Men's Cologne

OK Gentlemen, and Ladies, I have a question about cologne.

Recently I purchased my first bottle of Invictus by Paco Rabanne. I am absolutely enamored of this scent. But to me it doesn't seem to have much longevity.

Does anyone know anything that smells just like it, or similar to it, but with longer staying power?

I have read that TouJours Fidele by Fragonard smells just like it, but have no way of verifying this because Fragonard appears to have no dealers in the United States. So a sample is not available. This prompted me to order a bottle of it to see if it is just like Invictus.

I have read that Eros by Versace is like Invictus, but without the mint flavor. Is that true?

Sorry, Alpha. I'm from the old Old Spice generation... not the new Old Spice crowd. Maybe the ladies could help you out with this one. If I've learned anything, even if you like it a lot, it don't mean nothing if your lady doesn't.

Thats just the thing Mark, Invictus was designed by women, for women, for men to wear. Trust me, women like this cologne.

Here's an old thread on cologne, Alfa. It's funny because back in January of 2011, I referenced the original Paco Rabanne cologne.

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...true#Post591884

I'm sure they do, Alfa... no reason to doubt you.

Now go import gallons of this stuff and have a blast!

They still make men's cologne? or, (real) men still wear cologne? I hardly use deodorant .

@Pizza You got good taste. You mentioned both Polo and Paco Rabanne in the old thread. Interestingly, today's Polo Red is considered very similar to Invictus, though I haven't sampled it yet.

@Mark, thanks. Will do. One more thing. When I first smelled Invictus, I jerked away. It was too musky and humid for me. But I didn't inhale deeply enough. Later on, hours later, I smelled the tiny sample I had again. Wow. It was like a revelation.

Invictus is great and i still use it. 1 mil was also good but not as good as Invictus. Lacoste white was also very good

Alfa you should try Versace Eros. I fuckin loved it and the women also

Didn't Leonetti write that Nicky Scarfo Sr. had major issues with any of his guys wearing cologne?

Yeah, he was allergic or something

Wow, and to think some guys got whacked cause they didn't know that little midget had a sensitive nose. That's too bad.

Thanx for the advise TooDoped. I want to swing by Macy's in Manhattan to sample some Eros. Word on the street is that it smells similar, but projects and lasts and lasts.

I have 1 Million. I got addicted to it quickly. I went to Macys and even picked up the body wash. But then I bought Invictus. Ever since I bought Invictus, that bottle of 1 Million body wash is just sitting by itself alone in the shower. I never touch it. So I agree with you that Invictus is superior to 1 Million. When I first smelled Million, to me it was reminiscent of a very rich and powerful man. Then Invictus came along and made him look like an impotent pauper. Unbelievably rich. Unbelievably powerful.

I'll look for a sample of Lacoste White too. Thanks.

No problem man. But the thing is that these two perfumes, Eros and Invictus, are for the winter season because they are strong. As for the summer season i prefer Lacoste white or Bvlgari BLV

I can not think/hear of Old Spice without thinking of my father. That was HIS favorite. For some reason, I remember Saturday night especially, after his shower the whole house would smell of Old Spice. LOL We'd sit and watch the Saturday Night Fights (for those who remember). Well a short but pleasant memory for me. After he passed away I took a nearly empty bottle of it, thinking I'd keep it til the smell was gone. Over 4 years later, the smell is still there.

TIS

I know.

That's it. No reciprocation. I just know .

@ Pizza....hahaha, ok

@ TIS, Good for you. That's really the value of any scent we cherish isn't it. It's the idea and person behind it.

@ TooDoped, I hit Macy's Manhattan today, as well as Sephora Times Square. I sampled...

Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier

Polo Red and Polo Red Intense by Ralph Lauren (Polo store on 5th Avenue),

Pasha Noir by Cartier,

The One, by Dolce and Gabbana,

Black Orchid by Tom Ford,

Bleu De Chanel by Chanel

and something by Issey Miyaki that I can't recall.

I even got into some Brit Rhythm.

The only thing that came even close to the glory of Invictus, was Pasha Noir by Cartier. At least that's how my nose works. I asked a female friend about some of these scents, and the one that put her in "the mood" besides Invictus, was Bleu Chanel. No other scent really did the trick. She liked Pasha. So did I. I think Bleu De Chanel is too feminine. But it is the only cologne the girl reacted too, like she did with Invictus.

For the fellas out there, this is very important intel.

Try the Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue for Men. I personally think it's nicer. It's very summery. You'll see it (or smell it lol) at a lot of the high-end restaurants here in South Florida this time of year.

Point being, I don't know where you're from, but it's a very nice cologne for a warm weather climate.

Pizza, I live in Queens and work in Times Square.

I will check out Light Blue by Dolce and Gabbana.

South Florida I would imagine has a lot of people into colognes since that was Gianni Versace territory.

I wanted to smell Dreamer by Versace, but the Versace guy in Macy's said he wasn't selling it.

old spice, im been using it my whole life, and that's a long. long time.

@ tis... you are much too young to remember the Saturday night fights, you're just a pup.

Oh, Pizza, I also checked out the Aqcua Di Gio by Giorgio Armani at Sephora, just because you mentioned it.

It's not my taste. It doesn't smell bad. To me it smelled like very expensive, very rich...aftershave. Like aftershave with some musk and expensive ingredients mixed in that easily open up your sinuses. Just a sharp fresh scent of something you'd put on right after you get out of the shower and finished shaving. It has that "clean" aura to it.

I thought the popular scents in South Florida were (in no particular order)... Ben-Gay, Gold Bond Powder, Ivory Soap, moth balls and Cortadito?

Very nice, Mark. Everyone's turning on me. From California to Chicago .

Never, PB. Like Sheldon Cooper says, I got your back... people be crazy.

I'm with Mark on this one.

Forever Loyal.

Bay Rum from my barber shop.

On really cold days are players put Ben Gay on before they played

If it were up to me everyone would smell like the Clean Linen scent made by Febreeze lol and now they have the new one out called The Unstopables. It smells so fresh and clean. Who needs cologne


If I were to pick one it would be The One. That does smell very NICE.

You can never go wrong with Old Spice. I have used various scents of Gucci. I remember back in the day- everyone was using Canoe and I still have a 20 year old bottle of that and it still smells great. A neighbor of mine won a bunch of Playboy after shave in an auction and as he doesn't use any he gave it to me. Surprisingly, it smells pretty good.

This thread makes me think of an old classic SNL bit with Bill Murray and Gilda Radner.

BM: "What's that bewitching scent you're wearing?"
GR: "Vicks Vapor Rub."

Forgot to mention TooDoped, I also sampled Eros the same day I sampled all the others (yesterday). It is right up at the top with Bleu De Chanel, Invictus, and Pasha Noir. Besides Invictus, I like Eros 2nd best. Eros smells just like the bottle looks, dark, aquatic, blue-green, marine, haunting.

Yeah you're right. Eros is 2nd best after Invictus. Yesterday i bought Gucci Guilty. To tell you the truth i was very impressed.

I was intrigued by the name, Gucci Guilty. Now that you've mentioned it....I'm gonna have to make another trip back to the local perfumeries.

I guess you can tell this is all a bit new to me. I was never a perfume guy. I would just rub on some antiperspirant deodorant, and that was it. For years. I wasn't interested in sweet scents. Then I smelled 1 Million Intense in a GQ magazine someone handed me.

That was it.

Let me make a little commentary. A big problem with a lot of these scents is the longevity. When you do a little homework on basic perfumery, you find out that Eau de Toilette is a more diluted version of a scent. Next step up in density would be Eau de Parfum. Now, it's easy for a woman to find a Parfum, versus just an eau de toilette. Not so for a man. Our scents tend to be more diluted. That's unfortunate. I think really it might come down to economics [again]. Maybe men are not the primary consumers of perfumes, and so maybe a perfumery doesn't want to put a concentrated mixture into a bottle, wasting more of the compounds needed to make a much greater quantity of eau de toilette or cologne.

I looked for an Invictus Eau de Parfum. Brother, it's not out there.

That would be a "cologne" to blow away all contenders for decades to come.

Let's hope Paco Rabanne reads this and at least comes out with an Invictus Intense like he did with 1 Million.

Alfano's Girl, instead you should have said Toujours Fidele instead of forever loyal. It would have been a masterstroke comeback on a thread like this.

I'm really picky about scents.. But I have to say the dolce&gabbana the one is my absolute favorite and the only thing I really use. Just a nice clean smelling scent I think. Not too harsh and crazy.

Ok gang, so I got my delivery of Toujours Fidèle from France. I am wearing in on top of my Invictus to test its longevity.

I must say, it does smell almost exactly like Invictus except Invictus is more masculine and musky, heavy. That is the only difference. If you spray one on top of the other, I don't think it really counts as mixing two different scents.

I'm still stuck in the 90's and early 2000's.

Tommy

Aqua Di Gio

Has anyone ever tried "Umpire".

It's for foul balls.

All gangsters wear Pino Syvlestre its shaped like a pine cone.

I remember back in the '80s, it was rumored that gay men loved Pierre Cardin because the bottle was shaped like a penis. And seeing how so many wiseguys prefer the company of men to women, that might be something to think about. But a pine cone shaped anything would have to hurt like a motherfucker .

LOL! [speechless]

After sporting TouJours Fidele by Fragonard a few times, I must say, it is distinctly different from Paco Rabanne's Invictus.

Toujours Fidele smells closer to a musky bouquet of flowers.

Invictus is 10 times more masculine and rich smelling.

Agua Brava by Antonio Puig is what I use

I used to wear an assortment of things (infrequently) in the '70s and 80's, but I honestly can't remember any one particular product that stood out in my mind. Nowadays, dinosaur that I am, I will wear just a little bit of English Leather.

I've always had an aversion to those really overpowering scents that can knock you out from a block away. I remember back in college (in 1973), I had a roommate that wore Brut. He let me try some, and I swear you could smell it in the next county! I also tried the aftershave that fateful evening, and it burned the ever-lovin' crap out of my skin. Never again - even if Joe Namath did do commercials for that shit!

Yeah, as the saying goes: I wear English Leather, or I wear nothing at all.


Signor V.

My Mom tells me stories about Sears & Roebuck catalogs (she is 68, you probably have went through that eh PB?) and used up corn cobs.

I've honestly had to use pine straw before while hunting and have used newspaper at work before. Down here working in the middle of nowhere (which isn't hard) there are not any bathrooms and the boss wasn't going to let us rack a truck up and drive 10-15 minutes OR MORE to the store and use theirs. Just grab some shit and go. After one time I started stocking my truck with toilet paper.