Everafter for Men
Avon (1990)

Everafter for Men by Avon (1990) is a rather interesting bookend to the rather lackluster masculine output from the house in the 1980's, built from stock components and feeling like a halfway step from Avon Cordovan (1982) and Giorgio Red for Men (1991), the latter being a fragrance developed and released by Avon for Giorgio Beverly Hills while they owned the brand. Because of this, there are fits and starts of elements you'd recognize from Cordovan plus some notes and structures from previous Avon masculines in the 80's like Avon Signet (1987) and Avon Legacy (1988), mixed with the floral chypre themes that would turn up in Red for Men. This showed a bit of that iterative development process Avon always used but would become notorious for in the 2000's when they cranked it up to 11. While it shouldn't be said that Everafter for Men is a clone of anything, especially not if it just recycles and refines some ideas from other Avon scents, it can be said that at least within the stable of Avon itself, Everafter for Men isn't very unique. I do like this one quite a bit because I get along with the ideas and concepts here, but I admit the execution is a little threadbare, but effective nonetheless.

The most interesting thing about Everafter for Men is how closely linked it is to Giorgio Red for Men, feeling like it was a test bed sold at a cheaper price to prove concept, while the much older Cordovan feels instead more like an organ donor of sorts, being a good idea given a bigger budget and taken further to be metamorphosed into the Giorgio fragrance, making Everafter for Men a step in that process. The opening has a similar sweet spicy bergamot, cumin, and artemisia, with bits of Cordovan's verbena too. The heart is carnation and jasmine with geranium, rose, and herbs like thyme and juniper. By this stage, Everafter feels more like Red than Cordovan, but eventually the base shows up with the same plasticy patchouli as Avon Legacy mixed with castoreum, tonka, and oakmoss found in Avon Signet, dialed down to civil levels with Avon's smooth amber note. Performance isn't awesome, but won't make you sad either, being a quiet wear of at least a workday, best for use in fall or milder winter climates due to the musk and spice. Everafter for Men is meant to be romantic, but to me it feels more office appropriate. A few people liked to compare this one (along with Red for Men) to Drakkar Noir by Guy Laroche (1982), but I definitely do not get any such resemblance when wearing it.

Along with Seazone (1992), Everafter for Men is one of the few discontinued Avon masculines from the early 90's that seems to have any kind of fans decades removed, and you'll occasionally hear its name dropped in conversations about old Avons X or Y used to wear in high school and so on. The good news is if you still love this stuff, you'll really enjoy Red for Men by Giorgio Beverly Hills, as EA Fragrances put it back into production after buying the house from Avon and the stuff just floods the discounter market. No need to look for potentially expensive vintage examples of Everafter for Men as Red for Men is literally the same idea with a much better chypre base that doesn't skimp on performance, although Avon collectors or those nostalgic for the scent are forgiven if they want to track down a bottle of this for sake of completion. All in all, Everafter for Men feels like another early Ann Gottleib work for Avon that recycles what was good, cuts out what wasn't, and recycles what can be put to good use without being too obviously rehashed. Knowing she would also go on to work with Calvin Klein with their cK One (1994) range, it's clear Gottleib was perfect for making perfumes with "off-the-shelf" materials that didn't entire smell like it, and Everafter for Men is clearly a good example of that. Thumbs up.