Le 3ᵉ Homme 1985 Eau de Toilette

Le 3ᵉ Homme (Eau de Toilette) by Caron
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7.8 / 10 314 Ratings
A popular perfume by Caron for men, released in 1985. The scent is spicy-green. It is being marketed by Cattleya Finance.
Pronunciation
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Main accords

Spicy
Green
Floral
Fougère
Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
BergamotBergamot LemonLemon Mandarin orangeMandarin orange
Heart Notes Heart Notes
CloveClove LavenderLavender CorianderCoriander
Base Notes Base Notes
OakmossOakmoss VetiverVetiver

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
7.8314 Ratings
Longevity
7.8236 Ratings
Sillage
6.8232 Ratings
Bottle
7.3217 Ratings
Value for money
8.243 Ratings
Submitted by DirkDS, last update on 03.05.2024.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to
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Le 3ᵉ Homme Après-Rasage
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Eau Sauvage Parfum (2017) by Dior
Eau Sauvage Parfum (2017)

Reviews

16 in-depth fragrance descriptions
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
9
Scent
FvSpee

249 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
FvSpee
FvSpee
Top Review 37  
CoViD comments, seventeenth play: Kim Wilde.
The crisis, with its extended stays at home, is leading to the fact that long periods of lying still are being tackled. So today a commentary on the "Third Man" of Caron, or, because that's how you can translate the label to the "Third Man of Caron"! Because this has been one of my absolute favourite fragrances for a long time, but nevertheless it has always remained a statement (the same applies to Bal d'Afrique, by the way; but maybe it will be next...).

Why no long version so far? Probably also because this scent is hard to grasp and difficult to describe. If one reads through the comments and statements, everyone seems to perceive it differently. This is not an industrial accident, because this Caron opens up large open spaces and interpretation areas. It's not based on a cliché, it stands for itself (that's the great perfume-making art) and it really has a very mysterious, open, undefined aura (that's the great perfume-making art).

Le 3e homme was published exactly in the middle of the 80s. It is anything but one of the typical powerhouse fragrances, no Magnum (and by that I don't mean ice cream), no green fougère spice monsters, nothing of aftershave, nothing of uninhibited masculinity. And yet this fragrance radiates an 80s aura, one of finest synthesizer artificiality and above all androgyny. This is Boy George with "Do you really want to hurt me", David Bowie with "China Girl" and, coming from the other side of the gender spectrum, Kim Wilde with "You keep me hanging on"; all songs that have been released in close temporal proximity to "The Third Man". Thus he is not superficially sexy or sensual; however, he has his very own eroticism of a mysterious aloofness, a brightly illuminated plastic world, a very physical incorporeality
If I could try a classic description of the fragrance: Despite the citrus triad, which appears hyperclassic on paper, this fragrance has no top note at all, and certainly none of carefree, free-floating citrus freshness. These notes may be present somewhere, but are compactly built into the machine. In a way, the same applies to the base. The heart, however, can be identified, and I recognize it today (unlike at the time of my statement) as classically dual: This is a lavender-clove fragrance, just as "Pour un homme" is a lavender-vanilla fragrance. When you smell good, you smell lavender and clove very good, and yet (that's why it's a work of art) it doesn't smell like lavender water or Old Spice, but rather very different and unique. "Le 3e homme" is for me very, very bright; friendly, but also very mysterious (like a good alien), distinguished, crystalline, a little unreal-dreamy, but at the same time wide awake.

For the name, as for the fragrance itself, there are 9 points. It is supposed to allude to the fact that this was the third men's fragrance by Caron (very likeable, only 3 men's fragrances within 50 years!), as well as to a (of course, superficially seen, completely wrong, and therefore also ingeniously right, because the fact that nothing opens and "is right" characterizes this fragrance again) trail to the film "The Third Man"
With this Caron, many, if not all, of the scents are right for me, which is why it is one of my most worn scents: The actual scent is fantastic, but also the durability and projection are very, very remarkable (without being brutal and obtrusive). By the way, the price is right (under 100 Euro for 125 ml) as well.

If I have hesitated for so long, it is not only because this fragrance is so difficult to describe, but also because it is already so excellently commented. Because there are already many great reviews of the third man, but I want to highlight one of them. I joined here so late that I didn't manage to subscribe to Seelanne anymore. He wrote his last comment here about 3 years ago, before he unfortunately fell silent on Parfumo, and that was his comment on this fragrance. This comment is really excellent, much better than mine, and I highly recommend it for additional reading. It was inevitable for me to repeat some of it (I hope it's not plagiarism, but simply the same feeling).
20 Comments
Intersport

62 Reviews
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Intersport
Intersport
Top Review 14  
Spectrum
Munich, early 90s, on Maximilian Street between Kammerspiele and Ring was me in a very small perfumery Caron's Troisième Homme to the heart. At that time I was very fond of Joop's Homme and the saleswoman took pity on me to free me from this heliotropin hell and told me to try this Caron. She pressed a miniature into my hand. Since then Le Troisième Homme smells like Troisième Homme to me, a dissection in components is impossible, I always perceived the perfume as 1. androgynous and 2. floral-powdery, and 3. closed and endlessly elegant. When I strolled down Avenue Montaigne a few years later to Caron's phenomenal 'corner store' - sadly no longer there, it's now Baby Dior or something equally tasteful from the LVMH portfolio, Le Troisième Homme gave me a glimpse into the Caron universe. The store was so tiny that the employee was mostly in the basement and it appeared through the shop windows from the outside ghostly empty.

Le 3ème Homme was Caron's third fragrance for men, and that's the only way I can read the title. Associations with Carol Reed's brilliant film: zero. The original packaging of Le 3ème Homme was adorned with artwork by Yaacov Agam, several spectra divided into different gradations in Agam's signature Op-Art grid. These sat on top of another, but infinitely variable, spectrum. Perhaps the more apt visualization for the perfume: highly structured, and at the same time infinitesimal, all-encompassing, nebulous. Although I find the old bottle in dimension, color and detail, as well as the aforementioned packaging far more appropriate for such a work of art, the fragrance has survived the move to the currently available 125ml bottle quite well. Fingers crossed that it remains in the range, even with the new change of ownership. Why Caron advertised it as 'Le Parfum des Ultras', however, is beyond me. The scent of the monarchy supporters at the end of the 19th Jhdt or extremists of the 80'er years?
4 Comments
9
Bottle
7
Sillage
8
Longevity
8.5
Scent
Hautgout
Translated Show original Show translation
Hautgout
Hautgout
Helpful Review 12  
The gland of Zibet
....is not the sequel to "7 years in Tibet" or the compendium of the Association of German Proctologists and certainly not the latest blockbuster from Uhse....
The idea to deal with the butt of a cat against the background of the extraction of animal smell substances or attractants probably only comes from humans. Zibet, which originates from the anal glands of the civet cat, has long been a common ingredient in perfumes. The main component of the musky secretion of the animals, which excrete even the most expensive coffee beans in the world, (droll that there are such a few rich idiots who actually buy such things) is nowadays synthetically produced.
Good for the cats - there were times when the poor critters were put into 45 degree preheated ovens to increase the yield of the civeton and then harvest the "whole thing" with a wooden spoon in a process called curettage. Place of action: Ethiopia.
We'll sum it up: Ethiopia is known for great coffee, smart cats making coffee beans, nimble anorexic young men and women competing in a monkey's tooth in an oval (and in the best case getting paid well for it) and zib concrete. Panem et circenses. First a Jägermeister or a Sambuca with coffee bean...

Third man. The intro makes sense because the Zibeton plays a not insignificant role in the fragrance because in the top note the Zibet strikes the office a bit in need of getting used to - that is to say: in about 3-5 minutes you stick to the backside of the cat and fight (due to the position) with a discreet gag reflex (slightly exaggerated). Everything not so bad smells but definitely something animalistic...
From our own experience we can say that the vintage version is really only for hardcore aficionados - the test strip obtained in a noble perfumery made you constantly wonder where this slightly fecal vibe comes from on your way home. It wasn't from the drunken visitors to the Volksfest who were redundantly present in the S-Bahn and stared at you with glassy eyes... Clear preference for the current version.
If the anal phase is over, you get a wonderfully powdery, carnation-dominated fragrance with minimal sweetness, which rightly received a 4 (or 5?) star rating from Lucas Turin. Well, the cat can do something. With a lot of imagination one could assume that Helge Schneider's "Katzenklo" is a coded homage to Le Troisième Homme.
Miao.
5 Comments
7.5
Bottle
7.5
Sillage
7.5
Longevity
8
Scent
Sherapop

1239 Reviews
Sherapop
Sherapop
Top Review 6  
Wonderful Tribute to a Splendid Film
I acquired the Caron masculine triptych, POUR UN HOMME, YATAGAN, and LE TROISIEME HOMME, after reading countless raves about all of them and discovering how reasonably priced they are. By far my favorite is LE TROISIEME HOMME. This smells simply splendid and strikes me as entirely unisex if not slightly more feminine than masculine. There is something very appealing about this floral fougère, which goes relatively light on the lavender, happily, and is so well blended that I have difficulty teasing out any individual notes. I will say that it strikes me as an olfactory neighbor of ELdO JASMIN ET CIGARETTE, which I recently tested and very much enjoyed. True the compositions are completely different, but the timbre and texture (and perspective!) are very similar, it seems to me. In addition to the jasmine overlap, there is also a tobacco-esque quality here as well, perhaps imparted by the vetiver mingling with the oakmoss.

IMNSHO, this is a million times better than POUR UN HOMME, which is way too lavender-loud and vanilla proud.

Coincidentally, "The Third Man", directed by Carol Reed and starring Orson Welles, is one of my favorite films of all time.
2 Comments
5
Sillage
7.5
Longevity
8
Scent
Missk

1165 Reviews
Missk
Missk
Very helpful Review 7  
Great for women too
Le 3' Homme de Caron, and like most masculine Caron scents, is a fragrance with a lot of what I call, 'oomph'.

It's hard to find fragrances like this these days that represent the way a manly man should smell. This fragrance opens with such power and masculinity that it's difficult to resist a tester card sprayed with this, let alone a man.

It's perhaps not as 'savage' as Yatagan, but Le 3' Homme de Caron is fiercely green and herbaceous in its opening. As it settles, lavender, sweet lemon and clove are apparent.

For the first hour or so this is all about being a man, however towards the drydown it takes on a powdery accord and a sweetness that can only be likened to the scent of shaving foam. This is where female consumers may feel obliged to wear this fragrance themselves.

It manages to be refined yet sensual, and upon further testing it seems that there's a touch of vanilla in there somewhere too. It's a pity that Caron's masculine fragrances have been overshadowed by the ghastly aromatics and aquatics as of late. I would buy up on scents such as these just to keep them in the market.

Older men probably prefer this over the younger generation but I can only encourage them as a young twenty year old woman to broaden their horizons. This is not dated despite being made in the 80's and is in my opinion, one of the finest woody aromatic scents for men that I've had the pleasure of smelling.

Wonderfully complex, soothing and classy, a man should not go past this classic Le 3' Homme de Caron.
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Statements

7 short views on the fragrance
50something50something 3 years ago
7
Bottle
6
Sillage
6
Longevity
10
Scent
Similar to Creed BDP. I pick up bergamot, clove, lemon, Vetiver & oak moss. Truly a masterpiece. A bit dated, but I’m ok with that 10/10.
0 Comments
ItchynoseItchynose 5 years ago
7
Bottle
7
Sillage
7
Longevity
5.5
Scent
Masculine and old school with an opening blast of clove and lavender. For lovers of traditional spicy barbershop scents.
0 Comments
KimJongKimJong 5 years ago
7
Bottle
5
Sillage
6
Longevity
8
Scent
The bottle I have (batch 22 12 801) is very weak in performance. It's not as brilliant as fame, but still sophisticated and beautiful.
0 Comments
Charilaos77Charilaos77 1 year ago
7
Sillage
8
Longevity
8
Scent
Another excellent old school fougere, spicy, green and masculine.
0 Comments
BlkbrdBlkbrd 7 months ago
Sophisticated, sweet, unisex lavender. Abstract. Lots of clove, but submerged & blended so smoothly that I, a clove-disliker, love it.
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