Man Pure (Eau de Toilette) by Jil Sander

Bottle Design:
Peter Schmidt

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Schon vom Platzieren des Flakons rochen meine Finger nach Muskatellersalbei... (by ElAttarine)

Man Pure Jil Sander 1981 Eau de Toilette

Ranked 463 in Men's Perfume

8.5 / 10 240 Ratings

A popular perfume by Jil Sander for men, released in 1981. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. The production was apparently discontinued.
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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Leathery

Animal

Earthy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Basil

Clary sage Oregano

Oregano

Lemon

Heart Notes

Carnation

Geranium

Patchouli

Cinnamon

Base Notes

Labdanum

Oakmoss

Castoreum

Cedarwood

Nutmeg

Perfumer

Jacques Artarit

Ratings

Scent

8.5240 Ratings

Longevity

8.5192 Ratings

Sillage

7.8190 Ratings

Bottle

7.8196 Ratings

Value for money

7.139 Ratings

Submitted by Megantic · last update on 11/26/2025.

Source-backed & verified

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Scent 79 Man (2012)

Man Pure After Shave

Scent 79 Man (2008)

Itasca

Patou pour Homme (1980) Eau de Toilette

Catalyst for Men Eau de Toilette

Reviews

27 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/13/2013

10Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

MemoryOScent
37 Reviews

MemoryOScent

Helpful Review 5

too good to be forgotten

Jil Sander Man Pure is a dear old favourite. If my memory serves me well it was the second perfume I ever bought and I have a vague recollection of buying it in an airport in the mid 80?s. Not to be confused with the woody aquatic Jil Sander Pure for Men which I also have but prefer not to talk about…. In the 00?s the house of Jil Sander was in a bad place…. No matter what you expect from a masculine scent released in 1981 don’t forget that we are talking about the high priestess of minimalism. It opens with the smell of dry herbs and grey suede. The herbs are dry and subtle, like opening a jar of oregano leaves, and the leather is clean and pale, like Jil Sander’s clothes. There isn’t the slightest hint of sweetness in this composition. As it warms on skin it becomes soapy, like the scent left after bathing with expensive soap and incense adds some warmth to the almost marble-like effect of coldness.

Man Pure, as the name implies is a ritualistic scent. The more it develops the cleaner it smells in an almost obsessive way. It sheds the layers of delicate herbs and soft, slightly smoky leather and reveals a skin white as porcelain, flawless, clean, statuesque. Soap, incense and a texture that reminds me of rice paper stay on the skin and create an effect of relaxation and calmness. There is a dark side to it though. All this obsessive pursuit of purity from a perfume created in 1981 and the combination of soap and incense seem more like a statement than a perfume. Purity and cleanliness become ideas that point the finger and demand devotion. In the end Man Pure smells like political propaganda. It makes me wonder what drew me to this scent so much when at the same time I was interested in much stronger and expressive scents that were widely available in the market. The chill and austerity that Jil Sander Man Pure is has marked a side of my perfume persona that still exists alongside a more flamboyant one that seeks weird, bold perfumes, like the two faces of Janus. In a more concrete way Man Pure left me with an obsession for Jil Sander perfumes and I have enjoyed all of them until Sander for Man in 1998 , the last perfume of the line that had some spark of genius.

07/09/2019

10Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

Can777
257 Reviews

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Can777

Top Review 45

The Aesthetics of Nothing

The perfect cut. Silhouettes. Sharp and soft at the same time. The art of minimalism. The perfection of simplicity in completion. No one mastered it like Jil Sander. She made a lot out of little. The fashion she created was for women and men with self-confidence and strength of character who filled her creations with their own selves. Clean, pure, and simple. While her fashion often leaned towards minimalism, her perfumes did not always follow suit. Her perfumes were not meant to accentuate her fashion, but rather the wearer themselves. In the cosmos of Sander, women and men have always been equally placed in
self-confidence, strength of character, and style. What she did for women, she did equally for men. Thus, in 1981, she created Jil Sander Man Pure. She measured the man and crafted an aura from perfect molecules. The molecules of pure masculinity, sovereignty, and elegance. Jil Sander Man Pure

The fragrance
As seemingly cool and distant as Jil Sander's fashion, the fragrance begins. Cool and almost somewhat static Mediterranean herbs open the top note. Slightly citrusy and metallic-bitter. Comparable to a precise, sharp scissor cut through fabric. Floral and spicy notes are added. Notably clove and geranium. The most masculine flowers, in my opinion. They weave through the heart note like a fine and stylish seam. The spice and the herbal-bitter progression gradually become deeper and warmer through nutmeg and fine accords of cinnamon. All transitions to the individual notes are perfectly coordinated and as fluid as the pinstripes on a perfect tailored suit. As for the base, Jil Sander Man Pure is pure perfection. It almost stitches the individual notes or rather cut pieces together. A deep-warm and leathery castoreum releases the deepest animal warmth and fuses with a smoky-soft and protective oak moss.

Conclusion
With Jil Sander Man Pure, Jil Sander has given men a silhouette of sharp yet soft contours. One could be naked with this fragrance and still be perfectly dressed as a man. This perfume may initially feel cool, fresh, and sterile upon first contact with the skin, but that is a great deception. In no time, Jil Sander Man Pure spreads a deep, sensual, and sovereign aura of warmth and endless calm. And this lasts for many hours. This perfume is minimalism in its most excessive form. The olfactory language of masculine aesthetics.

The modern man does not need to know much about fashion, but must have the sensitivity to feel a good cut.
-Jil Sander-

In my opinion, this also applies to perfume in another form!

Updated on 07/09/2019

01/10/2024

10Scent 9Longevity 8Sillage

Axiomatic
150 Reviews

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Axiomatic

Top Review 57

The Imagined Man

1981
Start-up difficulties of the decade, as certain burdens from the 1970s must be overcome.
The second oil price shock, gigantic interest rate hikes in the USA as a crazy countermeasure, stagnation of the German economy, and rising unemployment.
New technologies are conquering the production process, creating innovative space in the entertainment industry.
That countermeasures had to be taken in the face of declining consumer sentiment is shown in the fragrance sector by the ultimate hits of the year.
In Paris, Greek heroes duel, the black Antaeus Eau de Toilette and the white "Kouros (Eau de Toilette) | Yves Saint Laurent," while in Hamburg, one remains composed.
One observes very closely how the individual quietly becomes aware of themselves and how the social interplay will be thrown into disarray.
The analog has danced itself out.

Insight.

Jil Sander demonstrated intuition and foresight when she was able to enlist Jacques Artarit for two of her legendary fragrances.
On board is Peter Schmidt as the designer of the bottles according to Bauhaus style guidelines. He will brilliantly show what form means.
Two cubes as containers, a cylinder as a cap.
The foundations of sober elegance.

Here now is the scent that should master the art of contrasts and their penetration.

Hiss!

The pure man opens green aromatic, slightly citrusy.
Very simple.
Seemingly.
For the oregano will contribute a very masculine spiciness, which is softened by the basil and marked herbally by the sage, slightly urinous.
In addition, there is a citrusy base that almost drifts into the ethereal.
Chypre as a film negative.

Brain activated.

Moving on.
Let’s not kid ourselves, the dispassionate heart will analyze the flowers soberly.
No overreaction.
The geranium offers no Black Forest idyll, dry and herbaceous, it finds its way into the big city without difficulty.
No romance.
Only the true feeling counts.
The powdery scent of the garden carnation falls like fine plaster from the concrete walls.
The precise ration of cinnamon colors the waves of Zen pebbles on patchouli grounds.

Tadao Andō.

Sensual.
Castoreum and oakmoss falsify the unthinkable.
With warming nutmeg, a new sexual aesthetic breaks with old habits.
Well-groomed, distant, and at the same time penetrating all senses.
The culmination of physical desire.
Black-and-white clarity.

Robert Mapplethorpe.

Man - naked - as a seated sculpture on chrome and leather.
Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair breaks surfaces, creates insights.
Torso chiseled.
Labdanum underscores with black leather, but does not cover.
Opposite the waiting couch - model Cassina by Le Corbusier - on wooden parquet.
Observation.
Silence.
Action.

Second sexual revolution.

Jacques Artarit masters the art of penetrating contrasts.
For where a strict fragrance progression should mark conclusions, he breathes an independent flicker into the pyramidal sections.
When one thinks they are in the base, the herbaceous green components of the top note suddenly reappear, the floral heart beats softly like behind a curtain.

Eisbär by Grauzone provides the perfect musical background.
Consistently, the group creates exactly the break with the 1970s that was long overdue.
Minimalistic and striking.
Not only does the polar cold reflect the contrast to retreating into the warm self, but the chaotic interruption of the dance rhythm clarifies the inseparable penetration of the fragrance levels, allowing the apparent solitary to dictate the rhythm in the next section until the next mixing.

Most convincing is the countering of previous animalistic notions.
Through the oakmoss, it experiences a peculiar purity.
The physical is discernible, but so refined that it seems staged. Nothing is left to chance.
This oxymoron elevates the flesh almost into the imagined.

Congenial are the flowers.
The classic theme of rose-patchouli is masterfully driven to near zero.
Geranium, always the shady companion of the magnificent rose in other fragrances, is allowed to present its herbaceous beauty here all alone, well-measured.
Dry and with subtly pleasant emotional control, for it is by no means emotionally cold.
It has merely learned from the wounds of the previous decade.
And these are gently covered with powdery garden carnation.

Labdanum as a fixative remains leathery, without immediately presenting a whole Mackermontur.
The balance between coarseness and refinement.
A small piece of leather, very restrained, very intimate.

And here closes the revolving, penetrating circle of the novel leather-chypre that has made history.

Pure perfection.

08/21/2020

10Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

Siebenkäs
65 Reviews

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Siebenkäs

Top Review 32

Storytime

Today I want to share how I recently fared during the baby-
sitting. Well - "baby" isn't quite the right word.
Max and Lottchen are four and five.
Not that you think I'm doing this for money - it's a pure
act of friendship. The parents are old friends, and to be honest,
I felt a bit honored that they reached out to me. Especially since the two
can be a bit wild at times. (I mean Max
and Lottchen, of course.)
After dinner (which went smoothly except for a pulled-out
bonsai) and a bit of television ("Farmer Seeks Wife"), the two finally lay down in their bunk beds.
"Tell us another story!" Max called from above.
"But a really long one..." Lottchen chimed in.
"Alright then..." I made myself comfortable on the edge of the bed.
"Once upon a time, there was a perfume..."
"What kind?"
"Quiet, Lottchen. Not one from your mom. So - it was a
beautiful morning, the sun was shining, and fresh and carefree, our Man Pure set out into the world.
That was indeed its name. Light floral-powdery aromas
mixed with fine hesperidic notes accompanied it, for they
were inherent to it in its rather pretty, Bauhaus-
inspired attire.
"No knight's armor...?
"Not really, Mäxchen, but certainly a very flattering garment. The sun rose higher in the sky...
"Which company is that?"
"Be quiet now! So - it got warmer, and now the elements
and nature spirits of the green, cheerful dwarf herb meadow stirred quite lively. But behind it - well hidden,
a gentle yet deep rumbling stirred...
"Maybe my Zotti...?"
"No, Lottchen, no. It was a fine, mossy chypre base.
Straight from the enchanted forest. For now, it merrily
entered the woods. And of course, there are also
some wild animals that you can smell. But no
worries, they are very sweet. The deeper Man Pure
goes into the forest, the more there is to discover. A goblin is making his little fire with wood and birch tar and all sorts of other things.
And some sweets are hidden somewhere under mossy
stones, somewhere in the unfathomable depths
of the Sander forest.
Of course, the good perfume also experiences a few
adventures along the way, but you are surely more interested in the
olfactory profile.
You shouldn't imagine the whole scent experience as
a big mess like in your room before cleaning up.
No, everything harmonizes quite naturally and easily with each other. The lightness is, as you
know, always the hardest. And there are no jagged transitions
here at all. Everything is perfectly blended and
feels so effortless and completely natural. The slightly earthy,
radiating from real oak moss and patchouli can be skillfully
held in check by our hero through almost honey-like
labdanum. And that is typical for our
Man Pure - it maintains all the different character traits
from fresh to spicy, floral, woody, and earthy to almost
moldy in calm, balanced harmony.
Completely unsynthetic and sovereign. Typical Libra
if you ask me. Interesting topic -
what zodiac signs do fragrances have - don't you think?
But back to the forest - later it meets the wicked fairy Ifra,
about whom I'd rather tell you another time.
And that results in... but let's leave that.
Today, the perfume is only available for a lot of money. For
example on eBay, with a lot, a lot of luck in mint condition.
A peculiar ending for a fairy tale, but you know what
Mr. Geiger says - unreservedly, the fairy tale overcomes
the hurdles of our current consciousness limitation, it knows for the eternal essence of
man, thus his entelechy, a "Once upon a time,"
but guides him through a "here and now" into a
"It will be once." By the way, you should read fairy tales more often yourself. And in general - read a lot, very
much. It took me decades to understand things
that I could have read in 10 minutes.
So, next time I might tell you about
the difference between smelling molecular shapes and perceiving quantum-based
vibrational differences, kids. Kids...? Hello...
Mäxchen... Lotti...“
Suddenly I notice how quiet it is. Only a
touchingly soft breathing and snoring can be heard.
How easy it is to bring children to calm when
you just pay a little attention to them.
Very quietly and on tiptoes, I sneak out of the
room...

11/24/2020

10Scent 10Longevity 9Sillage

DN1982
75 Reviews

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DN1982

Top Review 26

Giant of Scents

I have never given a fragrance a full 10 - not even to my all-time favorite Drakkar Noir. Always hoping that something would come along that would blow me away like nothing before. Now, the phase of 9 is finally over thanks to Man Pure, a milestone in men's fragrances. It was a few months ago when I dug out a few minis from the good Jil that had been languishing in the back of a drawer. There were Background and Man Pure. I had already disposed of one of the Man Pure minis years ago because it was no longer quite right. But I had a subtle feeling that MP was not entirely unknown to me. Time passed, and then there was still this little gem in the drawer. I expected nothing, as the other one had also gone off, or at least that’s how I felt at the time.

No, the Eau was not spoiled; this one was okay. When applied - it was like seeing an old friend again whom you haven't seen in a quarter of a century, like a rebirth in the early eighties. Man, I don't even know where to start from all the excitement. Okay, let’s start over: apply, rebirth in the eighties. Sweet basil meets sage and oregano. Sage is one of the few spices that can behave either like Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. I have the stuff in my garden, and there is a difference like day and night whether you use it dried or processed in some way or fresh. In the first case, it can spread its typical herbaceous-sour tingling kick, like you know from various cough drops, or in the second case, it can show its filthy side and become urinous and even foul-pestilent like a bouquet of flowers that has been sitting in the same water for a week. In MP, the sage primarily showcases the gentlemanly part, and together with citrus, clove, geranium, and patchouli, it creates a wonderful scent: a fresh-green-herbaceous soap. You’re groaning about the soap? I usually do too, because it always reminds me so much of cheap aftershaves and Toni's barber shop. Here, it looks a bit different. Even though the soapy note is the dominant part in large parts of the late top and early heart notes, nothing here feels cheap. Nothing is overwhelming, and nothing is lost; the right balance has been struck. It doesn’t even bother me that the soapy note makes itself comfortable in the heart of the fragrance for several hours before the previously bombastic scent elevates to the divine as it transitions from heart to base! Oakmoss in its purest form - sure, back then it was still allowed, the allergy issue was only spun out later - with the earthy patchouli, the beaver musk plays with the labdanum, unmistakably bitter is the nutmeg. Dominantly above, but never intrusive, the cinnamon perfectly rounds everything off.

But there was something else. Right, MP also has an animalistic side, and here Mr. Artarit has done no less than a good job, as it cannot be determined 100% whether it is just the beaver musk. I say no, because at this point, at least the sage is involved, which lets a little bit of the filthy side of the spices show and thus reveals its other side. And I strongly tend to believe that the labdanum also has its fingers in the animalistic game, and here too, the right measure has been found to the thousandth.

This fragrance, which had escaped my memories of the last 20 years, is one of THE fragrances of the 1980s! It presents itself multifaceted with clean freshness, is herbaceous-spicy-green, feels grounded and noble. It is above all doubt and is simultaneously damn sexy, not to say, even a little bit wicked.
The scent is clearly perceptible in all its phases, with a very high radiance. This is one that you don’t just drag behind you, but also push ahead of you, yet due to its perfect composition, it always remains a gentleman. For at least 12+x hours, of course. Yes, back then you still got something for your money (I would really be interested to know what it cost in Deutschmark in '81)! Where other fragrances from this era might elicit a "Hey, you smell like Dad (or Grandpa)," here it would likely be "Hey, you smell like Pa... But you... You smell... unfortunately awesome!"
MP was heard well into the nineties, yes, omnipresent, in my eyes one of the few milestones of men's perfumes, and it is truly a shame that it no longer exists. Yes, I know, allergenic and toxic stuff and the "EU of the cosmetics industry," which is trimmed similarly to the automotive industry... Or maybe it was just outdated? But hey, this was a fragrance for which it would have really been worth dying. And it still is... - damn!

Unfortunately, MP is not so easy to find today and certainly not cheap. If you want the DNA and are willing to forgo a few percent of the finest details of MP, feel free to contact me via PM, and I will name an alternative. And if you enjoy the also long-gone Halston Catalyst for Men and have no objections to an animalistic touch, you will find something you might like with MP (or the 719).

Updated on 01/18/2021

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