Bijan Men

Bijan Men is a classic. Recently got hold of a 50ml flacon of the old version (manufactured by Bijan Fragrances not Five Star) - apparently the 50ml (1.7oz) is no longer in production. The presentation is classy - the box is like origami and the flacon a thing of beauty and an exemplar of innovative design immortalised in the Smithsonian Institution. Incidentally the Bijan boutique on Rodeo Drive has a chandelier made from over a thousand of these iconic bottles. Bijan Men is unquestionably a product of its times. It came out during the last decade of the Cold War, at a time when obscene wealth was a recurring media trope, when broadcast TV was dominated by soap operatic capitalist fantasies like Dallas, Dynasty and Falconcrest, and the cliff-hanger "Who shot JR?" literally stopped the world, generating tens of millions of words in media speculation, when people actually watched the crass vulgarity of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with the ghastly Robin Leach and his abrasive peasant accent - by choice. When Bijan Men was released there was a lot of media buzz about Bijan, the Iranian expat designer who established himself in a bright yellow boutique on Rodeo Drive with two colour-coordinated sports cars always parked on the sidewalk out front. The American Dream! Incidentally, Rodeo Drive, the upmarket shopping precinct in Beverly Hills created by LA designer Fred Hayman in the 1960s, spawned another yellow boutique with another iconic 1980s fragrance, Giorgio for Men, released by Fred Hayman's alter ego "Giorgio of Beverly Hills". Although it might be hard for many to imagine now, the Cold War was very real. Fashion, fantasy and frivolity was a great distraction from the inevitability of “Mutually Assured Destruction”. I remember trying Bijan Men circa 1984 and not really liking it: It was too "loud" - I was 16 and in love with the understated elegance of Eau Sauvage Extrème and Antaeus - but found that Bijan Men successfully created an impression of luxury. Revisiting it today confirms that impression. Bijan Men certainly does smell luxurious: it combines a myriad of notes, each redolent of luxury, into a truly multifaceted olfactory mosaic. It's difficult to discern individual notes due to the overwhelming variety and complexity of the composition but one of the most noticeable for me is something that smells like beeswax absolute. Bijan men is a bit of everything: a bit citrus, a bit spicy, a bit floral, a bit woody, a bit resinous. Very unusual. But it works. Not sure if I'd describe it as quintessentially "masculine" except in terms of very traditional perfumery and insofar as it doesn't really smell like "perfume", nor is it traditionally "girly", but these terms are subjective and I'm sure we've all met people who think any man who wears fragrance is a closeted homosexual. In any case I am delighted to have rediscovered Bijan Men. It is certainly unlike anything around nowadays and smells classy and enigmatic. Amazing quality and value too. I am really enjoying wearing it and have been favourably impressed by its performance.

WOW!! This is a true "FACEPUNCH" fragrance! Only smelled it on test-strip so far but WOW!!! I can't wait to wear this on Friday! Truly magnificent! I smell sooooo many things in this frag!!! Citrus, Earthiness, Florals, powderiness, fruitiness, Lavender, some kinda musk or leather that is HEAVY!! Super heavy strong fragrance!! It's been 3 hours and this test strip still smells as strong as when I first sprayed it....ONE TIME! This ish is bananas....B-A-N-A-N-A-S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! I knew it was strong from reading reviews...but goodness.....I don't even think I could layer this on top of anything without overpowering it completely, lol. EDIT: 02AUG22 (Couldnt wait until friday...) Oh man...the mid and drydown on this fragrance is TO DIE FOR!!! It starts out HEAVY but wow...it changes into the smoothest most delectable fragrance as it dries down!!!! The drydown I'm getting on my shirt and skin is this...soft, creamy & smooth "honey-lavender-mandarin orange" mix that has me absolutely SWOONING!! I have NEVER smelled an orange note that was this luxurious!! I've been wanting EXACTLY this and buying so many other fragrances trying to find it. Who knew the answer was going back to a fragrance from the good old days!?!?!? I'm just blown away...this is nuclear performance creamy mandarin-honey-lavender heaven!! It layers AMAZINGLY perfectly with my favorite floral-vanilla fragrance, "Gold Rush Man"! I'm throwing down for a big bottle of this! (2.5oz I think) Super powerful, super long lasting, super smooth and classy EDIT: Check that...found a great deal on 3-1.0oz bottles for $15 on Ebay, bought!! Backup bottle for me and two bottles for friends! Still going to search up a large 2.5oz bottle of this vintage formulation for my collection. This is retro HEAVEN! 09AUG22 EDIT: Turns out that deal I got was for 3 1-oz bottles of the NEWER formulation of "Bijan for Men", the one by "5-Star Fragrances". Amazingly enough...these are MORE powerful than the vintage bottle I initially bought!! I totally expected them to be weaker than the original but it's the EXACT OPPOSITE! I actually have to spray this new bottle less than the vintage bottle...amazing!

Favorite 80's powerhouse, complex male fougere with excellent projection and longevity. Original formula is fabulous blend of many ingredients. It still cranks out the two sprays, delivering 10-12 hours of good projection. I'm not going to rely on the claim that this is watered down because when I first started wearing Bijan, it lasted 16 hours. My skin and nose adapted to it, which ended up being 12 hours and not overwhelmingly heady. However, this does have a great sprayer, so a thumbs up to that for a cheap fragrance. This fragrance is built from a resinous body of honey, spice, and a little amber poured into a bowl of ingredients. You don't know what's in the bowl yet, aside from this thick, sweet, and spicy base. Stir it a little, and it reveals a lot of oakmoss teamed up with some patchouli. There are tones of myrrh incense in there that seem to accent the amber quite beautifully. Stir a little more, and you'll find a light but noticeable amount of carnation and sandalwood. I never got musk from this fragrance back then, and currently, it's the aged patchouli doing the talking. I would put Bijan for Men into a group with other fragrances of the 70's style that were sweet and resinous, with patchouli filtering through it like Yatagan by Caron, Pierre Cardin Pour Monsieur, and Givenchy Gentleman. It gives off a very Middle Eastern feeling but really evokes sensuality through incense, patchouli, and spicy resin with an oakmoss edge... it's very distracting. Bijan for Men, I think, is a good casual, date night, or office wear fragrance. By office wear, I mean you don't wear a suit and meet clients or interface with the general public for a duration. This fragrance is a bit too forward and aggressive in its sensuality to maintain a professional approach. The only reason I could think of that it isn't as popular as Joop! Homme as a sensual fragrance is perhaps its dirty and more new-age style.

This is a quite remarkable scent which defies characterisation, and inspires a loyal following. The notes list on here and Basenotes diverge; and the reviews do too, with many reviewers finding, in effect, a very different scent. I completely disagree with those reviewers below who describe it as 'typical 80s.' It really absolutely is not 'like' them in scent. (Though it is very strong.) This is something of an olfactory 'event,' and if this came from a niche house the grandes dames of Fragrantica would be out and about with their books of over-wrought metaphors. Indeed, the comparisons people have made are to niche scents - Bianchi and Boadicea. That said, no-one can agree on what it reminds them of - and I'd say: yep. This is a very unique, distinctive scent. The scent opens with lavender and a sort of camphoric spice somewhere in the background (maybe the nutmeg, but the 'oiliness' and richness of it makes me think more cloves; in fact it smells distinctively of neither one); this opening remains right through the journey. Then these are joined with a warm musk (not at all animalic - NOTHING like Antaeus, Givenchy Gentleman or Kouros). This is followed by a kind of earthy, warm underpinning of woods and earth, patchouli and sandalwood. There is something piney and oily in here (oily in a good, rich, **resinous** way) - rosemary and fir can do that. And then the scent stays like that - for a loooooong time. It's spectacularly cheap. It's strong and lasts, in the way that perfume oil/attars do - we keep coming back to the richness of 'oil'! I would like to try this in summer - it's currently winter here, and working a treat. I can imagine it going one of two ways in the heat: meltingly cloying and overwhelming, or bright and 'pinging'. We'll see...

"Bijan" is liquid masculinity. It blows off your feeble little girl nuts and replaces them with steel balls that can impregnate your best friend's grandmother. One spray transforms you from a chess club nerd into an oily man-slab who collects $200 *without* passing Go! Let's take a close look at you. Flabby, gassy with three pathetic whiskers and arms like baby pickles. The last time someone called you strong, it was in reference to your rectal odor. The last time you were an object of lust, it involved a $1.99 per minute fee. Aren't you embarrassed? Aren't you ready for more? That's where "Bijan" comes in. Immerse yourself in so much leather that you crap wallets. Dive into so much cedar that when you get wood, you really get wood. Don't worry about the price tag, either. Simply spray from the sample bottle and watch as the sales clerk hands a complimentary bottle to the veiny, grunting, scab-covered Schwarzeneggeresque maniac standing before her. Like God himself, "Bijan" is not to be mocked. I have seen doughy wimps like you attempt to pull off this scent only to implode like a whoopee cushion beneath your mom's gelatinous ass. No more of this sickly sweet trend that has guys smelling like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man's bitch. "Bijan" degenerates you by 40 generations and has you bark orders in grunts and dish out compliments in burps. It's time to let your pubes grow back into a marvelous, lice-infested bush. It's time for "Bijan"!