Helmut Lang Helmut Lang 2000 Eau de Cologne

Version from 2000

Helmut Lang (2000) (Eau de Cologne) by Helmut Lang

Bottle Design:
Marc Atlan

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8.2 / 10 140 Ratings

A popular perfume by Helmut Lang for men, released in 2000. The scent is floral-fresh. The production was apparently discontinued.

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Main accords

Floral

Fresh

Powdery

Spicy

Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Lavender

Rosemary

Heart Notes

Heliotrope

Lily of the valley Jasmine

Jasmine

Rose

Base Notes

Musk

Cedar

Sandalwood

Patchouli

Perfumers

Maurice Roucel, Dragoco

Ratings

Scent

8.2140 Ratings

Longevity

6.7107 Ratings

Sillage

5.8106 Ratings

Bottle

7.7110 Ratings

Value for money

7.219 Ratings

Submitted by Seglein, last update on 03/25/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Helmut Lang (2014) Eau de Cologne

Boy

The Original

Aberdeen Lavander

Chloé (2007) Eau de Parfum

Ultimate

Reviews

6 in-depth fragrance descriptions

12/18/2012

7.5
Bottle 5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 5
Scent

Drseid
821 Reviews

Drseid

4

Couldn't Get Past The Powder...

Helmut Lang edc opens with a combination of floral lavender and powdery heliotrope which remains throughout. The floral aspects couple with a very light and easy to wear musk that is not really animalic at all. Hints of jasmine, patchouli and sandalwood in the base add just a very small amount of sweetness to the scent. Projection is average and longevity is above average (and quite long for an edc).

Helmut Lang edc's scent immediately reminds me of a cross between baby powder and Johnson's baby oil. This is not really a bad smell, but the very fresh powdery/oily nature while eminently wearable is quite linear and more than a bit of a letdown for me after experiencing the great heights of the suede leather king Cuiron from the same brand. I feel Helmut Lang edc is certainly inoffensive enough for just about anyone to wear (and very unisex), but if I want to smell like baby powder or baby oil they can both be acquired for far less cost than the relatively lofty prices Helmut Lang edc is going for on eBay nowadays due to its discontinuance. I can't really give this a thumbs down as it is pleasant enough, but I definitely do not recommend a buy and it is not my cup of tea at all. I give Helmut Lang edc a very average 2.5 stars out of 5 for the scent, but much lower on the value scale.

05/28/2012

7.5
Bottle 5
Sillage 5
Longevity 8
Scent

Apicius
224 Reviews

Apicius

2

Pre 9/11 Coolness

Helmut Lang's Cologne from 2001 was only available for a few years. It's a shame, because it is a very decent perfume. The pyramid shows us a herbaceous start, but I do not get much of the announced lavender. There is a discreet floral heart, and a dominating patchouli and musk basenote.

Two things are special: The abstinence from any citric notes and the blend of the florals. I'd say that Heliotrope and Lily-of-the-valley might dominate it, not rose and jasmine. However, they are discreet enough to go into a gent's fragrance. Unlike the name might indicate, Helmut Lang's Cologne is not an Eau de Cologne, it has at least Eau de Toilette strength.

Despite woods and patchouli, this perfume gives me an impression of lightness and brightness. It is quite cool, urban and elegant, and a good office wear. I'd say it very well fits into that era at the start of the Millennium, with its optimism, its new market and internet euphoria.

The downfall of the so called new market and - of course – 9/11 had strong impact on peoples life. The change came overnight, and fashion changed quickly. Optimism was gone, and so were pastel colours and puristic coolness. People started what we since then call cocooning. Romanticism was the new style, not urbanity. Men even started wearing frill shirts. And some terrific new perfume releases weren't fitting in any longer – such as Gucci's Rush for Men and Helmut Lang's Cologne. With their puristic and modern appeal, I guess they became shelf warmers.

I have never worn this pale patchouli fragrance very often, but I always liked it. Today, others have picked up the idea of light, musky patchouli fragrances, i.e. the slightly more opulent N° 203 from Micallef's Art Collection. So after all, we do have alternatives.

09/28/2020

BrianBuchanan
351 Reviews

BrianBuchanan

1

Faux de cologne

Basically just synthetic lavender & rosemary with heliotrope. There are white florals to fill in the gaps, some powder and a woody base, but I find it sharp and tedious, like someone who talks too loud and doesn't have much to say.

2*+

2ml vial in a baggie lined with a white tissue, judging by the design it's the original one.

11/08/2013

2.5
Bottle 2.5
Sillage 5
Longevity 9
Scent

Flavorite
240 Reviews

Flavorite

Herbal, Spicy and a Little Dirty

This cologne is discontinued which is how I found myself justifying purchasing 3 bottles recently...I'll admit to hoarding if everyone else will admit that hoarding discontinued classic fragrances is actually a service to Humankind. I'll wait...
Meanwhile, Helmut Lang is a very wearable easy to love translucent, but not weak Men's cologne that could work on a woman as well, although in my case it starts to smell dirty and sweaty almost immediately and I feel uncomfortable in it, due to my own unique body chemistry. It reminds me of a French professor I had in college who was highly trained, rigid and pompous in his presentation and very clearly fluent in the language, however typically failed to shower, check his nose for extraneous materials and trim his moustache before lectures...I was unable to focus on anything other than hoping and praying that his bodily fluids and the rancid sour aroma from his unlaundered tweed jacket would not transfer onto me during his ranting exuberant monologues on proper French verb conjugation. Or maybe,it's my aversion to patchouli...whatever.

On top is a lovely natural Rosemary, which I personally feel is under utilized into todays fragrances. Than I catch Lily-of-the-Valley and dry somber rose, not audacious and in bloom. I try to imagine being a man when wearing this, because although I feel it is truly unisex...I feel it was designed for a Man of distinction as a unique signature scent. The dry down really lets that patchouli run free and tangos with a watery cedar note that is now old hat but was innovative back in the mid-90s. Ultimately this settles into a dry powdery smooth subtle cologne that will leave only a faint trace of a signature on the clothes of the wearer. I couldn't get my DH excited about this one- he will stick with my bottle of Serge Luten's Five O'clock aux Gingembre. Off to the market it will go, but I am glad I had the chance to fully experience a now extinct classic Men's Cologne. If you like Karl Lagerfield or some of the older light classic herbal spicy men's colognes hunt this one down. You will find this and usually simple yet uncommon herbal balm with soft sillage but long lasting and actually very good, provided your grooming and attention to personal hygiene outmatch my French Professor's.

07/06/2018

9
Bottle 4
Sillage 7
Longevity 10
Scent

Parma
36 Reviews

Translated Show original

Parma

Top Review 29

The Original

In this commentary, I would just like to briefly describe the difference I feel in comparison to the reissued fragrance of 2014. You can find all detailed information about that fragrance and its history in my commentary.

I will precede this with a quote from the perfumer Maurice Roucel (also responsible for the new edition and creator of Lalique pour homme lion, Musc Ravageur, New Haarlem, Rochas Man, Nautica Voyage and others), who gave the following answer to the question "What has been done to reinvigorate it? It is simply a rebirth." (Source: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/pabgvg/the-smell-of-nostalgia-with-helmut-lang)

So it's actually the same scent. Actually, it's because I can see a slight difference. Also the pyramid (or non-pyramid, which I can't reproduce here at parfumo for the successor, because it already has a course and which is better illustrated e.g. with fragrantica and basenotes in my opinion) has some other ingredients.

Fragrance:

In my opinion, the clearest difference lies in the greater freshness of the original, in which the lavender note seems more pronounced to me. This freshness is evident throughout the fragrance, while in the successor it is not as pronounced (no lavender in the "pyramid") and is quickly replaced by a subtle but dominant vanilla note. It also helps to give the impression of fresh laundry even more and to make the scent softer and (even) more harmless.
Compared to the 2014 fragrance, this slightly erotic note hardly comes out and the fragrance looks a bit like clean baby powder. In my perception the woody and vanilla note is also not so clearly pronounced. I don't notice a flowery impact in either of the two versions.

Durability and Sillage:

The durability is as with the successor for a Cologne very tidy. 2-3 hours it is very well perceptible on my skin, whereby smells on my skin keep mostly below average long. After that it is still pleasantly perceptible for 3-4 hours. The radiation only moves slightly above skin level in the first hour.

Result:

The original is the somewhat fresher version and seems even cleaner and gentler than its successor from 2014. According to Maurice Roucel, Helmut Lang's original intention for the design of the fragrance, "He wanted the jus to smell of his boyfriend's secretions on clean sheets" (source: http://www.cafleurebon.com/perfume-news-helmut-lang-relaunches-helmut-lang-eau-de-parfum-cologne-and-cuiron/), is thus better fulfilled, especially for the second part of this expectation. In my opinion, the first part will be better hit by the successor fragrance.
In addition, I have the impression that the original is somewhat less synthetic. But here I'm talking about a barely perceptible artificiality that shows itself in nuances in the woody drydown of the 2014 fragrance.
In both cases, it is an absolute unisex scent, which is also marketed as the successor. The original was still declared as men's fragrance.

I'm a big fan of this fragrance, as my comment on the reprint page shows, and now also of both versions.

P.S.:

Among many other great reviews here to this fragrance and also to compare the two on the side of the successor (Terra, DaveGahan101, Grabsplatter, Apicius) you can find a very detailed one in the youtube commentary by Siebter (see below).

Additional info:

(added on 07.07.2018)
By the hint of the dear perfume ivko I learned that the fragrance was already available before the official release in the year 2000! After that he was already distributed, together with the Eau de Parfum, from 1997/98 in a men's boutique called "Holy's" in Stuttgart. Holy's was run by the Holy brothers, grandsons of Hugo Boss, who had headed Boss for many years, later launching Strellson and Windsor, and after leaving Boss in 1995 founded Holy AG. Outletcity Metzingen is still operated under this AG today. According to ivko, the flacons had silver lids, which you can see in the video of Siebter. In the process they must have switched to black caps. Unfortunately, I could not yet understand when this changed and whether there was even a change in the character of the fragrance, as it is currently not possible to "decode" the batch codes of the Lang fragrances on the net. Also an email inquiry with the Helmut Lang Costumer Service in this respect remained unsuccessful. The employees had no way to ascertain that.

Who has further information to the smell, can announce itself gladly with me. I would be very happy and thankful for every hint :)

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