Hilfiger Est. 1985

What we must remember about the Perfume Industry is that it often times tries to tell us what we can and can't wear depending on age, gender, season and any true scentophile will wear what they want when they want. The Industry us also ALL ABOUT $$$!, if they happen to create a great fragrance along the way :bonus! More often than naught they create mediocre/bad crap and people pay top dollar for it and wear it for years. I will read the PR on new frags and watch the commercials/videos but when it comes down to brass tacks:THE PROOF IS IN THE JUICE!!... TH created this for men who wanted something modern and fresh that was also refined and smooth.I think he succeeded.The citrus in the topnotes combined with sharp rosemary and sweet, tropical papaya is fresh and modern. As the heart develops the white rose spiced with tumeric(spicy yet subdued)surrounded by mahogany and leather is truly rich and refined, not to mention unique. The base is soft and smooth with velvet and suede accords, exotic with tonka bean and cashmere wood, and earthy with sandalwood and papaya-tree wood. True to the aromatic fougere genre it has something clean and almost soapy at the end that adds to the scent and the projection. How anyone can say "This is just another..."is beyond me. I find this fragrance stimulating, polished and worldly yet affordable and sensible enough for everyday...of course, I am a big fan of TH and entering my 40s... Sillage: okay Longevity: good Overall: 3.75/5 Fragrances went from woody-spicy(70s), to powerful(80s), to aquatic-fresh(90s) to light and transparent (00s) so dont judge Hilfiger est.1985 too harshly: it's a child of the age that spawned it and the Industry keeps on making what WE keep buying, so until we tell them otherwise (and buy otherwise) we keep getting more of the same...Hilfiger is what it is and it's all right by me, perfect for crisp, clean oxford and khakis and casual leather shoes. A little too much with jeans and t-shirt but not quite enough for a suit or fomal occassion...I wear it often.

Update 15.01.17: I just realized the other day that this smells like CK Eternity. Maybe a touch sweeter, but so close. Really good stuff. Contrary to what some of the other reviewers have suggested here, I don't find this to be a run-of-the-mill aquatic at all! The initial blast of shimmering grapefruit and juicy papaya give the scent a distinctly tropical feel. The papaya note stays prominent throughout, but the grapefruit gives way to a spicy, aromatic heart of rosemary and what almost smells to me like cinnamon bark. The heart gradually subsides into a mellow woody base of mahogany and sandalwood. The juniper and mandarin notes are intermittently noticeable and certainly provide some of its aquatic undertones. I can't discern much tonka, but it's probably what lends to the slight but enduring sweetness of this fragrance. While it may not be a challenging or particularly novel scent, it does stand apart from many of the other mass market/designer fragrances available today. You won't run into too many other guys wearing this. It's a safe, clean scent that might just be perfect if you're looking for a go-to, utterly wearable, even memorable everyday scent.

Great fragrance. I used to not like it, but it grew on me. On me it is very long lasting and has good sillage. Fresh, clean and evolves into something well rounded.

I agree with Gypsy Perfumista in every sentence, and I use to find it sliiighly ordinary, but now since I've had a recent taste for fresh scents, I've also noticed this is a sweeter, more aquatic variety in my collection. With est 85 I remember that i liked it on a former colleague; a young, stylish, camp fella who also wore Gucci ph2 and some Britneys (they suited him, ok) est85 suited him well. It gave off a sweet, smooth, gentle, kind of smoky freshness I connected directly to summer. And that's exactly how I'd describe it being on me. Casual, summery, office friendly, grabs attention. I honestly think the reason it got so many dislikes is because we all expect so much from designers like Hilfiger. I do it a lot, so when something is easy or meh, I think negative, when it's really just a good enough scent but not a great one. I shunned Armani and D&G for that very reason, only to realize once I try their fragrances, that I was a bit rude, in the same way that Im rude to Boss by expecting them to be outstanding. I still get outraged by some releases by high end designers trying to decipher exactly what they were thinking when they came out with it (eg: Armani Code Sport) But hey, everyones a critic.

Been using this the last few days for work, have to admit I was not that keen on it at the start but it has grown on me. It's a good fresh scent that has decent longevity for a fragrance of this type and price range. Similar to other fresh scents but has some unique masculine characteristics. where the original Tommy would be more casual and carefree, EST 1985 is more mature, probably more for a work/office environment. Where I live we're currently experiencing a heatwave and it has been serving me well in cloying heat, definitely a summer fragrance, just give it a few outings and you might develop a liking for it.