Eau de Cologne

I was 22 years old when the bottle for Helmut Lang EDC caught my eye. Its minimalism was what drew me to it, as minimalism, unless you were Chanel, was not all that common in commercial perfumery perfumery at that time (exhibit A: Givenchy's Pi bottle). So yes, my eyes followed me and I had little regard for how it smelled until I started wearing it and it became my signature scent, and the only one I knew who was wearing it. I felt pretty classy, and aspired to afford Helmut Lang menswear one day. This seemed like a good start. Ahh, to be 22 again and go out on a Wednesday night, dance and carouse, then wake up the next morning and put on a necktie no less, arrive to work slightly hung over and still somehow muster my way through menial entry level admin work. All while smelling like the plushest, huggable musky scent I've known (Les Indemodables Musc de Sables comes in at a close second). It opens like little fluffy clouds (clue the Orb song with the Rickie Lee Jones sample) courtesy of gleaming aldehydes, then comes the original lavender haze, Taylor, with the purple-flower pie of heliotrope fleshing out a lily of the valley glisten and rosy blush. But its the musk that is the showstopper, shaded with labdanum, and its evident Maurice Roucel foreshadows Musc Ravageur and Labdanum 18 here, but I favor this due to its dreamy, voluminous heart. I bought a second bottle which I neglected for a long time, and I still have that bottle today, half full and still smelling staggeringly beautiful, but I can't speak for its EDT rerelease in 2014 or EDP, so proceed with caution, as apparently the original EDC seems scarce and pricey nowadays. Clearly, I have a fond, long-standing association with Helmut Lang EDC so bear in mind that bias, but this is a clean, freshly groomed comfort for me, with many memories tied to it.

Helmut Lang EDC have always been a very special fragrance for me. Since the first time I bought a bottle back in 2000, it was love at first sniff. Helmut Lang was a visionary stylist who was far ahead of his time and, during the late nineties he have been one of the most innovative designers on the planet (just like Comme Des Garcons and very few others). His style was very minimalistic and austere but, at the same time, it never restulted aseptic, cold or even simplicistic. It was the most simple example of innovation. In this context, Helmut Lang EDC prefectly reflects the brand's style with an apparently simple blend of clean musk, woods and soft florals. What makes of it an outstanding composition is an overall powdery, sort of buttery vibe, that while giving it an incredible amount of personality, it never results overdone, heavy or challenging. Soft lavender and minimalistic floral patterns serve as perfect refinements while herbs preserve the fragrance from becoming overly sweet. Slightly leaning towards the barbershop type of fragrance yet incredibly and unquestionably modern. Simple with a twist. Just like Helmut Lang's clothes, EDC wears comfortably, easily and feels incredibly versatile but it's tremendously distinctive. Recalls of freshly laundered white shirts with tiny collars and hidden buttons, unbottoned suits wore with no tie, well trimmered beards. A tribute to minimlistic elegance as opposed to vulgarity, ostentation and unnecessary frills. Want to smell clean? There's nothing like Helmut Lang EDC. Unfortunately, since the Prada gourp involved Helmut Lang, they immediately discontinued this gem and devoided the brand of its former brilliance. Now, if you want a bottle of EDC, you have to be ready for a big ticket splurge. Rating: 9/10

bought this quite a few years ago at a perfume shop looking around for a cologne to wear, at that time did not have many.stumbled across this, loved it right away ..just a really nice musky sweet smell so clean and pleasing..never realized how special this really was..never wore it much..my father in law loved it and so i gave him what was left, i was on to the newest stuff..just wish now i would have hung on to it, got some samples on ebay..enough to make a small atomizer..i still have it in my drawer and take it out spritz it on some paper..love it still...cannot find this unless you are willing to pay over a 150.00 dollars on ebay, so i never want to waste it..such a pity....unbelivably not in production any more..i wish it were what a beautiful scent. i will keep looking for it..maybe i can find it one of these days for a reasonable price...awesome juice.what i think a musk fragrance was supposed to be,another musk to check out is lorenzo villoresi's musk...that one is amazing also but i would still have to say this is the best musky type that i have found..nothing better so far....

I bought this a decade ago, largely due to my love of Helmut Lang's sense of style. It works for me as a daytime scent, augmenting my day, reminding me I'm interacting with the world around me. Perhaps it has a bit of a barbershop cheek-slap aftershave thing happening, but a refreshing one, and it connotes that fresh, clean shaven tight haircut essence with style, class and verve. My wife loves how this evolves on my skin throughout the day and it keeps her close and cuddly. I keep very few scents of my own, this is one of them. Love the simple, Chanel-esque packaging. So fresh and so clean...

Its crazy to compare this to Musc Ravageur. This a slightly candy-glazed heliotrope, light musk that is very gentle and well behaved. Does for heliotrope what Hermes' Vetiver Tonka did for Vetiver.

amazing frag!! clean buttery musks and sensual fine sandalwood (one of the most high quality) luxury but essential smell of barbershop.

Old money classic cologne. Not as wearable as it used to be but still a great fragrance.

Helmut Lang Eau de Cologne is basically what I always wanted Jicky to be. Don't get me wrong; I LOVE Jicky, but the current stuff is a bit too indolic as opposed to animalic for my tastes. This stuff is perfect - lavender, vanilla, a bit of rose, and a wonderfully sensual, buttery musk that balances both clean and dirty amazingly. It takes a lot of talent to pull off both clean and dirty like this fragrance can, a feat that I've only seen matched in Fahrenheit. A subtle, but noticable, and very pleasant fragrance that can be worn by either sex. It doesn't last too long, but that's more of an inconvenience than an actual problem, because it's wonderful. I fortunately found a bottle at a discounter for $50, they obviously didn't realize what they were selling. Hopefully I'll get to try the other Helmut Lang fragrances sometime!

The floral musk base is gorgeous. Unfortunately, this has a prominent metallic, almost bleach-like note in the opening that almost ruins this for me. I suppose this is Roucel’s attempt at replicating the industrial bleach smell that was part of the cocktail of odors Helmut Lang was trying to capture. My bottle is the vintage version with the “est. 1986” on the label.

Helmut Lang was one of the coolest designers by mid-end 90 ̊s. The king of cool jeans, minimalizm, asymmetric cuts and color palette of white, black and grey. The men and women perfume were released with a bang. I got a 50 ml bottle at a PR event while working as a freelancer. But... it never made it big and that is also around the time when Lang got tired of the fashion industry and basically quit. I used it a couple of times during spring and fall of 2000 and then threw away the bottle. As for the perfume? Meeeh, it felt very basic, classic and borderline boring. There was no twist to it. Musk, some wood, lavender... with a poor longevity. I guess most people expected something much different and groundbreaking from such an avantgarde designer. It was not a big seller and within a couple of years it was off the market. Now it has been brought back for some reason.

Soft, sweet, floral, musky, unisex. Helmut Lang's eau de cologne is at the edge of being unsavoury but stays just on the good side. I enjoy owning a (vintage) bottle, but I don't know if I will ever wear it. It's just not quite a men's perfume to me. 6,5/10

Helmut Lang's original Eau de Cologne was a particular release at the time it came out - perfectly capturing notions of reduction, cosiness, classicism and industrial cleanliness together with utmost familiarity... see Colin Maillard and alfarom's great commentaries here. To deepen the contextual framing, if I remember correctly initially Lang's only were available in the brands few shops - I got my first bottle in Munich the year it came out, eventually the Eau de Cologne was released some time - not much - before the Eau de Parfum and the Parfum - then there even was a tiny HL perfume-only shop opposite the NYC boutique for some time ... in any way, my pet theory is that the perfume managed what for example also the first Comme des Garçons (Cologne and Eau de Parfum) did, namely surprising its audience with being quite different than what one might expect from what a Helmut Lang perfume might smell like. The cosy, comforting, familiar ingredients were rendered in such a particular way that they aligned themselves seamlessly with all what HL's modern identity stood for in the 90's. Now with the Eau de Cologne concentration, it could well have been that Lang oriented himself at Comme's strategy launching both EdC and EdP but skipping the, back then, ubiquitous EdT altogether. Almost an inverse situation what we experience now - where so many EdP's are being launched and the EdT seems to be facing extinction. All in all a truly remarkable release, a meaningful example of how to do a fashion perfume the right way and glad to read that the relaunch is supposed to be close to the original version. My only consideration of the new versions if the price tag - Maurice Roucel commented that the distribution with Procter & Gamble was a bit dull - yet the current higher price tags might make it disappear again sooner than later. * Having smelled now also the reissue of the Eau de Cologne, I find this being pretty close to the original, however the new EdC version appears closer to the new EdP - in comparison to the difference / similarity ratio between the original EdC and the original EdP - both were more separate, only approximating each other some time in the dry down - the blurred aldehydic, lavendery opening of the original EdC really was the star in this composition. Also, for this reason, I see the Cologne as the more original HL release - some topics of the EdP have been picked up by Roucel himself in Musc Ravageur and Labdanum 18 - clearly with enough differences, however, the trace is there ...

I highly admire Maurice Roucel. He is a genius, he can materialize feelings and put them in a bottle. His perfumes are not exactly complex, they rather have a quite straight forward simplicity which sometimes can be a bit misunderstood and this is exactly the point. I couldn't agree more with Sissel Tolaas: " Smell provokes. And if it can provoke then there is hope." In this one, Roucel plays masterfully with the jasmine and heliotrope, placing it on a base of vanilla and sandalwood and white musk of course, to offer us a dry and airy powdery floral, which gives you the feeling of a clean and neat man who can, however, easily break your heart in million pieces.. Now, I cannot understand why this one has been discontinued. I just hope that the new Helmut Lang will reconsider and give it back to us. And better make it quick..

I bought a real vintage bottle off ebay recently, from a creditable buyer. I also purchased a bottle of the newer edp. Big difference. vint. edc. starts with a giant wave of aldehydes. So beautiful...., then 20min it's all gone. The new edp. same stuff, ex strong, lasts 6hrs. No aldehydes. So disappointing. It's ok though, the scent makes up for it. I think this is what #5 should have smelled like. Much more wearable, imho.

strong and woody!one of my favorites.seems like the girls finds it irresistible too.to me the only irritating point is that it's somehow soapy.I also found out that when the strong woody top notes fade it becomes so sweet(rose,lily of the valley and jasmine),even can be considered as a female perfume.

Simply beautiful! White, pink and yellow florals upon a freshly polished cedarwood base surrounded by fresh white laundry. A very clean and refreshing scent with vibes of white soap and sherbet - in a very good way!

Much better and lighter than the ladies ́one. My going-out scent.

How is aldehydes not listed as a note.