Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male

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Le Male’s something of a classic for men’s fragrance, I guess. Well, maybe classic is putting it a bit too high on the totem pole. What Le Male is, however, is a very successful, very nice oriental fragrance that many men who prefer something outside of Acqua di Gio tend to enjoy.

Le Male

Le Male

In Bottle: Initial whiff of lavender and spices in Le Male. It’s at once familiar and unique.

Applied: Spicy lavender up top. Le Male’s reminiscent of a fougere fragrance with a major spicy kick. The cardamom, to my nose is particularly strong along with the cinnamon note. It reminds me a bit of this awesome chai tea that I really like that features cinnamon and caraway rather heavily. The lavender helps pull the fragrance together from the get go, as its little whiffs of mint and bergamot that were in the initial spray make way for a warm, dry midstage that sees an introduction of a slight floral sandalwood scent. The dry down is very dry with lavender hints hanging on and its spicy cinnamon making a very good run as the sweet, dry, woods scent of the base takes the rest of the show.

Extra: Le Male is strong and has excellent projection, so watch how much of this you spray on yourself. Especially you guys who wear this almost every day. Your nose may have adapted to the scent from prolonged use and you might be overdoing it a bit. I’ve stood close to a man who overdid the Le Male and it turns this brilliant spicy fougere into a powerful mess. Easy on the trigger and you’ll smell awesome though.

Design: Iconic design from Jean Paul Gaultier of the “torso bottles”. Le Male is packaged in a blue torso bottle resemble a man’s chest and hips. The fragrance itself comes in a tin can. Great for keeping out light and helping the fragrance keep a little cooler, but I can’t say I like having a tin can sitting on a fragrance shelf. Still, the torso bottle is a classic piece of design to some people, but for me, it kind of freaks me out to be honest. Still,as soon as you see these torso designs, you probably instantly think, “Oh, it’s Jean Paul Gaultier doing his thing again”. So if nothing else, it is memorable.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Oriental Fougere

Notes: Artemisia, lavender, mint, bergamot, cardamom, caraway, orange blossom, cinnamon, sandalwood, tonka bean, amber, vanilla, cedar.

On myself, Le Male smells too iconically male. Though it’s a great scent that I really like. It smells like it belongs on a man though and that is probably because of the prevalence of the gender that often wears it. Still, it’s like I always say, if you like this enough then who cares what gender it was made for? Just wear it and rock it.

Reviewed in This Post: Le Male, 2001, Eau de Toilette.

Bond No.9 Chinatown

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While most people might think of a fragrance named Chinatown being something like a spicy incense–this is actually a fruity floral. And it’s a beautiful fruity floral at that.

Chinatown

In Bottle: Sweet peach and tuberose with a bit of cardamom spice added in.

Applied: One of the few fragrances, in my books, that does a sweet peach note well. It’s sweet but not to the point of candy. It settles the peach in fruity territory and dishes into the mid-stage rather quickly. There’s supposed to be bergamot up top but I got very little of it in the opening. Maybe a dash, a couple of dewy drops. Not a whole lot of citrus in this one to go around as there’s more cardamom with its spicy–call me crazy–slightly earthy quality in this fragrance. The mid-stage is marked with my friend tuberose and the lingering cardamom. A bit tame and sweet and heady, the tuberose drowns out whatever other flowers might be in this mid-stage. Lucky for me, I love tuberose and despite her being the dominant floral, she isn’t as loud here as she is in Fracas, for instance. Now my favorite white flower with the  big personality does settle down a bit, letting hints of orange blossom and honeyed vanilla seep through with a rather pleasant drydown of warm spicy cardamom and woods.

Extra: Chinatown was composed by Aurelien Guichard. It’s one of my favorite fruity floral fragrances for its marriage of fruits, florals with an added kick of spice. There’s different versions of it too, including one limited edition bottle that’s $650USD.

Design: Chinatown’s bottle shape is similar to that of other Bond No.9 bottles. The star shape is growing on me, though I still think it looks a little silly. I do love Chinatown’s design of a pink background splashed with a white be-flowered branch.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Bergamot, peach blossom, gardenia, honey, tuberose, peony, orange blossom, patchouli, cedar, vanilla, sandalwood, cardamom, Guiac wood.

I had the same problem opening my sample vial of Chinatown as I did with other Bond No.9 sample vials. They do something amazing to vacuum seal this stuff in or something because I just can’t get a grip. Regardless, Chinatown is a beautiful fruity floral and one of the more lovely renditions of the fragrance genre. If you’re looking high-end and not finding the fruity florals that you love, then give this stuff a whiff–if you can get the sample vial open, that is.

Reviewed in This Post: Chinatown, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Calvin Klein CK One

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CK One brings back memories of the early 90s. Where people these days love their Viva la Juicys, the early 90s seemed to be marked with the citrus-y smell of CK One.

CK One

In Bottle: Opens on a rather tart but very crisp and dewy fruity citrus note. There’s a pineapple in there but it’s not your  run-of-the-mill fruity sweet and tropical pineapple. This is tart pineapple and I quite like it.

Applied: That clean, green and crisp opening with the tart pineapple and the citrus. CK One takes its citrus and leads into a clean floral mid-stage dominated by lily of the valley, iris and a very potent lemon note that works well to keep this fragrance fresh and clean. The best part of CK One for me is the dry down where the citrus is gone and whats left are florals clinging to clean and diving into a base of tame cedar and sandalwood. I don’t so much smell the oakmoss in this than I smell the green notes that were in the opening. The closer is a green, floral woods.

Extra: I remember being a little girl and first smelling CK One. It was at a department store and we had little money at that time for things like this. But I always tried to sneak a smell. I don’t remember if I liked it or not, I only knew that Calvin Klein–at the time–was some fancy brand and one of the girls in my class bragged about wearing this perfume.

Design: Very simple bottle. Flat and rectangular with frosted glass. The sprayer is quite uniform-looking too but it’s still an extremely recognizable design. There’s something very utilitarian about this that I love. Maybe it’s the lack of fanciful shapes and colors. I actually like the design, but I think it might be a bit on the plain side.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Pineapple, green notes, mandarin orange, papaya, bergamot, cardamom, lemon, nutmeg, violet, orris root, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, rose, sandalwood, amber, musk, cedar, oakmoss.

CK One isn’t anywhere near as big a deal for me now as it was back then. Still, there’s moments when I smell this and remember sneaking sprays at the makeup counter while my mother and the sales associate gabbed about sunblock.

Reviewed in This Post: CK One, 2002, Eau de Toilette.

Liz Claiborne Curve Crush (Men)

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I don’t know how Curve Crush managed to squeeze itself into a position so polarizing. We have people on one side loving this stuff while people on the other side are having Curve Crush bonfires and reconsidering the quality of such an idea. I’m with the bonfires on this one. I’m sorry, but I kind of hate this fragrance.

Curve Crush

In Bottle: A strange melange of herbs and sweetness. It’s not sweet like candy sweet but sweet as in “this shouldn’t be sweet but it is” sweet. All this coated with an aqua or marine note which makes me think of Cool Water gone wrong. There’s quite a huge dollop of white musk and moss in this too which just seem to come right out of left field.

Applied: That opening of sweet herbs and the lingering bizarre white musk and moss. This smells like a mess from the get-go, like it wasn’t blended properly and I can see where people are coming from when they say this is very synthetic. I can forgive a synthetic fragrance if it’s done well, but I don’t think Curve Crush for Men realizes there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. There’s so much scrubbed, clean, sharp and sterile synthetic notes in this stuff that it smells more like a weird cleaning detergent than a fragrance. The mid-stage is a bizarre blend of that musk and moss stuff along with some plastic violet and spicy ginger situation layered over a persistent cloying sweetness. It heads into its dry down with a moss note so synthetic I can taste it in the back of my throat.

Extra: Curve Crush for Men is a member of the Curve line by Liz Claiborne. Despite my displeasure with this particular fragrance, the other members of the Curve line are decent scents.

Design: I’m not sold on the bottle here but I k now packaging’s not the highest priority when it comes to fragrances like this. The bottle is made of a mottled glass, with a tint on it. It’s got a good weight, the hold of it is decent, the design itself is uninspired and reminds me of an Old Spice bottle with a Flowerbomb tag sticking out of it.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic

Notes: Bartlett pear, muguet aldehyde, basil, coriander, bergamot, ginger, violet, lavender, sage, cardamom, vetiver, musk, moss.

I know this is a budget fragrance, but if you ask me, it’s a pretty terrible one. You want a budget fragrance that smells good and is well-composed? Old Spice. As cliche as that is, Old Spice beats this hands down. Heck, I’d pick Old Spice over a lot of higher end fragrances too. The point is, this fragrance is overly synthetic, uninspired and smells like it wasn’t blended properly.

Reviewed in This Post: Curve Crush, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Clive Christian No. 1 for Men

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Happy April Fools Day. I only wish I was joking about the prices talked about in this post! No, I can’t be so frivolous as to drop the cash down for a Clive Christian fragrance. Not a full bottle anyway. My wallet is still hurting a bit from the tiny amount I do have just so I could sneak a sniff of one of Clive’s most fabled elixirs.

No. 1 for Men

In Bottle: Citrus and green with a dash of pepperiness thrown in there for a hint of spice. I smell vetiver, and a bit of something herbal. Rather complex from the get go with a distinctive vintage vibe to it. Very nice!

Applied: Starts off on a crisp, sharp lime note with an exotic blend of crushed spices taking the sharpness up a few more notches but never really letting it get out of hand. It makes a good first impression anyway. The fragrance has multiple layers of complexity and is one of those, “So many things I can’t separate them” stories. I’ll try my best through. The fragrance ages into the mid-stage with a steadily amping set of florals. I get jasmine for the florals, a hint of sophisticated rose. It is so well-blended that I can’t pick apart notes and frankly, I don’t really want to pick apart notes. The mid-stage is marked with a beautifully lush bouquet of florals. It is full and heady, with the spiciness that only serves to amplify the florals further. The mid-stage is where I really get that vintage feel. This smells like it belongs in the age of perfume greats. A time when Coty was more than celebrity perfumes and body mists. When Guerlain was family-owned and pumping out fragrance after fragrance of utter beauty. When Chanel No. 5 was how an elegant woman should smell instead of the old granny perfume it’s now known as. That’s what No. 1 for Men is. It’s actually a really pleasant trip to a time where I didn’t even exist. As No. 1 for Men dries down there’s a falling off of the florals but they never truly leave. I get a bit of the vetiver that I got in the bottle settling in at the bottom giving the florals a bit of extra boost as the fragrance digs itself out, leaving you with a faint air of lingering florals, a blend of woods, and a hint of dry vetiver.

Extra: Clive Christian acquired an old perfume house, Crown Perfumery, in 1999 and they have been coming out with stuff like this since. Clive Christian’s No. 1 fragrances are known as the most expensive in the world. This was a title that was once held by Joy by Jean Patou. These days, Joy is much more affordable and sanely priced. As for Clive Christian’s No. 1, it’s price goes up every year. The pure parfum presently sits near $2,500 CAD (Noted on Saks).

Design: As to be expected, the bottle is impeccably designed. In fact, most of the gush I found on this perfume was people talking about the packaging. For $2,500 I would certainly hope the packaging is worth it. One interesting thing to note is the crown design on the stopper was approved by the queen way back in the day. All I can tell you is, this is made of lead crystal, is flawless, glitters, the stopper has real gold on it, the stopper also has a diamond in it for goodness’ sakes. It looks great but imparts a sense of incredulity in me coupled with mild embarrassment. What else did I expect? I mean, it’s a $2,500 bottle of perfume. There is a similar iteration of the bottle design called Imperial Majesty which had better contain the hapless souls of lesser perfumes because the thing costs $215,000 USD.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Floral

Notes: Bergamot, lime, mandarin, grapefruit, cardamom, nutmeg, caraway, artemesia, lily of the valley, jasmine, rose, iris, heliotrope, ylang ylang, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, tonka, musk.

Here’s the problem with this fragrance and its price point. For most of us, the $1000+ price tag is a major deterrent and the fine folks at Clive’s house know this. They purposefully price this fragrance way out of range to appeal to those wealthy enough to approach this fragrance and casually wave the money out of their wallets. For the rest of us schmucks, digging around in the dirt, we use testers. I judged this fragrance not according to just its scent, but according to its worth as a fragrance in comparison to its price.

To me, the juice in No. 1 for Men is no better than a vintage fragrance. It is certainly no match for an Amouage attar, a vintage Guerlain, or a natural blend from Aftelier. You are better off spending your money elsewhere. And while all of the alternatives I listed are expensive, they are not $2,500 expensive if you care about the juice inside.  This is a very competent fragrance with a beautiful old world soul that I don’t see enough of anymore. But is it worth the price? Honestly? In my opinion, no. I go nuts for perfume, but I draw my cash line somewhere. And that line is no where near the thousands.

Thankfully, if you just have a hankering to smell the fragrances with no desire to own the exclusive bottle, there is a travel set that (as of this writing) sells for $310USD. There are three fragrances  included (1872, X, No. 1 each bottle is 10ml)–paltry amount for $310, but this is the house that puts out perfume which requires you to take out a mortgage in order to afford.

Reviewed in This Post: No. 1 for Men, 2010, Parfum.

Voyage d’Hermes

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Voyage d’Hermès has come to be known in the fragrance world as, “did you see that bottle?” Or at least, that’s what I call it. It’s the perfume with the fantastic bottle. The juice inside is pretty good too.

Voyage d'Hermes

In Bottle: Bright green citrus. Lime most of all, with a distinct sourness to it. This smells like lime rinds, okay? And I love it.

Applied: That initial citrus, green and dry with a hint of sourness edges into a steadily rising spicy mid-stage where ginger greets you and takes you to meet its friend cardamom. The two of them hold you there, complementing each other with the fading lime rind as the fragrance’s rind opening gives way to a sheer floral headed by those spices you met earlier. The fragrance then dissolves into a white musk dashed with a bit of woodsiness that grows stronger and stronger as the spices start to fade away starting with ginger then cardamom. The final stage is marked with a pretty white musk and fading traces of woodsy notes. It should be noted that Voyage d’Hermès is not a heavy scent. It is extremely sheer so if you’re looking for power and projection, this is not your stuff.

Extra: Voyage d’Hermès was composed by the much esteemed Jean-Claude Ellena whose rapsheet also includes Kelly Caleche and Terre d’Hermès.

Design: I’ve got to spend a little time talking about this bottle. I love it. The design, the quirky swivel. The fact that it’s minimalist but elegant and modern. The inner glass bottle contains the juice itself, but it also has an outer metal casing that swivels. What sets this outer metal casing apart from other perfumes of glass and metal is the fact that the casing acts both as a cap and a stand. It’s a little functionality for your fragrance that beats the gold plated stuff that simply serves to be flashy. Did I mention an added bonus feature of this bottle? It’s refillable. Immediate points given for that, Hermes. It looks good. It functions well. You can refill it. It’s just fantastic.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Spicy

Notes: Lime, juniper, green tea, pepper, ginger, cardamom, cedar, sandalwood, amber, white musk.

Hermes has always done some beautiful work with their fragrances and I particularly must give props to Jean-Claude Ellena. The man has made some fabulous perfumes in his time and Voyage d’Hermès is one of them. Neither too abstract or too derivative, Voyage d’Hermès is in that beautiful little middle ground where balance is key.

Reviewed in This Post: Voyage d’Hermès, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Serge Lutens Daim Blond

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Serge Lutens is one of those fragrance house that you have to smell to believe. Their perfumes are so utterly beautiful and complex and strange that to not try at least one would be to miss out on some of the most well-composed fragrances in niche.

Serge Lutens Daim Blond

In Bottle: Sophisticated and a little bit fruity that feel of utter softness and gentleness.

Applied: Daim Blond opens with a pleasant mildly fruity soft  scent that reminds me of running the tips of my fingers along a length of suede. This stuff is so mild and gentle but it remains gorgeous. Daim Blond’s midstage is marked with that suede note that stays in the background. Further adding to that fingertips on suede feel is the spice from the cardamom makes itself known. The cardamom lends a bit of exotic flare to this fragrance, digging up its complexity as it carries on into the dry down that’s marked by musk and a very faint reminder of suede.

Extra: Serge Lutens was at one point a director for Shiseido. He has since moved into perfumes to create a fantastic line of fragrances that’s often praised in the niche market for being complex, interesting, and unique.

Design: Daim Blond, like most Serge Lutens fragrances is bottled in a tall glass rectangle with an equally tall cap on top. There’s no frills or gimmicks when it comes to Serge Lutens packaging. It’s simply understated and effective.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Earthy

Notes: Iris pallida, apricot kernel, cardamom, musk, heliotrope, hawthorn.

When I smell leather, I think earthy. And earthy to me is something organic. Mostly I just didn’t have any other way to describe Daim Blond except as a sophisticated leather scent.

Reviewed in This Post: Daim Blond, 2010, Eau de  Parfum.

Juicy Couture Dirty English

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All right, so I owe lemon a bit of an apology. It’s not the sole destroyer of scents for me. No, that prize goes to cedar. And when you add lemon into the mix, it’s like a mastermind and his nefarious sidekick getting together for an evil soiree. Oh yeah, Dirty English. Dirty English lacks the sharp lemon that would destroy worlds if it were also present in this stuff but it has plenty of cedar. Oh yes. Plenty of cedar indeed. Dirty English

In Bottle: Smells a little leather, a little woodsy, with a nice citrus kick at the start to wash things up. There’s a nice density to this fragrance that gives it a good smooth scent.

Applied: The leather is a very pleasant thing for about two seconds before Dirty English dissolves into its mid-stage where I end up losing everything but cedar. There is  a lot of cedar in this fragrance, and a lot of perfumes can overdo cedar and end up with something highly unpleasant. Bonus points taken off for including lemon with cedar thus making the concoction a sharp, chemical, and highly unpleasant mix to my nose. But Dirty English only tangos with cedar. And the dancing must be quite good because cedar is the predominant note for hours and hours on end until Dirty English decides its had enough and shifts into a more pleasant, slightly less obnoxious cedar with a bit of bitter, musty mossiness that I can assume is the agarwood at work. The agarwood is done quite well but is tempered by a sweet, warm ambery note and a dash of spice. Overall, Dirty English is a good masculine scent that’s had a lot of good press over the years. I only wish I could smell something other than cedar because there’s really a lot of it in this concoction.

Extra: Well, I finally tracked down and smelled Dirty English. I think that would be that for the readily available Juicy Couture line (not counting the pet fragrances).

Design: Dirty English shares a similar bottle shape with Juicy Couture and Viva la Juicy. It’s missing the big plastic crystal that the feminine perfume bottles tend to sport with a metal cap embellished with a chain instead. I do like the shape and nice weighty feel of the Juicy Couture bottles and the dual-purpose of the embellishments are a nice touch.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Woodsy

Notes: Pepper, mandarin, blue cypress, bergamot, cumin, cardamom, marjoram, leather accord, sandalwood, Atlas cedar, vetiver, agarwood, moss, amber, musk.

I really Dirty English had been a little less loud with the cedar as it sounds like it would have been a really nice fragrance that at least tries its best to shift itself a little further away from the standard men’s scent.

Reviewed in This Post: Dirty English, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Burberry The Beat

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I’ve been wearing The Beat almost every day for about four months now and I think it’s time I finally gave her a review. She’s pretty, though more coveted on the shelves than on my skin because she’s a very typical scent in that ‘smells so fresh and clean’ type of way.  What I mean is, I wanted The Beat–badly–when I saw it on the shelves. It smelled excellent whenever I tried it. But now that I own 50ml of the stuff, it’s a forgettable scent in how ordinary it is. The Beat

In Bottle: Pink pepper with a mandarin kick and a cedar underbelly. The Beat uses a light handed approach to cedar so that I can smell it but it isn’t overpowering like other fragrances that tend to blast the cedar out like some sort of Deus ex Machina of the perfume world.

Applied: Pink pepper, sharp citrus and cedar immediately on application with the citrus sticking it out for a respectable amount before fading as it lets the cedar settle in close to the skin. This cedar that sticks to my skin plays a major part in not  overwhelming me with the cedar-y goodness. As The Beat ages, it grows softer, a little more floral with a brush of tea and a gentle smudge of iris layered over bluebell. It makes The Beat smells very fresh, very spring and summer with how bright and cute and vibrant it is. The dry down is a typical affair, with that close to your skin cedar blended in with an earthy cleaned-up vetiver.

Extra: The Beat is perhaps most well-known for having fashion’s “It Girl”, Agyness Deyn, be the face for the fragrance. It’s supposed to evoke an edgy, hip, alternative young audience. They got one out of three right so that’s okay. There’s nothing edgy or alternative about The Beat. It’s very pedestrian. Lovely, well-behaved, but ultimately pedestrian.

Design: The Beat’s bottle design does much better than Burberry Brit (that tartan brick of a thing I can’t seem to stop complaining about). The bottle is a nice clear glass with the Burberry tartan. The juice inside is a very lightly toned pink and the cap is a pretty metal affair with a dangly bit hanging off the side of the bottle with a metal plate that reads “Burberry” on it. Cute, lovely little bottle. Definitely not something I’d be tempted to build a wall  out of like Burberry’s other design.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Bergamot, mandarin, pink pepper, Ceylon tea, cardamom, bluebell, iris, white musk, vetiver, cedar.

Funny that the tea came through so lightly in this fragrance because if it had been a little heavier, I would have been a little more in love with The Beat. But as it is, it’s a good “standing in the elevator” fragrance with a well-behaved cedar note.

Reviewed in This Post: The Beat, 2010, Eau de Parfum.