Calvin Klein's Escape for Men was my very first genuine designer fragrance. I think I had a half-empty bottle of English Leather on a dresser in my room, or a dusty bottle of Jovan Musk sitting on the bathroom counter when I was 12, but I never really used that stuff. I didn't have money for the good stuff, so I bought a lot of cheap fake colognes ("If you like Obsession for Men, you'll love Obsequious!", that sort of thing).
When I finally got some decent money as a birthday gift, I had my mom take me to the mall, and I started sampling the men's fragrances. Calvin Klein's Escape is what I finally settled on, and I still have that bottle, over 20 years later. Sure, it's only about one-fifth full, but I still have it!
Escape is, like Eternity for Men, a clean and fresh scent based on a strong citrus opening. Where Eternity uses mandarin, Escape takes a side-step and uses grapefruit, but both use vetiver and sandalwood in the base.
It's in the green herbal blend that Escape sets itself apart from Eternity and takes a very different direction. The top grapefruit note is blended with juniper and eucalyptus, with the eucalyptus taking a particularly strong stance. (Don't sleep on the juniper, though, it's definitely there, giving Escape an almost gin-like character.)
The whole top blend is a bit minty, a bit medicinal, but the citrus keeps it light.
The sage, cypress, and rosemary round out the very "green" profile, and a bit of light patchouli in the base gives the whole thing some sparkle.
Incredibly, given that Calvin Klein spun Eternity into about a billion flankers, Escape stands alone and has never been turned into something else. There is no Escape Intense, or Escape Dark, or even Extreme Escape on the market, and I like it that way. It's a very original scent, and I hope they leave it alone forever.
The projection is average, about what you'd expect for a citrus-heavy green scent, and the longevity is in the 4-6 hour range. It's a perfect fragrance for the spring and especially the summer, but probably best tucked away in the closet for the cold winter months.
8/10 stars.
0 comments:
Post a Comment