Curve for Men (1996)
by Liz Claiborne

I was just given this by a friend you thought I would like it. In all honesty, it's not that bad. It's a very pleasant mix of the juniper and fir that makes me like this. The thing I HATE about it is - the alcohol is sooo pronounced when you first spray it - a huge peave of mine. The drydown however, is good and long lasting. Not bad, but not great.

I most definitely can see it's appeal to the mass market. However, Mambo has it all over this one.

Normally, I tend to like the luxurious things in life. I wear the top designers for suits, seven fold ties and make sure that I am always keeping up with the most current styles from Milan and Napoli. I only say this because I am about to admit that $20 a bottle Curve cologne is my 'go to scent'. Believe me ... I don't want it to be. It doesn't smell like an expensive cologne. It smells like you'd expect a college kid to be wearing it. A college kid surrounded by beautiful girls.

You won't find a better bargain for your money. This has among the best dry down scents I've ever experienced. I would not like it as much if it smelled like it did right out of the bottle. The best way I could describe the change in scent from spray on to dry down is ... on first spray it smells like an alarm clock radio. After about an hour of wearing this, it smells like a Bose Wave Radio. It gets a very rich mossy smell when it dries down.

You can pick out moss and citrus notes. There is a juniper note as well. This has incredible staying power. Every single girl I've talked to either has an ex who wore this ... or is my ex who forces her boyfriend to buy it because I wore it. Women simply like the way this smells on a man. It is a confident man's cologne. There is nothing luxurious about it. There is everything effective about it.

Believe me ... as someone who has Creed and all the other expensive colognes in their cologne collection ... I am not wearing this because I have to. I wear it because its like the fast ball high and inside that I know I can always go to in order to get me out of a jam. This is the derringer in your boot when you are in a rough part of town. And other than another cheap cologne, Abercrombie Fierce, I've never got more compliments about a cologne as I do this. (Which is slightly depressing considering I could buy about 15 bottles of this with the money I spend on one bottle of Creed.)

A little goes a long way and this smells different on everyone who tries it. This should be called "Chemistry' instead of 'Curve' because each person wears it differently. I like this though because you could be out in a group of people and three people can be wearing Curve and after the dry down, you'd never know they were wearing the same cologne. Its played out ... maybe ... and a lot of people have it. But thats because it works. For some reason, every rating I leave comes out as neutral but this would get thumbs up. (Stay away from the other versions of Curve. This one is the only one worth buying.)

If you wanna be unique this definitely isn't for you. I personally like wearing popular brands because people spot it and spark conversation but not everyone does. I tried some of this from a friends bottle and loved it. I have been wearing it as an everyday fragrance for about half a year now. I am starting to get bored with it. The only problem with it is to me it has an alcohal smell in the background that just sticks to my nose and blocks out all the pleasant notes. Like I said if you want to be original don't buy this because everyone and his brother wears this but if you just want to smell darn good (many compliments from the ladies) then get it.

This is going to sound odd: my boss wears this. He's a 60-year old with a dry sense of humor and is very straightforward with everything. Then, for a few months, I noticed his cologne had changed. It was very strong but not annoying. He wasn't "that guy" in the office that reeked. I found the cologne to be very enjoyable and I would always smell it when he walked by me. To start a conversation I asked,

"I've been meaning to ask but what cologne are you wearing? Is it Stetson?" The Stetson comment was a shot in the dark just to break the ice.

"No, I used to wear that stuff. It doesn't work on me anymore. I wear Curve now."

"What? Really?" I was shocked!

"Yeah, apparently it's all body chemistry and so-on. I know was probably targeted for young people to wear but it's really good on me." This was weird to hear from him, seeing how I'm the perfume junkie!

"I agree. It's really good. And I'm not just giving you a compliment and brown-nosing. It really is good on you." I couldn't say anything but that.

And lo' and behold, this stuff works awesomely on me. It's strong. One spritz and I'm all set all day. Smelling it on me takes me back to when it first came out. My brother wore it. It didn't do so well on him but he wore it. It was a dead fruit on him.

And that's my story.

As popular as this cologne seems to be...I had never smelled it until recently...I've never known anyone to wear this. I picked up a small bottle and I enjoy the smell. After reading about it's popularity I expected to get "hey, are you wearing curve?" But I've only gotten compliments and been questioned on what I'm wearing. There are many better colognes out there, but it's still nice! Even if it was as common around here as it seems to be everywhere else I would still wear it once in a while, as girls do seem to enjoy the smell...and so do I...and that is all that matters in the end!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE WORN THIS OVER THE YEARS & STILL DO & 4 THAT REASON IM GOING 2 GIVE IT A THUMBS DOWN! AFTER SMELLING IT SO MUCH I GOT SO SICK OF IT & WISH THEY DISCONTINUE IT!