Paco Rabanne makes the loudest men's fragrances on the shelf, and they sell in enormous numbers because loud, worn correctly, is exactly what a lot of men want.
Here's what each one does and the D&P bottle built the same way.
If you love One Million — try Richone
The gold bar. Cinnamon, leather and blood mandarin, sweet and hot, recognisable at fifty feet. It has been the go-out scent for a generation of men and it earned that.
Richone opens on grapefruit, mint and yellow mandarin, then rose and cinnamon, over spice. Same energy, same heat, and it doesn't disappear after two hours.
If you love One Million Lucky — try Soncy
The softer, fruitier version — plum and hazelnut, sweeter and rounder than the original.
Soncy brings plum, grapefruit and bergamot into hazelnut and honey. Warm, gourmand, and easier to wear in company than its older brother.
If you love Invictus — try Thor
The sport one, and the most wearable thing they make. Grapefruit and marine notes with ambergris underneath — clean up top, with something warm and animal below that keeps it interesting.
Thor runs grapefruit, mandarin and orange into marine notes and bay laurel. Fresh, athletic, and good in heat where the sweet ones struggle.
If you love Black XS — try Darklexes
The dark, sweet, slightly gothic one. Praline, cardamom and tolu balsam — a cult bottle rather than a bestseller, and people who wear it don't wear anything else.
Darklexes opens on sage and lemon, moves through tolu balsam, black cardamom and cinnamon, and lands on praline. Sweet but shadowed.
If you love Phantom — try Tacenda
Lavender, lemon and smoke in a robot bottle. Modern, clean, with an odd smoky twist that keeps it from being just another fresh scent.
Tacenda is lavender, lemon zest, Amalfi lemon and apple over smoky notes and patchouli. Bright and strange in the right proportion.
And one more
Infrared Men — amber, mint, verbena, pepper and vanilla with oak moss underneath, in the direction of Ultraviolet. The most unusual of the group, and cheap enough to take a chance on. $29.99
How to wear any of these
Two sprays. Not four. Every complaint anyone has ever made about this style of fragrance is really a complaint about someone applying six. At two they're superb; at six they clear a lift.
Why they cost what they cost
The originals are $95 to $140 for 100 ml. Ours are around $30. Same directions, same eau de parfum concentration, quality oils sourced in Europe, vegan and cruelty-free.
See all our Paco Rabanne-inspired perfumes
We're D&P Perfumum — our own fragrances, our own New Jersey stores, and no reason to save the loud one for special occasions.
