Cacharel pour L'Homme Cacharel 1981 Eau de Toilette

Which perfumes do you recognise from their heyday?
Eau Sauvage? Opium? Fahrenheit?
How about Cacharel pour l’Homme from 1981?
It’s well made, distinctive and coherent, but it has a major flaw – it’s built around
nutmeg and not much else.
It’s like an 80's tune with a catchy riff - which everybody knows but nobody listens to any more.
And in the same way, I bet many who wore Cacharel pour l’Homme in the 80’s don’t wear it now, no matter how good it seemed back then.
A less gimmicky, and arguably, less distinctive perfume is Antaeus (1981) which has grown out of its niche on the gay scene to rumble on with a small but general
following.
This ability to go beyond place and time is a quality that the bold, but less nuanced Cacharel pour l’Homme doesn’t have. It was a big hit in its day, but it didn't last.
And the reason for that is, unlike a perennial classic like Kouros (also 1981) which - thanks to its conservative structure - is a fixed star in the heavens, Cacharel pour l’Homme was a flash in the pan, a shooting star that burned bright for a season but died when the gimmick got stale.
These days, Cacharel pour l’Homme is a marginal perfume, and rightly so: it was one of the first perfume jingles.
I mean, who wants to smell of nutmeg all day?

Cacharel pour L'Homme (vintage) opens with a very nice bergamot open before quickly switching to a natural cedar wood and lemon tandem. Joining the woods and lemon in the heart of the scent is an almost cinnamon-like nutmeg that starts off as a supporting note, but as time passes gets stronger and stronger until the lemon completely fades and the cedar now acts in support of the now dominant nutmeg in the latter heart phase of the scent. Oakmoss, fir and musk round out the key base notes now joining the remaining cedar as the nutmeg finally recedes during the sublime musk-laced woody dry-down. Projection is average and longevity is below average to average.

Cacharel pour L'Homme (vintage) was a complete surprise, and all to the positive. When I first applied it on skin I immediately was impressed, but its early woody lemon transition from the initial bergamot seemed to come out of nowhere, reminding me of what I hoped I would have smelled with Monsieur Balmain but instead found it a bit too synthetic when I tried it versus the much more natural and sophisticated woody lemon exhibited here. Just when I got used to enjoying that lemon and wood tandem, again the scent took yet another turn in transitioning to a spicy nutmeg scent before its final transition in the final stage of the scent's development to its cedar musk and fir dominant dry-down. Each phase is so well-defined and truly outstanding in both smell and execution by the parfumier Gerard Goupy. Its bottle may look more than a bit dated, but Carcharel pour L'Homme (vintage) is an absolutely timeless amazing smelling classic that is well-deserving of its "near masterpiece" 4.5 stars out of 5 rating. This one is a "must buy" in my book.

I'm a 52yr old man who grew up in the 1970s. My curiosity with fragrances began in the latter part of that decade. My now departed Father wore only 2 different fragrances. Grey Flannel or Halston Z-14. I was 8 going on 20 and the fragrance seed was indeed planted. Fast forward to 1987 and a 3rd fragrance hit my senses like a thunderbolt. That fragrance was the Mediterranean Classic from 1949 Acqua di Selva. A cousin of mine wore the crap out of that one and then that was it. My interest grew legs and I bought myself a bottle of the Italian Eau de Cologne. From them on in I was hooked, buying any Masculine fragrance my nose agreed with. The major ones were Kouros (1981), Lapidus PH (1987) Azzaro PH (1978) and Tuscany (1984) just to name a few. Today I have well over 400 bottles and the list continues to expand but I'm not keen on the fragrances made after 2010 because of what those criminals over at the IFRA have done to perfumerie. So as a result I constantly search for those Vintage classics not butchered by those perfumed bureaucrats and it's turned into quite an undertaking but I get a lot of joy out of it and I know what I'm buying when I go vintage. I will say in passing however that I DO like the Niche perfume output and to me that's satisfactory. But I digress, if it's a classic fragrance I'm looking for I won't waste my efforts going to the mall or anywhere else...

One of the last fragrances I've purchased was Cacharel Pour L'Homme and of course it's a Vintage bottle. The quality of the ingredients is just plain better than anything being used nowadays and I've heard many negative reports on the current formulation so why would I waste my time???? I'll always pay the extra money for ANYTHING made before the year 2000. And btw IMHO the greatest era for perfumerie was 1965-2000. So there you have it whether you agree with it or not. :)

The scent blew my nose and brain (I could even feel the pitting of my brain and paralysis of the olfactory cups) when I first smelled it. And from this fragrance, and somewhere there is a twin and more delicate Malizia Uomo (vetiver-green), my true passion for fragrances and perfumes began.
It was many, many years ago abroad.
Pitting site: Italy
Region: Tuscany
Years: 80/90
Fragrance: CACHAREL pour L'HOMME.
Subject affected by the shock wave: a teenager from Poland.
This fragrance was used by my uncle (Italian) who got it from my aunt in a nice set (perfume, deodorant and soap that looked like stone / rock).
The smell is insane - for my nose it was a mixture of all the herbs that I had been getting to know in Italy for several years every summer, and which I did not know too much (apart from nutmeg or marjoram). Today it will sound funny, but basil, oregano, then it was not available in Poland - but there were other delicacies available, e.g. vinegar :-)
What does my nose smell / feel (as I started to be able to call what I feel): just nutmeg, marjoram, oregano, conifers, sandalwood, clove (with some other slightly floral notes) and VETIVERIA.
A beautiful combination, drilling into the brain and paralyzing the quoted olfactory cups. As I read opinions and reviews - people often write 'before reformulation', 'after reformulation' and the review is about complaining ... as if I were listening to old grandparents ... in my time it only smelled ... and how women smelled, and what mushrooms were and what fish .... AND WHO CARES THAT? - how it smelled. PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW HOW IT SMELLS AND IS IT WORTH, not to listen to complaints, but what to do when someone finds pleasure in describing that he touched the Pope, or that he saw the start of the shuttle ... Nothing, lick the taste and congratulations.
So in short: the fragrance is no longer strong, but it smells beautiful and it is worth having it in your collection, at least having a sample and a mold. The fragrance for an elegant tough guy attracts the attention of women, although they do not always like it, but they do not remain indifferent. Tested many times ;-)
From high school, studies, work, restaurants, public places, etc .....
A REALLY UNIQUE FRAGRANCE. BIAŁY KRUK is for me and one of my favorites, to which I often come back and I'm glad that they are producing it again (because there was a moment that not !!!). So don't screw your nose as it was, just try and buy ... even a sample.

Well, what a journey! Cacharel pour Homme is certainly a unique one! I don't think I have ever smelled something like it before, whether designer or niche.

It is a composition based around Nutmeg and Citrus. When I tried it for the first time I thought it smelled "weird" and too unusual for me. Like an old anitque bookshop or a car repair garage. It had a smell of old rusty metal and dust. But I talked to a few people who love it and wore it, and I started to appreciate it more. Basically, this is a unique, refined, very elegant scent. But you need to appreciate it. It strikes me as very refined, like a "gentleman's" smell. I mean old fashioned gentleman with nice clothes and hat and stick. Like Sherlock Holmes. Actually it also reminds me of the smell of clothes a little. Like when you are in the back of a vintage clothes shop and you can smell all the material, like the wool and fabric. Gentlemen's winter coats and ladies fur coats. But, I tested it again with an open mind, and I started to appreciate it more.

The combination is mainly between nutmeg and bergamot. The rest of the notes play a part to support these two main ones. So for me all the herbs like lavender and sage etc come together to help the bergamot, along with vetiver and musk, carnation, lilly-of-the-valley, ylang-ylang & sandalwood etc all supporting the nutmeg. It's actually quite a complex scent! and yes, I've grown to like it more and more!

Another reason why I think this is nice, is because it doesn't smell like the other typical 1980's style perfumes (I mean loud or strong)! It is light enough to not offend anyone, and I think it has a unique sweet smell that comes through in the dry down. I know women who wear it and I think it's because it has a floral quality which shows especially in the dry down.

So in conclusion, I think people should check this one out, because I can't think of another fragrance with a prominent nutmeg note (could be niche)? and also because it doesn't smell like it was made from that era. It's light and sweet and floral enough to be worn by anyone, regardless of sex. A very pleasant smell and it doesn't smell like anything out there in my experience. Very pleasant and nice. In the drydown it even smells like warm skin, it's really nice like that. Could be a warm, seductive smell if worn in the right occasion. Alluring. It's also quite inexpensive, and although I am not a huge fan of the bottle, it looks pretty unique too. So if you like nutmeg and fresh flowers... check this out!