Lapidus pour Homme
Eau de Toilette, Ted Lapidus (1987)

One of my FAVORITES! Listen, spray it on and ignore it for 20 mins. Lapidus has a lot going on in the first 20 mins. The best way I can describe it is, it's trying to sort itself out. When it does, it's one of the best!

Wow - this smells like almost everything. On top, I get mint and hamster-cage cedar, along with a mix of bubblegummy jasmine and pine. There's something nostril-searing in there as well, maybe ginger? It's woody and dank and masculine, but sweeter than I'm used to with frags of this type.

Things fade considerably in the heart, as the sweetness makes way for a mix of dark green herbs and continued cedar. The base is weaker than I expected, neither an obvious chypre nor fougere base - instead, it registers to me as dark green resins with lingering herbs.

So far as powerhouse chypres go, I don't like this that much. This is more of a dark green masculine blob than anything that feels very considered. The only note to really stand out is the cedar, and I don't really enjoy the hamster cage vibe it adds. Meh.

Fun as heck. Performs best on my skin in the heat. It smells of incense, honeyed pipe tobacco, and lavender. The vibe I get is a sunny day at a park horsing around with family. This is truly unique and a must have in any man’s collection. You want to party with this guy. He’s got character.

Now THIS is what I consider beast mode in every sense of the word. A zillion notes and it's very fragrant, very masculine even though it's a little on the sweet side. I get many compliments all day long whenever I wear this monster and It's not dated at all either as I wear this often but you can't wear it every day as it's so nuclear the scent takes forever to disappear from the skin. BTW, this is stronger than Joop! and Vintage Kouros! Take THAT YSL

Unfortunately, this is not my type of scent, but I can appreciate the blend of notes. The opening is a bit too strong for me, and it smells a bit dated. However, I'm glad that most Basenoters can enjoy this scent.

LPH is in my opinion got the same DNA as Kouros, and a must try for someone who wanted to like Kouros (which I dig) but just couldn't bring themselves to do so because of the animalic/dirty musk/civet aspect. This is sort of a more crowd pleasing and less polarizing and easy to handle version. The pineapple note is quite reminiscent of the opening of One Million but there is where the similarity ends as LPH then moves entirely into the direction of 80's powerhouse territory with the musky floral and mossy leather drydown. Excellent stuff, extremely well blended and well balanced composition and a harmony of all the notes working in tandem (which is almost hard to find in modern fragrances) create a mesmerizing classic-yet-modern scent. Performance is excellent and at the price what it sells for it's a steal. (2018 or 19 bottle)

Scent: 9/10
Quality: 8.5/10
Performance: 8.5/10