Top 10 Cardamom Perfumes
Cardamom is the scent you have always loved, but never knew existed. It brings lift, intrigue, and a floral fruitiness to the opening of many men’s cologne formulations. Chanel Pour Monsieur, launched in 1955, was the only men’s perfume released by the label during Gabrielle Chanel’s lifetime. It opens with a classic cologne blend of lemon, petitgrain, and neroli before settling in to an equally classic base of cedar, oakmoss, and vetiver. But on the way, the only stop is cardamom. The bracing eucalyptol and bright piney terpenes will have worn off with the top notes, leaving a woody herbal, spicy, woody, lavender scent from the alpha-terpinyl acetate, which Arctander calls a lighter, but more tenacious version of linalyl acetate. There is also a fruity floral note that blends nicely with the neroli. This is the refined cardamom that you might not notice.
Times have changed. For one, Chanel removed the cardamom from their parfum formulation in favor of nutmeg. More importantly, perfumers are highlighting cardamom in their compositions in ways that western consumers would not have stomached in the 1950’s. Our top pick from Indie perfumer Ömer Ipekçi pairs cardamom with saffron in the opening. Saffron, with its unique, leathery sweetness, provides an excellent foil, but stays out of cardamom’s way. The descent from cardamom to rose is something that we will see more of in the coming years. Cartier’s Déclaration d'Un Soir, less situated in a place and culture, also pairs cardamom and rose to great effect for a men’s fragrance. This decade will likely see a return of rose-centered men’s perfumes, which was the case at the turn of the 20th century. Cardamom will help usher in that shift.
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Indie perfumer Ömer Ipekçi launched his Turkish label Pekji in 2015 with a focused set of scents reinterpreting classic genres. Ruh, which means spirit, was meant to return the tired “Oriental” perfume category to a sense of place and narrative. While Ipekçi does not refer to a traditional pyramid, the opening here is an interplay of the sharper spice note of cardamom with a deeper, tobacco-like pungent saffron. The fullness of the Turkish Rose is blended masterfully with the bitterness of coffee. The spicy/floral depth blends well into the ambery musk base with excellent longevity.
Top Notes: Cardamom, Saffron
Heart Notes: Coffee, Jasmine, Rose
Base Notes: Amber, Musk, Oud, Sandalwood
This is the men’s fragrance rose scent that many of you have been looking for. Strong spicy, bright opening of pepper and cardamom. The woody, spicy nutmeg with a light rose bridges the brighter spice until finishing with a restrained sandalwood. This seems simple, but many reviewers note that they did not expect to like this rose scent.
Top Notes: Pepper, Cardamom
Heart Notes: Nutmeg, Rose
Base Notes: Sandalwood
Jean-Claude Ellena was operating in his fully realized modern style with this 2012 release for Hermès. The cardamom opening is focused and bright with support from juniper. A member of the ginger family, cardamom can provide spicy, balsamic, citrus, floral, and woody notes. This makes the ingredient somewhat of a chameleon, brightening citrus top notes, but also setting up woody base notes, as in this scent. Some reviewers note that the EDT is drier and brighter than the parfum formulation. Warm woods and amber are the only other mentioned notes; the light floral heart some notice may be from the cardamom as well as Ellena’s often liberal use of hedione, which has a light floral scent in addition to its primary effects on diffusion and as a fixative. This may be a bit heavy on the amber for some.
Notes: Cardamom, Juniper, Warm woods, Amber
Cardamom is not the star of the show in this 2011 release from perfumer Lyn Harris. This is not a restrained, ethereal frankincense, but a smoky, resinous, spicy adventure. The Cardamom duels with Coriander and Cumin for spice and with frankincense and elemi for effervescence. The unique aspect of this scent, which could be a complaint from some, is that the smokiness and resin and spice blend are restrained throughout. This restraint, combined with a creamy sandalwood and welcoming amber, makes this wearable through the day without offense.
Top Notes: Cardamom, Coriander, Frankincense, Cumin, Elemi, Incense
Heart Notes: Cedar, Sandalwood, Cistus, Birch, Cade
Base Notes: Wood, Smoke accord, Amber
5) Chanel Pour Monsieur
This was the only men’s cologne from Chanel during Gabrielle Chanel’s lifetime. Although this scent has been a mainstay since its launch in 1955, Pour Monsieur has been reformulated a number of times, primarily to deal with restrictions on the atranol in oakmoss. Since the major reformulation in 1989, there have been distinct scents in the EDT, EDP, and concentree versions. The parfum, which is the current formulation replaced the cardamom scent with nutmeg and opens with lavender instead of the straight citrus. The addition of vanilla in the base adds body lost with the oakmoss restriction, but not the same character.
(EDT) Top Notes: Neroli, Lemon, Petitgrain
Heart Notes: Cardamom
Base Notes: Cedar, Oakmoss, Vetiver
The notes don’t tell a different story than a number of other colognes using cardamom to liven up their citrus/floral opening. This difference is that Marrakech Intense goes heavy with the cardamom, clove, and cedar so that the bergamot and floral blend are only background players to the spicy wood.
Top Notes: Bergamot, Cardamom
Heart Notes: Clove, Neroli, Rose, Jasmine
Base Notes: Cedar, Sandalwood
Generally positive reviews from those who have adopted Oud Wood as their signature scent. This is Tom Ford spicy, woody, sexy, oud as an afterthought. Some complaints about longevity, but not enough to stop the adulation.
Top Notes: Rosewood, Cardamom, Chinese pepper
Heart Notes: Oud, Sandalwood, Vetiver
Base Notes: Tonka bean, Vanilla, Amber
This is another scent in which the cardamom/cumin pairing dirties up what can otherwise be a more effervescent and citrus cardamom. The caraway note is unique in the class, bringing a fresh, minty, herbal spiciness to the bridge from the brighter spice and citrus opening. Myrrh and Agarwood provide a resinous, animalic counter to this green spice before sliding into an anisic, sweet vanilla/amber base retaining a bit of spice with the patchouli.
Top Notes: Mandarin, Cardamom, Cumin
Heart Notes: Caraway, Clove, Heliotrope, Ylang ylang, Mango juice
Base Notes: Licorice, Vanilla, Patchouli, Casmerin, Amber
A much more affordable cardamom-heavy modern male fragrance. The Cinnamon brings out the sweeter side of spice while the myrrh and patchouli create a resinous, spicy foil to the standard amber/white musk finish.
Top Notes: Cardamom, Lemon, Cinnamon
Heart Notes: Myrrh, Agarwood, Rose
Base Notes: Amber, White musk, Patchouli
Cardamom flows through the entire composition as touchpoint for those looking for a clear note instead of excellently blended accords. This is quality perfume, but very expensive. The initial intense blast of pepper, bergamot, cardamom and spicy ginger is sweetened with the cinnamon, labdanum, and vanilla. The cedar and vetiver keep the base from going to a sweet musk mess.
Top Notes: Pink pepper, Bergamot, Cardamom oil, Ginger
Heart Notes: Iris, Violet, Cinnamon
Base Notes: Tree moss, Ambergris, Styrax, Labdanum, Vetiver, Virginia cedarwood, Vanilla
