Dear Nathan,
I’m hoping you may have a suggestion for a scent close to Clive Christian No. 1 for Men. Some sites list the ingredients as: cedar wood, sandalwood, vanilla and amber woods, while others list lime, pink grapefruit, cardamom, Sicilian mandarin, thyme, artemesia, pimento, lily of the valley, rose, jasmine, orris, yang ylang and heliotrope.
I’ve Googled without success, and perhaps you don’t like No. 1, but my son-in-law liked it best out of a batch of samples. Needless to say, the price was off-putting. I’m new to the “fume” world, and like the Non-Blonde, I’m partial to vanilla, which smelled good in the powdery dry down of No. 1.
Thank you so much for your time and possible inclination to sniff out a substitute.
Sincerely,
Linda
Clive Christian No. 1 for Men in handmade crystal bottle
Well, Linda, first things first — I love Clive Christian No. 1 for Men. It’s a classic masculine floral (i.e. a little bit of floral and a lot of bit of woods and spices), stuffed with recognizably high-quality ingredients and a composition that’s pretty much the dictionary definition of “balance” — no one particular note overpowers the thing. It doesn’t smell like roses or sandalwood or lime, it just smells good.
Patty at Perfume Posse wrote that No. 1 for Men is “really pretty damn gorgeous” (and I agree), so both you and your Son-In-Law have good taste, but you also have bad luck. And I only say “bad luck” because trying to find a less wallet-busting facsimile of No. 1 is going to be extremely difficult.
I mean, really, couldn’t you have started off at even a marginally lower price point? At $865.00 for 50ml (and the price skyrockets up from there), No. 1 for Men is one of the spendiest options on the fragrance market, so I almost feel like we’re dangerously close to bait-and-switch territory, as in: “You like the Rolls Royce? Great, kid — here’s the keys to a VW!”
Not that a VW is bad (it’s not) — it’s just not going to compare all that favorably to sliding into the driver’s seat of a Rolls.
So instead of suggesting something “close” to No. 1 for Men (because I’m not sure there is such a thing), I’m going to list other masculine scents that I consider high quality, well-balanced and very wearable. You can give these a try to see if the Son-In-Law might respond as positively to any of them as he did to the Rolls Royce, er, I mean, the Clive Christian.
A.) Le Labo Rose 31 — Rose 31 is Le Labo’s best seller. The rose has only a small role to play in the production (despite star billing), with spices and woods predominant (cedar, cumin, clove and oudh wood). There’s a dry, dusty path (nutmeg?) that cuts right through to the finish, and it appears to have more in common with Middle Eastern attars than with your usual Western style rose fragrance. But still, it’s extremely easy to wear, and while it was originally created for Le Labo’s male clientele, women love the stuffin’ out of it, too. I’ve given Rose 31 as a gift to male friends, and it’s been very well received. You can order Le Labo Rose 31 directly from Le Labo. $130.00 for 50ml. They also offer a sample kit.
B.) Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Man — probably the closest you’re going to get to the classic style of No. 1 without actually springing for No. 1 (though absent the subtle rose and other floral notes). Chandler Burr wrote that Ormonde Man is “masculine gentleness . . . Citrus and spice are ingeniously hidden inside sweet heavy cream and warm, caressable male skin . . . The overall effect is of clarity mellowing to a golden gourmand.” Ormonde Man is a favorite of mine, and can be worn both formally and casually. It’s about $125.00 for 50ml, and you can purchase it directly from the Ormonde Jayne website out of London. They ship to the U.S.
C.) Czech & Speake Dark Rose — with listed notes of saffron, rose, patchouli, sandalwood, oudh, amber and white musk, Dark Rose could very well pass the sniff test with your Son-In-Law. The oudh note will bite a little at the introduction, but it all smooths out into a shadowy, woodsy masculine floral with a shimmer of ambered sweetness. You can find Czech & Speake Dark Rose at Lucky Scent. It’s $185.00 for 100ml.
D.) Dorissima Narziß (or, Narziss) — meant as the masculine counterpart to Dorissima’s Goldmund, fragrance notes are: tarragon, royal sage, rose, atlas cedar, vetiver, tonka and fig leaves. I get a brief burst of sweet citrus at the opening, followed by an expertly blended mix of subtle, balsamic rose and dry herbs that finishes with a smooth, woodsy sigh. You can purchase Dorissima Narziß at Lucky Scent. $130.00 for 60ml.
E.) And since you stated that you enjoy vanilla, I’m going to put L’Artisan Havana Vanille on the list. It’s not particularly a classic in style, but it’s distinctive, easily wearable and extremely well put together. The intro is quite sweet and rhum-boozy, while the homestretch recalls the sweet, boozy opening, but like a fading echo. The main attraction to Havana Vanille, however, is the tobacco and vanilla glow in the body, and it glows for hours, revealing facets of wood, dry tobacco leaf and sugar in various combinations. It’s nothing like No. 1 for Men, but it’s casual, masculine and wow, is it nice. Havana Vanille can be ordered directly from L’Artisan Parfumeur, and is $155.00 for 100ml.
So Linda, those are five I can think of right off the top of my head (oh, h*ll, Parfums MDCI Invasion Barbare is great, too, though it’s heading back up into Rolls Royce territory, and Domenico Caraceni 1913 takes the classic masculine floral genre and adds an incense twist), but I’m hoping that readers will leave other suggestions in the comments so that you’ll have an even longer list of fragrances to sort through and take for trial spins.
Good luck, and let me/us know how the testing turns out.
