KL Homme Karl Lagerfeld 1986 Eau de Toilette

On one hand, parfumo brings so much joy through the discovery of new (old) fragrances. On the other hand, one gets particularly annoyed when testing good scents that have long been unavailable.

"KL Homme" is one such candidate. After the even older "Lagerfeld Classic," which I find to be overly heavy-sweet for an Oriental, Lagerfeld tried again with the Oriental theme about 8 years later.

And behold: Significantly improved!

"KL Homme" greets you with a rich orange-benzoin blast, garnished with lighter citrus notes. The rosewood adds a nice core to it.

This is quite voluminous, striking, and extremely characteristic. Perhaps a bit too much benzoin power, but otherwise really beautifully rich and Mediterranean.

The Oriental doesn't take long to appear; the patchouli and cinnamon aromas of the heart soon join the dark fruity-spicy opening, complemented by slightly sweet and resinous-smoky nuances.

Particularly noteworthy is the quite present animalistic touch from a nice portion of civet, slightly sweet-animalistic, thus in a pleasantly wicked degree. Quite a bit less civet than in "Kouros," but still noticeably present.

Clove and rose add slightly herbaceous-floral elements and deepen the impression of pronounced aromatic complexity.

In the base, the fragrance settles into a smooth, slightly vanillic, amber-toned spectrum, with a slightly bitter musk note maintaining the masculine undertone.

Once again, a fragrance where one doesn't understand why it was discontinued. Other scents would have deserved it far more. Thus, the fragrance world has lost an extremely interesting, distinctive Oriental.