Sex Appeal for Men 
Jovan (1976)

I've really changed my mind on this, especially since the weather has turned chilly. This is an unbelievable scent. It IS sexy, very sexy, but you have to wear it in the Fall or Winter. In Summer it smells like an old barbershop. Once the leaves start changing, it smells like a French cathouse.

Jovan was on top of the world when they released Jovan Sex Appeal for Men (1976). The company had formed in 1968 under Bernard Mitchell and Barry Shipp, deliberately taking its name from the phonetics of American entry-level competitors like Revlon and Avon. These transparently gimmicky hucksters used oozing sex appeal ever since they started peddling synthetic musk oils to five and dime stores and broke hippies that didn't need sophistication nor believed in the usual social class nonsense of high-end perfume marketing. Some of the later fragrances like Sex Appeal for Men became downright classics, but most of them were abominable, and since they made their ways into so many homes only to be used up, the large array of rightly discontinued ones which survive command insane prices that belie their actual value as fragrance. Sex Appeal for Men had become a diamond in the rough for the budget disco-goer back in the day, and has since somehow passed the test of time. A lot of people unfairly compare this to Pierre Cardin Pour Monsieur (1972), as both fragrances have a huge lean towards sweet and spicy, but I think where the major difference lies is in the way each scent balances them out. This doesn't feel out of place in a collection that contains the eponymous Cardin masculine, as I find them wearable in different moods, albeit the much-cheaper Sex Appeal sees more use because it's easier to replace. Sex Appeal for Men was for the Saturday Night Fever fan that could barely afford the cover charge to the club, but wanted to fit in with all the guys "musked up" in designers. Flavor chemist and unofficial house perfumer Murray Moscona was starting to get decent at making scents by the time this came about, and is honestly the best of the original 70's bunch on which he worked.

Jovan Sex Appeal for Men opens simply enough with bergamot and lemon oil, but then quickly mellows down to a stew of lavender, geranium, carnation, vetiver, patchouli, and a sandalwood note in the middle. Here in the heart of the fragrance is where the most confusion is caused; and for me actually compares more favorably to a hybrid of Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme (1971) with its labdanum-heavy musk, and the yet-to-exist Giorgio Beverly Hills for Men (1984) with its sweetened patchouli, than it does to Pierre Cardin. It's fair that this gets accused of copying something, especially in light of how Jovan followed the Avon and Revlon trend of acclimatizing the artistic breakthroughs of the high-end designers of the time to the budgets of the mass-market; it simply is less like Pierre Cardin's fragrance than most think it is. Ultimately, it boils down to experience with perfumes and direct side-by-side comparisons to see that it actually sits closer to a hybrid of citrus chypre and spicy oriental than as an semi-oriental fougère, mostly due to Sex Appeal's labdanum replacing the amber in the Pierre Cardin. I mostly get a very smooth masculine spicy green lavender and patchouli over that "yellow" musk in the dry down, but your mileage may vary. The most important thing of all is to consider how resonant and long-lasting this is despite it' price and cologne concentration, which is the hallmark of any Jovan vintage, discontinued or current: you simply won't find a more potent juice at these laughably low prices, unless you shop at Goodwill and get lucky. Best in fall through early spring, Jovan Sex Appeal was a statement fragrance then, and still is now, so beware when you spray or splash it on that people will look at you. Best news of all: this stuff seems bullet-proof against reformulation outside a little oakmoss lost and added sweetness in newer bottles, so just buy any bottle you see.

The 1970's mass-market opinion of sexy probably wasn't gathered in focus groups or beta testing like modern R&D procedures, and the folks at Jovan probably just thought "lets make it zesty and inviting in the opening, then bring in the sweet stuff the ladies like (or what boneheaded white dudes thought they liked at the time) before making it all warm and cozy for snuggling later", like a three-step hook-line-and-sinker process. I mean that's what I imagine must have gone on in the heads of the marketing guys when they were instructing the perfumer, who then just phoned in the accords based on stereotype and blended it until it was the approximation of what they were asking for, which worked better than anyone could reasonably expect considering he was a flavor chemist. Is this amazing? No. Is this complex? Certainly not on this budget. Is Jovan Sex Appeal for Men strong? Definitely. The key here is this one comes across like a bedroom lit by candlelight, but not just one gentle candle, about 2 dozen, so the combined glow of all that melting wax is earnest in intent but a little creepy in execution. I feel Sex Appeal only survives today because despite its amazingly dated feel, it still somehow casts it's spell on the morbidly curious like original Old Spice (1937) still does. Jovan Sex Appeal for Men is a presage to other oriental hybrids that started appearing in the 80's and 90's, when stuff like Creed Bois du Portugal (1987), and Guerlain Héritage (1992) would come to pass, just rude and crude by comparison. If you're looking to smell "like the 70's" for a themed dinner party or night club event, and don't want to spend a bank roll on a vintage designer, Jovan Sex Appeal for Men will help you do the hustle, for less than the price of a rhinestone cowboy hat. Thumbs up

Deliberately animalic and magnetic, to be sure! Sex Appeal is designed to catch attention, and it delivers. I don't think I'd necessarily wear it nowadays, as I have plenty of "regular" scents to project with a musky vibe that SAM does. But I give kudos to Jovan for such a unique, daring fragrance that still has some "appeal" to wearers and smellers alike.