If there’s any fragrance I wish I had bought backup bottles of… or should I say, more backup bottles of… this would be it.
I’ll never forget the first time I smelled this. Winter of 2001, I was Christmas shopping with a friend. I had in mind purchasing myself a new fragrance. I was several years into loving fragrances and had a rotation a dozen or two deep at the time, but we were going to the mall that was a further drive from home. The same one, an hour and a half drive from home, I had to drive to for l’eau d’Issey. Our local mall had a Macy’s, Sears, and a JC Penny as flagship anchor stores. Sears and JC didn’t have much worth mentioning for fragrances, and our Macy’s had a better selection, but in the late 90s through the closing of that Macy’s, the selection was always somewhat limited compared to some malls a tad further away that were closer to the city. Some years later, in the times of the boom of all the A*Men flankers, at long last, our Macy’s did carry the A*Men line.
A few weeks back, I made an online purchase, one bottle of which is Soul Batik by Moresque. A few wearings all conjured up some long lost memories, thanks to the glaring similarity to A*Men.
Back on that fateful winter day in 2001, I knew odds were quite high I would find something that might just blow my hair back and my socks off my feet. I wasn’t prepared for what was to come, though. I saw this really cool silver or black rubber encased bottle with a star. Some designer I’d never heard of, Thierry Mugler, and a name for a men’s fragrance I’d not heard of, nor imagined seeing, Angel Men… I thought, “well I’m quite angelic…” and gave it a try. WOW! There was nothing I’d ever smelled before quite like this. I grabbed 3 bottles, and my friend, smelling the tail I was leaving, grabbed one for himself. For many years to follow, l’eau d’Issey was my warm weather signature, and this was my cool to cold weather signature. About 3 years ago, when I really dove head first into the fragrance rabbit hole, I still had about 20 ml in the 3rd bottle of my 2001 Angel Men. I was saving that last 20 ml for dear life over the prior 5 or so years. Alas, I went to spray it on one fall day during 2020 and noticed a lot of floating sediment. For many years I always had about 5 fragrances in my center console in my car. This bottle had seen many days over 100 F in the summer heat and many cold days down to below 0 F. If I knew back then I had I know now, perhaps I never would have left fragrances in the car and that fragrance would be as good as ever like some I never took with me just out of not enjoying them nearly as much. Anyhow, I sprayed… and the fragrance was gone. I don’t recall what scent came out, if any, but it sure wasn’t Angel Men / A*Men. My first dive into the rabbit hole was purchasing frags I’d had in the past, then some I’d wanted over the years but didn’t have the money or time for anything other than a quick drive to the local TJ Maxx for whatever was cheap. I figured with Angel having fallen from fragrance grace, it was time. I ordered a new bottle of A*Men and immediately realized what people were talking about with it having been watered down.
With having been reminded of A*Men due to the recent purchase of Soul Batik, tonight I took out 2 versions of Angel / A*Men. First I sprayed my 2020 bottle of A*Men liberally - 3 sprays to the top of each forearm, and 2 each to the underside to of each forearm. Then I remembered a couple years back I chatted with someone on a forum about the old formulation of Angel and he read me the batchcode on his vintage bottle that matched the code on my old bottle I kept with the last 20 ml of chunky juice. He sent me a 10 ml decant and it’s sat for the past 2 years without being sprayed.
I must admit, after spraying the top of each hand with the vintage Angel formulation, I am utterly flummoxed. On one hand, I love how utterly potent and aggressive the old formulations are. I sprayed the A*Men and then Angel formulation about a half hour later. In the first 10 or so minutes after spraying the Angel iteration, I began thinking “maybe they’re not as different as I am thinking…” then another 20 minutes went by and the Angel on the back of the hands grew teeth… no, fangs! There it is was! That burned sugar / cotton candy / rubber / asphalt / mind blowing mix of this that and the other… it just shone through and was POWERFUL! That was the one that got all the attention, if people weren’t inclined to notice, it whacked em across the back of the head, then punched them in the nose and screamed “you WILL notice me!”
It’s really fun to wear that 20+ year old batch and just recognize how much of a monstrous beauty that was. How is the newer batch though? I just admit, being 20+ years older, I adore it. Is it as loud? No, not close. Is it as demanding of attention just in the sheer audacious mix of notes and how it can present as a number of quite different things - rubber / asphalt / burning sugar, etc… no, not close. You know what, though, while I sure as heck am enjoying the olfactive trip down memory lane from this decant I have of the old juice, as a 40-something, I prefer the newer iteration. I don’t go clubbing anymore, when I wear fragrance it’s for me, rather than to get noticed - I mean, if someone notices and they enjoy my fragrance, great, but it’s not my aim. I wear things to please my nose, not make a statement. This newer juice is like a more grown version. It’s settled down, more calm, in control, and knows what it wants. Comparing the old Angel with the newer batch of A*Men, to me, is literally like comparing a party and club going 20 year old to their settled down homebody 40 something year old self. It’s exquisite, has more of the lavender shining through, as well as more of the honeyed sweetness. The Soul Batik, in my opinion, is quite like the newer iterations of A*Men, it’s the sweet side without the more daring aspects of the old Angel Men batches of this fragrance. A classic that I’ll love until my dying days, and then hopefully one of my nephews will enjoy what’s left in of the bottle cause there’s not a chance I’ll finish it in my lifetime!