Magnetism for Men
Escada (2004)

Unlike most reviewers who rave about this one, I didn't wear it back when it was readily available, so I have no nostalgic attachment and emotional bias towards it.

This is an unusual blend of mostly dark berries and a little bit of fountain pen ink. It has a very warm woody base that's slightly powdery. A mature fragrance for sure, but not my type.

Magnetism For Men is unique in its own bizarre way. If you fell in love with it before it got discontinued, there isn't much out there that's similar. John Varvatos OG comes to mind, only because of the dark fruits up top, but Magnetism isn't as sweet.

Projection is moderate at best, but longevity is good.

Masculinity Level: Travolta in Get Shorty.

Magnetism for Men - Escada
Nice impression of cool mint somewhere inside a structure that is filled with hick-ups and dissonants. It smells like 'sweat smelled backwards' but im not exactly sure what I mean by that, just like this scent is full of confusion.

Among a bunch of high quality discontinued perfumes in my collection it is one of my favorites .
One of the best unique and on its own way .Not resemble any other fragrances.

Saffron!! Can't go wrong with that as a note in a scent! Quite a nice watery, tangy, sexy scent by Escada.

Was skeptical at first, smelling it off of a testing strip in a store versus wearing it directly; the latter is far more informative and accurate for me, as the testing strip doesn't do it justice versus beholding it on my skin. And I sometimes get the impression of this one smelling a bit like Coca Cola (in a good way!!), a quality that made Dark Obsession by Calvin Klein such a favorite of mine.

It is a scent for 20-30 somethings, IMO. Discontinued but worth a sample.

Weird scent that basically gave me a headache every time I wore it. A jumble of spice, musk maybe some hint of tobacco and sandalwood... nothing spectacular in my opinion. Escada has better scents than this and for the current discontinued online price I would not bother. Try before you buy.

I get the grape from the opening but it quickly settled down into a Versace Dreamer like scent....so much so that I'm questioning the sample I received.

Update. My sample is good and this does in fact resemble grape soda in the opening but then dries down to the smooth and soft Dreamer scent, minus any tobacco.

I am not a fan ESCADA colognes but truly it was a surprise for me!a very romantic scent.It is great affection. seductive in a modest way.

It is quite strong at the begining. dramatic and artistic.i love the sweet and powdery notes in it.a little heavy for summer days.I wore this one in spring / autumn evenings.becoming for romantic moments.

Wonderful to wear when you have become a bit tired of more bold and daring your colognes.in my opinion EM is a nice scent an excellent choice for present as it is not so generic or to lack personality.

Another peculiar, distinctive and quite appealing forgotten mainstream gem. The opening of Magnetism says it all already; a bittersweet, wine-ish, syrupy fruity accord, but with a peculiar sort of abstract, translucid texture, shiny and slightly “outdatedly modern” like the box itself (not sure when it was the last time I saw a holographic packaging...); something like grapefruit basically, posed on a balmy, velvety base of black suede, nutty notes, amber, vanilla, incense and clean, creamy, powdery notes (of violet?). Overall it's quite on the sweet side, but also dark, weirdly “gothic” almost. Quite nondescript if you ask me, in a totally positive meaning: you definitely get Almairac's taste for “softness” and his ability to make powdery-creamy notes play with darker-bitter ones, colouring them here with a red-violet-black palette. Magnetism can be defined as a powdery- ambery-balmy-fruity Oriental, but what's fascinating is how it changes its look; you sniff it once, and it smells playful, sweet, fruity and velvety; you smell it again, and it appears dark, drier, austere, a contemporary gothic. With a carnal vein of wine coming and going. The balmy-woody notes are deep and pleasant: discreet, nutty, much aromatic and slightly spicy-medicinal – a bit “Coca Cola”, shortly. This woody-nutty-medicinal-ambery axe may make you think of early M7; even if Magnetism is overall completely different, I think they share a common ground to this extent. The wine feel may instead remind you of several Frapin scents, and if you're a fan of that brand, chances are you'll like this. The drydown is gentle and more focused on amber, vanilla, balmy-cashmere woods with a hint of powderiness. Really peculiar, classy, distinctive. Just a slight tad tacky perhaps, but... who cares for once. It's creative and smells great: give it a chance!

7,5-8/10

Genre: Oriental

Magnetism goes on sweet, and does in fact remind me of vanilla Coke – but only for a moment. Mercifully, it is not as syrupy or “foody” as either A*Men or Le Male, both of which I find too bombastic to wear. Magnetism very soon becomes intensely floral, with spicy and powdery notes in the background. It's kept from smelling precious by a very forward animalic musk, which I suspect accounts for Magnetism's reputation as a sexually suggestive scent.

A dusky amber joins the sweet floral notes at Magnetism's heart, while the powdery note resolves into a smooth sandalwood. The much-discussed saffron note in Magnetism is extremely subtle to my nose. There's just enough to give the sweeter spices a sharp edge. With all the talk about grape jelly I was worried that Magnetism would reveal the nasty, synthetic “Jolly Rancher” hard candy note that ruins many new designer scents for me. Luckily for me I haven't found it here. Magnetism holds out for several hours before settling into it's well executed, if not very original drydown of powdery musk, amber, vanilla and woods.

Unlike many previous reviewers I don't find Magnetism shocking, or even challenging. Amidst the shelves full of castrated clean scents and sugary gourmand goo, Magnetism comes as a relief, but it won't displace Guerlain's Habit Rouge or Boucheron's Jaïpur Homme EdP among my favorite spicy sweet orientals.

Just okThis is a strange one. I enjoyed smelling it on other people back in the day, and after I started collecting cologne to a extent I picked up a mini. Unfortunately on my skin the beginning of this fragrance is... disgusting. When trying to smell deep into the fragrance to really enjoy it myself there is something that smells like pizza grease covered cardboard. I cant think of any other way to describe it. In small wiffs and from a distance its ok, but any closer and it smells like garbage. Once it starts to dry down its alright, and although I dont get a grape soda per say which seems to be the normal thought on this fragrance, I can see where they are coming from to an extent. To me its almost like a dry piece of plastic with some grape juice on it. Im not sure how else to describe it. Its not bad, but not great either. I assume this fragrance mixing strangely with peoples skin chemistry is why it was discontinued. As I said on others ive smelt it before and its alright. But me, man something doenst mix right. Compliment wise from myself personally its only ok at best, ive had people tell me they like it, and ive had people tell me they though it was gross. It does smell nice from the bottle though. Projection and longevity are always hard to gauge, but in general ive gotten good longevity at least and can definitely still pick up small hints of it 10 hours later at times. Bang for your buck as is, its awful so ill give it a lower rating then it might be at a more reasonable price.Pros: Cons: Bizare opening depending on skin chemistry. "

Weird, dissonant and neither compelling nor throwaway. That grape meets tobacco meets amber note you smell is tolu balsam. Very uncommon in scents these days. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well with saffron and the other junk they threw in here. The allusions to Cherry Coke are well noted. But I like to drink Cherry Coke, not wear it.



5/10

In the same clan (despite some notable differences) with the various hyper synthetic/sensual Le Male, One Million, L.Lempicka Au Masculine, Body Kouros (despite its incensey background), Luna Rossa Prada, Black Soul Ted Lapidus, V&A Midnight in Paris, 212 Sexy Man Herrera etc, etc, Magnetism For Men is a mysterious talky fresh/warm ambery fragrance with all that amount of spices (pepper and nutmeg i suppose) fruits (secret berries??), watery musk/lavender, resinous plants, dark woods and balsams. The dry down (some talk about a cola sticky vibe and i agree about it) is supremely talky with soapy and leathery (suede) accents and could be undeniably appealing to the younger teenagers crowds. What is really appreciable about this fragrance is that the sweetness is utterly under control and never cloying, on the other side the juice, in spite of its appeal, is too much close to a sort of bath foam or to a talky deodorant kind of style. Not bad, indeed one of those better appointed in its genre.