New West for Him
Aramis (1988)

I never imagined saying this: I enjoy the use of calone in this fragrance. This is probably due to the fact that it is one of the first (if not THE first) commercial fragrance that uses this aromachemical that has since become much-maligned for its overuse in the scents through 90s and 00s. Here, however, it is aqueous and sheer, suggesting a shade of watermelon but also enhancing the atmosphere of pine, juniper, and moss.

For all its ambition as one of the first aquatic, marine fragrances on the market, the Aramis DNA is still discernible, with hints of Devin in particular (the artemisia, caraway and leather accompanying the pine).

I really am surprised. I like this. A lot. Everything down to the translucent musks in the drydown.

9/10

I find myself thinking about camping in the Sierras right as the air has turned more dry and arid as the temperature rises and the rainfall ends. The needles of the trees are still abundantly green and have moisture but because of the lack of humidity have started to evaporate and the combination of tree sap and terpenes is this amazing sweetened fresh, dry forest smell that is captured in New West. Very impressive. I really connected with this scent, it is an all time favorite and for me connects me to dryer, sunnier spring days and summer nights. New West is a great add to have a warmer season fragrance that is less common and an absolute pleasure. It had a period of discontinuation and price inflation yet returned and is a great buy, currently in the $30 range for 100mll. At that price it was worth buying two. Thumbs up.

My review is for the newer clear bottle, not the original blue bottle. New West is sharp and green but to my nose and others it can be offensive. This is the only Aramis fragrance that doesn't work for me. I tried several wearings (just 2 light sprays) but with each wearing people around me would start sneezing. I thought it first was coincidence until the final time a bank teller who was assisting me went into a sneezing fit. I was embarassed finally realizing it was the New West. That was it for me. I gladly traded my bottle.

I've always liked this fragrance for some reason, despite it being a little outside my comfort zone and 10 or 15 years past its prime in relation to my age. I encountered it for the first time around 12 years ago in an Ulta, when I was new to the hobby and doing some sampling, looking to buy the first of what would become many fragrances. Even though I was probably searching for something like Acqua di Gio or Fuel For Life at the time, New West's prickly dry aromatic character stayed lodged in the back of my brain long after I sampled it. One random day 3 years later, and now up to my eyeballs in fragrances, I suddenly felt compelled to order it while browsing online. Its smell was still there in my mind, crystal clear, along with the image of its kitschy blue and yellow, Coastal-California-in-the-80's bottle, and when it arrived it smelled just as I'd remembered it. And I don't know exactly what it is about New West that gives me this connection where its smell manages to stay so vividly clear in my mind, but there's something about it that is totally unique and peculiar. It's listed as an aquatic–and it is–yet it's also dry as a bone, a pine forest with one side near the ocean, and the other demarcating the boundaries of a desert. It has the coarse, herbal masculinity of the classic Caron Yatagan, but wears like an unusual sports fragrance. It's mossy and prickly, vegetal and herbal, clean and crisp; dry and hot, but also light and breezy. These aren't contrasts as much as once tried and true symbiotic qualities that are no longer found so packaged together in today's mainstream, and they thereby create a masculine aquatic that screams “80's!!!” but is still wearable, and FUN to wear today. I always refer to Dior's Fahrenheit as timeless–it feels just as cutting edge and unto itself now as it did in 1988. It doesn't age as much as it becomes more and more impressive with each passing phase and trend in men's perfumery. Aramis New West is NOT timeless–it clearly has its place in a bygone era and doesn't smell nearly as futuristic as it does cleverly nostalgic–but its still very likable and it's still useful. (I like to think of wearing it kind of like playing classic NES games in 2020. Even if they look out of place in the 21st century, they're still fundamentally great games and they're still fun!) So every now and then I like to wear New West, and enjoy it for what it is, and what we can no longer find out there on the Macy's fragrance counter. Of course, I don't know how I'd feel using New West in its current bottle style–it might just feel outdated, and it would certainly feel as if something had been lost. It definitely wouldn't be as fun. Aramis' decision to redesign the bottle and box (sometime between 2010 and 2013) was a huge mistake in my opinion. This isn't a fragrance that one should even attempt to bring to or present in a 21st century package, or as Aramis ended up doing, present in a bland, chronologically amorphous bottle and box. The blue bottle with yellow trim and 80's font was the physical, artistic connection between this fragrance and its past. And unfortunately I can't help but feel like a piece of its past was lost when its aesthetic changed. After all, would you rather listen to Depeche Mode through your ear-buds after a brief message from Spotify, or pop your old, double-sided cassette into a chunky Sony walkman and jam out? I'm no reformulation nut, and I very rarely scour eBay looking for discontinued bottles and boxes, but if you're considering buying New West, go with the old stuff here...it's worth it.

Performance is about 5 to 6 hours with pretty strong projection for about 2 and more reserved for the rest. Expect to pay between $1 and $1.50 per milliliter when going for the vintage in an unopened or gently used bottle.

Still a great scent, albeit a little dated.

I've adopted this one as my signature scent and wear it at least three days a week. It's unique in that as retro of a scent- I still often get asked what it is.

To me, the two most prominent notes in this are pine and patchouli and they are the notes that last throughout the day and into the drydown.

The opening is the only place mint can be detected, but it's gone very quickly. Within an hour, this turns into a green, woody aquatic with just enough aldehyde and calone to make it an aquatic by today's standard. The first few hours this is full of seabreeze, sunshine and ozone. It doesn't smell synthetic, and I think the heavy greenness of it is what keeps it so fresh. After about four hours this becomes a woody skin scent.

This has been discontinued on more than one occasion and looks like it's currently out of production. I hope it will make another return before I run out of the two bottles I've hoarded.

Perhaps more interesting as a historical landmark than a fragrance in and of itself, New West was the first aquatic fragrance ever release. That said, it's so green it's hardly what would be identified as an aquatic today, but that greenness feels more like watered-down Aramis signature DNA rather than the vivid portrait of late-1980s California the fragrance postures as being.

It's pleasantly refreshing, but in the world of 2019, New West does feel a bit generic in a dated sort of way (though anyone nostalgic for the early 1990s is sure to enjoy its effect).

Polo Blue would pick up New West's banner over a decade later, and it's the better-made scent.