Portos
Aramis (1985)

Portos. The launch date is listed above as 1985, but I purchased a bottle at Saks Fifth Ave in Manhattan during May of 1982. Maybe someone could explain the disparity in launch date and actual availability?

That trip to Saks was the only occasion I spotted Portos for sale, anywhere. I purchased it, because I was fond of the young lady with whom I was shopping. She was an Aramis fan, having given me a bottle the previous year. That's how we arrived at the Aramis counter. She liked Portos, so I picked up the 4oz splash bottle -- just like the one pictured. I could almost never wear it, however. My fragrance at the time was usually Halston Z-14. This was its heyday, and the Portos seemed too flowery and feminine in comparison. That must have been the lavender and the geranium components. I didn't wear it much, but I did use it to lace letters to my girlfriend while away at college. This was 1983-84, again, before the launch date listed above. On a few occasions when I did wear the Portos, a couple folks asked if I was wearing a woman's perfume. Maybe that's a reflection on the era. A review above suggested Portos was a power scent. That was not my impression at the time. My everyday was the Halston, and a roommate would liberally apply original Quorum by Antonio Puig. If the Portos bottle could have walked, it would have hid in a corner when confronted with those two. Eventually, I gave away the almost full bottle around the year 2000. I have recently tried to find some on Ebay, but none is to be had. 'Guess I should have kept it. The bottle would still have been nearly full, however. It was just too flowery for me.



"Free your mind, and your nose will follow." --Molinarius

Bergamot, lavender and rosemary - you feel a chypre coming? Spot on: a classic chypre opening. Yet there is a special twist to it; with aniseed and geranium, the aniseed is the odd one out, giving the classic chypre mix a sweetish-rounded accent. Nice.

The base adds woods - cedar mainly, and in the base a nice vanilla with a dark and slightly sweet musk. There is a green herbal and mossy undertone towards the end, but never a really harsh oak moss impression on me.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection and eight hours of longevity on my skin.

This spring scent chypre in the classic sense with w nice twist and quite of a character of its own. Less dark, brooding and musky than Kouros, no tobacco as in Aramis Havana, and nothing of the harshness of Gucci Nobile - just blended very well with high-quality ingredients. 3.5/5.

Genre: Fougère

A brisk citrus/aromatic opening introduces a contrasting dark, yet smooth animalic fougère accord that marks Portos as a close sibling to Jules and Lauder for Men, and a more polite cousin to Kouros. The musky animalic notes in Portos are neither as aggressive nor suggestive as those in Kouros, but Portos still manages the kind of vaguely unwashed masculine swagger that defines many of the 1980s “power scents.” Though clearly allied with Lauder for Men and Havana, Portos distinguishes itself from both in its lack of a strong tobacco note and a generous helping of amber in its base. It's the Lauder fougère for non-smokers.

Interestingly, Portos does not radiate in the same strident manner as so many of the big 1980s fougères, which might make it more wearable in today's more understated fragrance environment. Balance and blending are also outstanding, so that the central accords read as smooth, cohesive units as Portos matures on the skin. The drydown of clean patchouli, moss, and amber is civilized – even elegant – which comes as something of a surprise after the animalic heart. In fact, one Portos's most distinguishing features is the contrast established between the relatively luminous opening and closing movements and the darker, more dangerous-smelling heart.

While it's a shame that Portos has been discontinued, the move is in some sense understandable. With Havana, Tuscany, and Lauder for Men also in production, Lauder/Aramis had crowded their masculine lineup with fougères, and someone in management may have decided that Portos was redundant - especially as muscle-bound fougères lost market traction during the 1990s. Of course now, with fewer bold fougères left standing and the spineless aquatics of the 90s feeling more and more stale, scents like Portos and Havana are sorely missed. Ah, the irony of fashion…

Whoa, now THIS was some great stuff. (Can't believe that mine is the only review on the board thus far!)This very heady, VERY "Eighties" scent had just enough anise -- not too much, as so many do today.Remember this one quite fondly.