Cristobal pour Homme
Balenciaga (2000)

Muddled Amber fougère with a mentholated green accord that's a bit like sweet peppery spearmint.
Smells like a bad Calvin Klein, or Tsar with a hangover.

First off, one point worth noting is that, Cristobal Pour Homme is quite a character by all means, good or bad, it's not a quiet one. It also relentlessly redefined my reception of 'sweetness' for men's fragrance in general, by which it still clearly stands as a men's fragrance containing if not all, one signature note: Lavender. Some put this as fougere, some oriental, while some gourmet, but one obvious feature the moment it sprays out is sweetness, vanilla sweet with a fussy amber-woody undertone and a sharp lavender scream on top. You will recognize it in a way, you have smelled it more or less from someone before, but most likely less, no other contenders could've been any stronger or even as 'bulky', this blurry resemblance to so many others is not a good thing to begin with, it unfortunately assembles all classic men scents in a clumsy manner in my opinion, rather like a cook who's traveled a bit, thinking of himself as 'know it all, seen the world', and starts his own 'fusion' with almost every bit of this and that, you like Thai? We have it, Sushi? Here you go, BBQ? Pizza? Spicy and sweet? Take'em all!
For the notes per se, main noticeable accords are lavender, fussy amber/woods and vanilla. I envy those who perceive tea, coffee and tobacco, or maybe sandalwood. My nose simply gets numbed by the first blast of candied lavender within vanilla sweetness, then days later to pick up some tamed woods left on shirt. I don't know how people examine the quality of the material used as I merely get those three piecing notes rampaging like chaos, no shape, no depth, but long lasting boring vanilla 'presence'. Current mediocre niche quality or novelty doesn't necessarily contrast Cristobal and uplift it to a 'high quality' position, though it could still easily sit on now designer shelves and maybe sells well, just don't really see a loss as it's discontinued or even rare now.

Not close to what I thought it would or could be. I really don't like to give a thumbs down because I know talented people have spent their time making these fragrances for people to enjoy. But this is a rather bland mix of notes that don't lead anywhere but to disappointment. I gave my bottle up a long time ago... and I don't miss it at all.

What is pretty weird about Cristobal Pour Homme is the dichotomy of assessments it uses to elicit all around, either overly enthusiastic (almost raving) or excessively severe, at same time. My own rating is barely "medium", honestly tending to a negative one since I hardly detect in here originality or veritable creativity despite several of the scents smelling close to this one have been actually issued later than CPH. Yes there is a lot about "aromatic fougeres" but in here we are on a basically different sphere. The opening is a yet known orangy-spicy-mentholated-benzoinic "stardust" (with a starring connection of coriander, mint and artemisia) completed by angular floral notes and a metallic sort of roasted coffee's effect. Spices are piquant-stormy (it seems to detect cloves, pepper and star anice) and minty, you can get faint citric pattens and metallic floral notes as well before an amberish-synthetically cedary (sandalwood-cedarwood) dry down morphs down with its charge of "metrosexual juvenile" artificiality. Cristobal Pour Homme is an aromatic/benzoinic/cashmeran-oriented woody-oriental (or semi-oriental). It starts indeed soon modernly aromatic, spicy-mentholated and synthetically musky-woody-amberish in a way conjuring me more than vaguely concoctions a la Ted Lapidus (more on the fougere side), Ted Lapidus Black Soul, Bogart Silver Scent, the sweeter Baldessarini Ambre', Rochas Man (in part) and several modern boring stuffs a la Rocco Barocco Extraordinary Man (which is more bombastically brash), partially Joop Homme (due to a common spicy-minty-tobacco "coloured" accord) and YSL Silver Kouros. I detect by soon an undertone of salty piquant-aromatic cedarwood (vaguely balmy-resinous) a la Bvlgari Man Extreme as well and overall seems frankly yet experienced and void of creativity. Honestly the juice is not obnoxious but smells not original, standing out longly with over an "aftertaste" more than vaguely close to a sort enamel-varnish/acetone aura. What I honestly like about this Cristobal's fragrance is the "The Dreamer's like" sort of spicy-minty (by star anice/coriander "refreshed") tobacco's feel finally warm and kind of simil-organic but I'd have preferred less sweetness and more dissonant interesting dirtiness. I detect as well a sort of simil-amaretto's "balmish/cashmeran-oriented" undertone which I use to detect even more often around (I think to scents a la YSL L'Homme Intense and Guerlain L'Homme Ideal but also to several Profumi Del Forte's creations as Vittoria Apuana). Dry down is finally a sweetish-minty-piquant combination of synthetic woods (cashmeran?) and ambroxan with a faint touch of vanilla and a salty-woody spicy undertone. Good longevity and decent protection on my skin. Not my cup of tea.
P.S: after many hours I get a really dirty-resinous (kind of mastic-oriented) effect (less minty, less sweet, kind of more neutral, mossy and opaque) and in this phase I appreciate far more the aroma.

Cristobal pour Homme goes on with an ambiguous fresh synthetic accord with a creamy faux sandalwood undertone. Moving to the early heart the slightly sweet, creamy faux sandalwood takes command of the development with hints of nutmeg spice and rose-like geranium. As the composition continues through the heart phase the faux sandalwood gradually gives way to a slowly growing vague synthetic blonde woody accord that takes over as star with the nutmeg spice and geranium remaining in support. During the late dry-down the composition turns decidedly more dry with the synthetic woods relegated to support as slightly powdery vanilla and relatively dry amber take control through the finish. Projection is above average and longevity is excellent at 12 hours on skin.

Ugh oh, Houston we have a problem... After being so impressed with many other offerings from Balenciaga it seemed like a relatively safe bet to blind buy a bottle of Cristobal pour Homme, emphasis on "seemed"... Unfortunately, this composition is nowhere near in the same league as the other Balenciaga offerings I have tried over the years. The primary culprit is the highly synthetic smelling nature of the composition (and in this case, I mean synthetic in a bad way). First off, is the faux creamy sandalwood (similar in smell to the stuff used in Floris Eau de Santal). This stuff may be fake, but when used properly it can smell quite good as it does in Eau de Santal. While it smells good elsewhere, in Cristobal pour Homme it definitely doesn't. Problematic faux sandalwood out of the way, we now come to the worst offender of all, the dreaded synthetic blonde woody accord (AKA Cashmeran). Cashmeran is a tough synthetic to control in compositions, and it is not skillfully implemented here, overpowering most of the other aspects of the composition until the late dry-down. Doubly problematic is when it is paired with the faux sandalwood it just emphasizes all its worst aspects. The only saving grace to this unfortunate concoction is the late dry-down as the vanilla and amber take over the focus, but it is just too little, too late, and indeed the Cashmeran remains in the background still to make sure you don't forget it. At the end of the day, one could do a lot worse than the minor mess that is Cristobal pour Homme, but one could also do a *heck* of a lot better. The bottom line is the approximately $125 per 100ml bottle on the aftermarket Cristobal pour Homme is a moderately disappointing concoction of synthetics that try way too hard and don't succeed, earning it a "below average" 2 to 2.5 stars out of 5 and a modest avoid recommendation. This one was a blind buy gone bad, I'm afraid.

The opening of Cristobal Homme is fantastic: that same, unmistakable anisic-fougère structure of Azzaro pour Homme “revisited” with a modern look. Sweet, fresh, cozy, velvety, terribly solid. If you know Azzaro pour Homme, Cristobal will give you a really pleasant feel of “déja-vu”: basically here you get that “old school vibe”, mostly from citrus-anise-lavender-woods, perfectly mixed with a totally compelling “late ‘90s style”: soft creamy woods, tobacco, an overall sweet powderiness. Gerard Anthony perfectly nails it again in creating something smelling irresistibly, desperately good – with again, as for Azzaro, a stunning level of depth and quality (back when budgets for fragrances were still high...). By “smelling good” I mean something which is at the same time easy to pull off, friendly, cozy, probably crowdpleasing, yet sophisticated, refined, and totally distinctive. This is what I personally value the most in perfumery; you need talent to make distinctive “artistic” perfumes, you need talent to make versatile crowdpleasers, you need to be a perfume-making superhero to make something comprising them all this well. So uplifting and enjoyable. The “modern aromatic fougère” par excellence, warm and sweet, perfectly “modern” yet perfectly timeless, which only a nose like Anthony could accomplish. Delightful, sophisticated, versatile. Grab any bottle you can find – go, now!

9/10