Versace Eros (a scent for a “hero” says Donatella Versace) launched this winter; the Eros ads are hilarious (the film is over-the-top kitschy and the print ad (see below) is, I assume, “inadvertently” funny, with the model’s body reconfigured by Photoshop so a huge bottle of Eros could be inserted where his abdomen-crotch-upper thigh should be…leaving a ludicrously elongated body). Ads aside, I was not expecting much from Eros, the perfume.

Eros begins with vanilla-mint aromas, reminiscent of barbershop fragrances (Jean Paul Gaultier Le Mâle, anyone?); ambroxan with a clove-like touch appears next alongside hard-working, always-employed tonka bean. Eros’ base notes of cedar (discernible) and vetiver-oak moss are well blended to produce a standard-issue woody accord. Eros starts off as a warm fragrance, not cool or crisp or “fresh” in the sense we’re used to in men’s mainstream/designer perfumes…

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