Awful opening, but awesome drydown??

[Dailey]

A*Men immediately springs to mind, but I don't think any drydown is worth putting up with a top this bad!

Would you put up with a Frag where you hate the Top and/or Mid, becuase you love the drydown?

[Jack Hunter]

Amber Sultan - Kitchen spice opening I find unpleasant but the amber drydown is really good.
Memoir Man - I'm not keen on the minty wormwood opening but the complex drydown is really good.

[Awakening950]

Versace The Dreamer

[MJM_77]

Egoiste, is another one of these types of fragrances where it is best to put on 45mins to an hour before you leave your house.

[DMA]

I had Comme Des Garcons 2 many years ago.

I think that was pretty vulgar for the first hour or so, but it did dry down to a very subtle church/incense/oriental scent later in the day.

[Dailey]

Versace The Dreamer

Good call!!

[sjg3839]

Musc Ravageur

[Rüssel]

Open doesn't exactly feature my most favourite opening.
Breath of God. Not the biggest fan of the appetising sweetness in the opening.

Both are not all that bad though. I don't think I would put up with a fragrance that has an opening I really dislike.

[silentrich]

Musc Ravageur

I agree with this. The drydown is as good as the opening is bad. Takes forever to get to the dry down.

[mlsweeney]

L'Instant de Guerlain pour Homme Extreme

I have no problem tolerating the opening to get to that fantastic drydown

[goody2141]

Versace Dreamer is always mentioned in these. I didn't notice the awful opening that much. I don't know if having a mini without a sprayer makes a difference.

[hednic]

Would you put up with a Frag where you hate the Top and/or Mid, because you love the dry down?

Sure.

[MuskOx]

Breath of God. Not the biggest fan of the appetising sweetness in the opening.

Breath of God was the first one that came to mind for me. Horrible opening, but if you can get through it, it gets wonderful.

[xray]

Musc Ravageur

What I thought of when I saw this thread.

[SirNosebleed]

Lauder for Men(vintage) has a harsh opening but then catches you by surprise as distinct notes pop out in the transition down to a sandalwood base.

(Interesting to note that the harsh opening never stops in the current formulation.)

[noirdrakkar]

midnight in paris
body kouros
the dreamer

[barclaydetolly]

What I thought of when I saw this thread.

MR is the classic just-wait-till-the-drydown cologne on basenotes. But I don't think it's that bad at the outset, either, so I can't say it has an "awful" opening.

Another one that I really enjoy in the drydown, much more than the opening, is GIT. Sometimes the opening smells sharp too me, with too much "green." The lush violet deepens as it dries.

[barclaydetolly]

Accidental Double post.

[El_Guapo]

Versace The Dreamer

This

[basiamedas]

i might get a lot of hate for this but i say YSL M7

[CaliDude]

Musc Ravageur

+1...

[Scentologist]

Riverside Drive.

[Johnny_Ludlow]

Eau Lente, Mouchoir de Monsieur and several Villoresis springs to mind.

[Ete]

Black Orchid -- too potent.

[volley2]

Caron Pour un Homme. Opening is too rugged. It attacks the nose. But the dry down is heavenly.

[SteelerOpera]

The one that pops into my head is Chanel Pour Monsieur Concentrée. When I would spray this on a card I could never understand why it sold, then I forced myself to wear it and I loved the drydown!
To a lesser extent I would also say Tabac Original edt.

[CompassRose]

Would you put up with a Frag where you hate the Top and/or Mid, becuase you love the drydown?

Nope. I have to live with it the whole time. Maayyybe if there was ten or fifteen minutes of bad initial opening followed by goodness, I'd do it, but any kind of extended thing I don't like will rule out the entire thing.

Like Comme des Garcons Kyoto, for instance. On me, it's awful. Like the cheapest sort of trendy boy-cologne mixed with citronella. I gave it an afternoon of torture, thinking it HAD to get better, and it never did, before I scrubbed it off in despair. Then I sprayed it on a card, and the next day, the card had the most beautiful scent of Japanese incense ever. Yes, lovely -- but I do not care, if I have to go on a day-long camping trip with a bunch of frat boys to get there.

[stevolution]

Kouros

[Ken Cosgrove]

Egoiste, is another one of these types of fragrances where it is best to put on 45mins to an hour before you leave your house.

Oh yeah. Especially the first 15 minutes or so can be pretty rank at times, but what follows is absolutely magnificent.

[JON RODGERS]

The opening blast from Creed Acier Aluminium is absolutely foul, yet it dries down to a rich, intoxicating, and highly original scent. Patience is a virtue worth mastering ...

[Riverwide]

Diptyque's 34 Boulevard Saint Germain has a rather nasty opening, but the drydown is beautiful.

[cpp214]

Vintage Versace L'Homme.

The opening is extremely harsh to me, even bitter, but the heart
and drydown are pure quality.

[Scentologist]

The current Fahrenheit

[The_Cologneist]

I agree with Musc Rav & The Dreamer, although, sometimes I enjoy The Dreamer's opening.

To that, I'd like to add some classics.
Paco Rabanne pH - opening is too sharp.
Grey Flannel - self explanatory, but the middle to base is actually nice and quite intriguing.
Giorgio BH Red - This stuff would be so good if not for the armpit smelling cumin note in the opening.
Narciso Rodriguez for Him
Yatagan

[Ken_Russell]

Gainsboro GMan - if not awful, at least nondescript as an opening and also slightly smoky as opening, only improving with drydown
Also, quite a few scents being either leathery, with a strong leathery-animalic component, for instance (but not limited to) Knize Ten, Creed REL, Givenchy Gentleman, Versace l'Homme or Boss No. 1: not all the openings are awful, yet too unidimensional on the heavy, slightly overpowering pungently leathery side, yet their drydowns are some of the classiest, most suave yet also manly to be sensed, once these scents are given at least a minimum of 20-30 minutes to settle.

[Wheatstraw2]

I agree with 34 Blvd. St. Germain, and I think you have to wait an awful long time for that smooth cardamom drydown. Others would be Rocabar and Swiss Unlimited.

[manatee]

LIDGE. The drydown is one of the greatest olfactory wonders I've experienced, but the opening is repulsive.

[cid1204]

One thing comes to my mind........... L'Eau Bleue d'Issey Pour Homme.

[Brian_Towers]

For the ones who wanna move on, I present you the idea of cognitive dissonance
Enjoy the top notes, pain free!

[david]

Jicky. Once you get past the pickled farts note you're safe. The "poopsy" clove note eventually wafts into the sunset and the drydown is quite heavenly.

[jbthorpe]

YSL Kouros has the urinal scent cake smell that supposedly eventually goes away then you are supposed to get a gorgeous honey drydown. Unfortunately when I wear it, for about 8 hours, I just smell like I'm wearing clothes I've urinated in several times. Yeah, that pee smell stays on my skin and no amount of scrubbing will wash it off.

- - - Updated - - -

Jicky. Once you get past the pickled farts note you're safe. The "poopsy" clove note eventually wafts into the sunset and the drydown is quite heavenly.

I agree with you David. As much as I like Jicky, there is that civet undertone that you have to get past to enjoy it. Either it's in my head or I can slightly smell the "stank" for the duration of the wear, but as the hours pass the fecal smell dies down until I can only barely detect it.