7/11/12

Sex Appeal For Men (Coty)



Some fragrances are seasonal; some are perfect all year-round. Jōvan's herbal oriental, humorously titled "Sex Appeal," is great in winter or summer. Its secret: complexity.

Jōvan's fragrances are usually underrated, and sometimes (rarely) overrated - Musk for Men deserves more attention as an affordable alternative to the strange designer musks that populate the shelves of Sephora; Black Musk deserves to stand alongside those very same upscale oddities; Woman should be the formula for the world's first official "Air Travel Shampoo"; Ginseng NRG ought to be the standard-issue fragrance for prisoners at Gauntanamo Bay. But the most underrated of this line is Sex Appeal. There's evidence that it was intended to be an aromatic fougère, with all that soapy lavender on top, the patchouli-laden coumarin-esque thing in the middle, and bitter spice in the base. Yet the real appeal here is that the general structure of this scent retains its core woodiness without sacrificing the emotively green opening sweep of sweet French lavender, or the cool aloofness of its clove, fennel, and sage drydown.

No, Sex Appeal is linearly complex, if such a thing can exist. The herbal top is permanently fused to an herbal/floral bottom, with a solid connecting rod of earthy patchouli to lend this banal formula some surprising oomph! In cold temperatures, Sex Appeal's vivid lavender sweetly blankets its smoldering heart. In high heat, this purple aspect air-conditions the bawdiest, most-fun-to-wear patchouli that can be had for a portrait of Andrew Jackson. Good stuff, and it furthers the notion that price is in no way correlative to quality.