Guerlain Homme (2008)
by Guerlain

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Some weeks ago I attended a long religious service, during which my nostrils were assaulted by a thick, cloying, powdery-sweet woody scent of excruciating potency. I was eventually able to trace the source to my wife’s cousin Howie, seated on a bench three rows ahead of us. I spent the remaining two hours of the service alternately wondering what the loathsome fragrance could be, and silently cursing cousin Howie for dumping half a bottle of it over his head.

I take it all back, Howie.

The scent, I now realize, was Guerlain Homme, of which I’ve found mere drops suffice to fill a room with a screaming miasma of crude, banal, overly sweetened base materials. It’s the same base that appears in countless cheap mass market fougeres and woody scents for men, but the magic of Guerlain manages to amplify it to nose hair curling volume.

I will concede that Guerlain Homme opens with a charming boozy citrus accord that does evoke the advertised mojito cocktail. Unfortunately, that accord lasts all of five minutes before it’s bulldozed by the powder bomb base, which plows on in linear fashion and shocking intensity for hours unless diligently scrubbed off. The scent works orders of magnitude better on paper than on my (or cousin Howie’s) skin, as the “mojito” accord persists much longer to balance out the base.

I do, as have others, detect a remote similarity to the discontinued Yohji Homme, which employed a similar sweet, powdery base, but did so with much greater finesse and subtlety. Guerlain Homme has some of the boozy anise flavor that marked Yohji Homme, but Guerlain sets it in more opaque surroundings and thereby robs it of grace.

Guerlain Homme shares with Secretions Magnifiques the remarkable distinction
of being at once boring and offensive, and I predict that men will buy it by the gallon. Please lord, just don’t let them sit near me.

To me this new fragance belongs to the Guerlain tradition.The "lime-mint" are new. Sometimes remind me to "Heritage": the "soapyness". The "sweetness" reminds me to L' Instant Homme. The "freshness" to Eau de Guerlain. I agree with darien this is a safe smell. Very soft. No agressivity...Easy to wear, but classic.I think Guerlain have more powerful fragances... In less than two years i think we'll see the intense version/eau de parfume- of this fragance.

After trying a lot of male Guerlain fragrances and loving them all, I found Guerlain Homme to be disappointing because it's very fresh and clean, but like Vetiver, it doesn't last as long on my skin as L'Instant de Guerlain or Habit Rouge do. I love the style of the bottle, very masculine at the same time, very Guerlain. I do love the clean smell of Guerlain Homme, good combination of scents, but staying power especially at Guerlain's expensive prices is more important to me, and this is the only flaw I have discovered with Guerlain Homme

It's nice, I suppose.

The opening is very minty, and the mint sticks around. Subtle woods peek through in the middle. At this stage something seems 'syrupy' to me. I suppose it must be the mint, whose cloying sweetness must have been overpowered by the alcohol.
The drydown is bland, but agreeable. It doesn't smell like anything in particular-- it's, rather, that very generic smell that indicates that 'someone's wearing something,' though it is entirely impossible to discern what it is.

Someone remarked that the sample (which Guerlain stores are evidently handing out) smelled good on me and asked what it was. I told them that I had been steeped in peppermint syrup.

I actually saw this in Boots (huge chemist chain in the UK) recently, have never seen a Guerlain fragrance in there before, so must be going for the big kill with men now. Tried some on my arm and was pleasantly surprised with the opening citrus notes - no tired formula here, there was a twist of something boozy mixed in and a nice floral accord also - very refreshing and distinctive. The woody drydown is more familiar but still well done. The fragrance is obviously aimed at the 'mass market' for men, but hasn't compromised into generic safety like many others and I think I actually prefer this to some of their more expensive 'challenging' fragrances. Guerlain Homme is very nice indeed and a future investment for sure.

This is a lovely fragrance, smelled it on the weekend and bought it in fact. The only weak point on my skin is the lime but this is a problem with my skin rather than the fragrance! A very rich mixture which does not get heavy or sour on drydown. Has restored a good bit of faith in a fashion house which has otherwise let itself down of late with average fragrances.....