A*Men Pure Havane
Thierry Mugler (2011)

I received A*Men Pure Havane as a gift from my daughter. I didn't like it at first and so it sat in my cabinet unused for over a year. Then, last winter, I decided to try it again out of boredom. I'm glad I gave it another try! Pure Havane is way too sweet for my tastes. But there is something about that full burst of tobacco and the vanilla dry-down that really works. I love this as a cold-weather fragrance and it has become my winter daily scent.

If you have any trouble at all with sweet fragrances, don’t even approach this scent. I really don’t like too much sweetness and this scent has about three times as much as I’m comfortable with. An absolute scrubber

If you can get it buy it. I'm willing to perpetuate the legend.

As far as the scent goes, the top is gorgeous fresh tobacco leaves. I do find the fresher tobacco top to be just a touch of perfect freshness with a tinge of sweet and I do pick up the 'cherry' note. Its a beauty. In the mid the honeyed tobacco and vanilla come to prominence and the cacao and patchouli round out a gourmand-ish richness without being too 'edible' or chocolate. It is certainly a colder season staple, but I wear it year round except for the hottest of days. The bottle at least it is distinctive and stands out in my fragrance tray so when I look at it I can marvel at the fact I managed to obtain a bottle.

This is easily an all time great fragrance.. Total thumbs up.

Finally trying A*Men Pure Havane by Mugler again and actually paying attention!

I am enjoying this fragrance a lot today. Many have mentioned sweet cherries in other reviews, but I do not get that at all on my skin … UNTIL I step outside! Yes, for some reason when I left the house and stepped outside into the warm 80-degree air, I caught a whiff of cherries, and the tobacco rose up, and I was immediately reminded of that traditional sweet cherry pipe tobacco my grandfather smoked.

Inside, it started out on my skin as honey and vanilla. I actually almost avoided trying this one since I’m not a huge fan of honey as a note (yes, I’m glaring at you Back to Black: Aphrodisiac!). This honey was actually pleasant and quickly gave way to some smoky cacao about 10 minutes later.

Dry down on me continued to shift, sometimes I'd get a vanilla tobacco, then later cacao and patchouli and, as long as I was outside, the occasional cherry tobacco. Oddly, I also noticed that the sprays on my arms were MUCH more "resinous" with the vanilla, tobacco and cacao, whereas when I'd bury my face inside my t-shirt to smell my chest, it was almost always a very sweet tobacco with none of the resinous scent. I had used 2 sprays on each arm, 3 sprays on my neck/chest. Will have to experiment further to see if the “more sprays” equals more tobacco and less resin. I’m not thrilled with how that resin note pushes through sometimes (maybe it’s the labdanum since normally I enjoy amber and styrax?). There also is a hint of powder to me as well, which I like.

I was told by friends they could smell me a few feet away several hours after I put this on so apparently sillage is pretty intense, as is the lasting power since it was still going strong on my skin over 7 hours later. Got my 100 ml bottle on FragranceNet for about $120 which I felt was a fair price for this one! I am definitely enjoying this, and glad I have a bottle. I might would wear this to work if I only used 1 or maybe 2 sprays total, but I think more than that would be too much for me in an office. IMHO being out in a crowd like a bar or lounge is where this one would really shine, and once it settles lower to a skin scent would make for wonderful cuddling! I guess some women could pull this off as a unisex, but to my nose it is definitely heavy on the masculine.

I love the occasional surprise pop of the rich cacao that floats to the surface then drifts away to make room for that glorious tobacco, and when outside get the gift of cherry pipe tobacco! This one is a keeper! Glad I paid attention!

As always, your results may vary!

Lovely, boozy, and sweet. A fun fragrance. It has the Angel DNA I love. Not for the faint of heart.

Fragrance In Three Words: Boozy Cherry Tobacco.

I'm a massive fan of the original A*Men as well as Angel (woman). I had to try this flanker as I do enjoy boozy fragrances and baccy ones.

Starts off with what to me is cherry tobacco. It's not really a sweet candy cherry more like one which is blended in with the tobacco.

As it progresses the cherry fades and a boozy rum takes over. It doesn't smell like a bottle of rum to me it is more like rum cake.

The drydown for me was a really heavy vanilla and just a general sweetness.

Price in the UK is around £50 for a big bottle. Unfortunately it is much harder to get in the UK than the USA.

I think it is a banger. Really versatile. What puts me off is I think there are probably better tobacco fragrances out there albeit for more money. I'm also not sure how unique it is. That said I really enjoyed it especially the delicious opening.

Scores a nice 7.5 out of 10.

2ml decant from respected seller.