Perfume Reviews by manlyscents

Spazio Krizia Uomo by Krizia

I'm not gonna lie, the notes in this one are hard for me to pick up. I can only say that it opens floral-citrusy-herbal, then dries down ambery-woody with a touch of lipstick. The amber is substantial by early 90s standards, but it's not the suffocating amber overdose we're used to from modern designers.

For me wearing this one is comparable to watching an enigmatic David Lynch movie, not understanding the plot, but still enjoying the ride. Not my typical frag. I highly recommend that you try before you buy.

Projection and performance on my skin are moderate.

Masculinity Level: The little man in Twin Peaks.

Tabac Original Extrême by Mäurer & Wirtz

This flanker to Tabac Original EDT opens herbal and spicy with green notes, sage, cardamom, and coriander. Soon after, a prominent natural-smelling dirty musk takes over, along with some oakmoss and vetiver. If you're not into sweaty vibes, you might want to steer clear.

This is the second review I'm writing for this fragrance. The first was very different because I had to learn (the hard way) not to overspray it. If you overspray Tabac Original Extreme, the dirty musk truly becomes extreme. The furthest I'll go now is one spray on each wrist and one on the neck. WARNING: Do not overspray this or you'll feel like you crawled up into some big, fat, hairy wrestler's sweaty armpit.

I find that projection and longevity are excellent, but also directly proportional to how much I spray. With 3 sprays I get 7-8 hours on my skin. With 12 sprays, I was still searching for a decontamination chamber 12 hours later.

Masculinity Level: Sweaty Ivan Danko fighting a bathhouse full of sweaty men in Red Heat.

Jazz by Yves Saint Laurent

Jazz opens with a bright and fresh mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and lavender, then dries down to sandalwood and cedar. Projects well for a couple of hours, and lasts a good 6 hours minimum.

Due to availability in my area I got to nose Ralph Lauren Safari eons before Jazz. When I finally got to smell Jazz I was astounded by the similarities. Eventually I also tried the reformulated Pasha de Cartier EDT and that was even closer to Jazz, albeit weaker. I'm told Salvador by Salvador Dali is also in the same vein. Just goes to show how influential Jazz was in the early 90s.

When Jazz was launched, the designer perfume industry was at crossroads. Unfortunately most designer houses chose the metallic freshie path of Cool Water and Eternity over this style, and the industry never recovered. Just my humble opinion.

Masculinity Level: Di Caprio in Inception.

Casual Friday by Escada

Opens with anise, lavender, and a powerful vanilla, followed by an old-school carnation and cinnamon in the mid. A strong cedarwood joins the spicy vanilla in the dry-down. Some people praise/complain about a licorice accord, but I don't get that at all. It's sweet, not a gourmand, but I still found it cloying on hot days. Consider that YMMV as I'm located in the Mediterranean where it's a furnace between mid-Spring and mid-Autumn.

Projection is good, and longevity is excellent.

In my opinion, a lot of online criticism levelled at this flanker of Escada Pour Homme derives from sour grapes because rarity made it expensive. If you want to get an idea of what the opening smells like before shelling out big bucks, get the delightful shower gel. The cheaper Lolita Lempicka Au Masculin has a similar vibe, but is inferior to my nose.

Casual Friday wouldn't exist if it weren't for JPG Le Male's success, but I never cared for Le Male's sweet minty powderiness.

Masculinity Level: Ashton Kutcher could wear this.

Canoé by Dana

It opens with a pleasant mix of lavender, citrus, clary sage, and geranium, but all that goes poof within minutes. Then you'll be overwhelmed by an immensely cloying powdery vanilla. When I say overwhelmed, understand that Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski used to splash Canoe on himself to mask the smell of decomposing corpses around him. True story.

How much you can enjoy this depends greatly on your tolerance for a talcum powder blitzkrieg. It certainly doesn't work well in hot climates. It's basically a higher concentration Pinaud Clubman - both cannot escape the top hat, monocle, and cane vibe. I can see why in Europe from the 1930s up until the 1990s Canoe was marketed to women, not men. Maybe it's just me, but it's not that often I want to smell like a French puttan. (Anyone catch that reference?)

Masculinity Level: Baron Victor Frankenstein from the Hammer Horror films.

Victor by Victor

This fragrance has a bunch of notes listed, but all I get is a realistic accord of lemon flavoured lozenges.

Projects well for about half an hour. Lasts an hour and a half if you're lucky.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, to write home about.

Masculinity Level: The villainous nerd from Jurassic Park.

Pino Silvestre by Silvestre

What I get is a fresh, powerful citrus, a touch of thyme, and a dollop of pine. When the citrus starts dying down I can detect some basil too. But don't expect anything complex, after all it is named after pinus sylvestris and the bottle is shaped like a pine cone.

Pino Silvestre is what old men in Italy have worn from the mid-fifties onwards. That popularity means the scent got heavily assimilated into industrial products. Personally, I am incapable of not being reminded of the green car fresheners by Little Trees or Magic Trees or Arbre Magique or whatever they're called in your neck of the woods, but I can still enjoy Pino on some level. The newer versions smell more synthetic to me - beware.

Mine is a splash bottle from the late 80s so I don't have to deal with the renowned messy sprayer. On my skin the juice projects for about an hour, becomes a skin scent within 2 hours, and lasts maybe 5 which is good for something that costs less than €10.

Masculinity Level: The tragic figure that is Swamp Thing.

Missoni Uomo by Missoni

On first spray some citrus notes try to make their presence known, but are outshone by fresh coriander, jasmine, and juniper berries. As the top notes fade away, the dry-down is mostly frankincense and leather, but of the ambery kind and with some oakmoss thrown in. My nose is very sensitive to incense so YMMV.

Projection is never beyond arm’s length, but longevity is very good. Certainly not a powerhouse. I enjoy Missoni Uomo, also because there isn't anything close to it in my collection.

Masculinity Level: Hard for me not to think about church when incense is involved so I'm going with a priest, but no ordinary priest: De Niro in Sleepers, a priest who lies under oath to send pedophiles to jail.

Lalique pour Homme Lion / Lalique pour Homme by Lalique

TIMBERRR!

Opens with lavender, citrus, and an outstanding cedarwood. Dries down to a cedarwood vanilla bomb. Classy and mature and with great performance, this one offers fantastic value, but you really do have to love cedar to be endeared to it.

At first I was going to blind buy the EDP based on rave reviews, but when I had the opportunity to sample both, I found the EDT brighter and more pleasant to my nose. The EDP is a bit more herbal, but bone dry.

Its dry-down notoriously shares a similar vibe with Creed Bois Du Portugal, even more so with the EDP, but Lalique Pour Homme Lion is a great fragrance as it stands irrespective of the characteristics it shares with the Creed.

Masculinity Level: The Untouchables about to kick Capone's ass.

L'Uomo Trussardi by Trussardi

L'Uomo opens very fresh with a wonderful dollop of tomato leaf and a pinch of citrus. A dry tobacco soon joins them. Whether you'll like this fragrance or not depends on your affinity for the tomato leaf note, because it's dominant throughout.

Projection and longevity are great for a freshie. It's versatile, and a dumb reach on hot days, even when it's a scorching 38°C / 100°F in the shade.

Though discontinued years ago, you can still find it reasonably priced. As far as freshies go, this is backup worthy in my opinion.

Masculinity Level: Paul Walker could have rocked this.

Sir Irisch Moos by Sir

The scent of Irisch Moos is what inspired Irish Spring soap, or so the story goes. This 90s version opens harsh, fresh, very herbal, oakmossy, musky, and pretty much stays that way for the duration. The shaving cream vibe is powerful. Save for some soapiness later on, it's mostly linear, but we shouldn't expect too much complexity from a drugstore after shave designed in the 1960s. I hear the current version tones down the moss and amps up the shaving cream even more, which, depending on your tastes, might be a good trade off.

It projects very well for the first hour and longevity is 5 hours, good even by EDC standards. I hear the EDT concentration is beast mode - when the juice runs out of this bottle I might replace it with that.

Masculinity Level: We're at an Arnold-in-Predator level of ruggedness.

Lomani pour Homme by Lomani

This super-cheapie is (in)famous for sharing Drakkar Noir's DNA. It has a fresher vibe than Drakkar and opens louder and much harsher with extremely metallic citrus, lavender, and a juniper berries accord. It's much soapier than Drakkar, and I'm not talking about some gentle soap note like Prada is known to use... this is more like one of those harsh laundry bars of soap from yesteryear.

Lomani PH also differs substantially from Drakkar because it's missing the leather in the dry-down. Well, as far as the reformulated juice in my bottle is concerned, it's missing *the* dry-down, period. I can only assume Vintage Lomani PH had an oakmossy base and to conform with new IFRA regulations the perfumer replaced the oakmoss with absolutely nothing, so the fragrance goes nowhere, just fades out. I don't like this one enough to seek out a vintage bottle for comparison sake.

Projection is very good for about an hour, but longevity is horrendous since it has no base. Overspraying works to retain the opening notes a lot longer, but with that much dihydromyrcenol you might get a headache at best, or fall into a coma at worst. Therefore, reapplying is the way to go, but not everyone enjoys carrying decants and constantly reapplying a frag with a harsh opening. Naturally, it lasts longer if you spray on clothes.

Masculinity Level: Steven Seagal in Executive Decision, mostly because he dies unexpectedly early on, just like the new Lomani PH.

Lomani by Lomani

This super-cheapie is (in)famous for sharing Drakkar Noir's DNA. It has a fresher vibe than Drakkar and opens louder and much harsher with extremely metallic citrus, lavender, and a juniper berries accord. It's much soapier than Drakkar, and I'm not talking about some gentle soap note like Prada is known to use... this is more like one of those harsh laundry bars of soap from yesteryear.

Lomani PH also differs substantially from Drakkar because it's missing the leather in the dry-down. Well, as far as the reformulated juice in my bottle is concerned, it's missing *the* dry-down, period. I can only assume Vintage Lomani PH had an oakmossy base and to conform with new IFRA regulations the perfumer replaced the oakmoss with absolutely nothing, so the fragrance goes nowhere, just fades out. I don't like this one enough to seek out a vintage bottle for comparison sake.

Projection is very good for about an hour, but longevity is horrendous since it has no base. Overspraying works to retain the opening notes a lot longer, but with that much dihydromyrcenol you might get a headache at best, or fall into a coma at worst. Therefore, reapplying is the way to go, but not everyone enjoys carrying decants and constantly reapplying a frag with a harsh opening. Naturally, it lasts longer if you spray on clothes.

Masculinity Level: Steven Seagal in Executive Decision, mostly because he dies unexpectedly early on, just like the new Lomani PH.

Joint by Roccobarocco

First off... the title on the bottle turned to dust - worst paint ever.

Opens with rose, carnation, honey and a large dose of civet, but the dry-down is ALL civet and honey, with some patchouli thrown in.

Released in 1993, when everyone had already moved away from this style, Joint was a commercial flop. I see why many consider this a lighter version of Jacques Bogart Furyo (which is too much for me), but I also see it as a much louder cousin to Gianfranco Ferre For Man.

As you might have noticed I'm not a huge fan of very animalic fragrances, but I can enjoy this one more than others mostly because 1) though it projects very well, it's not a powerhouse, and 2) the florals tame the animalics in the opening, something which according to my nose does not happen with Kouros, Antaeus, Boss Number One, and other animalic beasts.

Masculinity Level: The Colonel in Avatar, who starts out likeable but is a maniac by the end.

Safari for Men by Ralph Lauren

"Cream is the word, is the word that you heard.
It's got groove, it's got meaning.
Cream is the time, is the place, is the motion.
Cream is the way we are feeling."

On first spray I immediately get a lovely concoction of creamy spice, creamy lavender, and creamy sandalwood. Then oakmoss and very smooth leather reveal themselves slowly. I consider it a creamier version of YSL Jazz, which preceded it by 4 years. As creamy an affair as this is, it never verges on unisex like, say, YSL La Nuit de L'Homme does. Safari leans more towards gentlemanly, rather than manly. It could easily be used as an office scent, but it can also be rocked on more formal occasions.

The current formulation of Safari lasts 3 hours tops on my skin, while this Cosmair era bottle easily lasts twice as long - still not the beast mode that vintage snobs will tell you about, but it'll do just fine.

Masculinity Level: Faceman from A-Team always retaining a certain level of elegance, no matter the situation.

Caractère by Daniel Hechter

*As far as I can tell there is nothing spécial about this édition. I gather it's just a marketing ploy on the box, so consider this a review of the normal version.*

I have no idea what the current formulation smells like, but this vintage bottle is as far removed from modern designer fragrances as I can think of. The initial burst is huge, aldehydic, and harsh, but settles down within a couple of minutes. Citrus, basil, and artemisia kick in along with a powerful leather right from the get-go. A bit of oakmoss and a bit of musk come alive later on and some basil does hang around, but this is a leather show through and through. Imagine it's a sunny Spring day and you're taking a nap in the woods on a brand new expensive leather sofa. I think that's a fair way to describe Caractere.

From this 90s bottle projection is decent and longevity is good.

Masculinity Level: Someone who's well aware that a man's got to know his limitations.

L'Homme by Roger & Gallet

The vintage bottle opens with a fresh, minty lavender and ylang-ylang, and there's a pleasant dose of sage and coriander keeping things spicy. The dry-down is all about oakmoss and soapy sandalwood holding a musky-sweaty vibe at bay. I like this green woody; would put it in the same oakmossy ballpark as vintage Paco Rabanne PH, Puig Quorum, and Jacques Bogart Signature to give you a general idea. But I find it closest to Charles Jourdain Un Homme which was discontinued decades ago.

It projects well for an hour and a half and longevity is good, but it's not a powerhouse.

Masculinity Level: A man who loves it when a plan comes together.

Old Brown by Parera

This is my late grandfather's big ol' 220ml splash bottle from the early 80s. He used Brut aftershave every day and I assume Old Brown on formal occasions, since he only used half the bottle in 40 years. I don't know much about the Parera brand, apart that it is famous in Spain and some Latin American countries mostly for producing a cologne called Varon Dandy, which nowadays is the object of ridicule much like Old Spice is elsewhere.

Although this bottle of Old Brown was initially exposed to air decades ago, only some of the bergamot in the juice seems to be missing. Everything else seems to be intact: lavender, clary sage, a lot of florals like geranium, rose, jasmine, and a hefty dose of musk. When I first smelled this, the concoction of jasmine and heavy, dirty musk felt too sweaty and pissy to me. For a long while, more than a perfume, this smelled more like something a wild animal would use to mark its territory. So, on my shelf it remained, untouched, waiting for that very rare occasion when I would want to smell like a toilet bowl. Thankfully, now that my olfactory is more experienced, I can appreciate Old Brown for the old-school gentlemanly floral fragrance that it is, and don't keep it solely for sentimental reasons... though I won't wear it often. For reference, it's like a stronger Maurer & Wirtz Tabac Original EDC, not my cup of tea.

Projection in the first hour and a half is good. Longevity is easily over 8 hours. If you overspray, you'll regret it. It certainly is not the type of juice you want to *splash* on yourself, so I decant into a 30ml bottle with atomizer.

Masculinity Level: If you had asked me a while back I would have said Evan McGregor crawling out of the worst toilet in Scotland. But with my newfound appreciation for it, I will go with Michael Caine in Get Carter.

Iquitos by Alain Delon

The aggressive snake head design of the bottle is 80s to the core, but this isn't what I'm wired to consider an uber masculine powerhouse.

The opening is all about an aldehydic rose and jasmine taming the animalic honey accord. In the dry-down oakmoss and patchouli appear to help keep the musk and civet in check, which they do beautifully. There are dozens of notes in this that my nose couldn't possibly pick up. There is an element of sweetness in Iquitos, but it is pleasant without ever becoming cloying.

Projection is very good in the first hour and a half, and longevity is good on my skin. I also have the aftershave and its performance is way above average by aftershave standards. Such quality is highly unusual in a celebrity fragrance - the only other one I enjoy and own is Pavarotti For Men. Well worth the hype.

Masculinity Level: Tony Montana after hitting it big, before his inevitable downfall.

Uomo Vetyver by Malizia

I used the Vetyver "deodorant spray EDT" extensively back in the day, but needed Scents of South Jersey on YouTube to point out the existence of the proper EDT. For the €6 it costs, I was expecting a super synthetic mess. Well, is it?

This is surprisingly pleasant, masculine, and dry, quite linear throughout with citrus, pine, and smoky vetiver. There might be more, but that's all I get. It's basically a clone of modern Dunhill Edition; not to be confused with vintage Dunhill Edition which was complex and long-lasting.

Performance of Malizia is moderate at best, but just as bad as the current watered-down Dunhill Edition, which costs at least 4 times more, making Malizia a much better bang for buck.

The bottle is tall with a narrow footprint and topples easily, but thankfully it's very light so a domino effect with larger bottles is unlikely to happen. It only comes in 50ml, so you can tell it's made to be chucked into a gym bag or beach bag, which explains why the bottle is so bloody hideous. I'll definitely place it at the very back of the display shelf. In a box. Hidden inside a false bottom drawer.

Masculinity Level: Brad Pitt as the ex green beret in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.

Vendetta pour Homme by Valentino

The bottle is a work of art.
The name Vendetta conjures up visions of Mafia executions.
...So what is the first masculine fragrance from the house of Valentino like?

Despite the name, there's nothing edgy or dangerous here - it's actually quite light. Vendetta opens with a remarkable aldehydic blast of bergamot, basil, and coriander, and that lingers for quite a while. A smooth, warm cinnamon note appears soon after. The dry-down is equal parts cinnamon, patchouli, oakmoss, and leather... Basically Valentino played it safe, making a lighter, more refined version of Halston Z-14 which by then had already been around for 2 decades.

Projection and longevity are moderate, so naturally I spray the bejeezus out of it. This aromatic is light enough to use on hot Mediterranean Summer nights.

Masculinity Level: It doesn't live up to its tough name. More like Michael Caine in Alfie, than Get Carter.

Denim by Denim

This is where it all started for me. Growing up on the island of Malta in the 1980s, there wasn't the culture of cologne. For men of all ages, cologne was reserved for special occasions only (i.e. Aramis Classic). On the daily, men wore aftershave. Old men wore barbershop: mostly Brut (talcy lavender) and Tabac (musky floral). Young men wore Denim (spicy powerhouse) due to a massive advertising campaign from the neighboring Italy. The tagline roughly translated to "for the man who never has to ask for [sex]" ...not very PC by today's standards. As a result, I'm wired to associate barbershop with gentlemanly scents, and powerhouses with manly scents.

Denim is the smell of my youth. I frequently pick it as my SOTD over fragrances that cost over 10 times more. I'll always have a bottle in my collection. With that disclaimer out of the way, on to the review.

The opening of Denim Original is a fresh burst of spicy citrus, musky soap, and to my nose also a honey accord. The dry-down is less citrusy but woodier. Not a modern smell, but given its manly freshness, it might be easy for young men to pull off. As with all my other fragrances, this is not something you wear for external gratification, this is one you wear to please yourself.

I never got the fabled hours and hours of performance from Denim aftershave and the same goes for the EDT. But given its ridiculously low price-tag, I'll forgive the 1 hour of projection, low sillage, and 3-4 hours of longevity.

Masculinity Level: Steve McQueen in Bullitt, effortless cool.

Luciano Pavarotti by Luciano Pavarotti

*Not to be confused with the "Pavarotti Luciano" frag that comes in a green box.*

At first I thought the atomizer was weak, but it actually works well if you apply brute force.

Visions of Pavarotti's fat ass singing in a tux made me assume this would be a talcum powder bomb. Thankfully it is not. It opens with dollops of honey and spicy citrus, which somehow remind me of a restrained Denim Original EDT. But that's where the similarities end because here it is followed by patchouli and oakmoss and it also gets powdery in the dry-down, but not much.

Longevity and projection are both moderate. Pavarotti For Men is an underrated classy scent. Such quality is highly unusual in a celebrity fragrance - the only other one I enjoy and own is Alain Delon Iquitos. It might be more suitable for formal occasions, but I don't care, heck I even wear it for work zoom calls when I want to feel professional.

Masculinity Level: JFK diligently working at his desk.

Gianfranco Ferré for Man by Gianfranco Ferré

Not to be confused with Gianfranco Ferre For Men, this bottle of For Man with the transparent top is by Diana De Silva.

It opens with a pleasant citrus and sage that quickly give way to carnation and geranium. It soon dries down to oakmoss, and patchouli with a subdued musky animalic vibe. It's quite subtle - unusual given the "loud" period during which it was launched.

Performance on my skin is very disappointing. Even if I overspray AF, it projects decently for an hour, then becomes a skin scent for another 3 hours before it's gone. Reapplying is a must if I'm gonna be out for more than a couple of hours. Overall I can enjoy GFFM... elegant, refined, and restrained as it is. A like, but not a love.

Worth mentioning that the inbuilt sprayer on my bottle gets stuck after every... single... spray. This never happened to me, not even with dirt cheap drugstore brands, nor with €1 atomizers from AliExpress. I wouldn't mind if this was a one-shot-one-kill fragrance, but this is a very light scent which requires multiple, multiple sprays if you want any sort of longevity. Spray. Pull it up. Spray. Pull it up. Spray. Pull it up... repeat endless loop. It feels like operating a flintlock musket at the battle of Waterloo. Rant over.

Masculinity Level: Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects, restrained power, hiding in plain sight.