Moustache Rochas for men

Being a proud purveyor of animalic-infused scents this is my first venture into the citrus group. It is subsequently also my first ever Roudnitska purchase. In the past, my blind buy gambles have always been successful and this was no exception.

On my skin, this is a potent citrus aromatic that is initially uber-present but super-restrained overall.

A perfect lemon blast off the top that reminds me of chilled lemon pie without any unwanted hints of sweet decadence. Just Lemon. Very realistic.
A light talc citrus vibe sustains the soft animalic undertones very well from the heart into the base.

It's a skin scent on my skin, but I believe others may have better projection and sillage.

BOTTOM LINE: If what you want specifically is a pleasant powdered citrus with a hint of animal that lasts 6-10 hours, look no further than Rochas Moustache. A rerelease would shift the current industry paradigm of sweet metros on it's head creating the new fresh animalic group and dominate the '10's.

Who is Theresa Roudnitska? Is she Edmond's wife? I see she did only this one

Wowee - what an opening! Great stuff... but I need to wear it on my skin to really formulate my opinion. But I was impressed with it on a paper strip.

"This could be the inspiration for Salvador Dali Pour Homme" - YES. I do smell that very odd scent there as well!

This fragrance takes me back to the days when I had a moustache, wore short sleeve patterned cotton outdoor shirts and corduroy pants - it's borderline retro but still so hip it's feels more cutting edge than most contemporary fragrances.
It has that clean everyman feeling. Masculine and fresh yet a little dirty - like when you first start sweating while still fresh froma shower - and quite natural.
The description of citrus fruits and candle wax is a really good description of the opening. But there is something amusingly strange about this fragrance. When I smell it directly on my skin I get citrus/lime, a tealike note saturated with forest edge buckwheat honey, something very comfortable and nicely stale from an oakmoss, basil, rose and jasmine combo ...
BUT, the 'strangely amusing' scent of clean, fresh honey, sweet lime, basil and rose become quite clear when I sniff the fragrance through the fabric of my shirt. I sprayed both arms and am sniffing one directly on my skin and the other arm through the fabric of my shirt and they are two similar yet different scents. I'm not sure how the fabric might filter certain notes but the scent through the fabric is noticeably sweeter, more photo-realistic citrus and cleaner floral and honey tones.
There is something 'clear, simple and restrained' about this fragrance as mentioned by karlov. It smells familiar to the point of seeming natural. Like a scent I wouldn't be surprised to find outdoors but distinctly human as well. For those of you familiar with the scent of bee hives and natural bees wax, this fragrance has a little of that beautifully pungent quality that I have not experienced in any other fragrance to date.
I own the current formulation of this fragrance and have been enjoying it immensely this past week. I'm looking forward to how this wears in warmer temps.
As jdt mentioned there is something familiar in the saltiness and a particular dryness in the drydown of another Roudnitska : Mario Valentino's Ocean Rain.

My Grade System : 1 is horrid, 5 average, 10 perfect

Fragrance :
Top Notes : True Tart Lemon : 9/10
Mid Notes : Powdered Citrus : 10/10
Drydown : Roudnitska Dryness : 9/10

Other :
Price (Low) : 8/10
Quality Ingredients : 8/10
Uniqueness of Scent : 10/10
Sillage : 8/10
Logevity : 8/10

OVERALL SCORE : 8.8/10

I bought this last year, after many great reviews.
Honestly, I do believe that this really is one of the best fragrances ever made, but I just couldn't bear the uber-strong, musky-citrusy honeyed scent. ¯_◉‿◉_/¯

I get compliments from my colleagues saying that I smell good and 'different'. Yes, they like it, and probably because they have never smelled something that is 'old school' or 'vintage'. ¯_(⌣̯̀⌣́)_/¯

The scent gets stronger and stronger with a great silage after many hours, it gets more intense throughout the day, as if the fragrance is going to stay forever! ¯_(・ε・)_/¯

Well, no doubt this is a really good classic fragrance, but it's not for me, yet it will stay with my other fragrance collection and make me proud for having to own one! ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I have the bottle that is pictured. If there are a lot of aldehydes here that would explain the odd fruit mixed with candle wax accord (as they don't remind me of Chanel No. 5 aldehydes at all, which are steely). That is strong at first but after several minutes things begin to balance out. I don't find this too animalic, so those who fear "Kouros Junior" may be able to tolerate this one. The citrus persists a long time, coming across to me as lemony, but weakens gradually. If lavender is present, it"s mild and there is no strong fougere accord. The chypre base is obvious but mild. A kind of hair spray element, which may be the aldehydes combined with florals, seems to take over for the odd fruitiness in the top notes. Over time, it sweetens just a bit and gets a little powdery. These days, this is clearly an aficionado scent, for those seeking a chypre with a bit of a "twist." I am basing this on a recent cloth sampling as well as a newbie wearing a long time ago.

UPDATE: Several hours later and the powderiness stayed about the same but it got sweeter, though certainly not cloyingly so.

(vintage version, not the little-known re-release): Masquerading as a citrus chypre, Moustache is actually a woody fougere, historically sandwiched between Dunhill 1934 and Arden's Sandalwood. But make no mistake, this fragrance smells intensely of natural citrus oils, chiefly bergamot and lime, with a beautiful lemon verbena and petit grain. Lavender asserts itself early on, but is smoothly integrated into the citrus, with its herbal/aromatic facets played up beautifully. As it dries down, Moustache exhibits a quiet herbal tendency, with basil and geranium appearing after thirty minutes, and just a hint of jasmine peeking through the greens. The base is primarily oakmoss, treemoss, with green resins lurking in the shade.

Edmond Roudnitska's fragrance philosophy of keeping things "clear, simple, and restrained" is self evident here, but what's interesting is that Theresa Roudnitska co-created Moustache, and this fragrance bears some of her elusive genius. There are some aldehydes at work (C14, C18?) and hints of acidic non-citrus fruits in Moustache's early stage, possibly due to the aldehydes, but I'm not sure. What I do know is that Moustache exhibits the finest lime note in the history of 20th century masculine perfumery, and capitalizes on lime's fresh-clean/woody dissonance, bringing out its semi-sweet dryness in a way I have never before encountered. An iconic perfume, still available in vintage form, and arguably better than Eau Sauvage, in any of its incarnations. If you love citrus, you'll adore this.

Very old fashion and maybe too risky to wear. It has nothing from Eau Sauvage and some of my friends said that smells like church.
I was expecting some clear lemon with the old fashion vibe but i got something that reminds herbs and old men. Not suggested for anyone i suppose below 80s. :-)
UPDATE
The perfume needs to calm down to show. The Roudniska signature is there and slightly gives something from eau sauvage.
Is a very strange perfume which its top notes are a bit dangerous. In the middle when the honey with the floral notes start to emerge, the whole thing gets better and has something very masculine.
Definitely for guys 40 and up and deadly if used for teens. The lemon note is still noticeable. A classic perfume that reminds old times.....David Niven comes to my mind as soon as I smell this cologne, which his pencil moustache ;-)

Ancient, acrid lemon verbena/lavender opens this fragrance with a very strong elderly gentleman vibe. An herbal("dirty" lavender) piss-leather warmly greets you as the top notes wear off. As the fragrance warms, the urinous honey adds an animalic touch that would be considered quite risque to todays youth. As the base emerges, you are treated to that familiar Roudnitska chypre warmth. By familiar, I mean absolutely excellent with the distinct Roudnitska genius.

This could be the inspiration for Salvador Dali Pour Homme, and indeed would function well as a "light" version. It's still scary, though. Strongly recommended.

Well, brazilian citizens on fragrantica: if you *love* After Shave Mentolado Bozzano you will die for it, if not, there's a chance to you break the glass and make a campfire with this. Worst blind buy ever...

Moustache is nominally a masculine citrus, floral chypre. It falls into the same category as Chanel Pour Monsieur, Monsieur de Givenchy and even its own sibling Eau Sauvage. But something about the twists of its construction leaves a crisp dryness akin to Guerlain’s Vetiver. Moustache’s lime and peppery carnation give an astringency similar in tone to Vetiver’s licoricy-vetiver dryness.

All of Moustache’s elements play off its central strong chypre base. The dryness has a scrubbed and starched quality that stands out brilliantly against growling animalic undertones. It’s as if Moustache’s affable eau de cologne-like gentleman’s chypre hides a bit of a snarl. Like an ongoing dare. What’s marvelous is that this tension lasts through the entirely of the scent’s evolution.

There are through-lines to many of Edmond Roudnitska’s pieces (Eau d’Hermes, Eau Sauvage, Diorella) but I find that Moustache, an early work by Roudnistka and his wife Therese, shares a particular quality with one of his last pieces, Mario Valentino’s Ocean Rain. They both have and underpinning of that beautifully flat scent of a new rain hitting dry earth.

Eau Sauvage, Chanel Pour Monsieur, YSL Pour Homme, Rochas Moustache. A "this is how we do it" version of the classic chypre enriched with a pine note, animalic hints (civet) on a slightly sweet base. Great.

Rating: 8/10

This one reminds me a lot of some of Serge Lutens' creations, notably Chypre Rouge, in that both have that note in them that is slightly reminiscent of urine. Sorry to say that. Nevertheless, if one discounts this lingering note of unflushed urinal cakes, it is still a very mature, serious and unique perfume, coming as it does from a time long gone by. You definitely need guts, if not nerve, to wear this. I think of leisurely gentlemen, enjoying life in pre-war Europe, when I smell this, or of my grandpa's aftershave that has gotten so deeply engraved in my childhood memories.
My vote is 9/10.

It is a classic chypre, gentlemanly and subdued.

The vintage version is a traditional scent, having an analogous feeling to Eau Sauvage in terms of common attributes with classical EdTs launched around mid XX century - for a person my age (45), this means that when you smell these, you actually get a whiff of how your grandfather smelt like when visiting your parents for family reunions.

However, the contemporary version has very pungent and "buffling" citric notes, the sort of notes that makes one wonder what is it that is being smelt: "citric" might work as a joker, but it does not define what is being percieved.

After these pungent notes fade away, Moustache settles in a talcum-powder - like basenotes, faintly reminiscent of the ones found in Habit Rouge: even though there is vanilla, its presence is not so evident as in Habit Rouge. In that sense, I have the feeling that Amber is more prominent.

I have a vintage bottle of this(one with the blue sticker). When I first read about this, I read about it having an old powdery lemony scent to it and it pretty much hasn't let me down in that regard. You can definately tell it was made by the same nose that made Dior Eau Savauge(Edmond Roudnitska) but is more of an ambery baby powder smell then a nice light citrus cologne like Savauge. Even if I'm only in my early 20's, I can appreciate a classic cologne like Moustache. Though not something I'd wear often, I appreciate where it came from and can see an older ma wear this.