A*Men Pure Havane Mugler 2011

On my voyage of discovery into the world of autumn and winter fragrances, I have, among other things, enjoyed a bottling of Mugler's Pure Havane. Especially because I was simply curious about the genre of (sweet) tobacco fragrances, which is still relatively unknown to me, and because it is a very well rated representative of its genre (since a long time in the perfumo top 30 of men's fragrances). But also because at the time of the order (already a few weeks ago) two perfumes were listed among the fragrance twins, which I like very much: Herod (Parfums de Marly) and L'Homme Idéal Extrême (Guerlain). The 5ml are used up and the impressions demand a detailed and hopefully helpful comment.

FLAKON
As I said, I have a souk bottling, therefore no comment and no rating on the bottle. Strangely enough, I haven't seen the flacon anywhere in the store yet
DURABILITY & SILLAGE
With 4-5 sprayers I am surrounded for the first 30-60 minutes by a fragrance cloud that is a little more than arm-long or wide. Then the Sillage goes down to a foot length to shoulder width and becomes skin-tight after 3-4 hours. The effective shelf life of 8-10 hours should be sufficient for most purposes. A few hours later the last remains of the scent are gone.

STEAM or STEAM RUN
Pure Havane starts mainly hay-like dry and flowery-fresh, with a lot of sugar-honey sweetness and a little tobacco leaf. This is accompanied by a bitterish-bitter note, which can be added to the honey accord or perceived separately as a cocoa note. In any case, the honey note is rather light, sugary-sweet and a bit flowery. For honey maybe a little "thin". Reminds me more of sugar syrup. The tobacco note becomes more prominent in the next few minutes, accompanied by balsamic and cedar-like notes and a little vanillin. With a little imagination I can also detect a hint of earthy patchouli. This gives the fragrance a little tingling spice and a little warmth. I smell the wood of the cigar box. Or a wooden barrel with slightly pungent, slightly exaggeratedly flowery and spicy rum? Be that as it may, the development of the scent would then be complete after 10-15 minutes. This is how Pure Havane should be and this is how it will stay. You can call it shallow and boring. Or more benevolent: minimalistic and reliable.

(I only get the cherry note in the opening performed by some reviewers on paper or clothes)

APPLICATION
Pure Havane is a very pleasing (gourmand) spicy-sweet tobacco scent for mild to cooler (but not cold) days and evenings. It goes well with leisure time or informal evening occasions and is certainly better with a jacket or shirt than with sweaters and jogging pants. Leather jacket would also work very well. The fragrance is relatively inexpensive and follows the gourmand-sweet trend of recent years. Therefore, in my opinion it fits best to younger people (let's say u40). But I wouldn't advise older people against it. Do what you think.

CONCLUSION
Phew, tough. I was looking for a spicy-sweet fall and winter scent. Personally, I find Pure Havane far too light for that. Especially at the base, a little more spice, warmth and fullness would be good for this rather narrow tobacco scent to counter cold temperatures. Or maybe something smoky to stay closer to the honey-cigar theme. On the other hand Pure Havane is perhaps not such a winter scent at all? If I ignore classification and the scent pyramid for a moment, I can read the scents differently: Behind the "honey" there is cocoa and sugar (syrup). The slightly flowery tobacco leaf remains. Maybe it is also a cigar flavoured with honey. From wood, balsam, flowery notes and sugar sweetness becomes an old rum. This creates a spicy, light and somewhat synthetic Cuba atmosphere, which does full justice to the name "Pure Havane" and in my opinion goes much better with mojito than with mulled wine. So maybe rather something for spring or autumn. Or even for cool summer evenings or the mild nights of the Cuban winter? It remains to be tested whether the scent might not be too sweet for that. Either way, Pure Havane is a good fragrance, but somehow it seems to me to be sitting between too many chairs: interesting but shallow, heavy but light, winter-summery. Preliminary verdict therefore "only": Okay
PS -
Keyword "Top 30 men's fragrances":
Can I really only find such a top-rated fragrance ok? Not even bad, but really just ok? Yeah, sure. After all, a scent is a highly subjective thing. It is possible that Pure Havane is currently still benefiting greatly from the good reputation and good ratings of its older formulations. In relevant internet forums the older Pure Havane is often said to have better performance and more depth compared to the current version. Also some of the newer positive reviews here explicitly deal with older or "vintage" formulations of Pure Havane. But maybe the changes are not as serious as they are partly presented.

Keyword "Scent twins":
- PdM Herod? No. Herod opulent, warm, fruity, floral, sweet, extroverted, with a strong vanilla base. Pure Havane in direct comparison quiet, limp, almost anaemic. Completely rightly Herod is meanwhile removed from the list of twins.
- Guerlain L'HIE? More likely no. Both with tobacco and honey-like sweetness. But despite all the similarity, L'HIE is clearly different from the slimmer Pure Havane, with notes of almond/Amaretto, dark cherry, cinnamon and leather.