Men's Reformulations - Let's play Sherlock Holmes and see what we find

the worst reformulation i've ever tried is the 'new' Bel Ami......which is simply an empty shell of the original.....couldn't even believe they were the same scent.....they're NOT the same scent anymore! It's a totally different scent with the same name.

I think you may have found a valid point about Amber and Oakmoss.....although some scents like Paco Rabanne don't really have a poor reformulation, it's nearly as good or similar to the original IMO.

Can't believe that, Bel Ami is one of my favorites. I'm going to have to track down the vintage one in the clamshell bottle

The chief concern about oakmoss is allergy, I believe.

Synthetics are a piece of the puzzle, but a lot is hidden under the term 'parfum'. It is like a food package with 'spices' as an ingredient. You may know what everything else is, but what are the spices?

i will say that before i tried the original one, i thought the 'new' Bel Ami was an alright fragrance.....after i tried the original clamshell bottle one, i realised that the 'new' version was a totally different affair than the original....and lost a great deal of respect for it.....as the original one was such a nice smooth leather scent....something the new is not...IMO.

The problem with using ingredient lists as a guide to reformulation is that labeling laws have changed a lot over the years. An unreformulated scent from the '70s might well have a very different, less elaborated ingredient list than the same scent today.

The problem with using ingredient lists as a guide to reformulation is that labeling laws have changed a lot over the years. An unreformulated scent from the '70s might well have a very different, more elaborated ingredient list than the same scent today.

Just a note: Regulations for declarations have changed, and that why that long list of chemicals is now on every perfume - they were in there before and many are actually components of natural oils:

AMYL CINNAMAL
BENZYL ALCOHOL
CINNAMYL ALCOHOL
CITRAL
EUGENOL
HYDROXYCITRONELLAL
ISOEUGENOL
AMYLCINNAMYL ALCOHOL
BENZYL SALICYLATE
CINNAMAL
COUMARIN
GERANIOL
HYDROXYISOHEXYL 3-CYCLOHEXENE CARBOXALDEHYDE
ANISE ALCOHOL
BENZYL CINNAMATE
FARNESOL
BUTYLPHENYL METHYLPROPIONAL
LINALOOL
BENZYL BENZOATE
CITRONELLOL
HEXYL CINNAMAL
LIMONENE
METHYL 2-OCTYNOATE
ALPHA-ISOMETHYL IONONE
EVERNIA PRUNASTRI EXTRACT
EVERNIA FURFURACEA EXTRACT

But you are right, of course, that there have been numerous reformulations. The reasons are usually that a fomer ingredient is practically no longer available or is too expensive (ambergris, Mysore sandalwood, natural musk) in times of shrinking perfume budgets for mass market fragrances, has been banned or "regulated" (nitro-musks, recently oakmoss) . Luca Turin has pointed out that sandalwood fragrances no longer deserve the name, and if you smell recent versions of Santal Imperiale or Floris Sandalwood you know he's right. They may be nice, but they are a far cry from their former selves. Egoiste with its original percentage of sandalwood would probably be a Chanel Exclusif today. I do think there may be a few examples where perfumes have been "improved," i.e. adapted to contemporary tastes in an intelligent manner. Jil Sander Scent 79 is a very good reinterpretation of Man Pure.

btw. amber & ambergris are not the same thing, though frequently not clearly distinguished in note pyramids. Amber refers to tree resin (yellow amber,ambre jaune) and is shorthand for a note composed of spicy-resinous components (as in Ambre Sultan, Ambre Précieux), while ambergris (=grey amber) refers to the whale product fixative with its uniquely sweet-organic scent (Creed Ambre Cannelle, probably Ambroxan these days, rather than natural ambergris).

From my wardrobe:

Antaeus, old cap was round, new cap is semisquare and fitting the bottle below
Aramis, Aramis, old one had a black cap that fit the bottle. Another version had a leather case. Not everyone agrees on this one's reformulation. Maybe Scentemental can eleborate, he's far more up to date on this world than i am, with only a year of experience
Azzaro PH, with the bottle change also a change in the scent, people tell it's less rich
Bel Ami, look above, never tested them side by side
Caron PuH, old Caron bottle was more powerfull and deeper (rounder and bigger cap)



Givenchy Gentleman, 2 reformulations probably. The new version has a rectangle sticker on the front, the old one went all the way around. The first verison had a glass area below the cap. The 2nd version had a black area around the cap.
Jacomo de Jacomo: Don't know about the bottle for sure. Less stronger in the new version and probably lost depth / animalic quality.
Heritage: Got reformulated, don't know much about it.
Oscar de la Renta: Bottle changed, old version didn't have a line circled around "oscar de la renta" on the front. Got much weaker, lost complexity. Search for bottle pictures.
Photo: Less depth, Used to have old fashioned numbers on the bottle i think. New bottle looks the same as Lagerfeld Classic but in a purple / gray colour.
Trussardi Uomo: Shamefull refomulation. Lost strenght. Lost depth and darkness. New one is sweeter, and that's sad.
Ungaro 3: Bad rose note in the new one. Search for bottle pictures.
Van Cleef and Arpels Pour Homme: 2nd, 90's version is watered down. New one of 2008 got better but not back on track
Tsar (VC&A) Same as VC&A PH.
MPG has reformulated their scents and now they come in 100ml's. Buy up the 90's while you still can. Don't know how bad (or perhaps good ) the refomulations are...

Guess I will have to keep my eyes open for a bottle

Yatagan has been reformulated a couple times. One version has a bottle that looks like that. Another is the newer shape with the black cap and red label, and then the newest version with silver cap and white label. There are a couple different versions of the black cap one too, mostly a different box, not sure if the scent was changed for those...

Not everyone agrees on the difference in scent though...

Here's a quick analysis I did of the "vintage" vs reissue versions of Nicole Miller for Men ingredients: http://community.basenotes.net/showp...5&postcount=46

Reinforces PhinClio and the_good_life's posts I think.

Very well said! These types of ingredients have always been there just not fully listed in the past. Also oakmoss and other oils have been found to be toxic and now have been replaced by synthetics or just cut back on. This is why some scents like Obsession, Kouros, Antaeus, Polo - smell different from their earlier days.

This is true, Yatagan is rebottled 3 times. At least one fragrance reformulation.

Probably in this way:

The "round" bottle above that looks like Caron Puh.

Then the rectangle bottle came in, first with a white label and black cap, after that a red label and black cap, and finally a white label and metallic cap (the one you will now probably get when you order online)

the person in charge of Caron bottle design should be executed , they look cheap and ugly. Only L´Anarchiste is fine.
For a fine juice you need a fine container. just my two cents

That's interesting. At one point, I was involved in Purplebird's Note Identification Thread (too lazy to do a search on it, right now for a link), but now there is an entire section of the forum devoted to single notes. I was looking into how to obtain some oak moss to see if I could tease out the difference between the original Montana Parfum d'Homme (red box) versus the reformulation.

You might be able to find some at Eden Botanicals.


'Makes me wanna go sniff a lot of Yatagans.