Pierre Cardin Pour Monsieur

I have a 1oz/30ml bottle of this that was part of a lot of perfumes I bought last year. For the longest time had no idea that it was Pour Monsieur since I lacked the box and all it said on the bottle was Pierre Cardin Eau de Toilette with no tag on the bottom. I just recently found out from another site that it is indeed Pour Monsieur, as the responder posted pics with the same bottle and the packaging with Pour Monsieur printed on it. I am so happy I finally found out what this mystery fragrance is. Finding out that it was created for the male market doesn't change my perception of it, or love for it, one bit either. I will still wear it. I have to laugh at some of the reviews that describe this fragrance as uber masculine. IMO this is truly unisex, despite lacking a lot of floral notes normally found in many unisex fragrances today. (For your FYI, I happen to be a girly girl who considers myself very feminine.) When I was trying to find out information on this scent last year, I took the bottle with me and wore it to work and asked all my fellow employees if they knew anything about it. None of them did, which was not a surprise since so many are much younger than I am and don't know much about Pierre Cardin himself, much less anything about his perfumes. Then I asked them if they thought it was feminine, masculine, or unisex, and down to a person they said unisex. Then I asked if they thought it leaned masculine or feminine, and though close, feminine edged out masculine. Out of them, the older employees thought it leaned masculine, while the younger employees thought it leaned feminine. Though unscientific by a long shot, I thought it was very interesting how the gender of fragrance is perceived by young people today. Regardless how it reads to others though, that won't stop me from wearing it because I absolutely love this scent. On me, this dries down to a gorgeous, airy, aromatic Oriental. It starts out like a fougere, with an aromatic lavender opening that brings to mind Jicky on first spray. Then it slowly evolves and becomes a woody, leathery, ambery, herbaceous, sweet, spicy, earthy, resinous and balsamic Oriental, and all on a dreamy, creamy, vanilla tonka base. I am also picking up what smells like a faint incense on the dry down, so maybe there is vetiver in here too not listed in the notes. Whatever the case, this is luscious, smooth, and well blended, and thanks to the aromatic notes, light. It keeps this scent from being heavy and dense as so many Orientals tend to be, easily making it wearable year-round. A few sprays produce a soft surrounding cloud of fragrance that has me swooning every time I smell it. (My God, they don't make fragrances like this anymore!) I don't know what the new formula smells like, but if a niche house were to market the original fragrance today as unisex, I have no doubt that it would be a big seller. And if the reaction from the young females at my job are any indication, I'm sure women would be clamoring to get it too. Note to all the ladies out there: Though I know perfume is subjective, you should at least give it a try if you love Orientals. You might be as pleasantly surprised as I am. Now that I have finally found out what this big love of mine is, I just purchased a larger vintage bottle so I can wear it as much as I like. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it smells the same to me as this dear little bottle does right now. Wish me luck!

A surprisingly cool early summer evening sent me looking for a warm tone in tonight's fragrance. But the Jicky I sprayed on this morning is still lingering as a bit more than a skin scent. I don't find Jicky warm, so reapplying isn't going to work. What to do? Reach for my bottle of Pierre Cardin Pour Monsieur EdT (green box, made in France; my bottle is about 4 years old). The reason for this decision is that PCPM shares some notes with Jicky, although not the civet or, in IFRA-compliant batches, discernable oak moss. Indeed, there is nothing animalic at all in PCPM. What is here and discernable amid the well blended symphony of notes is: --citrus in the opening with a sweet mandarin orange note accompanied by some lemon zest; --a little lavender and basil, also in the opening, adding a green note to the citrus and marking this fragrance, structurally, as an oriental aromatic fougere; --a really splendid sandalwood note that emerges as the heart notes begin to unfold; --some funky, earthy 1970s style patchouli to remind you that this composition was first released in 1972 (also in the heart); & --an amber/vanilla/leather accord serving as the base and reinforcing the oriental aspect of the structure. Fans of the recently deceased Pierre Cardin will know that much of his fashion designs were not gendered. This history of gender bending may be what led the house to accent the main notes detailed above with lots of feminine-linked florals. These notes have the effect of making this fragrance seem more contemporary than it has any right to. But they do not make the scent unisex. This one is decidedly masculine feeling as you'd expect from a masculine release from the beginning of the disco era. To my nose, PCPM is elegant and gentlemanly but not grandfatherly. The unique accent notes make it more au courant than most retro fougeres. There are many complaints about longevity in other reviews here, but these are relevant to the EdC version of the scent made by 5 Star in the USA and sold in a black box. The European market EdT endures better than it's American sibling. Discounter websites often have both versions available in North America at very similar, very low, prices. The EdT is the one to buy it you can find it. In Europe, I have mostly seen the EdT, again at startlingly low prices for what PCPM offers the wearer. At the low prices at which this fragrance is available, it is a no-brainer blind buy for fans of retro fougere fragrances, lovers of good sandalwood scents or anyone on a retro kick. Recommended.

There are two versions of this fragrance. One comes in a black box like the one pictured. It is the cologne spray and it's very, very subtle. The other is in a green box labeled Eau de Toilette and it has more ingredients listed. They're nearly the same price, and you get a LOT more from the EDT. The cologne spray is lame. The scent is there one minute, gone the next. I wouldn't waste my time with that one if you're looking to get into this scent. Go for the green box, it's awesome! It has a fresher, more citrusy, spicier floral blast to it than the cologne. It also has a leather and geranium drydown that the cologne cannot compete with. I'm not sure what the cologne is there for, honestly. Maybe it's for office environments that discourage fragrance. I can't say, but it's a weird choice of a release. You can apply ten sprays and no one will notice you're wearing anything after 30 min to an hour. As has been noted by others, they both bear a resemblance to Jovan Sex Appeal. The Jovan is a much dirtier fragrance with a more animalic and ambery base. It has a quintessentially 70's swagger and I highly recommend it too. Cardin edt is its much cleaner and fresher cousin. The great thing about Pour Monsieur is that it is a legitimate 70's retro smell that is still perfectly wearable in most environments. You can't say that about Aramis or Quorum, or even Jovan Sex Appeal. It's rare to find something that goes that far back in history and is still this relavant in, say, a professional environment. Cardin Pour Monsieur will not get you any strange looks from normies who only live in the now.

Epic Journey Into the Bottled Yonder, 018 ------------------------------------------------------- Purchased May 2017, and the new one in October 2019. Another one bit the dust here. Changed more than my Jaguar, but not as much as my Boss Number One. This became a little more woody/smoky at the open but my new bottle with the text printing on the cap is more stable in that part of performance and overall smells better. But I still use the old (cheaper?) one, though the newer one has dropped in price since this decade. The old bottle has a weird personality so I have to prefer quickly grabbing and spraying it because I've had it for longer and I'm sort of still trying to understand the changes it's undergone in its oxidation/aging under my possession. I fucking hate this hobby when it comes to unforeseen blindsides like I've detailed, but it's alright it's a part of life and I can dig it myself, to quote Hendrix coz I'm a cheeky bastard. I will I say I was wowed and immediately addicted to my 2017 purchase of Pierre Cardin. That iteration is only titled Pierre Cardin. The new bottle with the text on the cap is titled Pour Monsieur. That one is a little more green and smooth like I remember my 2017 bottle before it had oxidated and aged. The old bottle fluid is an amber-yellow, the Pour Monsieur new bottle is of a champagne-yellow. Love this stuff. 2017 purchase batch: 0591 1HV, unable to decode but could be September 2015.

First I bought Jovan Sex Appeal, and the smell was okayish, then Pierre Cardin arrived and I put Jovan into the bin... Not quite (I love my Jovan). The difference between the two is not so much in the fragrance (they are strangely similar), but in the longevity, name and design of the bottle: Pierre Cardin stays all day with you (and even longer), Jovan Sex Appeal fades in hours or even minutes. Sex Appeal sounds a bit "tacky" to be honest, while Pierre Cardin is couture, design, luxury of the 70s. The design of the Sex Appeal bottle looks cheap whereas Pierre Cardin's is in the line with Courrèges, Eau de Rochas: very vintage, therefore part of the perfumes of my generation: those born on the 60s. You cannot find this little gem in stores in the UK, so I bought a bottle on line: £18 for 250ml which is going to last me ages. One last thing: there is something about the scent that reminds me of the Mennen aftershave my uncle used to wear in the 70s. So if you are into those perfumes of today that all smell the same and in your 20s-30s, this will not be for you. Perfect for office wear and evening when you want to make a difference and be noticed. And don't believe what you read: compared to the old version, this one is really good. Perfume is first and foremost about you, how you feel comfortable wearing it, and not about attracting men and/or women with it.