Aramis disappointment

Sorry for your disappointment. I know this company has its many supporters, but I've never found any worthwhile, especially the original Aramis which I dislike and find the smell unpleasant. Rest assured you won't have any trouble selling these. I'm sure there will be people ready to snap them up.

There have been several threads expressing disappointment over the new 900. As for Havana, to me it smells similar to what it was, but the volume has been turned way down. It almost comes off as an Havana EdC. I've always preferred Havana Reserva to Havana, and am glad to have enough of it to last me a while. Haven't heard much about the new Devin, Tuscany, JHL, or New West, so I can't help you there.

If there is good news, it doesn't seem that hard to get some of the other Gentleman's Collection fragrances in their original packaging for reasonable prices.

Edit: Didn't see that you had the vintage Aramis 900

I like the original Aramis and keep some out of respect since, at one time, it was a definite favorite of mine. I no longer wear it since I have juice I like much better.

900 is one I don't recall ever caring for. Just a personal preference is all and the herbal rendition is not to my liking.

I even gave up my Havana vintages and Reservas when I found myself never wearing them anymore.

I'm a big fan of 900; I can take or leave Havana.

I haven't had the pleasure of trying vintage Havana.
I like the smell of the current formulation, but I was not
pleased with it's sillage or projection.

I do not care for Aramis, in any of it's incarnations.
Aramis 900 is too feminine for my tastes.
I can't speak to the quality of Devin, Tuscany, or JHL,
as I have never tried them, but would like to.

I like both vintage and new Havana (almost identical except for strength) but have to really be in the mood for it since it really does have quite a retro vibe to it. 900 is awesome. When people go on about how Insense was such a breakthrough as the first real floral for men, I scratch my head wondering what they call 900 then. I think JHL is my favorite from this whole line however.

I'm a fan of 900 and have the vintage juice. It's great on a hot day and it really works on my skin. I've purchased a vintage Havana and am waiting for it to turn up. I have the new formulation and while I like it, I'm not bowled over by it. All in all there are some excellent fragrances including New West.

Havana "just sits there?" It's about as dynamic a frag as I've ever encountered! What I now realize is that with some frags you have to "wrap your mind around them" and then they "let you in." It doesn't always happen during the first few wearings.

I have never understood the original Aramis. Ultra sweet and cloying to me. Pontaccio 21 on the other hand, (1000 times better !) is what Aramis should have been - a complex, dynamic fragrance oozing champagne, leather and black pepper. They are similar fragrances, but Pontaccio 21 has so much more character. On my recent thread regarding leather chypre bests I was shocked and dumbfounded that so many members chose Aramis as the ultimate leather chypre. My nose detects no leather at all in this fragrance and I would not class it as a leather-chypre.
Aramis Herbal 900 has always been a big favourite of mine. I havn´t tried the new version, but the old is a unique lively fragrance.
I own the new JHL which I find not so different from the old version. I always thought the original New West for Men was very underrated, and Havana/Havana Reserva both totally overrated.

I actually prefer the newer version of Havana. Aramis may have removed the turbo from the current formulation, but I actually find myself using it more than the vintage and Reserva Havana. With Aramis 900 it is quite the reverse. It has been amended a few times since I first used it in the seventies, but until the latest bottle it was always more than agreeable. Now, I would rather go without than use anything other than vintage 900.

Vintage 900 is a big scent! Love it!

What about Chromatics ?
There´s not one review of it in the directory ?

I have the vintage 900, vintage Aramis, vintage JHL, the newer JHL, newer Havana, and newer New West. The only one I find myself wearing is JHL in which I have little preference whether it's the vintage or the newer formulation. I like all these scents but I guess I just don't care to wear most of them.

I own and like vintage 900, as well as vintage and current Havana. The same goes for vintage versions of Aramis, JHL, Tuscany and New West for Him.

I enjoy 900 (and Aromatics Elixir), Aramis, JHL, Devin, Tuscany and New West. Tempted to try Havana at some point.

I own all of the major ones and like them in this order of preference:
1) Devin (vintage)
2) 900 (vintage)
3) Aramis
4) Tuscany (vintage)
5) Havana (new)
6) JHL (new)
7) New West (new)

I own the following Aramis fragrances from the Gentleman's Collection:

Devin
900
JHL
New West

I also own Aramis and Tuscany.

Of these, I enjoy Devin and JHL more than the others, although I enjoy and wear them all with the exception of Aramis. I've tried Havana (vintage and new) and at this time, it just isn't my cup of tobacco.

The only Aramis I could ever get into was Tuscany. Well, I take that back... I had a bottle of New West way back in the day too. I dislike the original and Havana just didn't do anything for me (ducks for cover).

This is true. But since ZZtopp is a NOOB, he has not developed the ability to wrap his noggin around such a hip fragrance. He will soon realize his silly assumptions and regret selling these fragrances. Eventually all noobs learn.

Just add though, smelling Havana ( old bottle) made me realize I have no idea what tobacco smells like. That, or the term tobacco in perfumes is a different game than smelling it in its true form ( ie smokers clothing, actual tobacco, some jerk who blows smoke as if no one is around him...etc)

I like and respect the Aramis line more than I love it. I own the original but only wear it two or three times a year; it's a great scent but I don't often find the occasion to wear it.

As for the rest of the line, Havana, Tuscany and New West are all good, especially given their low price, but I haven't felt the need to buy any. The only one I flat out dislike is JHL, which was a huge disappointment given how excited I was to try it. It's one I nearly blind bought, and I'm glad I didn't.

Chromatics was released at the same time as Herbal- now known as 900. Chromatics must not have sold well and was pretty quickly discontinued. Can't remember the fragrance well enough to comment other than to say I much preferred it to the Herbal.

It's not about being a "newbie" in general but being one in the context of a particular type of frag. That is actually one thing that keeps me interested in frags. I'm often finding a new appreciation for frags that I didn't think much about before, for one reason or another. But if it's different for you, so be it. You don't limit me, but only yourself, by not trying to get a handle on a frag.

If you look back to old threads when Havana wasnt available, people were going crazy trying to get a sample or bottle. Then, there were a bunch of threads with people wondering what the big fuss was all about once they got some.......

The current Aramis is not a decent replication of what it was twenty or so years back. The current incarnation is harsh, savage beast compared to the original, aroma-chemicals brutally assaulting your olfactory lobes.

Ah, if this could only be said of Havana, what a wonderful olfactory world we would inhabit !

Fragrantica and the Estonian site have the following notes for it: "Top notes are artemisia, caraway, mandarin orange and basil; middle notes are carnation, fir, cinnamon and tobacco; base notes are sandalwood, patchouli, oakmoss and vetiver."

For me, the balance is great, but it takes perhaps two hours for it to come together. I suspect some of that enthusiasm was tempered by this quality. There is depth too, and a kind of powdery quality. I think of the tobacco note as a dry, brown leaf. It is somewhat more blended relative to some frags of that era, but not to the point of being irritating. And it's got no "synthetic" quality. The new VC&A PH, on the other hand, I found to be a total mess (with a nasty "laundry musk" aspect and way too blended), about as unwearable a frag as any I have encountered (and I enjoy vintage Leonard Pour Homme, which most claim to be very similar to it, or at least to the original version). What I seek in opinions are intelligent observations. So, for example, if someone said that Havana was very sweet, or too "synthetic," or lacking a tobacco note, I would be very careful about taking anything else that person said seriously. However, if the person described it accurately but didn't like it, I would be appreciative of the information. The dynamism in Havana I'd describes as several notes dancing around the "deep" tobacco note, so if one become too focused on that note, the others might not "register" well, which is something it took me a while to realize. And again, this is the kind of thing I think most of us can only overcome by trying to "get to know" a frag over time.

I was actually sitting in a donut shop the other day and overheard an older couple talking about this so you may want to listen up. Get this, Everlast 1910 is a superior version of both Aramis Havana and 900 (together !). Yup.

Thank me later

Bermuda tonic was a Big disapointment to me
smells very strange,
i mean it really does reminds you of an island, or a tropical setting with exotic plants
But it is unwearaBle, too weird go smelling that way

Okay, you used up your one joke per thread quota! LOL.

You have to consider Aramis in the context of its time (initial release). It was the "drakkar noir" or "Aqua di Geo" of the early seventies. It was everywhere. It was new and different. It is too steeped in its time and those memories for me to judge it impartially. It's dated but I still like it, but perhaps for intensely personal reasons.

No one has mentioned Tuscany Forte! My particular favorite. Hard to enjoy the weaker Tuscany once you've experienced it. Or Surface. Or Portos (still have two bottles packed away). I vaguely remember Chromatics. It was somewhat similar to the original 900 if memory serves me right though I never owned a bottle. One recently came up on a certain web site that shall be nameless but the seller pulled it before it was over for some reason. The hunt continues.

I have personally never liked Havana. The last time I tested Aramis 900 it gave me a headache, just like the original Aromatics Elixir does. Nonetheless, I love me some Devin, New West and Aramis.

I guess it just depends on taste. There are many here that swear by Aramis. One thing I will not say with regards to Havana and 900 it that they are not bad quality. I just cannot seem to "see" the tobacco in Havana, but I think that is just because the type of tobacco I seem to always be looking for is just a fictional half remembered smell.

Havana just reminds me too much of Montana Parfum d'Homme, which I don't like. Its got a bitterness/green/herbal accord I am not crazy for. I am also somewhat anosmic to it. I don't think it is strong, but one spray gets me some reactions from people

900, once the opening and mid notes transform to the dry down, just upsets me. I don't know why. I can say I could never stand Clininque Aromatics Elixir at all. Just awful to me. But perhaps it is because people who wore it around me applied waay too much !

ZZ, I don't think you will have trouble selling these in the sales board ( assuming you don't give it the Dior Homme Intense vintage mark up )

Aramis scents has always come off as too dusty and herbal for my tastes. A few, like Devin and the original have their charm but have not been a huge fan of this line...

I have deep respect for the line, and the work for Bernard Chant in general. But, with the exception of Tuscany, I find that they all smell a bit dated. This is probably because I wore Aramis and Devin extensively in the late 70s, and always associate them with that time.

Yeah, my impressions on this line have changed steadily but drastically through the years. At first, I loved Aramis and Havana but didn't love the others so much. How they both seem a little big for their britches, like they are barely contained and just want to burst at the seams.

Then I went through a short phase with Tuscany and New West, but grew bored of them pretty quickly. Now I'm digging Devin and JHL. Never did like 900 much!

http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Aramis-Havana-1124.html

I don't know if this is accurate or not, but this writer seems to think that old and new Havana are identical. The article dates from 2009.

Edit - also this basenotes thread : http://www.basenotes.net/threads/239...vana-my-review

Good news if you can believe the "no change" brigade - I'd like to buy this current version.

Ah Aramis, these be the old man power colognes, no?