Carven Pour Homme1 is instantly recognizable as a contemporary men's fragrance, but it's much nicer than your average masculine mainstream perfume. Imagine a friend who always dresses like a slob. One day, you see a figure approaching who looks familiar but...different. It's your friend! But in beautifully tailored clothes, and he's sporting a great new haircut to boot. Such is the Carven Pour Homme effect.
Carven Pour Homme is a violet leaf scent. We often smell violet leaf in perfumes in loutish guise: loud-mouthed, obnoxious, ordinaire. Carven Pour Homme presents violet leaf made chic — soft-spoken and interesting.
Carven Pour Homme opens with, you guessed it, violet leaf, but violet leaf that is squeaky green, almost floral, and bubbling like champagne: lively and glittering. Grapefruit, not too clean, quickly joins the violet leaf and provides an astringent, "moist" citrus-peel aroma. In mid-development you'll still smell violet leaf but you'll also detect sheer/pale notes of almost-smoky cedar and warm sage leaf. Sometimes colors come to mind as one sniffs a perfume; Carven Pour Homme's colors, to me, would be jade green, pigeon-feather grays and charcoal (and these shades almost mimic Carven Pour Homme's progression...its violet leaf becomes stronger/darker as it travels from top notes to base notes).
The base of Carven Pour Homme adds some vanilla fuzz to the violet leaf, and introduces a chilly/clean vetiver note (and at this stage "fancy barbershop" came to mind). At the end of its development, Carven Pour Homme returns to violet leaf, but richer than the percolating violet leaf of the opening.
Carven Pour Homme has close-to-the-body sillage and good lasting power; if you're a perfumista who is forced by management to wear barely-there perfumes to work, Carven Pour Homme would be a great choice — your office mates won't be "scared" by it and you'll enjoy its interesting facets.
Carven Pour Homme Eau de Toilette is available in 30 ml (not in the US, sorry), 50 ml ($75) and 100 ml ($95); grooming products include natural spray deodorant, aftershave balm, bath/shower gel. In the US, it can currently be found at Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom.
1. Perfumers Patricia Choux and Francis Kurkdjian; listed notes of grapefruit, violet leaf, sage, nutmeg, cedar, vetiver and sandalwood.
Ooh – sounds very interesting! I like the leafy stem parts of violet more than the flower in fragrances.
AnnS: it’s well done…but not getting much attention in the U.S.; have not seen it mentioned in any magazines I’ve seen…no advertisements either.
I loved this immediately when I smelled it @ Saks 5th Avenue. Finally! A well done designer masculine scent. The bottle is awesome too. I look forward to owning a bottle (and the Shower Gel) soon.
Mike: and the Vetiver one is good too…I almost bought it on the spot.
I like them both, but the Vetiver called to me more. The prices weren’t ridiculous either.
Nathan…same here. These were basically hidden at my Nordstrom…and every SA was pushing Bond No. 9 ‘stuff.’
Sold! 🙂 LOL
Great review Kevin 🙂
Cheers!
K.G.: hi! Hope you like it…and DO smell the Vetiver while you’re at it.
I guess i am in the minority. I tried these both recently at Saks, and dont remember likely either of them at all. In fact the vetiver was probably one of the worst vetivers i have ever smelled. Like if they ever scented a toilet bowl cleaning product with vetiver, i imagine it would smell a lot like Carven’s.
R: ha! I will review Vetiver this coming week.
This sounds lovely, I’ll check if Belgian perfume counters have it. Would probably not have known it existed, if you hadn’t reviewed it – thank you.
Annikky…you’re welcome.