Before the makeup, before she lights her first cigarette of the evening, before she pours herself a Dubonnet and before she douses herself with Calandre, she smells like this--fresh, floral, clean. I suspect the lavender, coriander, ginger, anise, and rosewood profile really helped establish this perception of Envy from guys used to things like Liz Claiborne Curve for Men (1996) or Eternity for Men by Calvin Klein (1989); for older Gen-X guys or even Boomers still in the market for new fragrances at that time, this might have been a godsend away from all that "fresh" nonsense. And of course it was a big success, which goes to show that a safe perfume isn't always the most lucrative one. If you'd rather not get your wallet eaten by carnivorous cave bunnies you can instead try the rest of what came in the wake of Envy for Men, but the further down the line you go, the less of a resemblance there is as the style is played with more by other perfumers. The base of Envy for Men goes somewhat into a twist on a green fougère direction with patchouli, oakmoss, tonka, tannery leather, and cedarwood forming the core, but with spices like nutmeg, cardamom, and further oriental notes like amber and sandalwood to make it richer.

This throwback to the 70s, that Tom Ford does so well, should be evident from the first glimpse of his spare, chrome-capped bottle. Gucci Envy for Men was created by Daniela Andrier, the woman who would shape the smell of house Prada until 2020, and the start of a short-lived revival of green woody/tobacco-based masculines that rode the cusp between the 90's and 2000's.It's still pretty, but it's very white-flowery on me – I don't get any pineapple or rose or sandalwood or pretty much any of the other notes.

In fact, what sweetness there is, is only there to stop the tamarisk note from getting out of hand, nothing more.The almighty and insurmountable reputation of Gucci Envy for Men (1998), earned from the hype given to it by YouTube and Instagram influencers (the real shakers and movers of the "frag-bro" dominated community), can hardly be parsed from the fragrance itself; and it is such that guys will actually fall in love with the stuff or the idea of wearing it because of the reputation, regardless of how it smells. Calvin Klein Contradiction for Men (1999) would go in a slightly-sweeter and more resinous direction, mostly omitting the fougère elements but staying very much green, while Aura for Men by Jacomo (2000) would be more resinous like the Calvin Klein, but doubling down on the tobacco and isobutyl quinoline leather at the cost of both fougère and oriental elements. Compared to all the fresh fougères, aquatics, gourmands, and ozonics flooding the designer market at this stage, it is easy to see how Envy for Men might be perceived as mature, old-fashioned, overtly masculine, or dated. It's like green l'Eau d'issey, which is set on a base of scorched earth that clearly derives from Sinan. I wouldn't say Envy for Men smells exactly like a mix of the two, but if you're going for a vibe and made a Venn diagram for it, Envy for Men could sit in that little elliptical part between both circles representing each fragrance.

Had I paid anything near that and smelled this fragrance for the first time under those circumstances, I'd be extremely disappointed and would give this a thumbs down; but when removed from all that drama, Gucci Envy for Men is a pretty good little scent taken on its own. I also like that it is like an echo, growing smaller and more distant, as hour by hour the bittersweet petals are stripped away, layer after layer, until all that is left is a cool and pleasant iris, like the core of an old Guerlain. I was given a big bottle of this for Christmas several years ago, and initially I really liked it, but after a while, for some reason, it started to irritate me.She wraps herself in a luxurious white robe while she ponders what to wear that night (does she wear the Castelbajac or the Sonia Rykiel? This sleek, masculine, oriental, woody scent became an instant classic when it was launched in 1998.