Windsor Ignacio Figueras 1918

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7.6 / 10 76 Ratings

A popular perfume by Ignacio Figueras for men, released in 1918. The scent is spicy-woody. It is still in production.

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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Sweet

Powdery

Fresh

Fragrance Notes

Spices

Woods

Ratings

Scent

7.676 Ratings

Longevity

6.667 Ratings

Sillage

6.367 Ratings

Bottle

6.656 Ratings

Value for money

8.826 Ratings

Submitted by Ironheart, last update on 06/03/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Varon Dandi / Varon Dandy (After-Shave) by Parera

Varon Dandi After-Shave

Floïd Mentolado Vigoroso

Knize Ten Toilet Water

Tabac Original Eau de Cologne

Carrington Cologne

Musk for Men Cologne

Reviews

6 in-depth fragrance descriptions

05/07/2021

5
Bottle 6
Sillage 7
Longevity 8
Scent

KimJong
64 Reviews

KimJong

3

Old school but sweet, almost oriental

Three respectable commentators below left very impressive reviews here, and after reading them I felt intense curiosity about Varon Dandy. I could easily find this on Amazon, and I blind bought a set of a EDT and a aftershave as if possessed by something. And I'm really glad to add this to my collection. This review I wrote here is about EDT.

Varon Dandy consists of a muddy scent the day after the rain, an incredibly intense spices, and a soft soapy sandalwood-like dry old wood scent. The muddy scent works just as well as Mitsouko does as a skin aroma, Varon Dandy's way is much bolder and rougher than Mitsouko. Spices are hard to tell exactly what the ingredients are, but they seem to be almost oriental. The woody scent reminds me of Old Spice or Tabac, but it's much spicier than them, and probably combined with a sweet thing like cinnamon or tonka bean, but it's not creamy though.

And there are old-fashioned red flowers, the type common in many old school male perfumes. I don't like this part very much because it gives me such a mature look, but it goes smoothly with the old-fashioned talkum powder, and eventually leaves the impression of a vivid red pocket chief in a black suit. Interestingly, Varon Dandy has a scent similar to Old Spice, but there is no 'working class' vibe compared to that, instead, there is a vibe like a gentleman from the past. - Gentleman of an age when the tradition of duel still lingers.

I would like to mention that this perfume is quite far from the image of Spain I had in mind. It is not an exaggerated macho scent, nor is it a fairy tale thing like Gaudi's architectures. Contrary to Carlitos01's view, I didn't get glamorous feeling in this, but rather a warm and mild-mannered feeling, like the eccentric father of Penélope Cruz in the film Belle Époque. This is my subjective impression of course.

05/20/2024

10
Pricing 4
Bottle 6
Sillage 8
Longevity 9
Scent

Axiomatic
60 Reviews

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Axiomatic

Top Review 53

My Spanish teacher

Estimado y venerado señor,
With your signature scent in my nose and understanding your wisdom, I would like to use the modest lines of a profane description of your scent to write you not a conventional obituary, but rather a heartfelt thank you for the refreshing passing on of your attitude to life. Because you have made it possible for your thoughts and experiences to live on.

The encounter with you shortly before your retirement and me as a pubescent student enriched my knowledge in a fascinating way about the narrative life of several decades of the 20th century.

They embodied the noble caballero, always dressed in three-piece suits and Panama hats.
The way you would step thoughtfully and gracefully out of your never-aging 1960s Mercedes Benz in the teachers' parking lot and adjust the indispensable fresh blossom on your lapel.
What's a day without flowers, you used to say.

An ambery, powdery and woody fragrance always announced your presence.

At the time, I was pressured by my clique to ask you about your fragrance preference, so unusually those friends in the 1980s eyed this men's powder.

Elaborately complicated and woefully clumsy my indiscreet question.
Her composed and confident answer could not have been better.

"Mire usted,
(your standardized sentence beginning of "you see")
i am surprised that your esteemed grandfather withheld this Spanish treasure of every caballero from your esteemed father. But I suppose that German noblemen have their corresponding essence.
Varón Dandy is, after all, a staple even from Mexico down to Argentina."

Afterwards...

"¿A dónde vas Alfonso XIII?"
(Where are you going, Alfonso XIII?)
Her classic, wistful yet witty sigh when correcting, despairing, good-naturedly reprimanding.

You experienced the end of the Spanish monarchy, a fragile Second Republic and were forced to turn your back on the dictatorship that followed.
In exile, you easily lived out the dandyish Madrid of your younger years, so much so that Mexico City offered you a refreshing balance. You were a respected institution there.

Your pupils always took it in turns to start the lesson by reciting a poem they had learned by heart.
"Antiquated?
Miren ustedes, how are you to become educated senoritos?
Do you want to bark prosaically to your beloved about the trivial events of the day?
You poor creatures, the newfangled Rumberas of today (pop singers of the 1980s - suppressing laughter) are more soulless than those profane "despiadadas" (merciless ones) of yesteryear."
(Meaning lascivious caliber à la Ninón Sevilla or Abbe Lane of the 1940/1950s.)

"¿A dónde vas Alfonso XIII?"

I can only try to find out whether I became the señorito I had hoped for back then with a modest ode from your Varón Dandy.

Hiss!

Señor mío,
la elegancia no la frena
ni el sol ni el frío.

I already suspect the rolling of your eyes and the quoting of poor Alfonso XIII.

This unbridled elegance of a very controversial chypre is quite deliberately flirtatious in the opening.
In the midst of soft bergamot and white flowers, a civet kitten purrs.
Unusually floral and sophisticatedly citrusy for a leathery fragrance.
Labdanum and patchouli with good manners!

Joan Parera i Casanovas, the creator and manufacturer in Badalona at the time, understood the art of Parisian fragrances to perfection.
The flagship fragrance of his fragrance and cosmetics company, Varón Dandy, is said to have been created in 1912 when the company was founded and inevitably bears the hallmarks of its great rival on the other side of the Pyrenees, Guerlain.
Only the company archives in the hands of Benckiser or Margaret Astor, the current owner of Parera, can tell us the actual year of creation.

In any case, the fragrance captures an incredibly dignified and warm aura.

Then an interplay of the finest garden carnation, iris, lavender and rose on woody leather, the golden resins create the basis of the noble dandy of bygone eras.
It is precisely this rather masculine leather that distinguishes the fragrance from its female relatives.
Where else would we be, Alfonso XIII?
"¡Señorito, por favor!"

Querido profesor, I now understand your slightly suppressed homesickness when you recited Agustín Lara's hymn of praise to Madrid.
He wanted to line the Gran Vía with carnations while singing to his pretties.

The heart of the caballero offering support warmly ambered with a pinch of cinnamon and sandalwood.

The base used to have more nurturing oakmoss.
The years have been a bit unforgiving here, like one of those Rumberas.

How you could get wonderfully excited about ambiguous lyrics from said dancers!

i leave "Me lo dijo Adela" by Abbe Lane to the reader's free interpretation.

Fortunately, the spirit of the times changes views and understanding, as you always put into perspective with your wonderful comments from back then. In this way, you sharpened our thinking about the relationship between what is new and what is worth preserving.
Fair play was your strength.

Several years later, I was strolling along the Gran Vía in Madrid and something caught in my throat.
Unfortunately, there were no fragrant carnations on the sidewalk or the road like in the song.
In the nearby Galerías Preciados, now gone and swallowed up by the Corte Inglés, I asked for the Varón.
Somewhat astonished and pitiful, I was referred to the inglorious corner of yesterday's fragrances.
The beautiful bottle was no more, but the large jumbo bottle of entire soccer teams was.
So I was able to conjure up a transfigured splendor to suit your taste.

And following your attitude to the zeitgeist, I would like to tell you that Varón Dandy is perfectly usable in the 2020s and ready to write new stories and poems.
Perhaps without the three-piece suit and panama hat, but with the sincere heart of a long-grown señorito.

Profe, gracias por sus esfuerzos, paciencia y méritos.

¡De Madrid al cielo!

03/24/2020

8
Sillage 8
Longevity 8.5
Scent

FvSpee
249 Reviews

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FvSpee

Top Review 38

CoViD comments, fifth piece: tabaco misterioso

In times like these, when in Spain, the home of this ancient fragrance, people die like flies, are we allowed to enjoy fragrances? I don't think it's any different from the questions of whether one can joke with friends or listen to a wonderful music recording in these times: The joy of beauty should not be an escape. Not before the deed: If duty now requires us to look after our old parents or to do our job as a doctor or policeman, there is no time for games. And not an escape of the heart: Closing our doors and eyes, silencing our compassion (perhaps prayer) for others in order to enjoy undisturbed, is not real joy. This is put in such a way: one may and one should even. The joy in the pause of fighting (and fighting is always) is very good. It can save the heart from stiffening.

Varon Dandy is a fragrance full of mystery, and in researching this comment I could not really solve any of them. Most likely that of the name: Varón is Spanish for "guy, man, boy", and apparently "Varón Dandy" then means something like "the dandy type". A dictionary research results for Spanish "Dandi" German "Salonlöwe". So we can assume that the English "Dandy" was Hispanized at some point in the past, and that the very first edition of this fragrance was perhaps still written with an i, although the very old bottles shown here all already have the "y". I like the name, it gets eight points from me.

Things are already becoming more difficult at the manufacturing company Parera. Oddly enough, the company has no website, which suggests that it no longer exists. In fact, in the Catalan (!) Wikipedia edition (Viquipèdia), which I was able to understand quite well thanks to my knowledge of Latin (Latin helps in the jungle, too!), I found the hint that Parera was founded in 1911/1912 by Joan Parera i Casanovas (in Spanish probably Juan Parera y Casanovas) in or near Barcelona as a family perfume company and in 1940 it was converted into a public limited company, which was swallowed by the international consumer goods multinational Reckitt-Benckiser in 1990. Then, however, its trail gets lost for me. The Reckitt-Benckiser website does not show a "Parera" under "OUR BRANDS", and I can't get anywhere else. This raises the question who produces this scent here at all. Any soldier of fortune in the end who has secured the bare trademark rights (or even manages without them) and just sells some juice that has nothing whatsoever to do with the original dandy from 1924 under this name? No idea. What I do know is that there are traces on the Internet of a square 100 ml bottle of "Varon Dandy Eau de Cologne" and a round cylindrical litre bottle of "Varon Dandy Colonia", which are or were available on various not at all dubious portals for about 8 Euros each. Why 1 litre of "Colonia" costs the same as 1/10 litre of "Cologne" and whether it is the same product, no answer. The fragrance discussed here is the "Cologne" that the noble Consálico adored me.

Another secret are the fragrances. Here at Parfumo it simply says "spices, woods" and even where this is taken from remains a mystery. However, I too consider the fragrance to be so dense, original and old-school that I can hardly imagine that it is a modern fantasy product that merely adorns itself with the old name; I really do suspect a traditional line here, although it is certainly not the original recipe from 1924. I am delighted with the fragrance. It is really big! And it can do something! A thoroughly brown fragrance, fresh yes, absolutely, but not a transparent citrus freshness, but a warm, full-bodied, somewhat heavy, spicy, and definitely sweetish, barbershop freshness. Sometimes astringent to the limit of the (the nose) penetrating. I can absolutely confirm Barcelona's proximity to Madrid (Floid), and to Vienna (Knize-Ten), to which consalics pointed out; but especially in the base, where I suspect carnation and musk and, moreover, would very urgently like to tap tonka, Cologne (Tabac Original) is almost closer for me. This condenses my impression that there is something like a "Habsburg" warm-scented men's sound. Such "brown" scents stand for Spain, Germany and Austria for me. To Italy, England and (despite exceptions: Bel Ami) France they do not fit.

I sprayed (not plashed) "Varon Dandy" - based on the consideration "it's just a cologne" - quite generously (mono-layer!) and was rewarded with a rich sillage and a shelf life of 8 hours. The stuff is really worth its money. However, I would have liked to dim the radiation down slowly after about three hours because of the already intense spicy aroma. Instead, this saloon lion kept on partying undaunted until he almost got on my nerves. When I turned around for a moment to get a drink, he was suddenly gone. Like that comment now.

08/27/2019

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 6
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Konsalik
81 Reviews

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Konsalik

Top Review 15

Mr Knizes Spanish domestic servant

Four years ago, the previous speaker Cappellusman certified that Varon Dandy was a close relative of the old Austrian Grandseigneur fragrance par excellence, Knize Ten. Not only the fact that we are obviously dealing here with a variation of one of my favourite fragrances, but also the fact that this should not be a tired, late imitation (1924!) made a test inevitable. No, a blind buy! Almost eight euros for 100ml work in consideration of the promise like mockery, lower smell concentration back or forth.

Unfortunately, the old, roundish flacon design doesn't look too good for me anymore, but the reduced-edge version doesn't look bad either. The plastic cap reveals a classic splash device framed with a metal ring (imagine Old Spice with minimal opening). It's also an Eau de Cologne, so why not the cold punch in the hollow hand?

So is Varon Dandy really a fragrance twin to one of the great classics of the twentieth century? No, he might not be a twin. But indeed, a close relative. The substructure, the base, the two surrounding "air" is very similar, almost identical. But the decor - I don't want to talk about "top note", because it lasts almost to the end at Knize - is not. What with Knize the infinitely elegant, brandy rose together with stone fruit compote, is here an ethereal-alcoholic note, which reminds me, not only because of the origin of the house, of Spanish Hierbas: gentle, green-spicy background anise sweetness. Somewhat more angular, but also quite elegant (thanks to an indefinite, "serious flower", as Mrs Konsalik would like to add). Among them was the same, strict, slightly birch-tar-like leather association chord, with which the idea of leather was evoked at that time (and unfortunately hardly any more today). In the base, which begins on me already after about an hour, finally a soapy leather musk note emerges, which I also appreciate in other fragrances - see my comment to Van Cleef & Arpels pour Homme. I can't put it any other way: I'm impressed! Bravo!

With all the nobility less exalted, somewhat more angular, "touching" and quite reserved in durability: Not quite the Privy Councillor, but perhaps his domestic servant. On weekends, they say, he even uses Varon Dandy as aftershave. After all, his salary is enough even for this wasteful use.

01/10/2024

10
Pricing 7
Sillage 5
Longevity 9.5
Scent

GreyFlannel
2 Reviews

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GreyFlannel

10

Classics and perennial favorites

A classic and perennial favorite, but probably only in Spain. A fragrance that was first sold 100 years ago and simply has to be good in its own way due to this fact alone.

I received my one-liter bottle from Spain between the holidays. Presumably the fragrance is sold in such huge containers because Spanish barbershops still need huge quantities to keep their customers happy.
I got my first impression on delivery because the container was not completely sealed and a few milliliters had spilled into the package. My dog found the scent extremely fascinating even then, as he kept rolling around in the fragrant wrapping paper.

Today, I finally filled an atomizer for the first time. A few drops fell to the floor and again my dog was on the spot. Nimrod (that's his name) is obviously not a hunting terrier at all, but most probably a dandy in disguise...

What does he smell like? Wonderfully spicy, floral, sweet, woody and with a good dash of musk. Definitely very high-quality! I can't stop smelling my wrist. It reminds me of something tried and tested. But what? A person, a fragrance or did I go to a Spanish barber in a past life? No, I have it: as a teenager, I once had a "snuff phase". Varon Dandy reminds me of one of my snuffs back then.
Impressive sillage, not long-lasting for a good cologne, but quite decent. Given the retail price, it doesn't really matter, you could almost bathe in it.

The Dandy bottle pictured above is phenomenal, but the other old bottles are also great.
Now the After Shave is waiting for a first test. Also in a 1-liter bottle, of course.

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