cr01's Full Review: L Eau D Issey Pour Homme Cologne by Issey Miyake 4...
L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme (to give the product its full name!) was launched by fashion designer Issey Miyake in 1995. L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme was designed to complement Miyake’s female range of perfumes which were launched two years earlier.
ISSEY WHIZZY LET’S GET BUSY!!
I have long had an interest in fashion (although I actually own few designer clothes myself (apart from a couple of “Paul Smith” bits and pieces). While at University, I met my first partner, a textile designer, and it was through this relationship, that I was taught the rudimentaries of fashion and textile design, while I taught her the basic principles of economics, and added value (old fashioned, romantic, silver tongued devil that I am!).
She was very much into “textures and feel”, and “hang”, colours and patterns were much less important, and I quickly cottoned on to what a cleverly designed piece of cloth looked like.
Issey Miyake was one of our favourite women’s clothes designers. His experiments with pleated fabrics of all textures, make for some fantastic “corrugated cardboard” images, while the style of the clothes are steeped in traditional Japanese wear. The end result is a mix of the traditional and the avant-garde. Much of what is produced is classical and comfortable to wear, some of it is weird, spiky and wacky. Look at a photograph of a Miyake designed piece, and you are just itching to feel the texture on the page.
Although born in 1935 (in Hiroshima, Japan), it was only in the early 80’s that Miyake's talents really came to be appreciated, and today many of Miyake's designs are displayed as museum pieces.
WHAT’S IN YOUR PACKET?
As may be expected from a man renown for the textile design, rather than bright and gaudy colours, the packaging of L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme is terribly understated. The box is cream, pale blue and silver, in plain stripes, and quite frankly hardly appeals in a world where bright eye catching box designs are prevalent. However, it is this classic, almost “old world” look, which draws you to the product. It really doesn’t have to throw itself off the shelf at you – the smell itself sells this product.
The bottle itself is similarly understated – a wide face yet thin sides and angular look, is in keeping with the Miyake design style.
The silver cap is square when you see it face on, and swells slightly outwards as it reaches the neck of the pearlised, almost clear bottle. The name of the product is provided in small square silver letters, adding to that classic look.
As a product out of its box, the bottle looks classic and classy in a bathroom cabinet or in a shaded area, to protect the perfume from degrading in sunlight.
Just throw the box away.
NOW CAN I SNIFF?
The first thing that hits you about L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme Eau de Toilette, is the fresh and light smell. Not sweet, not cloying, L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme offers that fresh early morning feel with a light watery aromatic presence.
Cypress, coriander, nutmeg, saffron and cinnamon bark lend a light woody and slightly spicy feel and there are some light flowery notes in there (tangerine and geranium) to keep us acquainted with our feminine side.
While the initial smell is not overpowering, I certainly find that for everyday wear, L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme lasts for most of the day, and I never trouble to “top up” the smell.
I am often concerned about "spray" perfumes, as about 50% of them, make me come out in a rash. I always have to try a new scent on my wrist and then check about half an hour later for any red rash marks. Fortunately L'eau D'Issey Pour Homme has no effect on my delicate (ney, pathetic) skin.
CONCLUSIONS
Perhaps this is not the fragrance for butch hard men, for whom subtlety often comes attached with a brick, but this is my most often purchased and most used eau de toilette.
I find that when I wear L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme that I often get asked for its name and more than one of my office colleagues have purchased a bottle for their partners. I’d guess that this is the ultimate compliment, in that women are prepared to smell this scent both in the office with me, and then at home with their partners…
On second thoughts, it’s also a bit disconcerting!
INGREDIENTS
Alcohol,
Fragrance,
Diproylene Glycol
Water
BHP
Benzophenone-2
I’m afraid the ingredients don’t mean a lot to me, and so I won’t wax lyrical over Benzophenone-2. I suppose that some (particulary those with know allegeries) will find the list useful!
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