Poll: Favourite Designer & Non-Niche Scents for Men

I dont have a fevorite designer so I voted for OTHER

Gucci Envy, no question.

Prada Amber pour homme, Antidote and Santana as far as newer offerings.

Grey Flannel when it comes to the classics.

From your poll, my favorites are Bvlgari Black, M7, and Very Sexy. But I have loads more favorites, just look at my wardrobe and you'll see the majority are designer fragrances.

Paul Smith London
Davidoff Echo
CKin2u
Dior Homme Cologne

No single answer so I posted 5. The Dreamer, Black Code, Bvlgari Black, M7/Fresh, and Body Kouros. Those are all some of my favorites.

Clinique Happy is excellent. I do not own M7, but was impressed on recently testing it a couple of times.
My favorites are not here though:
Adolfo Dominguez Vetiver Hombre & Sandalo
R de Capucci (discontinued)
Ricci Signoricci
Cacharel ph
Valentino Vendetta ph (discontinued)
L'Eau Bleue d'Issey
Ronaldo Esper Millesimé
Burberry Brit
Gucci Envy
Sisley Eau de Campagne
Monsieur Balmain
Mugler Cologne & B*Men

Chanel Egoiste- probably my favorite!
Must de Cartier pour Homme- wonderful, warm Oriental. Very smooth and seductive.
Dior Fahrenheit - it's older, but it's still pretty sexy. Wear lightly though as too much is over powering.

euphoria by calvin klien

Aramis 900

Other: Eau d'Hermes

My other write-in candidates would have been Heritage, Jicky, Jaipur Homme, and Ungaro III.

Other: Havana Reserva

Other: Terre D'Hermes, Spazio Krizia Uomo, Romeo Gigli per Uomo, Hermés Equipage, Chanel Pour Monsieur, Guerlain Vetiver

I like a lot of designer frags as well: KC Reaction, Eau de Grey Flannel, Double Black, Euphoria, etc...there are a lot of good ones IMHO

Other - Joop! Nightflight and Bvlgari Aqua. My 2 favorites at the moment

Other - Burberry Brit, Burberry London, Narciso Rodriguez for Him, Tom Ford for Men

From the list it's got to be A*men! Had Chanel Egoiste been listed, that would have been THE one

Burberry London!

Out of the list Versace Dreamer,other would be Terre D`Hermes or Chanel Egoiste.

Gaultier 2!

I went with M7, A*Men, and added Chanel Égoïste as well.

Do you believe that certain scents are more popular than others becuase they are better than other scents?

from those listed, unforgivable. otherwise, prada amber ph & polo double black

I like Mont Blanc - Starwalker

Lomani Ignition.
Boss Elements Aqua.
Tommy T.

IMHO

Whoa chill man.....; )

I still buy designer scents, but I'm in a city where I cannot sample some of the less common or niche scents. They are also more affrodable, espcially if you want more. Rive Gauche pour homme for $30, not bad? Just pick something well made.

Having said that, when I think of Abercrombie, I think of 16 year olds shopping for clothes. That is not to say that you are lame for wearing that, but still.....hey , the scent world is a big place. I also had Aqua di Gi, used it 4 times, then gave it away. It is an OK made scent, but made best to wear in hot weather. I always smell this frag at the university, when some guy walks by. And as one Basenoter has stated in another thread, You Gotta Stop Rockin' That Aqua Di Gio !! I dunno, it made me laugh, becaue it is soo true ( and I could picture him yelling at someone).

My main issue here, is that, I have always observed Department Stores ( I don't mean Wal-mart, I mean Bon Marche, Sears, The Hudson's Bay...etc) To be very snobby about fragrences. They have the Armani displays for ADG every spring/summer ( or whatever perfume House). They push the testers on women passing by, "hey, buy this for your man, it is by Armani !"....or present this to men they deem as worthy of their attention.

Fashion industry esentially decides what is "in" and cool. So the idea of wearing something that too many peole are not, to me, is definetly cool. As long as you are not an arrogent jerk. And I don't find anyone on this site to be that way at all. Popular fragernces sell because of Ad campaignes, and a lot of people are indifferent to what they wear or follow trends ...etc. Just take a look at GQ magzines and what they are pushing.

I also grew up through high school and later on ( recently) with guys proclaiming their coolness because they have purchased Boss Dark Blue or Nautica Latitude. As long as you do the snobbery on this site its all good to me. I want to know about those scents and how people feel about them. I may not be able to get a hold or afford a Black Oud or Czech and whatever, but I'm all for fellow Basenoter's to gush about them. Just keep the association of coolness and niche away from your friends or coworkers who are not perfume enthusiasts. Well, unless they use this site, then go for it : )

......Ok, now I gotta chill ....pheeewwww!!!!!

I will have to say;
Antaeus
Fahrenheit
and
Egoiste

I also think men smell super sexy in Drakkar Noir, or Polo (green bottle, original)
something about Polo drives me wild, even when I smell it on an old man, very sexy.
Stetson is also nice, I had a boyfriend who loved that one.

One thing I will say as far as the 'snob' factor; whether a fragrance costs $5 or $500, if it smells like a**, it smells like a**.
My little vintage 50 cent bottle of Chantilly (yay for consignment shops) smells better on me, than any of the Malle scents. So which is better; the one that smells great, or the one I could say cost sooo much.
I buy scent to smell lovely, I do not buy prestige.

Some of my favorites, in approximate order of preference:

Annick Goutal Les Nuits d'Hadrien
Tom Ford Oud Wood (probably considered a niche fragrance ...)
Ermenegildo Zegna Zegna Extreme
Gucci Envy
Michael Kors Michael For Men
Bvlgari Blv Notte
Giorgio Armani Attitude
Bvlgari Black
Tom Ford For Men
Ralph Lauren Polo Sport
Dolce & Gabbana Pour Homme
Ermenegildo Zegna Essenza di Zegna
Hugo Boss Hugo
Hermès Terre d'Hermès
Ralph Lauren Polo Black
Burberry London

Not at all. It's important to keep in mind that fashion design houses are selling an image every bit as much as they are selling a fragrance. That's why they spend millions of dollars on marketing campaigns, and those campaigns work because we are all social animals, care what our peers think of us, and most of us are just too damned weak to resist. (Now don't go getting pissy; we've all been there and you know it.)

I don't care how many backwards-baseball-cap-wearing-pants-crotch-down-at-their-knees college freshmen flea-dip themselves in Acqua di Giò before chasing skirts around the campus. It's still an amazing fragrance and nothing will change that. Go read the negative comments about Acqua di Giò and see how many of them directly address the extreme popularity of the fragrance as a reason to avoid it. It's important to remember that ultimately all we should really care about is ... does this juice smell good???

Also, just because something is popular doesn't mean it is necessarily more desirable. In a market economy, you can expect that the most desirable items will cost more, which will push them far enough out of reach for the masses that they can no longer be considered popular. It doesn't mean people wouldn't buy them if they had the chance.

Aside from Bulgari Black, I also have 212 for Men, Mugler Cologne, and Bulgari Aqua as my favorites.

Well said intelligent comment ! Although to be honest, I don't think Aqua di Gio is that great of a scent. This is what really confuses me. It may very well be that I'm in a colder climate, in which this scent works best in hot weather. It does give a refreshing feeling in some sense.

I mostly wear the designer and non-niche scents, as there are many that are great. Astaroth has listed many.

I don't actually own Acqua di Giò, but that's probably only because I own so many other colognes that I can't really justify buying a new one unless it is either really outstanding or different in some way. And I have plenty of aquatics already. But if I didn't, I would have bought it.

That is fair. Plenty of aquatics in your wardrobe does not warrent another aquatic purchase.It is like having Aqua Motu, Nautica Latitude, Polo Blue and Polo Sport all at the same time....I had this last Fall. It left me with an empty wallet, angry and I neglected discovering other frags because I was obsessed with Aquatics.

AdG does wear well on the skin, so it is a good quality made product, which is more than I could say about a lot of Frags ( Polo Blue, Varvatos, Romance, Polo Sport, Code.........etc)

It just goes to show how people have different tastes. Polo Blue, to me, has a really beautiful smell to it. And Polo Sport is one of my favorite fragrances. I don't know if Ralph Lauren has a regular perfumer working for his house or not, but he does deliver good fragrances on a regular basis (except for Explorer ).

Astaroth, i should clarify a bit. I like Polo Blue a lot. Its a really good smell. I've got compliments from strangers, which is odd but nice . But I guess I can't "feel" it on me like I can with other scents. I'm not sure if it lasts after 4 hours? I went through 2 straight bottles 4 years ago, so perhaps I should give it another go around. I also believe I should take advantage of Basenotes and try something different ( but that gave me Nightflight, which never worked out). I'll have to really consider a new bottle of Blue now.....

Polo Sport, OK, but did you get the "sweat" smell in yours ? I'm serious, I would not joke around with one of your favs now. It could be my bottle, I did buy it online from an Ebay seller ( ??). It was just odd, it is a sweet- minty and youthful smell. But the sweat, I got kinda scared man !

Oh, and on Ralph Lauren, you are gonna have to stick up for him more often, he gets a bad reputation here. I'm kinda considering Back and Double Black ( because they are on sale cheap where I am).

My new designer faves are Bulgari Aqua, Black, and Pour Homme, Terre d'Hermès, and probably soon will be Un Jardin en Mediterranee (I fell in love with a store shot to the wrist). I'm liking Kenzo scents quite a bit, too.

I like BN for introducing me to many exotic and beautiful frags that are not "safe" like AdG, etc. But those safe frags have their own beauty, too. A couple of years ago, I was in a hot city on a summer trip with only AdG (wife gift) and Gucci Envy. AdG was so great on me, and so cool and refreshing, I was kissing the bottle. My wife thought I'd gone completely bonkers. I think that part of their popularity is that they simply don't offend anybody - sort of the fragrance equivalent of PC. Not too left, not too right, kind of quiet... Sometimes that sort of thing is nice, like when you're walking through the religious art exhibit. But sometimes I want a fragrance that raises a bottle, wolf-whistles at the ladies, and maybe even starts a barroom brawl (Kouros?)! Not to mention the extremely interesting territory of everything in between.

Double Black is a nice, light frag, too. Wife loves it. And happy wives let husbands buy more frags!

voted for Body Kouros

Chanel PM 1955
Guerlain Vetiver
Guerlain Habit Rouge
Caron Yatagan

I went to a wedding a couple of years ago wearing Polo Blue, and probably too damned much of it. At the reception one of the women in the wedding party followed me around just to smell it. I'm not sure it would have happened if she had been sober that night. I do know that my girlfriend almost slugged her, and I gave Ralph Lauren most of both the blame and credit for it all.


I'm not sure what was going on with that. Polo Sport has a very interesting smell to it, and it can occasionally only slightly border on weirdly unpleasant. I've never associated sweat with it, however. It does last a while, so if it starts to smell bad, it's time to scrub it off.

Don't worry about dissing my favorites. That's like someone making fun of me because I like eating tiny black fish eggs. "That's cool, I'll just be over here chowing on the caviar ..."


I love Polo Black. Smells great, and lasts a long time. Can't ask for more than that. I don't see Double Black being a huge improvement over it, however.

Kouros is the greatest masculine of all time, in my opinion.

There are plenty of designer masculines that don't get any love because of overexposure. The original Polo is still STUNNING and smells of ashtrays and class, but it's hard to separate it from the masses of sleazy, moustached men I've smelled it on.

Fahrenheit is probably my second favorite. The gasoline and violets concept must have been shocking when it came out, and though everyone bitches about reformulations I think it still smells terrific, more or less the same. The ad campaigns are also positively HAUNTING, some of the best I've seen, and peculiarly have nothing to do with sex- they're just of one man in a barren, vaguely apocalyptic-looking environment with red clouds and desert and beached ships. That David Lynch directed commercial with the elevator countdown is so wonderful.

+Bvlgari Black

Polo original
Ricci Club
Gucci Nobile (discontinued)
Chevignon brand
Chanel Pour monsieur
Chanel Allure
Guerlain Habit Rouge
Guerlain Vetiver
Ysl Opium pour homme
Prada Infusion d´homme

I voted Fierce, Le Male and Other with the others being La Nuit de L'Homme and Fahrenheit Absolute.

Currently, Vetiver by Guerlain.

From this list, Rochas Man comes quite close to being a favorite of mine

Other designer scents I truly enjoy and which rank highly among my faves include, but without being limited to: Burberry London for Men, Very Valentino for Men, Chanel pour Monsieur, Armani Eau pour Homme, Versace l'Homme, YSL Rive Gauche PH, Boucheron pour Homme, Zino Davidoff, Ungaro III, Trussardi Uomo, Eau Sauvage and more

One that should be in that list and is criminally under rated IMO is bang by Marc Jacobs. Love that sucka!

From this list: Curve For Men, Bulgari Black, Rochas Man
Other: Must De Cartier PH, Gucci Envy, Safari For Men, Drakkar Noir,...

There's lot's of contenders but it's M7 for me from those listed.

Lancome - Balafre

from your list: platinum egoiste

but i also like terre d'hermes, chanel allure edition blanche and dior homme (not the intense and the sport version though)

I agree with most of this although I just cant get with Le Male. Fierce and La Nuit de L'Homme are great though.

I'm pretty inexperienced with designer fragrances so I've got a really limited pool to choose from. I chose Bvlgari Black, but the frag I've been wearing most this winter is He Wood Rocky Mountain Wood. Love that scent...to bad it doesn't last longer on my skin.

I'm somewhat of a novice when it comes to men's colonge and discussion
so i'll pick Azzaro pour Homme, for it's fresh and spicy fougerge
Y.S.L l' Nuit d'Homme dark and spicy
and dime store classics like
Dana English Leather and Faberge Brut

Terre d'Hermes

I voted other for Roadster, by Cartier