Kouros 
Yves Saint Laurent (1981)

I love the 80s version of Kouros, the one that smelled quite bit more dirty, a bit more complex and was more powerful. I remember it from my dad. I recently bought the modem version and it's not the Kouros I love. It somehow smells OK but it's like a shadow of its former glory.

Over the modern version I prefer Ted Lapidus pour Homme or Al Rehab Lord. I will buy some clones, maybe they are closer to the power of the original. Here I am thinking about Milltown Lloyd The Man Silver and some oil from Amazon I discovered on Basenotes and which some reviewers said it is as close to original Kouros as possible.

I got that they are required by laws to change the composition since some ingredients are forbidden. However the forbidden ingredients have replacements that smell exactly the same. So I don't get why they didn't replaced the banned ingredients with equivalents and instead diluted Kouros so much that no one who liked the original is happy with it. If they wanted something less offensive and more modern they could have kept Kouros close to the original and make a new snowflake version Kouros Light or whatever.

Original version: 10/10
Modern version: 6/10

Sure that if you try Kouros and you are a modern "male", accustomed to those sweet and cloying metrosexual scents that smells like pastry and make you look like a cream puff filled with vanilla cream and covered with cinnamon .... and well, I don't I will certainly wait for words of appreciation.
The fact is that Kouros is a masterpiece, period. A perfume, certainly, son of another era but which, today, still inspires many creations of that niche segment.
Charles de Riz version, 81-86.
He opens strongly with vaguely sour, aromatic and green hints, accompanied by strong soapy aldehydes that taste clean. The scent is constantly supported by the slightly dirty musky base, by the leather and by a vaguely sweet note but which is not sweet. The overall result is a clean dirty smell, but which is not dirty in the true sense of the word, but rather carnal and corporal. On the other hand, as Bourdon himself declared, this perfume is the son of a particular phase of his life, deaf and ambiguous, marked by carnal and faithful passions, a period in which the same perfumer was struggling between lover and wife; in the light of these anecdotes, this creation can well be understood and interpreted.
Beautiful, really beautiful and unique. Brilliant. For me, an eternal nostalgic for the past, growing up with my father who used all those men's perfumes from the 1970s and later, Kouros represents (together with other classic or classic-style masterpieces) the perfume par excellence that a male should still have. today.
For sure to try, in the original version of course. I don't know how the new one is and I'm not even in a hurry to test it since I have a good supply of the original 80's.
Definitely masculine, 100%, but I would love to smell it on a woman. Good longevity and nice projection / sillage for the firs hour, than it sits on the skin, i would say adeguate for these kind of fragrance.

Hate it or love it, but you can't dismiss its august pedigree. This is a masterpiece, plain and simple. However, this doesn't mean its meant for everyone! This is an extremely polarizing scent particularly in the current fragrance climate of gourmands and aquatics and weak crowd pleasers flooding the shelves. This is alpha male powerhouse stuff. If you haven't tried a perfume with real sandalwood or civet try a sniff of this juice in the vintage bottle if you can get a sample, you'll be blown away by the sheer intensity and high quality and the pristine blending and depth of this majestic edt. But no point in breaking the bank for a vintage either, if you could get it at a reasonable price go for it otherwise get the current formulation as many keen reviews mention that even the current version is pretty decent.
(I have a 20 ml left in a 2000's bottle pre
Ingredients-on the-box era, I got it from a online seller at the regular Retail price of the time).

Though I love Kouros, it does not smell what I would characterize as “good”. In fact, it’s quite rank as those things go. Yet I can’t turn away.

If even possible to do so, it smells like arm hair. Not underarm, mind you; rather, forearm hair. No, it’s not all that pleasant, but sometimes don’t we want an aroma that isn’t? Just me? Yeah, it usually is.

It sure seems as though I smelled this all over the place when I was very young. Thing is, though—I simply wasn’t all that young when Kouros debuted. So it must have an older smell-alike out there. But I’ve yet to find it.

In some ways, it’s my absolute favorite fragrance. But there’s no way I’d be caught dead outside the house with it on.

The crown obviously became too heavy!! This is what you would call a 'woke' version of so called King Kouros. This 56 year old man used to pinch borrow his older brothers kouros, gentleman Givenchy, Polo etc....
This version of Kouros and 2 bought this week online and Dept store smell the same little animalic odour ...Yes It can be worn for work no problems, It Is weak projection and longevity and synthetic as hell...however I still love it. Ted Lapidus kicks it for pungency and Boss number one beats it for natural acceptance on the nose and I have both types of bottles ..new bottle smells the same btw as the square ribbed bottle. Believe me this will be the new King but long live the king, the king is dead...I'm stocking up on Hugo because it is the number one now for OL' SCHOOL designer animalics. But kouros still gets a thumbs up, however wish I had a vintage.