Bel Ami

By Hermès, 1986

Bel Ami by Hermès is a black hole cologne, you try to escape from its pull, but ultimately succumb to the stygian Pine-Sol Musk depths, its bug spray-like sillage is the electromagnetic transmission signalling a fresh victim.

This is from the '80s, but smells as harsh as a cheap cologne from the '70s (an old, very cheap one called Archie, whose bottle was a miniature plastic hard hat, comes to mind). When I tried it on my fiancé it reacted as the creators probably intended, his skin swallowed up the scent almost immediately, and curiously, released the faintest whiff of clove. In an hour the piney-bug spray scent appeared, but much weaker and less noxious, it was almost nonexistant in a few hours and disappeared before the end of the day.

Earlier "cologne" was a unisex scent, usually heavy on the citrus, maybe a little something piney but not much. No. 4711 being one of the originals
and still a perennial (if not ubiquitous) favorite in Europe. Only much later, in the mid- 20th century, did cologne become a "man's" scent, though a scent aimed at men in the '20s, Jicky, became more popular with women than men. All further men's cologne after WWII retains the formula Bel Ami follows with a vengeance: The obvious conifer note, the musk note, and the citrus note, in various strengths and balances, and this one didn't escape (though Bel Ami's official notes do not contain any conifer!) Even something very modern and as far away as you can get from stinky-strong Bel Ami, Air by Kenzo, retains this basic formula. Other attempts to re-jigger men's cologne usually only succeed insofar as they dress up this basic triad, making it less identifiable immediately.

Newer fragrances for men, which do not aspire to really be "cologne", are much more successful. Drakkar Noir and Polo being the early harbingers of this new wave, which ironically also were from the '80s just like Bel Ami. These two were wildly successful amongst women, who often wore them and/or bought them for their men (a throwback to Jicky?). Mixing the piney note with something watery/fresh, and an almost complete lack of the musky notes make these much more similar to women's fragrances. A more recent trend of adding fig notes to men's fragrances also enlivens the generic formula, but is now so ubiquitous (see my comments on amber notes in the Chanel #5 entry) the formula might now officially be Fig-Musk-Fresh instead of Pine-Musk-Citrus. (Yes, I know I'm not including the '90s Thierry Mugler musk-chocolate-vetiver concoctions, which are such a sudden turn into left field I'm not touching them --yet).

Two steps forward, one step back for men's fragrance. Lather, rinse,
repeat -at the very least to get Bel Ami off my skin!