Popular men’s fragrances in the 1980s

I also wore Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion For Men for a minute or two

Canoe

R2 was that sold at CVS?

I think you could get it out of any gumball machine.

What?! That list left out Grey Flannel??!!

My fragrance was...

What scent do you wear now that you've transitioned OP?

Cedrat by L’Occitane

Musk by Kiehl’s

QUORUM

I still wear some of these in their vintage formulations (many are still made, but have been reformulated). I have a large collection, and I like retro scents.

Bijan for Men is terrific. So is Giorgio for Men. I like Polo for Men, but I wear it less often.

I am not a fan (and so do not have bottles of) Fahrenheit (which smells like gasoline),Kouros (a weird mix of honey and civet--maybe good for young men, but not for older men), and Antaeus (opens with a huge blast of castoreum which is too much).

I was working in a dept store and this cute guy in housewares always wore Aramis. Something about that, it drove me crazy. Wanted to jump him and tear his clothes off whenever I smelled it.

I had those colognes and none of them smelled good on me. They smelt amazing on every one else, but me, rancid.

This is the first scent tested on me in a department store during college that I actually liked.

I liked it so much I carried it everywhere in my backpack. It broke, drenched everything, and now I can never tolerate smelling it again.

Nasty 🤢

My BF at the time used to wear Azzaro - just standing next to him and getting a whiff of that made me hard as a rock. I remember none of the department stores or men's stores in our area sold it, so he would pick it up when he was in NYC.

[quote] Nasty 🤢

Troll-dar reveals you're the OP. Why would you say this when you also admit to wearing many of these on this thread?

R16 lick it up!

R16 because I’m a 50 yr old fool!

You sound like a piece of work, as a teenager—smelled not like a teen spirit.

OP, you're just a troll off his meds pretending to be different people to stir up shit.

R20 go stir the shit in your own toilet. Leave mine alone. Thx!

Cool water reminds me of middle school. It was the axe body spray of the early 90s. I love creed Irish tweed.

I still love Drakkar Noir, it is a very well constructed fragrance but, like a lot of 80s fragrances, is very strong. Half a spritz of Drakkar is more than enough, but people used to drench themselves in it. It has a lot of vetiver in the base, which on me, at least, tends to grow more powerful with time. That is one where I will spritz a bit in the air, then walk through it, which is not something I normally do. Dior's Fahrenheit is another one I have to do that with, as it also has a vetiver heavy base, and is a powerhouse.

I won't even mention anything I wore before I hit 30.

I wore Lagerfeld until my crazy ex started wearing it, and I stopped.

When we split I moved on to Royal Copenhagen or Paco Rabanne, both of which I'm sure will be derided here. But someone I cared about liked Royal Copenhagen on me, and someone I had the severe hots for wore Paco Rabanne and I would get hard every time I put it on. I was young then.

Then I found Equipage and wore it exclusively for years. Now I rarely wear cologne, but when I do it's a bit of the original formula Equipage. You can only get the original formula on eBay.

What I never wore, while most everybody else did, was Polo, which we used to call 'Gay Bar.'

Can someone recommend a good Bay Rum?

Paco Rabanne was my jam! Loved that fragrance and always got compliments.

I think it was more 90's but I used to love Angel by Thierry Mugler.

I smelled like this guy from the 1970s through part of the '90s, when I started getting headaches from scented products.

Aramis. I still like it. It's linger makes shirts smell so good

I used to like Polo by Ralph Lauren, but a manager boss (a real asshole) started to wear it and I couldn't stand the smell iif it after that.

YSL Pour Homme was my first fragrance. Lemony. Then Grey Flannel. Then Opium and Obsession (in light touches.) I still keep those three on my dresser.

It’s funny, because I have a fairly “sunny” personality but I like muskier fragrances. Like I’m wearing a secret.

I wore CK1 and 1881.

R25 Here you go: Bay Rhum’s best. But I wouldn’t wear it unless you were at least 80 years old, or a pirate.

Popular with me were (and are): Kouros and Santos de Cartier. Applied [italic] lightly [/italic] .

Eternity for Men came out in 1990.

My '80s faves: Drakkar Noir, Paco Rabanne, and Polo.

Aramis, I didn't like.

Opium for women, I don't like. If Opium for men is similar (spicy), then, no.

Christian Dior's 1969 "Eau Sauvage".........NOT repeat NOT, the new cologne simply named "Sauvage." The 1969 "Eau Sauvage" is one of the best things I have ever smelled. Right up there with Creed Green Irish Tweed and Creed Aventus. Just my humble opinion.

R35 no it came out just before Christmas 1989. My dad went to Dillards to buy it for me on the day it was for sale.

Sung Homme (1989)

I hate myself for this, but the smell of the original Polo cologne still turns me on.

In college, it was the cologne that all the jocks who tried to clean themselves up wore.

CK One premiered in 1994.

[quote]the original Polo cologne still turns me on. In college, it was the cologne that all the jocks who tried to clean themselves up wore.

Before heading out for the gay bar for an evening's suckage and fuckage.

I used to love Alfred Sung in the ‘80s. So sweet & it was purple—I imagined if colors had their own smell, he really nailed it with that one.

I also loved Santos dec Cartier, but when I brought it home &sprayed it I swear it smelled different than it did from the tester.

The original Sung smelled almost exactly like Irish Spring soap.

Dirty Ass 1980-1991

After 1991, I wore shame, regret, and the AIDS

In high school, the "cool" guys wore Chaz. I was not cool and wore Tabac, which I bought duty free at Kastrup Airport before a flight home.

Every freshman (Fall 82) male at my university received a "toiletries" bag that contained a full size bottle of Pierre Cardin Pour Monsieur during move-in Sunday. But Monday's freshman mixers, the smell of it was overwhelming. To this day I cannot tolerate it. The preppy guys all seemed to wear Polo and fraternity rush events smelled like somebody blew up a 55 gallon drum of it. I did not like the smell of Polo on me and wore Halston Z-14. My sister sold Vivian Woodard and she gave me a bottle of Play It Again the next year. It was too sweet at first, but after several hours, it was fantastic. By senior year, I was wearing Quorum.

By grad school (Fall 86), I had become a men's cologne whore. I had bottles upon bottles of it. My go-to was Tuscany by Aramis. Not too many guys wore it and people always complimented me. In addition to being a cologne whore, I was fairly slutty and slept with a lot of guys – so many that I started referring to them by their cologne. There was Fahrenheit Guy, Aramis Guy, Giorgio Guy, Cool Water Guy, Bijon Guy, and a lot of Drakkar guys. I note that the Drakkar guys were the dirty ones and even today, when I smell Drakkar on a guy, I feel a tingle in my groin.

By Fall 1989, I was in my first long-term (7 year) relationship. Thanks, OP, for this opportunity to catalogue those memorable times.

R25 Grand Bay, Bay Rum (Amazon), there’s a regular, and a lime version. Both are great real bay rums, just bay, not full of clove and cinnamon.

R45 Smell you! Was that an eastern school?

I was in school around the same time—I’m glad my fraternity brothers, and my rando dates & hookups, avoided most smelly scents…other than the smell of Maui or Humboldt weed and essence of chewing tobacco.🤷🏻‍♂️

r25, C.O. Bigelow makes a good Bay Rum

The jock I had a crush on in sophomore year wore Brut. So....

He was sensitive and intelligent but looked like a brute.

R45 is a fucking weird ass!

My first boyfriend was Austrian-American (he was the first and only person I ever met who I knew was such a thing), and he wore 4711 which was the tradition handed down from his father and his grandfather. He smelled great, and it still makes me hard.

Wow, I’d almost completely forgotten 4711, r51. I think it’s still available, or at least it is here in Europe.

My favourite in the 80s, mainly because my boyfriend always wore it, was Kipling. I’d go weak at the knees whenever he walked into a room wearing that.

[quote]That is one where I will spritz a bit in the air, then walk through it,

MARY!!!

Dove, OP.

It’s 1/4 moisturizing cream, you know.

R54 that doesn’t qualify as a “fragrance”.

Tom Selleck was the spokesman for Chaz

A lot of people wore toilet water. Water from the toilet.

Bless your heart, r55.

Fahrenheit by Christian Dior even though it was only launched in early 1988. I remember half of my classmates loving it, and the other half hating it. I was in the latter group but have grown to love it. Maybe It's just acquired taste, like good wine.

Anyone knows who the model in the commercial is?

For those of you in the Mount Everest threads...

[quote] That is one where I will spritz a bit in the air, then walk through it,

Perfume experts actually are pretty consistent in NOT recommending this as a way to apply perfume. It just wastes it, since much of it does not go on your body. You'd be better off (and save more perfume) spritzing it just on your body--if you're worried about overspraying, apply it to the backs of your knees (the scent will rise up from below).

Love’s Baby Soft

^ Lady G, is that you?

R61, the reason why I do that with Fahrenheit and Drakkar is precisely because I don't want all of it on my body. I understand that it is wasteful, but they are both too strong for a full spray.

The other option would be to decant them and dilute with ethanol or perfumer's alcohol, in a larger bottle, but that smacks of effort.

I don't do that with most fragrances, just the powerhouses.

I loved Joop! but that was in the 90s. 80s I associate with Polo, Lagerfeld, Drakkar Noir and Kouros. Pierre Cardin, Stetson.

Just one single spritz on your body would not be too much.

I liked Aramis's New West. And they had a fantastic cooling moisturizing gel that looked like a tub of lube, but with the menthol in there, beware.

Trussardi Uomo got me laid the most.

Bought a new bottle of Cool Water on sale and it's back in my rotation.

With the way that Drakkar and Fahrenheit react with my skin, one spritz is too much. The vetiver gets stronger and stronger as time passes, until it becomes overwhelming.

I have to be very careful with any fragrance that has a strong vetiver base.

I wore Eternity and switched to Bulgari, my husband’s favorite scent.

I was just 14 in 1985 when I started making my own scents. I suppose one of them was somewhat similar to Paco Rabanne, but that was my at-the-pool-but-not-going-in fragrance.

Oh, I dipped my toes in the water.

Selle j can fuck off—here’s s real man of his time!

—Aramis Man

Selleck

Yatagan

One Man Show

Jules

Derby

Iquitos

R11 looking at Ted 40 yrs ago and now doing his consumer cellular commercials is why they claim getting old is hell.

Brüt.

We were drenched in POLO

Poison by Dior

I used to piss on guys back then.

R8 do you find L'Occitance fragrances to be on the unisex side?

Am a woman, and currently Eaux de Baux is my obsession. It's so delicious in cold weather.

Not really. The male scents are well suited for men.

[quote]the original Polo cologne still turns me on.

Right there with you, R41. The smell of Polo makes me think of my eight years at two different colleges like nothing else.

Giorgio Beverly Hills for men made me feel alive when I was 13. It was my fave scent circa 1987.

Patou Pour Homme is glorious. I was lucky enough to buy a new bottle during a store liquidation about years ago.