A*Men Pure Tonka Mugler / Thierry Mugler (2016)

A*Men Pure Tonka by Mugler / Thierry Mugler

7.9 / 10 156 Ratings

A*Men Pure Tonka is a popular limited perfume by Mugler / Thierry Mugler for men and was released in 2016. The scent is gourmand-sweet. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is being marketed by Clarins. Limited Edition

Perfumer

Jacques Huclier

Fragrance Notes

Lavender, Rosemary, Venezuelan tonka bean, Cappucino, Patchouli, Vanilla

Ratings

Scent

7.9 (156 Ratings)

Longevity

8.6 (139 Ratings)

Sillage

8.1 (141 Ratings)

Bottle

7.3 (150 Ratings)

Submitted by Michael, last update on 03.05.2019

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Reviews

12/21/2018

Ernie824
77 Reviews

Ernie824

A Latte Gourmand Vibe

SOTD: Thierry Mugler Pure Tonka as of 12/20/18

A very warm sweet latte gourmand to my nose, sweet but not overly in your face sweet. Coffee, cacao, Tonka bean and vanilla well blended, Vanilla is there but it takes a back seat, Coffee and Cacao dominates the scent. Sprayer is just horrendous on these bottle flask. Had 4 sprays on the neck area and wrists, projects between 2-4 hrs and then becomes close to skin. Longevity/Performance on my skin 12-15+ hrs. Overall rating for me is 8.5/10. Still prefer Pure Havane, It will be in my winter rotation this winter. Recommended

11/24/2018

5.0 8.0 8.0 8.5/10

Bassist87
0 Reviews

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Bassist87

Liquorice and cappuccino nougat

Finally... my first Mugler. I had tested the standard A*Men some time ago in the shop and found it rather unpleasantly "crass". For some time now, however, my love for coffee has made me feel the need to wear a fragrance in this direction and I find "Pure Tonka" to be quite a beautiful representative.

I can understand that the scent is too sweet for some, this crass sweetness that some members* describe here I can also perceive, but only if I apply it on paper. On my skin the scent reminds me of liquorice at the beginning, I can't smell rosemary or lavender. In the drydown the scent turns over on my skin, the "bear dirt impression" disappears. Instead - as someone has already described here - I get the association of burnt/caramelised sugar, but in a pleasant way, it smells "roasted" and at exactly this point the coffee note suddenly pops into my nose. Sweet! Coffee + sugar or crème brûlée or flan caramell. Taken together, these notes give me the picture of a Caramell cappuccino or - as my girlfriend called it - a cappuccino motorte.
Really great and I like it very much! Yes, it is sweet in any case (but I know sweeter scents), but not so sweet that I would find it unpleasant or unbalanced. The tonka bean and vanilla also resonate in the background, but I find the name Pure Tonka rather inappropriate for the fragrance. In my opinion "Pure Cappucino" or "Pure Caramel" would have been more suitable.

Shelf life is about 10h, the Sillage is very strong at the beginning in my opinion, retreats after about 3.5h and looks very subtle (but also pleasant!).

Conclusion:

Beautiful, sweet coffee scent that makes me want more Mugler (Pure Coffee and Pure Malt are two possible candidates)

11/03/2018

8.0 8.0 9.0 10.0/10

AmberScent
25 Reviews

AmberScent

Very helpful Review 4

The supreme gourmand wave

It should not be difficult to write about my signature perfume. Hell is not it! It's not a piece of cake to remain objective with my opinions as if I would be going to use it for the first time.
Sweet perfumes are a 21st century invention; I think the original A * Men of 1996 was the anchor that influenced an avalanche of greedy fragrances, albeit with several streams of interpretation. It's worth noting that I like sweet perfumes, although I find 1 Million, as well some others, to be boring. If it were not so, it would be at least strange to choose as my signature scent, such a sweet perfume as Pure Tonka.

This is my favorite A * Men flanker, of the eight I currently own. I like all very much but this one is "special". And it's not an easy observation for me because of the grandeur of the original A * Men, Pure Malt and Pure Havane. Pure Tonka has been the last one I bought. It was better that way as if I bought Pure Tonka first, I could have finished my A*Men adventure then, and completely satisfied by the virtues of Pure Tonka. I only complain about the spray on all A * Men! But I got used to wasting one squirt for every two that I applied successfully.

Pure Tonka opens almost fresh with a minty chord of lavender, but reveals immediately a strong caramel worthy of the best flan pudding, quite creamy and with a hint of bittersweet wild honey. This scent should certainly be the strong chord that is desired for the used tonka bean ingredients.
The scent is fairly linear and I just notice the disappearance of the minty lavender before the drydown.
Somewhere in this richly sweet blend, I distinguish the striking roasted coffee bean and the semi-bitter cocoa powder, as if justifying the aroma of cappuccino that everyone feels. Also present are an earthy patchouli and a sweet vanilla, a must-have inheritance of the original A*Men.Here the vanilla has the effect of accentuating further the flan pudding mentioned chord.
Out of nowhere, I also feel a cinnamon note, light and hidden behind the other notes, but completing the established "gourmandise" of this perfume.
The base of this perfume, with which the drydown begins, reminds me either of a sweet cappuccino due to the cocoa, coffee and cinnamon notes, or a caramelized vanilla flan pudding, soft and creamy, with a string of bitter caramel and sprinkled with cinnamon.
It's a delicious treat for any gourmand scents lover.
The performance is outstanding. You may get easily 12+ hours of longevity, more than 6 feet of sillage and a projection well above 3 hours.
This is really a top quality fragrance from Thierry Mugler. Just get it before being discontinued or reformulated, but only if you like strong sensations.

2 Replies

06/08/2018

8.0 8.0 9.0 10.0/10

Carlitos01
212 Reviews

Carlitos01

Greatly helpful Review 6

Caramelized tonka sweetening a vanilla scented cappuccino

It's a cold winter morning in central Lisbon. There is a light drizzle in the air. Lot's of people rush in all directions to avoid getting wet by the annoying humidity that penetrates their clothes.
Inside the Rossio train station there is an infernal noise of splashing footsteps from people getting in and getting out. It is still to early to care for wandering tourists and the current crowd just wants to arrive on time to their work places and as dry as possible. In the train station Starbucks counter there is a bunch of people hurrying to drink a quick expresso or a slower "galão" (portuguese cappuccino). The front esplanade seeks for carefree customers, but it's not yet the time for the leisure people that will surely crowd the place from mid morning onwards.
Only one person was sitting in front of one round table. It was a grey haired man, wearing a tweed dark suit and a beige Burberry raincoat. Somehow he really did not seem to fit in that ambiance as probably he was the only person not in a hurry besides myself. I sat in front of a nearby table facing the back of the lone customer. There was a fantastic scent of a yummy cappuccino sweetened by dark sugar and vanilla powder lingering in the air. I just asked the impatient waiter to bring the same for me. For my astonishement he brought me a buttered toast and black tea. Only then I realized that the strong but elegant scent came from the man itself. Somehow that scent felt a lot more appropriated for the foggy wet morning than the fragrance I was wearing. I politely asked the elegant man what perfume he was wearing even if I already suspected of a Mugler signature.

Pure Tonka is a linear but passionate and lively fragrance, with a strong accord of toasted sweet tonka, flourishing from the very opening till the end of the drydown, blended with coffee and cocoa capuccino, and flavoured by an also gourmand vanilla. The lingering cappuccino aroma with whiffs of toasted caramel is pretty strong, although it starts to faint before the tonka and vanilla duo. Sometimes the cappuccino note seems to be heavier on the coffee side and some other times leans more towards a dark chocolate scent. Well for me the cappuccino scent is all about coffee and cocoa anyway.
Some people claim that there are notes of licorice and crème brullè in this fragrance. i just don't notice them.
However I do feel an heavy sweet presence of dark toasted caramel but it may be just the venezuelan tonka leaving that sweet impression. Another non listed note I sense in this fragrance is tar, a pleasant tar that leaves a smoky trail.
Without any doubts this is an unisex fragrance for me, even if a lavender faint note is present to make it more masculine.

Here is my math for Thierry Mugler's Pure Tonka:
Scent Opening: 10.0 (my judgement)
Scent Dry Down: 10.0 (my judgement)
Longevity: 9.0 (2 good sprays may last up to 10 hours)
Sillage: 8.0 (6 feet at its peak with just 2 sprays; quite good projection for almost 3 hours)
Uniqueness: 9.5 (close to New Haarlem Bond No 9 and a distant cousin of Rochas Men)
Wearability: 8.0 (mainly a mild to cold weather scent; you may use it either outdoors or indoors, day or night)
Versatility: 7.5 (very sexy, good for leisure, clubbing, socializing, events, restaurants, dates, romancing, intimacy, weaddings,... not good to the office, informal meetings, small spaces, work out, beach and places where you may sweat)
Compliments: 9.0 (This fragrance will please to a wide range of people of both genders; It's quite a compliment magnet. The number of compliments I received while wearing it today exceeded my expectations... even from my wife :-) )
Quality: 9.0 (Above average quality, good performance, top quality ingredients, nice heavy flask,.. almost perfect but I take 1 point due to one of the lousiest sprayers I have ever experienced)
Presentation: 8.0 (my note for all the A*Men flasks)
Price: 7.0 (100 ml non tester for € 42 + shipping)

Overall rating: 8.64/10.00
- between 7 and 8 =above average;
- between 8 and 9 = recomended;
- bigger than 9 = don't miss it;
I recommend this fragrance; it's a gourmand fragrance with a bit of smokiness and pleasing both women and men. I really like it very much.

1 Replies

05/23/2018

8.0 9.0 9.0 8.0/10

Taurus1967
3 Reviews

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Taurus1967

Greatly helpful Review 14

How do I feel when drinking coffee?

... used to be the working title of an art project with a few people that I helped stage a quarter of a century ago. Well - apart from the catchy title, I can't remember if we had collected anything at all or if we had. Was probably not so important then, but I know that we had a lot of fun at that time.

The title was also remarkable because I hadn't drunk any coffee during this phase and couldn't get anything out of it. Although I liked the smell of freshly ground coffee beans from my earliest childhood, the stuff to drink lasted almost forever.

Meanwhile I enjoy coffee with a good crema or as espresso. Yes, I also like Latte Macchiato and I dared to approach Kopi Luwak myself.
Last year, I invited a friend of mine to visit a roasting house near me that had made it its mission to serve their coffee in an authentic way. This means, among other things, that the self-roasted coffee drips or is brewed through the filter in an elaborate procedure. This is partly reminiscent of the chemistry lessons at school. Until you get your hot drink, you have to be patient. But that then only nobody comes on the idea to ask for milk and/or sugar. In the whole shop there is neither the one nor the other and you can possibly be danced to by the owner, because he tries to missionize you. Accordingly, I did not feel so comfortable drinking coffee, especially as the taste was a little too thin for me. However, we had enjoyed ourselves afterwards deliciously about it - and the negative guest entries in the Internet about the shop blow quasi the same horn.

Why am I even telling this whole thing? Well, on the one hand because it fits wonderfully to the theme of Pure Tonka. If you have a basic problem with coffee or the smell of it, you can save yourself a personal test or even a purchase.

Nonetheless, Pure Tonka is a wonderful creation dominated by a lavender wall as tall as a house and a fine cappuccino note including hot roasted Arabica beans and a strong dash of sweet vanilla. This is already a good gourmand announcement, especially as the fragrance has a balanced freshness due to the aforementioned lavender and a dash of rosemary, without getting boggy.

The typical Mugler DNA is retained and the promised Tonka softly expresses the stamp of good aroma - for hours and hours, filling the room. This does not replace the scent of fresh coffee powder from the good old mill, but can be almost as addictive, because Pure Tonka gives you a truly positive feeling!

7 Replies

02/24/2018

10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0/10

Lockon
34 Reviews

Lockon

Tonka bomb!

This is sweet, strong, long lasting & it screams look at me...Thankfully it's mid-winter, so you can pull this off very easily. It can overpower other fragrance of people near you...that includes body odor...and in NYC on the train, during the morning rush...It's much needed.

I have an issue with it...the fragrance pyramid...Licorice is my main & only gripe...yuck I hate that note. But the other notes in this, help cover for it.
Just saying on my skin & to my nose, licorice & I don't get along (Just rambling).

Outside of that, it's a great scent.

I used four sprays...both wrist, front of my neck and on my shirt.

Would I buy this again? Yes(But I can't find it anywhere).

Does this fragrance enter BEAST MODE, good, just okay or weak sauce at best? Beast mode.

What's the strength of this? EDT.

Am I willing to trade this fragrance? No.

Should You Skipped It, Sample It First or Blind Buy It?
Sample it first: Just case.
Skip it: altogether if you can't take or do not like gourmand type fragrances(You will smell like someone's dessert all day & this fragrance will announce your presence before you enter a room, yes it's that strong).
Blind buy it: if you're looking a gourmand fragrance(Beast mode)...That smells like you just finished baking pastries.

Can you use it as a unisex fragrance? Yes.

Is it the old, new formulation? New.

What's its availability; in production, limited edition or discontinued? In production.

SKU Number: 3439600004977
Batch Number: 0531071 (Production Date: 2017)
Age: 21+
From: TJ Maxx
Size: 100ML
Scent: 4/5 (Nice).
Value: 4/5 (Cost $38.99).
Sillage: 5/5 (Six feet).
Longevity: 5/5 (Eight hours plus).
Creativity: 5/5 (Christmas in a bottle).
Projection: 5/5 (Two hours plus).
Versatility: 3.25/5 (Anytime & anywhere, during the fall & winter only).
Compliments: 5/5 (Perfect for late night get-togethers with friends or a loved one).

Until next time, I'll catch you on the flipside.

12/20/2017

7.0 10.0 10.0 9.0/10

Smora
139 Reviews

Smora

Very helpful Review 4

Smell Of The Christmas Star

Scentrack
Counting Crows – A Long December

I am a sucker for every Mugler’s Pure line flanker. Although I am aware that they all share the same gourmand DNA, I cannot resist to buy one more. They all possess the same theme, but carefully tweaked to present a new aspect of the composition. Pure Tonka is no exception. And it smells fabulous.
The lavender/fougere construction is hidden under a massive layer of Huclier’s sweet mountain. Like a more powerful and updated Roucel’s Rochas Man or more balanced New Haarlem. The mint is just a passerby, and lavender is infused with nutty Tonka bean-coffee-vanilla heaven. At one point Tonka becomes a coconut cream in a kitchen during the holidays. Absolutely gorgeous. All the sweet notes create a sensual festive and joyful entity. In the background, I sense just a touch of Lolita’s licorice, and patchouli which becomes stronger during the adorable and lengthy A*Men base period.
The construction of Pure Tonka is very similar to criminally underrated A*Men A Taste of Fragrance (gourmand lavender) and Pure Malt. One should admit, Thierry Mugler and Jacques Huclier have made another successful A*Men variation. It is sweet, serene and dark. Pure Tonka is such an adorable gourmand for a very good price. Winter wonderland in a bottle. A joy of Christmas in our hearts. So Huclieresque. As usual, cannot wait to try a new member of the Pure line.

Rating: 9/10

More on Scentimentalwords

08/13/2017

9.0 9.0 9.0 2.0/10

Muotarek
51 Reviews

Muotarek

Gourmand BOMB

Gourmand BOMB!!! This is really sweet, cloying perfume, I couldn't keep it in my collection for one day, try this before you buy, it might make you choking.

03/09/2017

9.0 8.0 9.0 9.5/10

K1
121 Reviews

Sparkling - amber - delicious

By far the best A*Men flanker! Charming shiny package, splendid star color, magnificent smell.

The fagrance immediately delivers the air of classic A*Men with hints of syrupy gourmand notes allied to lavender and coffee to spawn a fougère air into an oriental base. Dries down in a brilliant modern fougère and great yummy spicy oriental amber similar to aura of Ambre Sultan in its very base: vanillic and sweet like a warm hug in early morning winter.

I love A*Men series though most of them are not my cup of tea, and I love this one the most not for the thick sparkling and fizzy foggy beginning, but for perfect fougère amber base. Mandatory for fougère fans, for amber fans, and for tonka fans!
4/5

07/06/2016

8.0 8.0 8.0 7.0/10

Rickbr
190 Reviews

Rickbr

Average Amen Flanker

As I explained in Amen Pure Wood review, the success of the flankers of this line have been based on the balance between being able to keep a clear link with the traditional at the same time it is possible to explore new aromatic textures within the formula, creating a fragrance that is worth having for those who already have the previous ones. Pure Tonka has a difficult task in my point of view: there is already a history of flankers that showed to be excellent and popular (Pure Coffee, Pure Malt, Pure Havane), good and little-known (Pure Wood), and which added nothing interesting (Taste Of Fragrance, Pure Leather). In a way this new family member falls into a middle ground between the most successful ones and the uninteresting others.

Conceptually exploring the extraction of roasted tonka bean aroma, this variation explores the nuances of tonka: its side that reminds you of cherries, its aromatic grass aspect (well explored in the classic fougeres) and more lactonic and burnt side. The Lavender is brought here to reinforce this more aromatic part and counteract the vanillic and sugary sweetness that is brought back. Finally, we have two ends giving a driest aroma to the composition: at the opening the smell of roasted coffee, a classic note of traditional Amen, and a patchouli and something kind of amber aroma in the base.

Describing the nuances of it you can see an interesting idea indeed, but one lacking a surprise factor in the composition, and in this point of game is essential for it to be part of the best of the line. The combination of coffee, lavender, vanilla and patchouli is crafted here in a very similar way of two Maurice Roucel creations: Rochas Man and Bond No 9 New Haarlem. Sometimes the cherry aroma and burnt tonka aspect is that it gives a distinction to idea, but in general it reminds you of these other perfumes. At other times, however, its just seems the traditional Amen a little sweeter.

Overall, the first impression of Pure Tonka as a flanker in the line leave you divided. There are some interesting nuances, but the execution seems derived from other creations and not distinguished enough from the traditional. For someone who already has all previous editions, it may not stand out as one of the best. But for someone who likes the traditional, like the idea of coffee with lavender and would like to see a hint of cherries or a more prominent tonka aroma, is a scent that has its charm and it's worth knowing.