Office for Men 
Fragrance One (2019)

The much-hyped and much-maligned Fragrance One: Office for Men (2019) by Jeremy Fragrance was already both applauded by fans of his YouTube channel and dismissed by hobbyists in the fragrance community that feel antagonized by what he represents. I've watched a few of his videos, and I admit the obsession with sex appeal, compliments, or the toxic masculinity vibe of being "alpha" that he generally sells in his videos is laughably banal at best, and dangerous from a social psychology standpoint at worst, but for the most part easy to ignore. The man who is Jeremy Fragrance has a long history of trying to sell his own image via two separate failed pop music careers (one solo and one with a boy band), but moved into the influencer space as his youth appeal began to show signs of patina, channeling his own personal interest in fragrance into a career as an upstart YouTube reviewer. Fast forward a few years, and he's successfully used his good looks, smarmy attitude, and expertly-keyed marketing angle to not only become the biggest YouTube fragrance reviewer in existence, but an influencer with enough pull to fund launching a perfume brand of his own. Fragrance One: Office for Men was initially backed on Kickstarter after a false start Patreon fundraiser that ended up paying for his Ferrari (surreal as that may seem), but this second time around he managed to secure Alberto Morillas as perfumer, shipping a prototype batch in a nondescript bottle to everyone who had pledged. There have been two more batches since then, each in a clear and black bottle with a cap that look more like a uniform finished product, with some claiming a bit of refinement to the scent itself between that initial first wave and the second two. So what do you get with Fragrance One: Office for Men? Well, that's easy to answer. You get a fragrance for men designed to be what every shallow, insecure, and self-absorbed overachiever type climbing the corporate ladder wants in a scent: pure performance and little else. Office for Men is all about AI-refined demographic-based research into mass-appeal masculine smells turned all the way up to 11. Someone like the esteemed Luca Turin would be both impressed and horrified by such a cold, clinical distillation of "purpose" in perfume, executed to a sociopathic degree with regards to nothing but "results". What are these results you say?

This is also easy to answer: deliver the loudest scent trail with what marketing research proves to be the most-complimented notes found in men's mainstream releases made in the 10 year period leading up to the making of Fragrance One: Office for Men. Jeremy Fragrance has indeed successfully created a chimera of the most-popular notes found in 2010's mainstream generalist perfumes, mashing up a bit of what people find appealing in several of the "blue fragrances" that appeared in the wake of Bleu de Chanel (2010) with some of the high-end panache borrowed from niche favorites in the "dudebro" segment of the fragrance community like Creed Aventus (2010) or Mancera Cedrat Boise (2011), layered over the buzzy harsh norlimbanol ("modern woods") blast of Dior Sauvage (2015). Not to be outdone by any of them, Office for Men twists these elements together in a not-so-unexpected way, but manages to stand out from the pack by sheer volume alone. There is no mistaking that this is a powerhouse, maybe not on the same level of respect as the 80's masculines which gave birth to the term, but with the same level of cloying strength as the infamous Joop Homme by Parfums Joop! (1989). Fragrance One: Office for Men comes on with a lot of bergamot, and something almost camphoraceous that some people compare to moth balls. This loud and zesty opening screams "fresh" at the top of its lungs, and will deafen anyone within a few feet of the wearer, sending the message clear that you are wearing a fragrance to people across the street. The magic of Office for Men is it manages to be an olfactive foghorn on a level even greater than Dior Sauvage, but because it is slightly more complex, does not drive the wearer nose-blind with sheer chemical linearity. The norlimbanol which is the root cause of this foghorn effect is combined with "amberwood" (ethoxymethoxycyclododecane if you need the chemical name), pink pepper, and paradisone to add a touch of rounded, flowery effusion that helps prevent Office for Men from being scratchy like Sauvage but boy oh boy is it loud! The base sort of dials it back after a few hours with standard-issue ambrox super, denatured patchouli "heart", Iso E Super, and white musk. If that sounds like pure science with very little soul to you, then you're right, but the point is that the kind of audience eating this up doesn't even care at all about what's in the stuff so long as other people like it on them. Of course, Office for Men is almost comically too strong for the office, but for guys who want to "feel like the CEO" when they show up at work by putting everyone on notice when they enter the room, this is just what the doctor ordered.

Office for Men is really just a super-powered generalist scent at its core, so you can wear this all times of the day in all weather types, smelling nice to everyone within a quarter mile. Sillage and projection is without question some of the greatest I have ever witnessed, and longevity is also beyond measure so you'll be scrubbing this off with every shower and laundering your clothes three times just to be rid of it. Performance pound-for-pound is every bit like an old 1980's masculine if not more but made with the modern aromachemicals and stylistic leanings of something designed for the kind of person Jeremy Fragrance videos target. That's to say an over-sprayer who falls hook-line-and-sinker for today's designer catch-all fragrances, worships at the alter of mass-appeal niche houses like Creed or Parfums de Marly for the "clout" they deliver to their wearers, but maybe won't pony up $400 for something from them at retail. This of course brings us to price, as Jeremy Fragrances sells his super-powered designer juice for nearly $200, but always offers either buy one get one free promotions, or half-off coupons to bring the functional price per bottle closer to the designers he seeks to outshine. I am impressed by Office for Men for being something so strong yet still so easy to wear, even if the sillage is actually somewhat tiresome, but this is still a boring montage of 2010's designer ideas save maybe the sweetness of clubbers all swirled together into a bottle. Considering the purpose of Office for Men, the almost "Spotify playlist" nature of Jeremy Fragrance's own tastes in fragrance, and the perfumer doing the composing, I got what I expected when I smelled Office for Men. Would I buy this? Nah. Nothing here really excites me, particularly not the price, and I have most of the things this borrows pieces of, so I'd rather have my peas and carrots separate from each other in cases like this. In perspective, this shows a lot of promise from a perfume label started by a YouTube reviewer still relatively new to the fragrance industry. I'm just past the stage of needing to impress anyone with my perfume and I don't buy into the "survival of the fittest" social Darwinism that fragile masculinity dictates is necessary to live a fulfilling life, but if doing one-armed pushups in an Armani suit is a long-term goal for you, this might be your new signature scent. Neutral.

It seems Morillas can crank these things out with a blindfold on and two hands tied behind his back...

Not bad. Not great. But not bad. The opening to Office One is its best part, and I'd rate it a 9/10 if I had to score it. It's a very fresh, somewhat fruity smell that doesn't smell of one fruit in particular, but is probably some variation of bergamot with a little apple or something added in. Regardless, it's very enjoyable, and I was pretty psyched when I smelled the opening, thinking I might actually end up buying a bottle. But unfortunately, the opening lasts about all of 10 minutes before moving into the mid, which it turns out is my least favorite part of the fragrance. As the pleasant top notes wear off, they're replaced by strong, synthetic woods. It's important to note how strong the woods are here. They're aggressive and loud, not appropriate for an office, and even gave me a headache, which doesn't happen often as I don't consider myself overly sensitive to aromachemicals. However, they're so overloaded in the mid, projecting well across the room and coming off pretty harsh and abrasive. This stage lasts about an hour. Office One redeems itself a bit when it gets to the base, which has a smell reminiscent of the top notes albeit with less vibrancy and sparkle, and more of a muted, plasticky smell. Perhaps there's some iris here blending with the leftover bergamot, there's definitely a healthy dose of ambroxan, and it smells nice enough but also a bit generic and uninteresting. This final stage is much more reeled in, projecting a comfortable foot or so, and is much more appropriate for an office setting than the obnoxious mid. If I were to actually wear Office One to an office, I'd probably spray it on in my house 10 minutes before I leave--savoring the top notes at home, enduring the mid during a one hour commute to work (with the windows all the way down), and finally getting into the office just as the base takes over. Overall, it's much better than I had expected, but still nothing great or really important. But in its defense, Office One does make me curious for his next fragrance--Date, or whatever utilitarian nomenclature he's choosing for it.

Opening: 9/10 Mid: 5/10 Base: 7/10

Final rating, 7/10, a decent if somewhat generic fresh scent with a couple highs and a few awkward missteps, which I'd find much more reasonable at $35 than whatever exorbitant amount JF's been charging through his website.