Devin
Aramis (1978)

Anytime there's a men's fragrance that was launched between the years 1965-1999 and it's not discontinued, ALWAYS do yourself a favor and try to get a Vintage bottle. The cost notwithstanding, it truly makes sense because most likely the butchers have either ruined or significantly changed the current formula for the worse! Who cares how much sellers try to price gauge these classics because once their gone their gone and CANNOT be replaced. I have 4 bottles of the stuff with 3 vintage and the 4th a more recent pickup. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE! The juice from 1978 is easily more authentic, more enjoyable, more aromatic and overall just made from better quality ingredients without the draconian IFRA boring everyone with their unnecessary restrictions. I wish they'd just leave everything the heck alone already! That being said I highly suggest fans of the house of Aramis try out this very masculine long lasting fragrance that is in a class of it's own. It contains a lot of notes you don't see much of these days like Galbanum, Oak Moss and Thyme just to name a few. The good news is that there are still plenty of older bottles for sale and it's not hard to find. Look hard because a lot of these sellers are asking ridiculous prices for some of them but you won't be too hard pressed to find one moderately priced.

This was my catnip around 1989-1991. Powerless I became in it’s vicinity. 😂

If this is a "country" fragrance, then it's Country Life by Roxy Music. Right out of the bottle it smells like the men's counter at Macy's, but after 20 minutes it smells like Bryan Ferry in a cheetah print blazer gritting his teeth with his eyes going like pinwheels. I can't believe this is under $20.

The initial spray is definitely Polo-esque, but after drying down it becomes incredible rich, warm, and pretty animalic (depending on your skin, apparently). It almost exudes a sort of heat, really. I have a hard time not constantly smelling my wrists when I'm wearing this.

You probably should keep this for weekends and dates.

Perhaps I should look for a vintage bottle, but I was disappointed with mine from 2015. Comparisons to Polo Green are lost on me other than their shared use of pine and I find Devin altogether different and inferior.

The current formulation is spoiled by its liberal use of galbanum, which is always described as 'grassy', and in
its use of many other seemingly synthetic notes. This gives modern day Devin, a far cry from the Dude of the late 1970s that he once was, a cheap feel and some would say, diminishes the legacy of a classic Aramis creation. Not having smelled the original, I can't comment on that, but it's fair to assume it has been reformulated more than once over the years and a 100ml bottle can be bought at a low price in the UK currently (at c. £20).

I'd call Devin a dated, unspectacular but safe old school men's fragrance which is likely to appeal to fans of Aramis and an older crowd (call me Thomas Hardy, as I'm far from the madding crowd on this one) but wouldn't recommend it if you don't like galbanum, not that it's an obnoxious or overpowering fragrance at all.

Used in the right amounts and as part of a complementary olfactory pyramid, such as in the 1981 version of the animalic green masterpiece Jules by Dior, galbanum works well, but here it is one-dimensional and whilst longevity is very good at over 8 hours, it is not the type of green scent I could ever learn to love. My opinion might change should I every try the vintage version, but for the current one it's thumbs half up / half down.

I am outdoorsman, a naturalist, a conservationist. I am the type that when walking in the woods I really like to drink it all in. I see a log with moss and lichen, mushrooms covering it, I get in close, examine it, am in awe of its splendor. I am in love with everything from the haunting calls of the whippoorwills and loons to the morbid, mysterious beauty of carrion beetles carrying out their work. I admire the whole picture, the good, the beautiful, the bad, the ugly, and how all the tints and hues come together to spell out "home" to me.

This is why Devin is so beautiful to me. The genius of Bernard Chant is that in his works, he tapped into all of these qualities, thereby making his work smell so natural that the average Joe may be taken aback: "this doesn't smell clean, this isn't safe and antiseptic. This isn't right. I am a city man, what do you take me for?" This will certainly not appeal to the 'blue' fragrance lovers of today (at least not until their noses acquire a taste for more complexity and artistry in scent); we currently live in a time where nuance and dynamism is shunned in favor of Disney versions of the natural realm.

Devin was through much of its existence presented as a 'country' eau de cologne, almost as a disclaimer. This has since been removed from the labeling of newer formulations, but the fragrance remains primarily intact. I have an older bottle that just sings the praises of all that is agrestic, raw, rugged (tall pines, herbs, weeds, and grasses, and animalic leather/labdanum), yet vulnerable and tender under the surface (florals, jasmine, lavender, an understated sweetness).

The pine note is the real stand-out for me: it is not a hackneyed Isobornyl Acetate heavy accord but rather a more dynamic pine of needles, resins, sap, bark, wood. We do know that pine and artemisia were often paired together in men's chypres of the day (Quorum and the like), but here, they really somehow stand out as Technicolor, albeit with many muted and tawny shades thrown in. The galbanum brings out the truly green and sappy qualities of pine needles and broken leaves. The cinnamon is far from candied and rough; it really brings out the woodier qualities of pine.

If you have graduated from simpler and hopelessly accessible scents and want to explore something simultaneously thought-provoking and a source of primal pleasure, then Devin is a logical progression in your fragrance journey. Applied with a light hand, this will likely be appreciated by others around you, too. The word "classic" has been mentioned 33 other times so far in the review, and it comes as no surprise. Devin is one of the most beautiful men's fragrances I've smelled, simple as that. It brings a whole new meaning to "taking the rough with the smooth."

10/10

I love Aramis and many classic vintage fragrances from the 70s and 80s

Devin has many vintage qualities that I appreciate, mind you, I am commenting on the modern version.

It's vintage through and through but there's a powerful animalic tone that is overpowering and lingers from the start till the end.

Be afraid, be really afraid of the civet/musky note that will not go away!

It is very cheap nowdays tho!