Van Gils pour Homme Van Gils 1988 Eau de Toilette

First of all, my review is for the vintage version; I’ll leave the watered-down floral water that you can still find today as it is.

The old, genuine version of the fragrance gives everything from the first second. A moment after spraying, you have to wait for the notes to settle, but then it starts: The bitter verbena and a hint of bergamot come out at the beginning, but are quickly overlaid by the herbs. Here comes the dusty, albeit soapy heart note, which lingers on the skin for quite a while until amber and musk form the closing part and integrate beautifully into the potpourri. One could say it smells like dusty soap, but in a positive sense. Everything just fits with VG Pour Homme.

I see deficiencies in the downright ugly ribbed plastic bottle, which visually is not a beauty, and on the other hand, the bottle does not reveal its contents no matter how hard you try... I managed to snag a 100ml vintage bottle here in the forum, as well as recently on eBay the same bottle for a more than reasonable price. Who knows if this bottle is full or not?! I can only notice a difference in quantity between the bottles with a scale; otherwise, it’s just empty when nothing comes out. :-)

Overall, I find Pour Homme distinctive enough that I could compare it to other fragrances.

Many have already mentioned Gianfranco Ferre, Kouros, Santos, and the like. However, I can only partially or not at all agree with those opinions. What the fragrance does have in common with the mentioned ones is the longevity and the statement it makes. Here, it’s simply powered up as much as it can, and to be honest, for festive occasions in a suit, I still think such a fragrance fits better than a 2021 Ambroxan bomb.