Obsession for Men
Eau de Toilette, Calvin Klein (1986)

Calvin Klein Obsession for Men (vintage) -

Obsession for Men has always held a special place in my fragrance memory as my Dad had it, along with Jovan Musk, in his regular rotation for years. I was 12 when this was released in 1986, so it definitely left an impression as I was entering my teens and becoming more curious about fragrances and developing my tastes.

Over the years, I have worn it intermittently, but only lately has it really resonated now that my kids are 6 and I’ve had a chance to experience being a Dad myself.

Obviously, this is 5 stars all the way for me and like many others have reviewed before, going after the vintage versions is the only way to go as the current juice is unfortunately barely even a shadow of the original.

The two easiest ways to identity vintage is -

1) “FOR MEN” will be in all capital letters on the face of the bottle. There are still plenty of mini’s available online of this version. If you happen to find one with the atomizer built directly in to the cap, then that is a super rare unicorn 1st version!

2) Look for a gold ring around the base of the cap and “Calvin Klein Cosmetics” on the label. There are still some transition bottles distributed by “Coty” that are fine, but as a general rule, avoid any bottle stamped with Coty as the distributor. If you find a “Unilever” distributed bottle, those are good to go.


5 / 5 stars

I love this scent. Been wearing it for years. I can’t believe the bad reviews here for this. But everyone has different taste. This is truly one of my favorites and My wife loves it as well which is a major plus.

The beginning of this is way, way too strong. As others mentioned, it smells "old Manish." I would say that this persists until about 3 hours in, once the drydown starts to hit.

Then once that drydown is here, I occasionally get the best waft of something amber-y ever! It is just not worth it to me to have to go through the top strong first hours to get there...

This falls into one of those that I either wear only at home, or as mentioned that I need to be able to put on about 3 hours before leaving anywhere, so that kind of limits it. Oddly enough like they say, my cat he love it. Haha.

Quick disclaimer: after experimenting with frags over the past two years or so, in which I bought about 8 total, I've become less of a fan of traditional "masculine" scents, and more leaning toward the "warm and aromatic" or sweet ones.

IE I'm honestly not the biggest fan of Oriental type frags here now, along with those with tobacco and leather, etc. So take this review with this in mind.


My overall: 5/10
Projection: 10/10, is a monster!
Silage: 9/10

Cinnamon buns in a fragrance I really love this scent even though I'm 32 I would say that its a little old manish but I still love it projects well and lasts all day I usually wear it in the fall/winter it would be too strong in the spring/summer.

The initial spray is CINNAMON!!!!! and it stays that way for about 15 minutes before it edges off and the Patchouli starts to come through. At this point it has a striking resemblance to Givenchy Gentleman (Original) and then later in the dry down has a hint of Givenchy Pi thrown in.

It is potent stuff even in its current formulation. 1 spray is there in the background. 2 brings it forward and present but well mannered. 3 will likely cause offence.

A traditional smelling "old man" amber. It vanillay and cinnamony, but one of the signatures is the spicy balsamic aura it projects around the user. Pretty safe. Real question here comes down to reformulations. I've owned both the old and new. To me they smell similar, and both are noticeable as Obsession. Presentation wise, the oldest version has an integrated sprayer on the top and reads cologne spray. It was then given a solid cap with a gold band, and finally the newest version has a semitransparent cap. The juice was previously a darker hue. Both are nice looking, but the integrated sprayer is a little old school looking. The older is full fat, moist and persistant. The new version is thinner, drier, less bombastic, and lasts about half as long. But the new version is also cheap as chips, so both versions grade out as a thumbs up for me.