The eighties was that time in history where geeks were just coming out of the closet and becoming a force to be reckoned with armed with the personal computer know how. There were many movies made during the eighties focussing on adolescents and their trials and tribulations in high school. We were that generation. We were men in high school or college in the eighties coming to grips with our adolescence and more importantly girls. This is when we became conscious that perhaps we need to smell a certain way and hence the purpose of this hub.

Many of us guys are in our forties now, the tail end of the baby boom. We're probably married and with kids and perhaps drowning in responsibility and all we need is a little whiff of that cologne that we used to use to prep ourselves for a night out on the town during the weekend and all those memories just come flooding back.

Here I'm going to explore some of those fragrances for men that were popular during the eighties and maybe it will ring a bell and remind you of the good old days that in hindsight are probably the best days of our lives despite all the identity angst and girl craziness that we were experiencing during that part of our life.

the original Ted cologne by Ted lapidus is currently discontinued and cannot be found anywhere on the web. This was a great cologne, lighter and more fun at heart than its later brethren pictured above in the light grey bottle. The original Ted cologne came in a brown bottle with gold lettering similar in shape to that other classic of the eighties Polo by Ralph Lauren in the square green bottle. Polo has a much stronger mossy smell whereas Ted was more clean smelling with leathery overtones

Davidoff is best known for their great cigars but i would venture that when I first smelled Zino davidoff the cologne, it was "wow". Launched in 1986 , this precursor to the immensely popular Cool Water for men can be described as having woody, earthy base notes with top and middle notes verging on spicy as in spicy from the orient. This is not a practical day cologne as it is almost devoid of any citrusy notes. It can be slightly overpowering and musky once it settles in but it just depends on your skin type but it is a great evening cologne with a very dignified old world smell to it. Something that you would think Sean Connery would wear.

Cool Water by Davidoff came after the initial signature fragrance. It was meant to show the less serious side of men's fragrances by davidoff with its aquatic slightly citrusy, minty smell that started a trend towrds a fresh simple but sporty sort of fragrance in the same vien as the Aqua Velva man. Some similar men's colognes include Aqua di Gio and CK1. Fairly neutral clean smelling scents that don't have much body but chicks still seem to dig unless your skin chemistry doesn't do it justice. Among clean men's scents that are aquatic but have a bit more body is my long standing favorite "Tiffany Sport". A great clean fragrance that doesn't turn sweet on my skin like Cool Water does but maintains it's composure well into the afternoon after a morning application. It has a more pronounced coriander herbal note on the dry down which I prefer to the Cool Water.

My personal recommendation for men using the cool sport aquatic type fragrances like "Cool Water" or "Aqua Di Gio" in warm weather is to make sure that when you shower in the morning that you use scrubbing gloves with some shower gel to exfoliate the skin on your body, especially the under arms and chest area. After a shower like that you'll find that any application of a mild, aquatic underpowered cologne will maintain its freshness of scent longer than if you don't exfoliate. Men sweat more ,have stronger odors, and build up more dead old sweaty skin as we men all know. The exfoliation during your shower leaves a nice exposed layer of fresh skin for the cologne to soak into. You'll find that your cologne maintains its freshness at least through the afternoon even if you happen to sweat periodically during the day.

Vetiver is one of those classics that in their original formulation was the quintessential man's fragrance. yes, it is overtly mossy and "green" smelling but also very distinguished and gives that feeling of optimism and adventure. Maybe it's the lemon and coriander top notes that rile the spirit and that indescribable vetiver base note that when mixed with the cedar and tobacco base notes is pungent but still clean smelling and dignified. It is such a universally optimistic fragrance with that its quite surprising that a womens' scent was so late in coming. Only recently did Guerlain launch vetiver pour elle as a limited edition for the duty free market. See my site for more on women's fragrances

Vetiver was introduced to me by a woman who wore the original guerlain version all throughout the eighties. I started wearing it as my only evening fragrance when I was in College in 1984 to 1986 and man it lasted all night. I did take a whiff of Carven's version and it did smell similar but not as good as the Guerlain version. This was of course before all the reformulations

Leonard was one of those great mens fragrances of the 80s. Launched in 1989 it echoed the woody earthy smell of Azzaro but with a little less of the musky bottom note that put Azzaro over the top when it came to mens colognes. Azzaro was primarily an evening fragrance. It was definitely a little on the heavy side whereas Leonard although an evening cologne had more of a woody basenote. Whereas Azzaro could be overbearing Leonard was not and was more reminicent of paco rabanne for men . Paco was also an evening cologne with reeked of elegance in a way that no other cologne ever did in its time. Leonard is not hard to find but i wonder if it has the same strength as the original. Although not technically a discontinued perfume I would assume it has been reformulated to comply with new regulatory standards