Anthracite Pour L'Homme

I remember buying this at JCPenney in the early 90s. I'm not sure what note or combination of notes reminds me of beer in this fragrance. Perhaps the aldehydes? Although I have not owned a bottle of Anthracite since then, I will never forget it for that faint beer-like quality. Very unusual. The overall scent was very powerful and long-lasting without being overwhelming. I only liked this juice, but I do recall women loving it when I wore it. Worth sampling if you come across it.

It is like smoking cigarettes on a coast with a deep coniferous forest nearby,there is freshness and some deep darkness in this,but the same feeling is found someway in the green scents like Drakkar noir,Caesars,Lomani ph,Duc de Vervins,and also Cabaret ph as someone before has said.The dark heart of the scent is more pronunced in its expressions,that's it.

I had this some 20 years ago. A floral scent with a very strong character that reminded me a lot of Grey Flannel at the time - although I think Cacherel Nemo with its sweet woodiness is a closer match now. I understand it's discontinued now - shame as it would have made for a nice signature fragrance. Jacomo de Jacomo had this one licked though IMAO.

What I get from Anthracite is a floral fougère with a bit of spicy fruit sweetness. Very nicely put-together, shows great evolution and has a coherent dry-down. I know that Luca Turin has referred to this as one of the artful late 80s-early 90s men’s fragrances that that were influential critically, but not commercial successes. Given the others similarly noted (Insensé, Heritage, Ténéré) I looked forward to trying Anthracite. While the florals here (mostly rose to me, but also something tropical, or is that the fruit?) are interesting for the fact that they eventually replace the lavender in the fougère accord, Anthracite falls into the category of harmonious fougères for me. I prefer starker, rougher fougères, so I don’t mean this as a compliment. When a fougère is blended to removed the sharp edges left by the collision of lavender and coumarin, it seems too restrained. Reserved in a way that might suit a chypre, but not a fougère . Scorecard Stark: Rive Gauche pour Homme, Azzaro pour Homme, Paco Rabanne pour Homme, PR Ténéré, and Caron's Troisième Homme (the last two stark despite their florals.) Harmonious: YSL Jazz, Drakkar Noir (loud, yes, but focused on blend) and Anthracite. I’ve left out Cool Water deliberately. Despite its identification as the iconic fresh, aromatic fougère, it just does’t seem like a fougère to my nose---its innovative water fruit vibe made it qualitatively something different from a fougère. So where does this leave Anthracite? It’s got some of the fruit that Cool Water has. It’s got a non-lavender floral, like Ténéré. In execution of the fougère accord, it’s a little meek like Jazz. In some ways it’s similar to Givenchy’s Xeryus, a floral with a healthy nod to the fougère. But Xeryus’s use of florals and coumarin is much ballsier than Anthracite. I could argue with myself here that Anthracite is in fact the best use of all the various elements I’ve mentioned above. It certainly is my bias that I want a rough ride from a fougère and I could just be blind to Anthracite’s charm. But both floral and fougère, Anthracite does seem cross-bred like a mule. Close enough for the parents to reproduce, but Anthracite is sterile and leaves us with no direct descendants. I guess I’m left undecided.

Ok, I'm probably a philistine and an heretic but Anthracite Pour L'Homme is another of those fragrances that connoisseurs rave about and I'm totally tepid towards. A well done kind of fruity fougere with no particular distinctive traces. Smells good et all but smell this blind and you won't be able to distinguish it from several other fougeres of the same era. Meh. Rating: 6.5/10