Reviews of Design for Men by Paul Sebastian

While not awesome, it is more than adequate; similar to Iceberg PH, plus a slight clean, citrusy, spicy scent, and I'm getting better performance with Design. Recommend buying a mini to test drive.
UPDATE 12.12.25 - My 7.5 ml mini has lasted me a while, but each time I wear it, I consider going full-sized bottle. Still haven't pulled the trigger, and may just keep buyin' minis as they're plentiful and inexpensive.

Why did they discontinue Design for Men??? It was one of my all-time favorites and I always received compliments on how great I smelled. It's unfortunate, but a poor decision on Paul Sebastian's parent company's part. I suppose it's the "younger" people coming into the company and "weeding out" all the fragrances that those above age 50 love. So sad, and so discriminatory. These cretins don't know quality when they smell it! PS-The performance, longevity, and sillage are excellent. I thought I liked Burberry Man until I compared it to Design for Men by Paul Sebastian. Design blew Burberry Man out of the water. Still so disappointed that Paul Sebastian discontinued Design for Men as well as Casual for Men. I can't believe the women's versions are still in product but the men's aren't. That makes no sense to me. I wish I had stocked up on Design when it was marked down. I only have three bottles left so I am going to have to make them last. If you liked Casual, you might light Best of Chevignon by Chevignon, although I believe that one is discontinued also. Anyway, I give design an A+, five stars!

Eh...not so memorable scent from Paul Sebastian, who has made some incredible scents across the years.

Fragrance notes: amber, lavender, berry fruits, grapefruit, oakmoss and cedar.

Starts out heavy with citrus a la grapefruit and "berry fruits," parallel to the interesting lavender and amber. This leads eventually to oak moss and cedar dryness.

Design did not seem to fit with my skin chemistry, as it felt synthetic and unstable most of the time. I was convinced that there were other alternatives I could turn to rather than to try and make myself like this.

Opinions tend to get very divided over the male version of Paul Sebastian Design, and rightly so. We were several years into the aquatic/fresh revolution by this point, but there were still a lot of transitional inbetweeners and outliers late coming from previous popular styles, plus a few just completely left-field fragrances that didn't fit anywhere. I feel Design fits in hindsight somewhere between a dry British take on the aromatic chypre, much like Dunhill's mid-eighties Edition (1984), and an early aquatic/ozonic scent like Mario Valentino Ocean Rain (1990) or Aramis New West (1989), which gives it a really strange biting opening to an otherwise balsamic chypre accord. Most people who dislike it are shot down immediately by it's almost sour opening, while people who have stronger constitutions than that are mildly rewarded with an herbal finish. I gave my bottle away after several attempts to really feel my way around the stuff, since I'm a huge fan of original PS from 1979, but I just couldn't hack the awkward transition. This is one masculine that few will miss in discontinuation, which explains the very slow price climb; there just isn't sufficient demand to charge the usual scalper's premium.

The fumbling opening begins with grapefruit and some kind of berry mixture. I don't want to be an idiot and say "fruit punch" but it's just a Starburst/Skittles candy type of fake fruit that's hard to peg alongside the acidic grapefruit. There's some sort of balsam fir note in here too, which is where the fruits and citrus get their sourness, but once they fade into dry lavender and sage, things get a bit more bearable. If you haven't scrubbed by this point, the scent dials down further into amber, oakmoss, labdanum, leather and cedar, bringing in that structured chypre dryness but without an animalic like civet or castoreum to make it too old fashioned; after all, this was made in the early 90's. The finish is pleasant enough, but honestly the synthetic and "modern" 90's opening combined with the nightmare sour beef and dumplings dry down make it an unnecessary ordeal to reach this finish. If I wanted to wear balsamic vingarette as a fragrance, I could buy it from the grocery store for under $10. As it stands, the only good thing about Design is the dry down, which if you enjoy it enough, should just inspire you to buy Dunhill Edition instead so you can enjoy the entire journey, since we can't just fast-forward to the end now can we?

I don't hate Design, hence my neutral rating, but I feel it was an abutment of two incompatible ideas: a zesty fresh ozonic, and an herbal leather chypre. Whoever the nose for this was must have been conflicted about what to make when tasked with the objective of appealing to all ages, and it shoes. The marketing team really had to do the legwork to get this one on the shelf, or maybe not, since I don't recall much PS marketing overall when I researched this after getting it. This is the early 90's we're talking about so there was still enough wiggle room that something different could sneak between outgoing powerhouses and incoming aquatics, but different in this case just translates into strange. Fans of challenging fragrance might enjoy this, and I don't mind being a little provocative once in a while, but even then I have to enjoy the emotions being provoked, and the only visible reactions I ever received from this when I had it was looks of confusion and discomfort, which included my own. Paul Sebastian would soon after be absorbed into EA Fragrances, which killed off every male release from the house besides the debut masculine. I'd say in the case of Design for Men, they were secretly doing everyone a favor without realizing. Explore this one with extreme trepidation, and use only in room temperatures to mitigate the transition, if used at all.

Very cheap chemical smelling juice with nothing going for it in the least. Very 80's, synthetic across the board and overall avoidable.

Design by Paul Sebatian is a very nice surprise to me. A complete blind buy, I found this to be an amazing scent. It is VERY similar to Ralph Lauren's Polo Sport, however, less with a little 'sport' and a touch more gentleman. Another similar scent to this would be Antonio Puig's Aqua Quorum. This has a deep, dark, aquatic and watery, somewhat mossy tone that grabs you and wants to go to the beach, pool or take the boat out on the lake. In cooler temps, it is great for hanging out on patio drinking with friends or doing some outdoor shopping in the city. It projects like a beast and has extensive sillage and longevity, which is very unexpected for a cologne spray that is NOT an Eau de Toilette. With such a great value, you really can't go wrong with this one for the weekend.

I quite like this as a fresh scent with some staying power. The top notes of lavender, citrus (bergamot and grapefruit for sure, possibly others) and juniper berries blend with some sharp fresh ginger and other spices in the mid notes, then the cedar, oakmoss and musk notes of the base fade in subtly.

The component notes have some similarities with Cartier's Pasha, and to my nose they belong to the same family --- spicy fresh scents that straddle the line between a fresh chypre and a citrus fantasy. It's more of a "feel-good" scent than one to make a bold statement, but I enjoy having it in my collection and wearing it on warm days.

Fell in love with this cologne first time I smelled it at the store many moons ago. A lightly oriental, fruity, spicy refreshing fragtance that is fun to wear. Yes, its somewhat synthetic vibe to it but its very well made.

Quite a neat design, with a fougère endingLavender and amber start from the beginning, and citrus notes are present on the side. Nonetheless, it starts off on an overall somber note. Later a fuity component brightens is up a bit, and further into the drydown cedar and moss start to predominate. Indeed, like in a good number of its contemporaries, throughout the last few hours it is the oakmoss that shines; and whilst this scent has a synthetic feel, the base notes, especially the oakmoss, are quite well done. Overall a very wearable composition that in the latter parts becomes a respectable fougère fragrance. It has good silage and projection, and an excellent longevity on me of about eight hours.

I like Paul Sebastian "Fine Cologne" and I love "Casual", so I was predisposed to like this perfume, and even after reading the comments here I decided to buy it after all and find by myself how good it is.
Well, it is as bad as the comments, a total disapointment for me, but then again, I deserved it by not listening to you guys.
I gave it away. good ridance
An unequivocal thumbs down

In the words of shamu1: "Next, imagine what Casual would smell like if you added shampoo and a synthetic raw beef smell to it."

HA! I quite agree. Design for Men is a cheap, overtly chemical citrus that smells like a cheap shampoo from the 80's. Nauseating and very "cologne guy" like.

This was my first cologne (age 16?) and I remember choosing this one from a few at Marshalls. Now at 21 I wouldn't dare put this on (actually I just did to refresh my memory). It just reeks of cheap cologne with a dominant but nauseating (to me) spice added in there. Surprisingly this was the only cologne where I had someone ask what I was wearing...

Not bad, but quite ordinary. Can be bought very cheap, but it's kind of a poor man's Adolfo Dominguez.

Very biting and nauseating. A sharp fougere-like essence that gives a faux fresh feeling that's more skunky than I'd like.

Very nice. Clean, pleasant and inviting. Its good for those days you want something different yet fresh and invigorating.

Very crisp, very pleasant, very casual. Not something I clamor for, no, but worth spritzing on every now and again.