumerie?
She handed me the elegant bottle and I sprayed the scent on my wrist. I was about to enter the mysterious House of Creed! I was prepared to be nothing less that transported to the rolling hills of Ireland and beyond...Beyond Hibernian Bliss to some other realm that was perhaps an outer chamber of Heaven!
I drew my wrist to my nose and after an unbearable pause, inhaled. I did not soar. I crashed and burned and woke up to find myself in a mall. "Thank you" I meekly croaked to the girl and stumbled away. I sniffed again. Is that all there is? What does this have to do with Ireland? What does it have to do with the venerable textile? Is it even Green, for that matter?
I was distraught and confused. I sat down at a table in the food court and regained my composure. Now that I knew what Green Irish Tweed wasn't, I wanted to know what Green Irish Tweed was.
I smelled again. There was indeed a green overture, but it was a sickly green. Like those clots of grass that clog the underside of a lawnmower and have to be scraped out. Or more precisely like when the autumn leaves first start decaying in the gutter at the end of October. Not a good start. Eventually, this went away and there was a generic light green scent that could've been a weak cousin of Brut by Faberge. And that was it.
Thank goodness I didn't blow a hundred bucks on it. I'd rather wear the Brut.
I do, however, bet it smells pretty good on Quincy Jones. But then, probably everything smells good on Quincy Jones.

Undeniably an "instant classic" from the very first sniff. Thanks Tom Ford for having the nuts to create a REAL fragrance! Speaking of which, this captures the "essence of manhood" from down around that general area after all the cedar and incense dissipates. Much like the original Rive Gauche captured the "essence of womanhood" in the 1970's. A 70's theme here? Definitely a 70's vibe from Gucci Pour Homme (what I guess is what President Ford wanted and he's gotten, Big Time!)
This one seems to evoke a lot of memory response in people. For me, my immediate thought was: "Sex in a church!" Not that that is an actual memory of mine...maybe a fantasy?
Even the bottle looks like a low-ball glass from that era, brimming with Chivas Regal.
My only criticism...too much cedar for too long a time...otherwise fragrance Heaven.

So very unimpressed with Ralph Lauren's current output. Tried Double Black today and sort of liked it, but was reminded of something else...couldn't think of what it was. Then I saw the recommendations below and saw Armani Black Code. That's it! It's merely a lighter version of Black Code. How disappointing that a man with the creative vision of Ralph can keep falling back on these uninspired knockoffs of other people's successes.
Despite the beautiful packaging (again, a knockoff of his own original Polo Green) He really hasn't had a unique scent since Safari. Polo Crest was good too, but they discontinued it for some reason (lousy bottle?).
Why doesn't this fragrance house try something daring for once (for men)?
Seriously, Ralph's room fragrances and candles are more interesting than his line of men's scents.
Come on Ralph, concentrate more on what goes into the bottle than the bottle itself!

Smells like you spilled lemonade on yourself. Too sweet! Gives me a headache. Smells promising in the bottle, but once it's on, it's cloying.
It's like Crystal Lite lemonade and the sweetness is fake, like Nutrasweet.
Bleccch!

I like to wear this when I'm in a 70's kind of mood. Even though I was a child in the 70's, I still envied the generation before me and all the debauched disco glamour they seemed to be revelling in. Now I can put on Jovan Musk for men and fantasize I'm a Manhattan dilletante stumbling home from another one night stand. As dirty as this might sound, this fragrance is actually very clean smelling, like a childs hair after their bath-time.
Experienced but not too far from innocence. Gee, that sounds like a perfume ad from the 70's...

They don't make 'em like this anymore! Well, with Tom Ford overseeing the creation of several new scents we're getting them back. Gucci Pour Homme comes to mind as being of this type of what can only be called "power fragrance". Antaeus is one of those scents that transport you to another place. Like it's cousin Kourous, Antaeus calls to mind ancient Grecian rituals...bacchanals in the villa of the Mysteries...exotic ancient evenings where things are given up to the gods and the braziers of burning incense waft up to the heavens and Zeus looks down and is pleased with the world. It's also great for a dressy night on the town or just a hint for a walk in the woods in your favorite sweater on the first really cold day of autumn. Antaeus is the kind of scent that somehow makes you happy and sad at the same time.

Okay, this one is a stretch but I think this was one of the best drug store men's scents of the late 70's. I think at the time this was produced by Jovan. I think it was the first cologne I owned, so I want to remember it as being incredible, but it was probably not. In fact, it was one of those scents you could get in the gigantic bottle, as though it were made by the vat.
I remember it having a very warm quality after it's initial blast dissipated in the drydown. A spicy, vanilla type oriental, not unlike Cinnabar for women. There was a whole slew of Oriental scents in the late 70's probably brought about by the success of Opium.
Bath and Body Works has a scent called "Warm Vanilla Sugar" which is the closest thing I've found to Oleg Cassini for men. It is actually better, much more subtle but retains the mysterious quality of the former.
If you have fond remembrances of the original Oleg, try it.

Chaps is the only "dime store" fragrance for men that I've found to have any real complexity. It has a bad rap as being cheap, because it is cheaply priced. but the scent is as good as any of the finer colognes (I think). This one was always a Christmas stocking staple, so I always associate it with that time of year. I love the hidden leather quality layered in there with the citrus. It gives chaps an unexpected sensual quality. I wear it to bed every night and it puts me right to sleep, like being wrapped up in an old saddle blanket (all right, an old saddle blanket from a Ralph Lauren ad...). It comforts me for some reason and I'm afraid I'm addicted to it. Weird!

When I think of the women that I knew in the 80's, so many of them wore this. It became omnipresent. It's probably a classic but I always thought it was too strong. It had absolutely no subtlety, but that was the point of the 80's, right? To me, the Nagel woman from the cover of Duran Duran's "Rio" is the visual equivalent of Poison. Her name is Rio, she don't need to understand...

This is an old favorite from the 80's, but it holds up. Remember the controversy from the ad campaign? The copy had the model stating how "f****** great" the scent was. Well, he was onto something. This one smells like what he said. More specifically it has an underlying smell that reminds one of a gentleman's jock strap after he's taken a ten mile jog in it. I suppose, for some, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The main drawbacks with this one are that it can be overpowering and if too much is applied it can quickly overstay it's welcome. So use sparingly and revisit the dirty, nasty, up all night eighties!

Just found this on a scent search at the local discount department store. I was shocked at how much it reminded me of the original Yves Saint Laurent for men, which no one seems to carry anymore. I've been trying to get some YSL but this will make a nice substitute for the time being. Besides, it's a nice, if rather workmanlike fragrance. Has that same wonderful lemony opening as YSL that drys down to something a little melancholy. Never got the whole Benneton phenomenon. I was always confused when I went into the stores. It was like, okay, where's the men's department? At least this fragrance said "for men" right on the box. Hey, some of us need a little guidance.

I first got hooked on Kourous when I saw the bottle. So beautiful in it's simplicity: the clean, strong lines. Then I felt the bottle. The opaque white glass like marble. Then I smelled it. I've never smelled anything so evocative. I had to have it. It was 1987. I had the pour bottle of edt, which in retrospect is a good thing, because with Kourous, a little dab'll do ya. Seriously. A one and a half ounce bottle should last a good two to three years. You only need a dot or two on your neck and you are set for the day or evening (or both!). The problem with the spray is that you can't control the amount and one spritz is way too much! I think that's why so many people can't stand it. They've smelled someone who sprayed it on and it knocked them over. Kourous original should come with a warning label. However, that said, Kourous, when used properly, is sublime. It is one of the headiest, sexiest, mind-alteringist fragrances ever concocted.
Someone mentioned it has civet, which is a kind of animal musk and I think it has ambergris (which I think is from whales). Whatever it is, it is surely the definition of animal magnetism. It is a sexual fragrance pure and simple. But remember to use it very sparingly. Let it sneak up on someone and watch the results, male and female. The only other cologne I've used that caused people to actually get, well, horny, was Paco Rabbane Pour Homme. I've known people who take it (Paco) to bed with them, and it's not so they can get some shut-eye!

I really wanted to like this one when it first came out because it was so self-consciously artsy or rather, fragrance as "art". I tried some at the local scent counter and liked it at first but then it started to annoy me and it just wouldn't go away. Then, like so many others have mentioned, I literally got a headache from it and felt kind of nauseated.
It was like my head was a Janpanese tea house and those naked guys who bang gongs and hang upside down came in and drank way too much sake with the geishas who were wearing way too much gardenia and then the tea house caught fire and burned to the ground.
It's the Hiroshima of men's fragrance.

To me, this is the scent of Paris. You know that when Parisian boys are wearing it, it has to be good. this one is as refreshing as lemonade in the summer and as warming as hot cider in the winter. It manages to be both light and full of character at the same time. Youthful and sage. Always uplifting and delightful with just a note of melancholy. An all time classic.

This is my all time favorite scent. Or should I say was? I wore this in the early to mid eighties and then retired it. I bought it again in the late nineties and there was something different about it. It seemed that it had been changed somehow. It was so overpowering when you first put it on and pretty much remained that way. It seemed that some of the secondary elements of the fragrance had been brought to the forefront so that all of the originals subtlety was lost. It was no longer the comforting somewhat dreamy scent that I remembered. Sure, it still basically smelled the same but it was not the same. I tried the apres shave and found it to be much closer to the original that I remembered. The shower gels scent is almost exactly like the original, but you can't dab shower gel on your pulse points. Why oh why do they have to go and mess up a good thing?
Yes, I still wear Paco Rabanne PH EDT but it will never be the same. If I nose around in it for a while I can sometimes find that special chemical interaction that was the original Paco and then I can find those memories locked inside.

I remember when this one was launched and a girl in the department store practically leaping on me to try it. I did and although I'm a huge RL fan I was not impressed. I thought the bottle was beautiful though. When it disappeared I was curious because Ralph almost never has a flop so I asked around. I remember hearing from someone in the store that Monogram had actually been recalled. Apparently there was something in the blue dye that caused a rash or allergies in a lot of people, so they pulled it. I don't know if this is true, but it would go a long way towards explaining why it so thoroughly disappeared. I'd love to smell it again and see if I liked it now, but alas. Ahh, Monogram, we hardly knew ye.