Skin 2 Skin for Men
Avon (2003)

Avon started to come out of it's slump by the beginning of the 2000's, as then-new (but now former) CEO Andrea Jung was determined to add some upmarket personality to the brand and make it more competitive with fragrance labels sold brick and mortar. Her efforts created a financial boon in the company short term, but in the long game she ended up costing them because of the many unsuccessful market experiments Avon undertook with her at the helm. One such experiment was to vastly increase their men's offerings, and to take away the chintzy themes, bottle designs, and downright pandering appearance of their men's selection as it was in the 90's. Granted, there was still some overwrought product left to see release, but Avon for men was a much more comprehensive and mature place to be going forward. Skin 2 Skin for Men (2003) was one such example of that broader-stroke marketing appeal. It was a simple effort as a soft "skin scent" for men that was suggested as evening wear when close proximity is present. Most Avon scents are assumed to be lacking in the strength department and this one wasn't made to clear sidewalks, but rather bring a person closer for another whiff. It's oddly feminine for a scent marketed to a man, but since both men's and women's versions were undoubtedly made to attract the opposite sex (much like the similar Passion Dance pair), crossing gender barriers was probably intended here. I found it to be very confusing when I first encountered it but quickly grew to like it and was actually able to share it in a pinch with my female friends, which was probably not an intended purpose as it had a feminine counterpart, but with both scents in the set being so neutral to start with, it likely happened a lot.

Skin 2 Skin for Men comes in an unsurprisingly gender-neutral bottle that is convex while it's female counterpart is concave, and has soft satin glass. Skin 2 Skin presents itself in such a away that it might be mistaken as a feminine perfume due to it's flesh-tone juice color and bottle style if its counterpart wasn't known. The top notes here are very soft cassis and dry peach with a hint of ozone not without a bit of alcohol smell. There seems to be a light violet leaf going on in here but it doesn't last long as the florals come out in full force soon after. Hedione, peony, geranium and maybe a touch of heliotrope comes to really hit home that opposite-sex appeal before a subtle musk and the amber house note hits at the bottom. It's almost powdery without a distinct powder note being present due to the nature of the bouquet (full of ionones), and whatever indescribable modern aromachemicals keep this in ozonic territory beats me, but the whole thing manages to be ozonic without a cloying fruit note like many in this category. It stays close to the skin for the duration but I feel that's the intent here all along, and one can't fault a low-sillage scent if it's meant to be a close-proximity charmer. Granted, the aesthetic limits its use outside of its intended context but I don't think that matters much to Avon, or at least did when this was in production. Skin 2 Skin for Men is a rare men's floral/ozonic hybrid, something that I don't believe any major houses attempted since Claiborne for Men (1989), and it was pretty wild ground for Avon to break, but this should have just been labelled unisex anyway and given a different name; I guarantee they would have found more market with younger buyers if this had been the case.

I also feel like some of the same noses that worked on Far Away for men by Avon (1998) must have contributed to this as well, since it has that same overt genderbending but with florals instead of fruit, creating a demure stereotypically ultra-feminine demure softness like one would find in a suitably-marketed bath product of the time. Granted, this doesn't have the disturbingly huge streak of it that Far Away for men has, which makes me kind of giddy in a mischievous way when I wear it, and isn't otherwise derivative of anything else, but contains the same "She's a Woman, He's a Man" vibe (nod to an old Scorpions song there). I sorta recall a hint of Glade's "Angel Whispers" candle in this, if we really want to be pedantic, but that's it. The key difference with Skin 2 Skin for Men is the gender bending is subtle, and introduced quietly in the dry down rather than screaming at you like it is with Far Away for men, and somebody who likes anything Victoria's Secret has made for guys will undoubtedly know where this one is coming from upon first whiff. Because it plays close to the chest, I wouldn't necessarily leap on Skin to Skin for Men unless you fancy something intentionally romantic, and there's certainly higher quality or more prestigious products that also fit the bill, but this was a step in an interesting direction for Avon at the time. They would try several other his and hers simultaneous-release pairings each with bottles that complimented one another and fragrances meant to layer when couples wore them, but this was the first try at such a pairing from a company that was broadening it's offerings. Skin to Skin for Men leaves Avon's kitsch and celebrity branding behind, at least for a time. Thumbs up