Our take
What does Pour un Homme de Caron smell like?
Ernest Daltroff, the founder of Caron, created Pour un Homme in 1934. The perfume rests on a simple idea: pairing lavender with vanilla. Lavender comes first, as both essential oil and absolute. You get the fresh, aromatic flower, then a rounder side that is almost honeyed. Little by little the vanilla rises. It does not sweeten the lavender so much as soften it, like a hand on the shoulder. Musk and amber complete the base with a clean-skin warmth that lasts a long time. Nothing else muddies the outline, and that bareness is what still strikes people today. In 1995 Jean Paul Gaultier's Le Male explored the same pairing with far more sugar. Pour un Homme stays drier and plainer. Caron still sells it, and it remains one of the most straightforward lavenders you can buy.
When to wear it
Any time but high summer, from the office to the evening. Three sprays on your shirt.
It belongs to the Fougère, Aromatic family. Pour un Homme de Caron is one of 6 creations by Caron in our encyclopedia.
