by Edward James

Created on: July 13, 2010

I can remember the first time I came across Issey Miyake. It was 1999 and I was in my first year at college. My friends and I had just started hitting the clubbing scene, therefore fragrances were important. At that time the ‘popular’ types were CK1 (although I never liked this and thought it was a bit too chavy), Tommy Hilfiger, Joop, Burberry (definitely too chavy) and the original Hugo Boss. Trying to find something different was a bit of a mission. A friend of mine had a villa in Spain and on his return to the UK he stopped off at the duty free and picked up a bottle of Issey Miyake on the way through. I immediately loved the scent, sprayed it on and we went out. The Issey attracted so much female attention it was amazing. It was like pheromones in a bottle. That was it, the harsh ‘alpha male’ fragrances were now to be replaced by the more subtle ‘flowery’ fragrances, that were a lot nicer in my opinion.

Issey Miyake is all about style and class and the packaging clearly demonstrates this. The bottle comes in a silver mirrored box and whilst it has no real further uses, and is a bit over the top, it is a nice touch especially if it is being given as a gift. In my opinion the bottle is the classiest and most attractive of all fragrances. It is oblong but it slightly tapers inwards as it gets to the top. Many bottles are totally transparent glass and look the same quality as that of a typical jam jar. This is not the case with Issey. The Issey bottle has a slightly silver/yellow tinge to it and is slightly frosted. The cap is classy silver in color. Issey is available in the typical 75ml and 125ml sized bottles.

Fragrance Direct states “It’s an aquatic, sharp fragrance blending fresh water flowers with a hint of carnation”. These ingredients really fuse well together and complement each other to produce a fresh smelling and really sweet fragrance. I cannot identify any single ingredient. This either demonstrates that my nose is not good/cultured enough for the job, or that none of the ingredients over power the others. Personally, I think it is the latter. In my opinion this is an evening fragrance. I think that it is an occasion fragrance and it is not one that I would wear everyday for work as it is just too good for that.

This is a modern fragrance that is designed for the ‘modern’ man. It is not what I would call a typical alpha male scent, such as Old Spice or Brut, and as such it is not

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>