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If you are looking for a new scent to add to your male grooming repertoire, I have tried out a new fragrance from Italian fashion brand Trussardi. It’s called Uomo, and comes in a stylish black bottle trimmed in gold. It’s a real classy and elegant bottle, simple in it’s style with the gold top and writing.
Trussardi say ” Its notes are inspired by leather and Italianity: lemon, bergamot, galbanum, violet, geranium, salvia sclarea, musk, leather, and patchouli”.
What does that smell like? Well it’s a classic, manly smell, a hint of woody musk “man smell” as I call it, but not overpowering. It’s a one for the night, whether you’re out with the boys or with a lady, this works.
If you are looking for a classic men’s EDT and want something different from everyone else, this could be it.
I got the set which includes the shower gel and aftershave balm.
I got a sample of Salvatore Ferragamo Acqua Essenziale to try, and it smells pretty good. First of all I like the little sample bottle, it’s quite amazing how much detail and effort goes into some brands samples, and this is no different.
The smell itself is quite a fresh water, yet woody type of smell. It’s a grown up, refined masculine type of smell, definitely not fruity or any hint of citrus.
Just to show you the size difference in the bottles
I have been looking to get this fragrance for quite a long time. It’s called Santal by Floris London, and I have to say it smells amazing.
If you read my blog then you will know my favourite ever scent is Gucci Envy by Gucci, and they have now discontinued Gucci Envy, in fact they did quite a while ago. That means trying to find a bottle is very hard if not impossible, and when you do they are silly prices. I did some researching online and most people said that Floris Santal was most like it. I read one reviewer who said it was “A more refined Envy“. The problem was that this was not so easy to find either, not in store anyway. I wanted to smell it first before buying since it’s quite an expensive one (£75 for 100ml) and my parents happened to be in London and got me a sample. I loved it and now know why someone called it a “more refined Envy”, because that makes perfect sense.
After smelling it I ordered it online via their official site, and it came quickly, well packaged and with a sample of Night Scented Jasmine for women which I must say smells really good too.
I do love the bottle too, a proper old school bottle, and it’s made by a proper British perfume maker rather than just a fashion label who just happen to have released a fragrance which I also like.
So I think I have found my new #1 favourite scent. I said that I will only buy this from now on, but if you see my collection you probably know I will still buy more for variation 😛
These include scents which I have had for a long time, and some newer ones which I like. Back when I first starting wearing EDT and aftershave I used to have a tiny collection of only three; CK:One, Tommy Hilfiger and Cerruti. The Cerruti was really strong, and wearing too much meant you would be smelling it for a long time and people could smell you from a good distance, but it was a nice smell 😀 The favourite of those three was probably the Tommy, I wore it the most, but have not worn it since I was around 18 years old.
So, to my all time favourites, and here they are.
10. Vera Wang For Men – I think I got this in 2007 or 2008 and I like it. It’s a woody spicy kind of scent, and has a pleasant aroma.
9. Bleu De Chanel – An elegant typical man’s type of smell, perfect to wear on a night out.
8. BOSS Bottled Night by Hugo Boss – Again another great smell for a night, it has quite a warm smell.
7. Gucci by Gucci – Strong, woody and slightly peppery, but not over-powering. One of my favourites for sure, in fact I bought another 100ml bottle a few weeks ago.
6. D&G The One – Another woody type of smell, but not too strong. Despite being woody, it has a little fresh-ness to it.
5. Narciso Rodriguez For Him – I got this and fell in love with it. It’s spicy, fresh and slightly musky, and I really do like this one.
4. Lacoste Blue – I don’t think you can buy this any more, but I really love it. It now reminds me of the summer of 2006 where I had this and wore it a lot. A light fresh smell with a hint of spice, great for day or night wear.
3. Armani Code – Another one I have recently just re-bought in a 125ml bottle. A one for the night, it’s smell is inviting and addictive.
2. Bvlgari MAN – Almost my favourite, and it’s the one I currently use the most. The smell that has everything; Manly, woody, spicy and fresh, it’s like an old school classic scent which has been refined for the modern man. I have around 30% of a 50ml bottle left, then bought a brand new 100ml bottle!
1. Gucci Envy For Men – Of course it has to be number 1. I first got it in 2005, and right there and then it was my favourite, and nothing has changed. I used it sparingly, and ran out, then found and bought a bottle in 2009 only for it now to be discontinued. So I am down to the last and only bottle I am likely to have, so rarely use it.
If I had of known that then, I’d of bought a few bottles to keep me going! It’s a fresh, slightly citrus but nice and woody type of smell, and is very inviting. Not only a great smell but brings back great memories, so it has to be my all time number 1 scent.
In the last part of my fragrances I wrote about my least favourite fragrances, and now I will share which my “current favourite” fragrances are at the moment. I define current fragrances as the ones which are quite new or I have just got, and later I will share my all time favourites which I have.
Here are my current top 5 new favourites which I have.
5. Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb – A mix of a slight musk and fruity smell, but not the usual lemon or lime scent, it has a sort of hint of orange. I have only had this since Christmas 2012, but I do like it.
4. YSL La Nuit De L’Homme – I really like this. It’s a musky kind of smell but not too woody, and is great to wear for night, so it lives up to it’s “la nuit” name.
3. Kokorico by Jean Paul Gaultier – It’s in a cool bottle shaped like a head, and it’s quite a warm type of smell, and I like this a lot.
2. Calvin Klein Encounter – Because of the massive successes of scents like CK:One The Calvin Klein aftershaves seem a little less prestigious than other brands. However Encounter is amazing, I got it recently and I really do like it. Perfect for nights and going out, and could be worn through the day if you want to give your daytime a bit of a kick.
1. Chanel Allure Homme Sport Eau: Extreme – It’s a mouthful to say, but if you have the chance to get this then you should. Just the right mix of spice, woody and musk types of flavours, perfect for your night out.
If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that I love scents, fragrances and all things EDT and in between. I buy quite a few a year, and have collected so many over the years, some which I love, and some I am not too fond of. I would not like to say I don’t like a scent, there are one or two which I just did not like, but most of the time they are simply my “least favourite”, i.e. I like many others more so use these less.
This is part I which has my least favourites, parts II and III you will see my all time faves and current faves which I have only recently got.
So, in reverse order…
10. Gucci Guilty – I first got this and thought it was OK, it was not a bad smell and something different from a fresh or musk smell, so I got it. However I have not used it so much, and it’s nowhere near as nice as Gucci by Gucci or Gucci Envy.
9. Armani Diamond For Men – Quite a fresh and citrus smell, it’s actually decent, but it’s just not something which I wear much.
8. Prada Infusions – A very fresh type of smell, probably best worn in the day, it just didn’t have that stand out smell.
7. D&G Masculine – This has a very pungent tangy scent, very citrus like. I associate masculine with a woody type of smell, this is not that, as you’d expect from it’s yellow/greenish colour.
6. 212 MEN by Carolina Herrera – I got 212 Sexy MEN and I loved it, so I got this. It’s definitely different. Whereas Sexy 212 in the brown bottle i’d wear on a night, this is more of a fresh day time smell.
5. YSL Pour Homme – Again this is a very citrus like smell, and the smell of lemon hits you straight away. As you can see in the image above, I have used very little of this!
4. Juicy Couture Old English – You can see from the name and the colour that this is going to be a woody musky smell; And it is. It’s a little too woody for my liking, but if you like that kind of strong musk smell this would be great for you.
3. Paco Rabanne Ultraviolet MAN – It has the most odd smell, a sort of flower smell. The front is purple, and if purple had a smell, it would be this! 😛 I do love the bottle though.
2. Thierry Mugler A*MEN – I have to say I am disappointed with this. I got a tester and it seemed to be fine, but after using a real bottle I am not a fan. This is one of my newest scents I got for Christmas 2012, but I don’t like it. It has a very tangy smell when you first spray it, but it does tone down later. I think I have to give this more of a try, but I don’t think it will make my top fragrances any time soon.
1. Marc Jacobs – BANG! – We are at the #1 “least favourite” smell, and it’s this. I can describe this in one word: Pepper. It smells so much like pepper, and I have to say it’s probably the only scent I have which I would say I do not like. I bought this without sampling it, and I wish I did because I’d almost certainly not have got it. I got “Bang Bang” the follow-up scent (in the blue bottle) which I actually like, and is a much nicer scent.
I did get some brand new EDT’s and fragrances for Christmas, but I wanted to get some old favourites, but not any old bottles, I wanted the large bottles.
I usually buy 50ml bottles, and I have loads of them, I actually don’t know the number since I got new ones, but its somewhere more than 50. Since I have so many, and I wear different ones, I rarely run out of the same one, even my favourites. I recently bought a large Gucci by Gucci 100ml bottle, and have decided that I will buy my favourites in the larger bottles, to ensure I don’t run out.
Bvlgari MAN is one of my favourites, and I got it a couple of years ago, more or less when it was released. It’s such a really nice smell, and even though I have half a bottle left, I decided to get a large 100ml bottle.
I got Armani Code in about 2005 and loved it. It’s a real evening kind of smell, and when I smell it, it reminds me of going out, probably because I did wear this a lot 😀 It’s one of the few bottles I have which I actually ran out of, and I had not bought a new bottle, so have not had it since about 2007. I never ever got around to buying it again, since I wanted to try new scents, I love it but there are loads more out there. So, years later, I decided that I would re-live the past and get a bottle. Armani Code comes in an even bigger bottle, this is their biggest and is 125ml.
Large bottles do not come cheap, not for these anyway. the 100ml Bvlgari MAN was £58 and the Armani Code 125ml was £65. The girl on the counter said I had expensive taste 😉
Christmas is now over, but one of the things I love about it is that I get a whole load of new EDT’s and fragrances. This year I got 5 new ones which I have not had before, plus a large 100ml bottle of The One by Dolce And Gabbana, a scent I have loved since it came out years ago.
The new ones are Hugo Element by Hugo Boss, Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb, Diesel Only The Brave Tatoo, Calvin Klein Encounter and Thierry Mugler A*Men.
The Hugo Element is definitely the most fresh smelling, and is probably better suited for day wear. The A*Men is my least favourite smell, it’s very citrus-like and smells like it has a tang to it. I really like the CK Encounter, it’s the most woody of these but not too over-powering, a really great smell for the evening. The Diesel is similar, but a bit lighter, and Spicebomb by Viktor and Rolph is also great for evening wear, and has a slight orange type of smell to it.
I love having such a wide range to choose from, but I also think buying big bottles of my favourites is a good way to go, I got a large Gucci by Gucci a few weeks back. After doing research I found many people saying that as long as they are kept well, EDT’s and aftershaves can last for a number of years, so it’s worth getting your favourites in large bottles. I would also hate it if/when they start to discontinue my old faves like they have done with Gucci Envy.
It’s like an old friend! The above pic is from my blog in 2009, where I tried to find some Gucci Envy for men, it is so old and even 3 years ago it was quite hard to find, but I did find some and was over the moon. But now, it’s apparently ‘officially’ been discontinued, so I may never get my beloved scent again 🙁
I first got this at Christmas 2005, despite this fragrance being released in 1998, so wearing it throughout 2006 which was a great time for me. It was quite a crazy time, going out a lot in Newcastle meant I had to wear a scent, and most of the time I would choose this, my favourite. It’s not just the love of the smell, it’s the memories, the good times, Envy could tell so many stories! 😉
If you did not know already I love EDTs, aftershaves and smells, this was the last pic I took of them in March 2011…
Yep, a lot! 😀 Still, my all time favourite has to be Gucci Envy which you can see in the pic above on the right at the front.
I do of course love others, such as Narciso Rodriguez, Gucci by Gucci, Bvlgari MAN, and now Allure Homme Sport Extreme by Chanel. But the vast majority of the above I still really like, so picking one to wear is usually very hard 😛
ANYWAY…
So yesterday I decided that I would try and track down a bottle of Gucci Envy. I only have about half a bottle left, and I rarely use it because I like it so much and know I don’t have much left. My search got me nowhere. Nobody seemed to stock it. After reading a few forums it seems like it has been discontinued, and after searching for hours, could not find a bottle, not for a decent price anyway.
There are some stores abroad which are selling it for over £100 for the 50ml bottle and over £200 for the 100ml, that is terrible! Such a high price, but I do love it.
I decided to email as many of the websites which used to stock it as I could, so I emailed about 20 of them, and the vast majority said they had no stock, and would almost certainly be getting no more stock 🙁
I’ll continue my hunt to see if I can find some at a sensible price from a shop, the search goes on! 😉 If you’re looking for an alternative to this, try checking out my men’s fragrance reviews, where I can recommend something which is similar but obviously not the sadly discontinued Gucci Envy For Men.
A great alternative is Floris Santal. It’s a premium scent which is very close to Gucci Envy for men, but is still a scent on it’s own. Going forward this will be what I use, and is one of my favourite fragrances.
I picked up some Allure Hoome Sport Extreme by Chanel when I was in Stockholm Arlanda airport, and I have to say, I really, really like it.
It is a powerful type of scent, and I would recommend it for night use, although I like it so much I use it through the day 😀 It is quite a sensual smell, and it hits you right away, unlike some others which take a while to sink in.
As with Chanel this is quite expensive, this regular 50ml bottle cost me £52, which is usually the ball park price for a 100ml bottle of an EDT. It is worth getting if you do not buy a lot of aftershaves, and want something to get you noticed on a night out.
