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Posted 20 hours ago

Envy Perfume For Women, 60Ml

£9.9£99Clearance
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In fact, what sweetness there is, is only there to stop the tamarisk note from getting out of hand, nothing more. Where they are too aggressive, this is too complaisant; a green, gingery Amber, it's so sweet and eager to please you wonder if there's any character at all behind it's manicured stubble and designer chinos.

Had I paid anything near that and smelled this fragrance for the first time under those circumstances, I'd be extremely disappointed and would give this a thumbs down; but when removed from all that drama, Gucci Envy for Men is a pretty good little scent taken on its own. The almighty and insurmountable reputation of Gucci Envy for Men (1998), earned from the hype given to it by YouTube and Instagram influencers (the real shakers and movers of the "frag-bro" dominated community), can hardly be parsed from the fragrance itself; and it is such that guys will actually fall in love with the stuff or the idea of wearing it because of the reputation, regardless of how it smells. It's like green l'Eau d'issey, which is set on a base of scorched earth that clearly derives from Sinan. I wouldn't say this is the best example of the mini-genre it created, nor that the genre itself was very remarkable; but having the clout that the brand Gucci affords obviously didn't hurt it in the least.It is an almost entirely floral composition, in a throwback way which somehow casts an unassailable aura around the wearer, like a vampiric woman whose creation and heart are rooted in the 40's, and who walks the Earth unchanged, unmoved. She wraps herself in a luxurious white robe while she ponders what to wear that night (does she wear the Castelbajac or the Sonia Rykiel? Ginger, incense, sandalwood and vanilla isn’t a combination you’ll find in many fragrances, and certainly not a combination you’d find in any of today’s offerings.

And I think I've figured out why it irritated me – a) the white flowers take over after half an hour or so, b) it barely lasted four hours and c) what was left took on a rather sharp, almost-but-not-quite sour green edge.And of course it was a big success, which goes to show that a safe perfume isn't always the most lucrative one. By flouting the idea that it 'should always smell good' Envy places itself firmly in the difficult - or Expressionist camp - along with some of Roudnitska's work, Sécrétions, Poison etc. The loins of Gucci Envy for Men would beget a few scents, with the most notable being Carven Homme (1999), another discontinued masculine literally made famous only after the discontinuation of Envy for Men; and thus is a scent made nauseatingly expensive by scalpers waiting for the gibbering masses stirred up by community hype to come hunting for the "second best" option in their quest for the Holy Grail.

Performance is good for something made during the decade of apologetic sillage, but Gucci Envy for Men is no screamer and has an average wear time of about 8 to maybe 10 hours, making it above the norm but not a powerhouse. This sweet, soft green floral is from 1997 but if you changed the '97 to '79, it would totally make sense. Back in 1997, it seems the public had an unhealthy appetite for 'mean and nasty' as well as pink fluff and candyfloss, and we see the same thing happening today with the Spiky Woods. Before the makeup, before she lights her first cigarette of the evening, before she pours herself a Dubonnet and before she douses herself with Calandre, she smells like this--fresh, floral, clean. This throwback to the 70s, that Tom Ford does so well, should be evident from the first glimpse of his spare, chrome-capped bottle.I don’t consider myself to be a hype man by any stretch of the imagination, which makes the next statement all the more profound. I suspect the lavender, coriander, ginger, anise, and rosewood profile really helped establish this perception of Envy from guys used to things like Liz Claiborne Curve for Men (1996) or Eternity for Men by Calvin Klein (1989); for older Gen-X guys or even Boomers still in the market for new fragrances at that time, this might have been a godsend away from all that "fresh" nonsense. Gucci Envy for Men was created by Daniela Andrier, the woman who would shape the smell of house Prada until 2020, and the start of a short-lived revival of green woody/tobacco-based masculines that rode the cusp between the 90's and 2000's.

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