212 Men 
Carolina Herrera (1999)

I'm going to give this a cautious thumbs-up.

212 Men is the epitome of the late '90s/early '00s overly-synthetic craze. The opening is a blast of freshly cut grass, which I have to admit, they do a good job of approximating. I remember a basenotes user years ago saying that the only thing missing from this scent is the note of "lawnmower exhaust," and I couldn't agree more. That intro is very sharp -- almost to the point of acrid -- and had 212 stayed in that presentation, it would be nearly insufferable. Fortunately, that sharpness dies down to a rather generic sandalwood/musk base that I also would completely lambast if not for the fact that when coupled with the leftover grassy notes from the top and the gardenia from the middle, this scent actually works fairly well, and becomes a lot "cleaner," and is not too unlike Bvlgari pour Homme (1995). It truly is more than the sum of its parts, because the individual parts themselves are much too weak (and in the opening, almost obnoxious) to stand on their own. And I guess that's part of the art of perfumery, isn't it?

This projects well, especially up front, and longevity is moderate. It's a scent that I think would work best in the spring and summer, is definitely a daytime fragrance, and one that I would say is casual. I don't know if I would say this is a good work fragrance, as it's definitely on the loud side.

This is a good scent if you are a fan of those super-synthetic millennial times, and you want a decently-created fragrance from that era. It does smell dated, for sure, but what true frag-head only lives for the here and now? This fragrance gets a lot of flak, but I think that's because those people complaining are expecting this to be something that it isn't and never tried to be. I dig it for what it is, and although 212 Men certainly doesn't make my regular rotation, wearing it again as I review this reminds me of why I bought it in the first place, twenty years ago.

Thumbs up.

Smells great. I definitely get a green sense from smelling 212 in a vial and first waft on my skin. I got a bunch of high end samples and this was one of them. Just putting 3 dabs from a finger on my pulse points, 3 dabs in total, i got great longevity and sillage on a hot amd humid day. It reminds me of walking passed another male and thinking, "hmm whatever he is wearing smells great" . I sort of feel like it smells like an already died down scent. It's similar to Eternity in broad terms, but not as obvious. I love it and plan on getting a bottle.

If you like green, this is for you. Eternity, even darker scent lovers may like it. Wouldn't be a regretful blind buy fo sho

I get more of the spice and pepper in this one. Maybe it's my body but I don't get much of the citrus or green scents coming through. It definitely has longevity and sillage.