# Clive Christian — No. 1 for Men

> Clive Christian No. 1 for Men (2001) is the masculine half of the launch pair that re-introduced the resurrected Crown Perfumery as "Clive Christian Perfume," and it is inseparable from its marketing 

## Essence
Clive Christian No. 1 for Men (2001) is the masculine half of the launch pair that re-introduced the resurrected Crown Perfumery as "Clive Christian Perfume," and it is inseparable from its marketing identity: the perfume Guinness World Records certified as the world's most expensive.
## Scent Profile
The opening is a fruit-and-spice basket in concentrated form: lime, mandarin, grapefruit and a sweet, sharp citrus burst, mingled with nutmeg, cardamom, caraway, paprika/pimento and artemisia. This sets a sweet-oriental texture rather than a fresh one. The heart is the signature: a baroque golden floral bouquet - ylang-ylang (often read as banana-honeyed and dominant), jasmine and indoles, with rose well in the background, plus heliotrope and iris/orris providing a powdery, almost makeup-like, soapy lift. Many wearers describe the overall heart impression as "an expensive bar of floral-powdery soap. The base is creamy and warm: 50-year-aged Mysore-style sandalwood, amber, tonka, vanilla, musk, Virginia cedar and vetiver, sweet to the edge of cloying but stopping short. The pure parfum is denser and more resinous; the EDP reads more citrus-forward up top and more powdery in the base. The arc: sparkling citrus-spice → soapy golden florals → creamy sweet woods.
## Performance
This is where the concentration shows. The pure parfum is essentially all oil - reviewers describe it lasting "until you bleach it off a shirt collar," with wear times that easily run a full day and a sillage that can be "suffocating. Projection, paradoxically, is restrained for the parfum (density throttles diffusion), so those wanting a bigger cloud are pointed to the EDP. Eddie Bulliqi's feature ("Clive Christian No.
## Wearing Context
Best deployed as an evening or cool-weather statement scent - its sweetness and richness become heavy in heat, and Clive Christian themselves offer fresher options for that. It is formal, "regal," and self-consciously luxurious; wearers describe reaching for it "when I want to feel powerful and royal. Crucially, it reads feminine-to-unisex to a large share of men: detractors call it "floral baby powder," a "soap," or "smells like grandma and grandpa at once," while admirers find it a refined, mature, old-world perfume. Not a casual daytime or office-blend scent - it announces itself.
## Comparisons & DNA
The most repeated and useful DNA pin is Amouage Gold Man (1983) - the same opulent, soapy, golden floral-oriental Middle Eastern register; one reviewer memorably describes No. 1 as "Gold Man with the poop removed and the frankincense toned down to make room for more citrus and florals. Other touchpoints: vintage aldehydic-chypre grandeur in the lineage of Chanel No. 5 parfum, Patou Joy and Jean Desprez Versailles pour Homme; and Patou pour Homme for the floral-masculine ambition. It is repeatedly contrasted with the (drier, mossier) Diaghilev style and positioned closer to "vintage Amouage.
## Reception
Reception is genuinely bifurcated and inseparable from price. Critically, the established major critic authorities are silent: Turin and Sanchez never reviewed any Clive Christian fragrance in Perfumes: The Guide (2008), the A-Z Guide (2009), or Perfumes: The Guide 2018 - the brand was explicitly named among houses omitted from the 2018 edition. 5 stars" figure that circulates online is a amateur rating, not a Turin/Sanchez score - a common confusion.) Among enthusiasts the scent is admired as a well-blended, high-concentration "smells like a rich person" floral-oriental, but the marketing and price draw open contempt: recurring lines include "the world's most expensive soap,," "an expensive piece of garbage," and praise for the smell paired with fury at the $800+ price for the EDP. Own feature captures the ambivalence: technically accomplished, value-questionable, polarizing.
## Versions & Reformulation
The line splits primarily into the Eau de Parfum (gold spray bottles) and the Pure Parfum (Baccarat crystal flacon with diamond-set cap), the latter positioned as the ultimate expression. Numerous limited/anniversary editions exist, including coronation/Imperial editions; the formula has also been affected over two decades by IFRA restrictions and the brand's ownership changes, which Crown/Clive fans cite when complaining about quality drift. Ownership chronology: Clive Christian OBE acquired the Crown Perfumery (founded 1872, granted Queen Victoria's crown emblem) in 1999, launched the Original Collection (1872, X, No. 1) starting in 1999-2001; a consortium including Stagecoach founders Brian Souter and Ann Gloag and venture capitalist Jon Moulton took a majority stake in 2015; and in July 2019 the business was acquired by Nichebox.
## Acquisition Notes
Full retail is steep - the EDP commonly lands in the high-hundreds per bottle, and the pure-parfum/limited editions run dramatically higher. Smart-money strategy in wearer response is to (a) sample first, because a large share of men find it reads feminine and many find the value indefensible, and (b) buy heavily discounted: grey-market and discounter sites (Beautinow, etc.) Routinely cut the price substantially, making it far more palatable than boutique pricing. Decant/sample is strongly advised before any full bottle.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- The world's-most-expensive lore is real and well-documented.
- Per Guinness World Records, "the most expensive perfume commercially available is the Clive Christian No.
- 1 for Men or No.
- 1 for Women - 30 ml (1 fl oz) of which typically costs £1,317 (then $2,355)" (Wikipedia and Forbes give "$2,150 an ounce" as of 2006).
- In November 2005 the house created No.