212 - Carolina Herrera... my impressions...

I'd say your description is perfectly correct - I own 212 as well, it is a lovely, light and pleasant fragrance but not a terrific one. Compexity is somewhat lacking, though not badly - there is some, just not a lot. The magnetic cup is kinda cool, isn't it?

Sounds to me that you had "great expectations" for it.

Great review, RCavs. I've never thought 212 was for me either. Interesting that your girlfriend likes it though.

It's always great when RCavs gets a new scent because he tells us exactly what he thinks of it. I should do the same. Thanks for the good read!
--Chris

I like 212 a lot. Airy, subtle, delicious, long lasting. Lovely stuff.

Of course, the bottle rocks, and all in all I find this to be rather unique stuff. Very easy to regognize.

Great review. It's not complex at all to my nose either. It's a simple, nice scent. I will buy this one on sale eventually as I admit to feel like wearing this once in a while...

Didn't I relate to you that it was mainly green moss?

What are your thoughts on the somewhat richer Fahrenheit?

If 212 doesn't grab you, I'd love to see what you make of Emporio Armani.
Renato

Well, admittedly, I like this scent - 212, very much. It's sexy and sensual. Once I run out of this 50-ml bottle I'll get the bigger one.

Personally, 212 is a fragrance I just don't dig. I love Fahrenheit, but don't think of it as similar to 212. I perceive 212 as a green musk that has something about it I find very annoying and cloying. Every time I test it I start out liking it, but after an hour or so I have to wash it off. Just my $.02.

--Steve

212 has been a staple in my wardrobe for quite a while now and I've found that like most scents it's magic is in the application.........one spray to the chest, one spray to the back of the neck, and that's it....you will easily smell it all day and it will unfold a lot better.....two sprays and it can get sickening. My .02

RCavs says green / tea; Renato says green moss; I get nothing but green grass.

I have a lot of respect for most of Herrera's fragrances, but this 212 does nothing for me.

I didn´t like 212 at all for many years. But a while back I just grew very fond of it rapidly. I guess it´s because at the end of the day I found it endlessly more original, balanced and natural smelling than the majority of it´s recent siblings in this fresh and light category. I must say I don´t get so much green/grass myself, this is mainly a green pepper, musk & light incense combo to my nose with a tad of florals thrown in, gardenia according to the pyramid.
Excellent longevity on my skin, and I agree it shouldn´t be oversprayed as that significantly changes it´s character for worse.
Still haven´t bought a bottle, I but will on my next online spree. All the re-editions are great also btw, both Ice and White contribute with their own merits IMO.

mmm

I like this one as well. And just like MonkeyManMatt I also find it more original than the vast majority of fresh fragrances out there. It certainly is not perfect and I sometimes feel there is something missing. I love the grass opening and I love the sandalwood ending

The grass is mossy where you live? ;D

Truth and Crave are the scents that are grassy to me.
Renato

I can only smell Emporio Armani if I haven't smelled another scent first.

I think it would be the perfect scent to wear anywhere in the world where they actually banned scents. If challenged, you could state that you aren't wearing a scent, you just have moss growing in your wardrobe at home.
Renato

Admittedly, at first I didn't like 212. I bought a sample (1.5ml) and didn't like it. But 1-2 months after the first try I gave another one, and, surprisingly, I fell in love with it and so I did purchase a 50ml-bottle.

I think this is a great frag.Try it,im sure youll like it.Very clean and refreshing.Lasts forever on my skin...

No no no! I hate the dry down but I love the top notes of the 212 Green summer edition, I think all the 212 smell the same, even the one for women. My colleague got a bottle of 212 for woman about a month ago and I can't tell the difference between hers and 212 for men, 212 on ice Green Summer for men, and 212 on ice Blue summer for men. All of them smell the same to me and I don't like the dry basenote,it gave me sinusitis in close proximity. Now where is my flunose spray!

I'm back and forth on this, because sometimes it smells really good and sometimes, terrible.

When I bought it, it smelled like grass, Dr. Pepper, and something "like the process of making 'art'"... I know weird, but like building a theater set--possibly some kind of glue or something, which I associate with NY and Broadway. Also, there is something (probably the white florals) that makes it smell like a raw, bloody steak.

But there is something in it that smells like VERY stale saltines sometimes and it is just awful. I got a sample of 212 on Ice the other day at Sephora--and the girl there said it was one of her favorite mens scents... well, this stale note was even more present than in the original.

So I'm wearing 212 Men right now, because I saw this thread and wanted to see how it smelled... Actually very good right now. Of course, next time, it will probably smell bad.

On a side note, there was this British guy who used to be a regular at my bar. He wore 212 a few times and it smelled really stale on him.

Dammit. Really, it smells incredible right now, it almost makes me sad. Well, I did have one favorable experience with 212 a few years ago. There was this beautiful girl from out of town who liked my shoes (Camper Pelotas) and asked me to join her at a party. I wore 212 to the party and afterwards, kissed her out on the snow-covered steps. She liked my cologne and said it smelled musky and spicy and asked what it was. I told her it was called 212 for Men... and she said "OH, by Carolina Herrera!" Too bad it didn't work out in the end. Good memories though.

I tried about 10 popular mens frags out and found this 212 men to be the most original! I have also received compliments in the office about it.It must like me.As ive said before it lasts forever on me!
I think if youre looking for a nice frag,have tried a lot of the other top frags and you cant seem to find one,try this one...im very impressed.Having said that im very new to the frag scene.

I think one of the reasons in differents opinions and odor descriptions in 212 is the musk note in it.

Each one has a different perception in musk notes.

The musk notes can saturate your nose and you think that the fragrance is not long lasting... and somebody near to you smell it a lot.

In 212 men I smell the fresh note citrus and green, the floral green and methalic effect in gardenia with spices and the quality sandalwood woody and musc on the base note. Good long lasting, different and high quality fragrance.

Bulgari pour homme that I like, has similar problem.

Its rare seeing these 3 numeral '212' posted since Jeffrey Primeau has departed from this forum!

212 is an old favourite of mine until I got sick of it. Still, its a nice fragrance worth having. The sharp ginger and green topnotes combined with the floral is quite unique. I love the sandalwood drydown, it has an 'old-fashioned' sandalwood smell, sort of like those from Creed.

I have to say I dont reach for this much.I bought this when I was on a "green" kick.It is not bad at all.After smelling "greener" scents like Paul Smith,the insence seems to dominate.It makes the fragrance seem dry to me.I dont have any other fragrances with insence, but its not a note I think Ill be looking for.Maybe they overdid it in this.The top notes fade quickly and bring you straight to the insence.(Am I spelling insence wrong?)Again, not bad at all.Maybe it was the bottle I liked more.

I just decided to wear 212 again, and man, it really smells great. When this stuff fires on all the right cylinders, then there is really something special about it. It's funny, I hadn't worn the stuff in over a year and I almost started a thread a little while back about how overrated 212 was and since Jeffery stopped coming here, it's fallen by the wayside.

The key to how it behaves is whether or not the "stale" notes come out or not. Because sometimes that stale note is unbearable. Tonight though, it's behaving well. I wonder what some of the newbies (Post-Jeffery Primeau) think of 212 Men...

I'm wearing 212 on ice on a regular base lately ,and I love it. 212 is on of those scents I tend to forget ,in my desperate search for new released designer or niche scents.
It's no extraordinary scent like a L'Artisan or something ,but the times I remember I have this and use it, I'm glad I have this in my wardrobe. It's such an easy and wearable scent ,very versatile.

hi all. my first post here & I just wanted to share some thoughts about 212

I just picked it up last week, I'm a young guy who loves reading about all the different frags on here but all my life have mostly just been buying the typical Hugo Boss/Ralph Lauren/CK type stuff

so I went for something different & picked up 212. I wasn't blown away, but NEVER in my life have I received more compliments from women about a cologne. except my girlfriend who hasn't seemed to notice it lol.

I was literally getting approached by girls at a club through out the night, asking what I was wearing, and coming in for a closer sniff. even outside having a cigarette I felt a girl's nose in my back taking a whiff of my shirt lol.

I have always been complimented for smelling nice but the night I went to the club w/ 212 was just another level.

Welcome aboard.

What you say is unsurprising as various websites a few years ago kept citing a world fragrance expert, who's opinion it was that 212 was one of six scents that women were particularly attracted to.
Renato

And women are also attracted to jerks. Does that make you want to be one?

Tis better to be jerk-like with a good looking woman around one's arm, than non jerk-like and home alone engaging in behaviour often described by present partciple of jerk.
Renato

Hi people. My first post here

I have had similar experiences as brownhimself. I had a bottle of 212, but I didn't use it frequently...until I started receiving compliments from females everywhere. A female friend of mine even said that the smell was a "panty dropper" (Whatever that means ). 212 is a favorite in my fragrance collection, since.

I don't know, to me, all 212 men and women, I can't tell the difference. You can have five people in the same room wearing different versions of 212 and I bet that you won't be able to tell which person wears which version. But I find the one 212 Ice in the green bottle to be the nicest of them all.