Secret Mission Baldessarini 2012 Eau de Toilette

It happened that my teenage son had cracked his beautiful smartphone, and an unsightly spiderweb of cracks adorned the display. So we set off to the city - wanting to look for a suitable replacement. We like to take the train, which brings us almost exactly to our preferred shopping arcade, and the travel time is also reasonable. Despite the train drivers' strike, we were able to go - for the return trip, we had our bikes with us just in case.

With the summery weekend weather - the last chance for a summer scent - I had actually planned to thoroughly test Artisan Black by John Varvatos. Normally, I only test during the week. Out of consideration for the family, I try to keep weekends fragrance-free. But on the way to the electronics store, we unfortunately had to pass through a perfume department...

About a year ago, roughly 6 months before I joined Parfumo, I came across Secret Mission by Baldessarini. For me, it was almost a revelation. Overall, the main theme is fresh, soft, and woody. I cannot accept the occasional criticism of a soapy undertone. OK, we do have a lavender soap that emits similar notes, but I see that more as a plus for the hygiene product than something to blame on Secret Mission.

The secret mission initially feels like it starts on a massage table, one might think - alongside a fresh-citrusy note that clearly belongs to bergamot, cypress and basil are making a great effort to conceal their mission, which vaguely reminds one of a fir/pine needle component, almost like in camphor.

But wait! A teenager, on the way to the new dream phone, voluntarily lingers in a perfume department?! Yes, as sure as I sit here and write, that is what happened. We casually tried out several fragrances: for example, Pour Homme by Armani or Bvlgari. No, none of them were particularly scents for a young person. But we had to start somewhere. Then my son came around the corner with the Secret Mission bottle. Each of us got a spray on the wrist, and with a small pack of fragrance cards - all artfully bent and folded in different ways, since we obviously didn't have a pen with us - we continued on to the phone store.

What criteria my son uses to select electronic devices is a mystery - you have to let young people do their thing. Just like the Baldessarini, which strives towards its peak with lavender and rose scent, but is actually just geranium. Cardamom is bustling in the background as we already sense the slightly woody base note at the checkout. After about two hours in the mobile phone department, we had quite different motives to get home quickly. However, we skipped the shortcut through the perfume department.

Actually, we still caught our train on time - but the strike *hnn-grrr* The next connection was not in sight for the time being. So we took another deep inhale of Secret Mission, let the water bottle circulate, and launched Mission Pedalicus.

The return journey was nice, albeit somewhat hilly - road cyclists know what I mean. There were some cedars along the way, but the bison and musk oxen had already returned to the barn in good time. But this warm, occasionally slightly rosy and then again lavender wood tone accompanied us on our little tour.

The soft-woody theme runs like a red thread through the entire development. Secret Mission lasts slightly over eight hours but does not set any significant accents. The scent is relatively subtle - that is very important to my son. This EdT from Baldessarini is certainly not a stroke of genius - (more of a collection model). In any case, a nice, solid entry-level fragrance that fits perfectly for the autumn-winter season and is great for young people.

The headline almost gives it away: The bottle has moved in with me and has become the first men's fragrance in my son's possession. Mission successfully completed!