Tsar Van Cleef & Arpels 1989 Eau de Toilette

Version from 1989

Tsar (1989) (Eau de Toilette) by Van Cleef & Arpels

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7.9 / 10 330 Ratings

A popular perfume by Van Cleef & Arpels for men, released in 1989. The scent is spicy-green. It was last marketed by Interparfums.

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Main accords

Spicy

Green

Woody

Fresh

Fougère

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Artemisia

Coriander

Rosemary

Lavender

Neroli

Bergamot

Heart Notes

Geranium

Juniper

Pine

Tarragon

Carnation

Jasmine

Lily of the valley Pepper

Pepper

Rose

Base Notes

Oakmoss

Amber

Cedar

Coconut

Leather

Musk

Patchouli

Tonka bean Vetiver

Vetiver

Sandalwood

Perfumer

Philippe Bousseton

Ratings

Scent

7.9330 Ratings

Longevity

7.4249 Ratings

Sillage

6.9243 Ratings

Bottle

7.1239 Ratings

Value for money

7.654 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 07/27/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Tsar (1989) After-Shave

Tsar Cologne

Nobile Eau de Toilette

Jazz (2011)

Jazz (1988) Eau de Toilette

Bon Monsieur

Reviews

13 in-depth fragrance descriptions

01/25/2012

7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 7
Scent

Missk
1357 Reviews

Missk

Very helpful Review 7

Green royalty

If you want masculine and sexy, look no further, Tsar is exactly what you need.

I'll admit that when I first sprayed this, I was almost blown over backwards by its boldness and strength. The opening was extremely overwhelming, a little too strong some would say.

However, giving it a few minutes to settle I found myself falling in love. Tsar is rich, masculine, spicy and complex. I couldn't help noticing a chocolatey like note which doesn't seem to be listed here. I'm not talking light and sweet milk chocolate, I'm talking strong, bitter and rich dark chocolate, liquefied and oozing.

Don't be afraid of the floral notes listed here, because I can assure you that they are very subtle. The coriander, green notes, lavender, juniper berries, caraway, leather, patchouli and amber dominate this fragrance.

Yes, the scent is a little soapy, especially in the drydown, but I don't find that a turn off at all. In fact I would definitely consider buying this for a man of great confidence and strength. Everything about Tsar screams masculinity and there's really nothing like it. It's a one of kind type scent.

06/19/2014

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Very helpful Review 6

smiling aromatic fougère

I tend to talk about the fougère as a stern, towering perfume and it often is. But Tsar reminds me of how soft the genre can be. Despite its ridiculous name, and blocky pseudo-Deco bottle, it's one of the cozier fougères. Lavender and coumarin don’t crash against each other quite so much as in many fougères. Lavender is always prominent, and the overall tone is much more floral and herbal than most fougères. It has precise harmonic range. Imagine taking a slice out of the enormous range of Azzaro pour Homme, which goes from subterranean to stratospheric. Take that of that range and then zoom in close. Fill-in the colors, more matte and rosy, less metallic than Azzaro, and you find Tsar’s specificity.

If the fougère fragrances of the 70s and 80s implied masculinity, Tsar suggested an easygoing, smiling guy who was comfortable with his manliness, feeling nether the need to amp it up nor to justify it. It’s hard not to associate this bunch with pick up lines and and amateurish performance of straight guy-hood. It has an odd theatricality like the stilted men's western casual wear of the time. Tsar fits the guy of the time who looked great in a suit, but look even better with his shirt sleeves rolled up.

In terms of tone and dynamics, Tsar lands somewhere between Azzaro pour Homme and Paco Rabanne pour Homme, which preceded it, and Jacomo Anthracite and Yves St. Laurent Jazz which followed. It is part of the cohort of fougères that were swept aside by the Cool Water tsunami.

08/05/2015

2.5
Bottle 5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 8
Scent

Drseid
821 Reviews

Drseid

Helpful Review 4

A Slow Successful Courtship...

*This is a review of vintage Tsar.

Tsar (vintage) opens with a mixture of sweet candied tonka bean, aromatic lavender and nose tingling bergamot citrus with green oakmoss support. Moving to the early heart, the tonka bean derived candied sweetness remains but is significantly diminished as the bergamot vacates, leaving the aromatic lavender joining with the now significant green oakmoss as it rises to co-star status with a hint of cinnamon spice, transparent vetiver, green pine and lily-of-the-valley add support. During the late dry-down the green Oakmoss takes control adding a slight powdery sheen to an emerging underlying moderately sharp cedarwood and hard leather co-starring duo through the finish with earthy patchouli support. Projection is average and longevity very good at 11-12 hours on skin.

Tsar (vintage) on paper looked like the kind of composition that would wow me from the get-go, but in actuality that wasn't the case. It turns out this is a composition that it takes many outings to appreciate to the fullest. The initial thing that made it difficult to love was the candied tonka bean derived sweetness that permeates the open and the early heart. As one who dislikes relatively sweet compositions this was more than a bit off-putting. That said, the sweetness only hangs around for the first hour or so before becoming nearly unnoticeable. What *is* noticeable, is the considerable oakmoss used throughout Tsar's development, driving the composition from start to finish in many ways. Early-on, it meshes quite well with the aromatic lavender and later-on it becomes a key linchpin to countering the rugged leathery finish. While there are a gob of ingredients in Tsar, one additional ingredient that bears mentioning is the very deft use of earthy patchouli in the base that works perfectly with the rugged leathery greens late. Coming back to the opening statement, Tsar takes a while to completely win the wearer over, but with each successive wearing, nuances like its florals, subtle cinnamon spice or even the barely detectable but quite key vetiver make for a very interesting journey, one that ended up impressing this writer. The bottom line is the approximately $50 per 50ml bottle on the aftermarket Tsar (vintage) may not grab one like many other winners from the 80s, but its slow wooing of the wearer ultimately succeeds, earning it a "very good" to "excellent" 3.5 to 4 star rating and a solid recommendation to vintage perfume lovers.

02/26/2022

6
Pricing 8
Bottle 4
Sillage 5
Longevity 9
Scent

Elysium
887 Reviews

Elysium

Helpful Review 5

As Far As The Greats Go

For the uninitiated, Van Cleef & Arpels is a French jewellery company of the highest level, created in the late 1800s. Its master jewellers have designed pieces for royalty. Just think of the wedding set of the beautiful Princess Grace of Monaco, and still today, we find their precious jewels in luxury boutiques around the world. And Tsar is a masterpiece, an emerald in the world of perfumery. But what does Tzar mean? According to Wikipedia, Tzar also spelt czar, or csar, is a title used to designate the Eastern and Southern Slavic monarchs. In the latter capacity, he lends his name to a system of government, the tsarist autocracy or tsarism. The term derives from the Latin word Caesar, which must have meant "emperor" in the medieval European sense of the term. A sovereign with the same rank as the Roman emperor, who held it for the approval of another emperor or a supreme official clergyman (the pope or the ecumenical patriarch), was usually considered by Western Europeans to be equivalent to "king". Tsar cologne is turning 30 something, and precisely it was launched in 1989. I was 25, and the scent sounded a bit too mature for my age, too much to bear. I knew it was good, so damn good, heralded as a solid and unmistakable identity, but I did not dare and passed it. So, this fragrance slipped under my radar until five years ago. Now I am ready for it.

Is it a "Pour Homme (Eau de Toilette) | Van Cleef & Arpels" flanker? No, it is not. It is more elegant, metrosexual, less rude and manly. Let's immerse ourselves in the perfume. First, the cologne loses some of the classic fougère and focuses more on the aromatic and green aspects. As soon as the juice touches my skin, I get an explosion of aromatic and green accords. Be careful because the sprayer is generous and releases a massive amount of fluid with a single splash. The top features many greens, moist, and herbaceous notes. It reminds me of a digestive liqueur made from hundreds of herbs. Bitter mugwort and herbaceous lavender are noticeable and masterfully blended with savoury rosemary and lemon coriander. Dried lavender, almost hay-like, becomes prominent after a few minutes, calming and relaxing. Citrus and flowers don't stand out too much, but they are there to tame the otherwise overly aromatic edges. In the initial stage, I can get a fresh and delicate atmosphere. The first squirt will knock you down, but wait and let it grow.

Let the boisterous opening settle down and soon exude a spicy floral accord. Again, it's not a dominant floral heart, and the flowers are very subtle. Instead, the bouquet of creamy white and red flowers amalgamates with some spices and resins. Cinnamon is most noticeable here, with balsamic juniper berries and resinous pine needles. I feel a hint of powdery iris root, and I imagine perfumed talcum powder clouds. Not as dominant or with a lipstick vibe as in modern colognes like Dior Homme Original (2011) Eau de Toilette and Valentino Uomo (2014) Eau de Toilette. The intermediate phase is strongly balsamic, scented with woody scents. It isn't easy to pick the rose or lily as a stand-alone note in this resinous realm.

And then comes the drydown, with a mossy, leathery base. The scent becomes a little soapy and clean but excellently in the final stage. Soapy, but far from the traditional barbershop. There is amber wood stained with musky oak. The excellent birch note smells the most in this context for what it is rather than as a leather substitute. In this recent version, sandalwood and patchouli are subdued.

Tsar doesn't smell as complex or sophisticated as the myriad notes listed above suggest. I'm not afraid to use the words retro and old school here because this cologne belongs to that genre. A good daytime fragrance that also wears well in the evening. It is more appropriate for late autumn and early spring cold months. While I think it smells like the eighties, it's still a compliment attractor. A couple of people I work with, a man and a woman, said to me, "What good perfume are you wearing? What is it?"

I base my review on a 100ml bottle I have owned since December 2017 (BC 01h12h047, 2017-02-16).

-Elysium

04/24/2022

8
Pricing 7
Bottle 7
Sillage 7
Longevity 10
Scent

manlyscents
96 Reviews

manlyscents

4

No longer an oakmoss bomb

The first time I sprayed the reformulated Tsar I was taken aback... the opening is much more floral than I expected. The rose and carnation mix with the bergamot, neroli, rosemary, and juniper berries to create a wonderful melange. Only then do the pine, oakmoss, and woods come in. Don't let the all-green bottle fool you, this isn't a green bomb, this to my nose is 1/3 floral, 1/3 green, 1/3 woody. I feel it is important to stress this given its asking price nowadays - you might not want to send for a pine tree and receive a bouquet of roses instead.

Having said that, Tsar is a very classy and vibrant aromatic made with quality ingredients - well worth the hype.

On a negative note, projection and sillage are decent for the first hour, but then on me it becomes a skin scent within 3 hours of applying, but YMMV. As a result I overspray or reapply and had to acquire backup bottles.

Masculinity Level: Sonny Corleone in a tuxedo at the wedding, about to bang the bridesmaid against the door.

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