Tom Ford for Men just “arrived” on the perfume scene and the fragrance has taken a back seat to its advertising campaign. Love it or despise it, the ad campaign, photographed by Terry Richardson [ed. note: if you want to see those ads, you’ll find links here], has gotten a lot of media attention. I don’t have much to say about the naked oily woman with red lips and fingernails, and the “perfume-bottle-as-penis” images, but thanks to the advertising, when I hear ‘Tom Ford for Men,’ even after wearing the scent, I don’t think about “the juice” — I think about the ads’ glaring photos: a woman’s big boobs and her shaved genitals. Should advertising loom so large over the product being hyped?

Tom Ford for Men sounds complex “on paper”; its ingredients list includes citrus, lemon leaf oil, mandarin zest, bergamot, basil, ginger, violet leaf, orange blossom, grapefruit blossom, tobacco leaf, black pepper, amber, cedar, patchouli, vetiver, oak moss, leatherwood and cypriol. Tom Ford for Men on skin smells much simpler than it sounds. It opens with a fresh citrus accord (bracing, not “cold”) and violet leaf, and proceeds quickly to the heart of the scent, where amber, cedar, ‘leatherwood,’ and especially patchouli, dominate. There are hints of oak moss and tobacco leaf in the fragrance but I don’t smell basil, black pepper, ginger or blossoms; all these well-blended notes may contribute to the slightly sweet and sprightly aspect of the fragrance. After you think Tom Ford for Men has played itself out, it suddenly “sinks” into a darker, murkier world — a world of unclean muskiness…

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