Samba for Men
Perfumer's Workshop (1990)

Samba for Men is a light crisp mens cologne that is perfect for an everyday freshen up fragrance during spring or summer months. The opening bergamot supported by the very lightest dose of floral lavender which keeps it fresh and adds the slightest green almost melon quality to the lemon bergamot twist. Ylang and freesia adds a sunny middle uplift of attitude while the light musk and cedar base seamlessly smoothes and extends the bergamot opening all the way through to the base. This is one of the simplest fresh colognes I've tried. It achieves this fresh bergamot + spring floral freshness all the way through the clean spare musk and cedar base.

Samba has been the cash cow for Perfumer's Workshop since it's introduction in 1987, but the men's version appearing three years later has little to do with the lively vanillic orange blossom scent that is the original feminine version. Perfumer's Workshop had never officially released a masculine fragrance until Samba for Men (1990), even if plenty of guys wore their Tea Rose (1972) in spite of obstinate ads geared to the ladies. The original Samba's only fault was it's done-to-death structure that has become ubiquitous 30+ years after it's release, and if you can forgive the childlike bottle, is still a solid underdog cheapie in the 21st century. Samba for Men however, well that's a different story altogether. This stuff is weird, really polarizing, and confusing yet likeable all at the same time, like somebody retrofitting a failed experiment after walking past the trash can it was dumped in, a la the creation story behind Dior's Fahrenheit (1988), except likeable in different ways than that quirky petrol and spice soirée. If I had to summarize, Samba for Men is the common floral and balsamic smell of women's shampoo in the 80's, modified into an uncommonly clean-smelling and slightly dandy men's powerhouse fougère with ample oakmoss that will have you feeling like you just left a salon. Still interested? Read on.

Samba has a fascinating pyramid structure that feels "expanded for repurposing", starting with bergamot, mint, and salvia. No, it's not -that- salvia of the psychoactive kind used to get high by hippies in the know, just another term for sage. I don't know what -that- salvia smells like, but Perfumer's Workshop likes to use funny Latin so sage is in there as salvia. A dry English lavender also makes an appearance in the top, which when blending with brightly bitter bergamot, produces the expected opening fougère accord. Things don't get "shampooey" until the middle, where masculine nutmeg and rosewood plays with muguet, ylang-ylang, and freesia, that last one being particularly common in shampoo fragrances like that found in old-school bottles of original Finesse and Vidal Sassoon. I even detect a slight peck of tuberose here but it could just be a ghost note. Base notes of musk, patchouli, sandalwood, cedar, amber, and oakmoss bring a strong but dry oriental/fougère hybrid anchor, drawing likeness to a lot of late 80's fougères with the oakmoss in vintage versions particularly prominent in the finish, letting you know this was still a product on the cusp of transitioning between powerhouses and freshies. After all is said and done, the final skin phase of vintage Samba is a perfect clean crisp after-shower scent you can rock pretty much year round, in casual situations or before bed. Performance is pretty decent too.

I like Samba for Men, and it's weird "marbled stonewear finish" glass bottle shaped like a dog's Kong chew toy definitely sets it apart in my wardrobe. I won't reach for it as often as some things because it's a rare hankering, but it's highly bizzare combination of 80's hair salon and 90's floral fougère with a dry woody underpinning is entertaining enough to keep and maybe even back up a bottle, since even in vintage this costs almost nothing because Perfumer's Workshop has "pulled a Claiborne" and released literally dozens of flankers to depreciate it's value, making it the ultimate vintage sleeper nobody will ever identify on you. Older bottles show evernia furnacia and evernia prunastri in the ingredients, and deep vintage has the short list; but whatever you do, don't get the new stuff without the moss, as Samba for Men just becomes a fruity floral soapy mess that dies on skin in minutes. Samba for Men can't be pulled off by everyone, and even at dimestore prices, I'd try before a blind buy unless you really like soapy florals or that 80's shampoo vibe (which I do), and I really think this was a repurposed fragrance from some obscure vintage hair care product a la Farah Fawcett Spray (oh the nostalgia). Perfumer's Workshop didn't have notable perfumers to begin with, and at the time didn't know how to make a masculine, but somehow this unsolved mystery in a bottle made enough cash to be the company's masculine flagship. Thumbs up

I enjoy the Samba fragrances; this is my 6th. Oddly enough, this is the one that I fell in love with in 1991 when my wife and I first met. I purchased it hoping to recapture that deep, exotic jasmine-laced air that permeated my nights then. Sadly, you can't go back again. This has been reformulated and is a brash combination of flowers and soap which does not last. It's not bad, just not as good as the other Samba fragrances, and it's not what I wanted.

Intriguing. There, I said it. Violet leaf came to mind right away, but it is not listed in the ingredients. It's a green soapy AND milky fragrance, some sweet floral notes and a bit of woody. It reminds me of what an artisan's version of Cerruti Image could smell like...less perfum-y, perhaps more wearable.

For a unique knock about daily wearable dressy or not frag, this is a good contender, if not perfect. Worth the price for sure.

I remember as a youngster watching a James Bond movie. I can't recall which one, but in one scene he mention that something smelled like a tarts handkerchief. Back then I couldn't imagine the odor, I have found it in this fragrance. This is what one would imagine a hooker must smell like at 4 AM. Cheap smelling with no redeeming factor what so ever.

Recently I was able to score some vintage bottles at a good price. It's nice to see and smell that time can't touch a fantastic cologne. Obviously vintage is best, I have a recent bottle and the differences are striking. The new versions are extremely synthetic, and have a burnt waxy smell. Vintage is very deep and earthy, and flowery. My 13 year old insists the bottle looks like the poop emoji, and it does. A little stretched out though.. Kids. I remember when this first came out. It was very popular and then kind of fell off the radar for me. Expensive then, and now vintage is expensive. But, vintage smells amazing and this has a great place in my wardrobe. New formulations are crap.