Calvin Klein Man
Calvin Klein (2007)

This fume is difficult to describe as it blends from top to bottom: rosemary, mandarin, bergamot, violet leaf, nutmeg, bay, spearmint, incense, cypress, guaiac, sandalwood, and amberwood.

Uh, yeah. Sounds like it would result in chemical waste, but the blending is actually very subtle with virtually nothing harsh to complain about.

I found a 50ml partial online for 5 bucks. Probably won’t wear it very often so that price is right on.


2 / 5 stars

When I want to smell "safe" at an office function or just clean and fresh at work I turn to this one. It has a citrus, spearmint, and sandalwood smell. It projects okay and lasts a good amount of time, but it is neither a Wow or a Whoa when people smell it. It will probably fly under the radar for the most part. It was released in 2006 or 2007, but it smells like an older cologne than that. It's almost a flashback scent. Good for older executives and those that report to them. If someone asked me for what to wear at work this would be the one. It does have a nice spicy dry down though, and for that I can appreciate it. Currently it is well priced at discounters, and there are rumblings it may be discontinued. So stock up if this is a fave.

This was a blind purchase at Ross in the middle of the covid pandemic. For $20 I thought why not. Calvin Klein Man reminds me of what you would smell when you open a GQ or Esquire magazine that has a flap of sample cologne. It smells cheap, synthetic, and lacks presence. It also has short performance and weak sillage. Unmistakable floral and citrus scent cradled by the woodsy base notes. I think its synthetic/cheap effect is due to the addition of spearmint and incense. It's been said time and again but you do get what you pay for.

Man - Calvin Klein
A strong, bold and hard-muscled perfume with a spartan and assertive character. Kicks off with a fresh herbal-terpenic blast of rosemary, juniper and lavender that strikes as very natural. This setting continues with a note of slightly camphorous pencil shavings, oily gasoline and a coumarine/fresh hay tone that gets really cranked up in volume. In this, a note of warm nutmeg and a chalky-herbal waxy-cool spearmint join the party, that seem to temper down the loudness of this perfume. The dryout adds a dry and warm incense-cypreswood in the mix with a little smokyness and a dark raspy tone while the sweet- and softness of sandelwood keeps it in balance. Also here, the terpenic-camphorous force keeps up its volume, although not as dominant as in the middle. Man smells as how metal feels- hard and solid and complements men who know exactly what they want in life and how to get it. Very solid stuff.

Th opening blast combines a bergamot with orange and a chewing-gum-style spearmint to a fresh and positive mixture. Very briefly after the start this is merged with a herbal and slightly green undertone - bay, rosemary, violet leaf - that adds a less bright side to it. As a result of this merger, the opening notes are overall less the sunny and cheerful blend that the citrus-mint starting point would make one expect them to be.

The drydown added a gently spicy notes, a soft spiciness reminding me of a soft patchouli at times with hints of a faint nutmeg added on.

The base is overall a woodsy affair, combing rather nonspecific wood notes with a somewhat anaemic ambery end note.

I get moderate sillage, adequate projection and nine hours of longevity on my skin.

This daytime spring scent starts off quite nicely, whilst being a bit predictable, but the later parts are increasingly bloodless, generic and too synthetic. 2.75/5.

Calvin Klein seemed to assemble a dream team on this, with Jacques Cavallier, known at this point for his work on L'eau D'Issey Pour Homme (1994), and Rive Gauche Pour Homme (2003), combining forces with Harry Freemont, whom had already garnered Polo Sport (1993), and Michael for Men (2001). Neither perfumer were strangers to Calvin Klein, as Jacques orchestrated the feminine version of Truth (2000) while Harry created the groundbreaking CK One (1994). Then we have Ann Gottlieb, who's resume is filled with Calvin Klein releases too, including the previous masculine before this, Euphoria for Men (2006). I will say what I always do about collaborations: 2 perfumers bouncing ideas back and forth leads to amazing results, just look at the Ungaro masculine trilogy for proof of that, but when you add in a third, or even a forth, it seems that outside rare exceptions, the scent breaks down in a haze of the static made by it's too-numerous creators. That's pretty close to the case here, but Calvin Klein Man (2007) isn't beyond redemption. Granted, it was foolish for a company used to releasing an anchor and multiple flankers for a few years until the next one to release another masculine anchor only a year after the last, with Euphoria's success inevitably drowning out what must have appeared to be Calvin Klein Man's superfluous existence. If you like synthetic sweet, clean, and woodsy scents that can do acrobatics between work, play, indoor, outdoor, casual or romantic use, this is as close to a generalist you'll likely find in the CK stable, which was probably it's aim with a name like "Man", and was likely intended to be a signature for the "one cologne" kind of guy.

Calvin Klein Man opens with a sweet orange note, which presages Paco Rabanne's 1 Million (2008) by about a year, but whereas 1 Million commits to the strength of that note and builds around until a dense synthetic blood orange scent is created, the earlier CK scent makes only introductory use of it and blends in some dry grapefruit to balance. From there, herbs like rosemary and violet leaf keep the opening mildly piquant instead of rich, until spices of nutmeg and bay take over (yes, -that- bay). The scent never feels heavy like a bay rum because spearmint and calone neutralize the spice, causing a "graying" of sorts like some older feminine green chypres have, but sweeter. The base is just wood, wood, wood, musk, and wood, with a cypress note so the scent can try entering the chypre category on a technicality (akin to having a synthetic "fern" accord so CK can label some of it's android colognes as "fougères"). Guaic, cedar, sandalwood, and the only made-up "Kleinism" note in the whole pyramid (called "amberwood" that would later become a commonly-used term for that specific aromachemical) join the dry down with Iso E Super and white musk. It doesn't quite have the potential chemical wood nose burnout of Terre d'Hermés (2007) or Jubilation XXV (2007), both of the same year as Calvin Klein Man, thanks to the amberwood and musk molecules, but what we get all told is an herb-rubbed and spiced orange/grapefruit scent with an ambery and woodsy musk finish. It's stronger in projection and longevity than Euphoria (which is an easy feat), but some found Euphoria to be too vapid, so this is likely a reaction to that (and they eventually released an "intense" version of Euphoria so go figure), making Calvin Klein Man a good gift for the oversprayer in the family that wants Paco Rabanne 1 Million but would fumigate the house if you gave it to them.

Calvin Klein Man feels too hot on the heels of Euphoria for it's own good, which is it's biggest problem. Euphoria was for all intents an ozonic gourmand with the gentle, nearly invisible nature of an aquatic generalist, and Calvin Klein Man was the first real departure from the "house that made Eternity" mindset on the men's side of things, which may explain it's initial lack of popularity. Calvin Klein Man eventually dips us right back into the "ostensibly clean and easy to ignore" vibe that every CK masculine outside maybe the shrieking millenial juice that is Crave (2002) has contained in varying degrees since 1990. This juice initially teases us with something bolder, as if to apologize for it's predecessor's weakness, but also succumbs to it as well, just not as severely. Calvin Klein Man marries the sweetness of Euphoria with a heavier body and the calone-powered brightness of Escape for Men (1993), which is to say it feels extremely abstract even for a CK fragrance, unless you want to take a stab at saying "aquatigère ozoniental quadrohybrid". It leads back to that too many cooks addage again, except unlike Euphoria, the hands on deck actually do have some creative synergy that bears more wearable fruit, which is what saves this from a neutral rating. All three perfumers here would go on to make more successful and better perfumes, with Cavallier and Freemont collaborating again under Tom Ford, but Calvin Klein Man remains inexplicably likeable despite it's myriad shortcomings, and I'm not the first to say that. Fans of CK will keep coming back to it and use up a bottle just trying to wrap their heads around why it's still enjoyable despite such a ho-hum mix of notes and predictable clean woodsy musk finish, but fragheads less-enamored with the brand are best to move on, as it's a splendid case of a "fabulous disaster", but likely not worth a purchase to experience unless you really enjoy CK's mad scientist masculines. Last but not least, it comes in a completely splendid bottle as usual.