Mainstream Monday – Sniffing Popular Perfumes (Masculine Edition)
This summer I’ve tried to downsize and organize. Notice the key word: try. I tried. I’m still nowhere near being organized. In the process, I organized (some of) my designer samples and thought I’d knock out a few more mainstream masculine reviews:
The One for Men
The One opens with sharp, cool spices and citrus. It’s sharp and reminds me of other designer masculine fragrance openings. There’s a sharp cedar and ginger. It eventually dries down to a soft, powdery ambery-tobacco with a dry, warm (slightly sweaty) cedar.
I really didn’t get much from this fragrance. Perhaps it’s one of those that really does magical things on certain wearers. For me, I found it OK but not something I’d even remember to recommend. Like if I didn’t take notes on it, I’d completely forget what it is or how it smells. It just didn’t resonate with me in any way.
Notes listed include bergamot, coriander, basil, cardamom, ginger, neroli, cedar, ambergris and tobacco. Launched in 2008.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Ginger and a powdery tobacco. OK, I guess. For a “spicy ginger for hunks”, let me suggest the über popular (but really good), Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb.
Intenso Pour Homme
This is a flanker of Pour Homme, a lavender tobacco fragrance that I really enjoy (well, until it was reformulated). Intenso opens like a blast of cool powder. The lavender in Intenso is accompanied by bitter notes. Now when it settles, it does bring to mine the original Pour Homme (like the amazing vintage-ish stuff). It’s a powdery tobacco and dry, warm woods. It comes across like a courmarin-y heavy (like boozy vanilla) hay. The dry-down is like courmarin and amber. It’s sweet yet so enjoyable (like eating a mousse WHILE drinking a dessert wine at the same time).
I think this is like a sweeter, richer version of Pour Homme…which one would expect from a flanker called “Intenso”. I’m starting to think they reformulated Pour Homme and then had to make something more like the original-original version to sell bottles of cologne. (Because they completely ruined their legacy in that terrible reformulation). Oh, please, Dolce & Gabbana, do something like this for the Pour Femme you ruined!
Notes listed include basil, geranium, marigold, lavender, Moepel wood, tobacco, hay, bran, clary sage, labdanum, sandalwood, cypress and amber. Launched in 2014.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Lavender and tonka beans. It’s really good. You can probably stop stalking vintage bottles of Pour Homme on bidding sites and just buy Intenso instead. But, you can do whatever you want. I won’t judge.
The 1.7 oz bottle of The One retails for $67 at Sephora and Nordstrom. It can also be found at discounters like Perfume.com.
A 2.5 oz bottle of Intenso retails for $70 at Macy’s. It can also be found at discounters like Perfume.com.
Want more reviews? Try…
Now Smell This – Review of The One
Fragrant Moments – Review of Intenso
*Samples obtained by me. Product pics from Sephora. Post contains affiliate links. Thanks!