Aramis Havana

[The Knize]

Are the re-issued Aramis's out yet? Anyone tried them yet? Are they up o snuff with the originals? Where can one get them? Any discounts anywhere?

Am particularly interested in Havana. Havana is one of my favorite edts ever. Why Aramis would ever discontinue it in the first place, or more, why this was not a huge seller year after year, I will nerver understand. Alhough I suppose the original packaging could have been better. To me, classic juice in a popular category of scents.

 

[rmrdaddy]

One of my favorite summer frangrances to be sure. I was fortunate to have ended up with a small supply on hand. I had not heard of a re-issue or re-formulation myself.
Have you visited www.basenotes.net to check up on this info?

 

[Paladin]

No, but i have consulted www.basenotes.net on the matter.

 

[rmrdaddy]

Thank you for the correction Paladin

 

[The Knize]

Unless I am looking in the wrong place. Basenotes does not know either despite a very long thread.

 

[curtis909]

sorry don't know

 

[bokaba]

Hard to tell, but I would like to try it!

 

[sigmasix]

I just packed away an empty bottle of the stuff, this was my first cologne I got when I was young .. The bottle still smells great, but too bad there's no liquid left

 

[The Baron]

It´s available online, or better say it was. Now they say it´s back order.

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/c...mCat=cat000000cat000285cat10470744cat10470747

 

[The Knize]

It´s available online, or better say it was. Now they say it´s back order.

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/c...mCat=cat000000cat000285cat10470744cat10470747

Yep. That's all I have found and it has been that way for awhile. I never hit that site when he Havana was not already backordered. None of the other Aramis re-issues seem to be back ordered.

 

[auee1977]

Has anyone found it in any brick and mortar stores so that it can be sampled before purchase?

 

[The Knize]

It was not easy but I finally tracked down a way to actually purchase a bottle of the re-issue of Aramis Havana, without paying someone on EBay double the supposed retail price. If anyone else wants to know how, drop me a PM.

I know of no brick and mortar store anywhere near me in DC that has it or tester. The commentary on Basenotes seems to be that is very close to if not exactly the same as the original Aramis Havana. I had a decant of the original, but frankly I had read enough about this one to have bought it blind. Who knows whether this re-issue will be ongoing and someday there will be plenty for all that are interested in it. But in the meantime, I am confident that one could resell a bottle instantly!

 

[Jim]

I love the Havana and use my bottles carefully.
Give the JHL a try for another treat.

 

[Aaron01]

It's basically sold out everywhere, though someone claimed their Macy's had it...

It was supposedly not discontinued, just not produced for US distribution, presumably due to poor sales, so it was likely never reformulated as the original was not out of production.

Hopefully since it sold out so quickly, Aramis will at least give thought to putting it back on the US market as I would like to try it without the exorbitant markup, though there are some minis at an acceptable price.

 

[The Knize]

It's basically sold out everywhere, though someone claimed their Macy's had it...

It was supposedly not discontinued, just not produced for US distribution, presumably due to poor sales, so it was likely never reformulated as the original was not out of production.

Hopefully since it sold out so quickly, Aramis will at least give thought to putting it back on the US market as I would like to try it without the exorbitant markup, though there are some minis at an acceptable price.

I do not think the Aramis intention is/was to "relaunch" Havana for a limited time, although it is impossible to find out much about what they are really doing:

"This Autumn sees the launch of Aramis' Gentleman's Collection: A set of eight classic Aramis fragrances all housed in the same bottle design. The scents included in the range are: Aramis 900, Devin, JHL, Tuscany, New West, Havana, Aramis Life and Aramis Always." [The latter two were to be available only internationally not in the States.]

So presumably supplies will loosen up and consumers will be able to find it at the intended vendors at the intended price of $48, without undertaking extraordinary efforts to track it down. But who knows. The vendors that state that it is on back order and they do not know when more will be available, seem to know nothing more when you call them up. Hard for me to believe that speculators bought up the entire supply. There has been something of a long-term letter writing campaign to convince Estee Lauder to re-introduce Havana into the US market, and all they would have to do is have a look at prices on EBay to figure out that the Havana is goiing to be the one to really move some units of sales of this bunch, many oif which are very nice edts, but are not the legends Havana has become. But I suppose any company that would pull this edt off the shelves and not bring it back long before now, would also make the same number of bottles of each of these frags, not recognizing how much pent up demand there is for Havana at less than $50 for 3.4 oz. Or maybe it is an artificial shortage to increase hype and demand.

As I recall, Havana was never discontinued, but it was only officially sold in the South African market. Some of the others in the Gentleman's Collection have never been discontinued in the US market--I think either 900 or Devin has always been available at Ulta. I think most were reasonably available at decent prices on EBay--unlike Havana.

Early reports from basenotes seem to be that this does not seem like a reformulation, Thank You, Lord!

Now that I supposedly have a bottle coming to me I can relax and smille about it, but I have to say that trying to track down something that was supposed to be widely available as of September 6 and having virtually no infomation about whether and when it would be available to me was very, very annoying and frustrating! Annoying enough to make me not want to do Estee Lauder any favors, such as, for instance, looking into any of the others of this line of scents. (I really like regular Aramis. I do remember Tuscany as being good. JHL has a good reputation. New West was apparently very trendy for women in Britian at one point and very hard to get over there. I guess we will never know in the States about Life and Always.)

 

[Sam]

Ah, I wore Devin for a while. I might have to see if our Macys carries it and if so, spritz some on early one Saturday.

How does Havana compare to C&S Cuba

 

[The Knize]

How does Havana compare to C&S Cuba

A frequent question and for good reason. I think they are in the same family. Google it and see if you can make much out of what folks are saying. There those that would choose each over the other Cuba is not the legend that Havana has become. But Cuba's availability may have something to do with that. Anyone with, what, $120 and the cost of shipping can get Cuba. I suppose anyone can do the same as to Havana on EBay, but somehow that does not seem as safe or available, and perhaps it is not.


I have only had the C&S 1 ml or whatever sample of Cuba. Actually, I just now found that vial with a tiny amount at the bottom and I found a tiny amount of Havana Reserva at the bottom of a decant. So shortly I should be able to compare side by side C&S Cuba, an orignal version of Aramis Havana, and this re-launched Aramis Havana.

We will how may "mind's nose" is on this, but going by my memory and a little bit of what I get out of the on-line reviews and comparisons, I would say that both have tobacco and rum, with Havana having more smoke and Cuba having more peppermint and lime (mojito frequently comes up in the description of Cuba). Some think that Havana is more synthetic. Others think that Cuba fades away after an hour. I would expect that Havana's tenacity blows Cuba away. I think Cuba has a little Brit reserve. Havana is more in your face, with a cacaphony of scents. Cuba evolves a lot from first notes to dry down. Havana may evolve a bit less. Also, I think Havana has some regular Aramis to it that Cuba does not have.

I hate having just those 1 ml samples. It is really too little to go by. What I remember from the C&S sample pack is being a little disappointed by Cuba, but drawn in immediatelly by Dark Rose and intrigued by 88. Then really liking the Neroli, and, after a bigger lead up, the Citrus Paradiso. The Oxford and Cambridge was immediately appealing, but seemed light, but then seemed really good, but fleeting. Franchinse and Myhrr was also immediately appealing. So Cuba did not show that well to me, but it was in a very attractive crowd.

Havana on the other hand really grabbed me from the first sniffs. And I was sort of hoping not to like it, as it was virtually unavailable.

 

[RoyalKooparillo]

I LOVE Havana and Havana Reserva. Such well crafted masculine scents. Every time I wear them it makes me want to break out a Monty No. 8 and sip on a little Cacique Añejo.

 

[The Knize]

I LOVE Havana and Havana Reserva. Such well crafted masculine scents. Every time I wear them it makes me want to break out a Monty No. 8 and sip on a little Cacique Añejo.

Well my bottle of "re-launched" Havana came today. Have not had a chance to compare it against my tiny amounts of C&S Cuba or old Havana Reserva, but so far I am really pleased.

I LOVE this stuff, too. I do not sense any great change in formulation, althought I am not getting as much tobacco and cigar ash as some of the reviews on basenote seem to talk about.

Re comparisons to C&S Cuba, I have a guess as to where I am going to come up. I am sure the Cuba is more pure and natural smelling, evolves more after applied, and likely lacks tenacity. Havana is consistent with its other C&S stable mates, and Pen's, and for that matter Creed, even though Creed moved to Paris a long time ago. Complex, but a bit refined, amybe restrained.

Cuba is a unisex scent as I recall. Havana has a feminine counter part, as I recall, which I have never smelled, but it is hard for me to imagine this being sold as unisex as is.

This is very much an early-mid 1990s men's edt. No tenacity problems here whatsoever. It evolves, it is not purely linear, but does so much more slowly that a typcial Brit scent would. Think Grey Flannel, Z12, Cool Water, and, for that matter, Aramis itself. Sillage galore I am thinking. I am sure that comes from lots of synthetics, but as Chandler Burr says, there is a lot good about synthetics.

I will never understand why Aramis stoppped selling this one in the States. I would think that this would have appeal to lots and lots of folks. It is a little exotic, but not nearly so exotic as some of the things we talk about on this board. Kind of still very much like Aramis, at the end of the day. I almost hate to write about it for fear i will start smelling it everywhere!

 

[Sam]

CS: If you could, compare them or comment on Cuba and Havana on the following

Longevity- which one will last longer
Projection and sillage
Either one have a soapy note?
Either one have a powder or vanilla note?