The Scent of Peace Bond No. 9 2006 Eau de Parfum

How a headline can lead one astray! It does not refer to the scent, but to a phenomenon that Walter Krämer has described inimitably entertainingly in his book “How to Lie with Statistics.” Overall, it is a very enlightening read for anyone who wonders about the diametrically opposed messages that the world of statistics can scientifically produce, depending on who the client of the study is.

A superlative becomes synthetic when the basis of the survey is cut to fit too arbitrarily. My garden, for example, is certainly the most flower-rich on the middle and northern E…-Street. The problem is that my direct southern neighbor's garden (a retired gardener) looks much more lush and, above all, better maintained. The Guinness Book of Records is full of this kind of superlatives.

With the following lines, I do not want to do any injustice to the “FiFi Awards” of “The Fragrance Foundation” from New York, whose significance I cannot assess. I am merely describing what spontaneously came to my mind and speculating a bit on top of that.

“The Scent of Peace” is reportedly the “Winner in the Top 5 Finalists for 2007 Fragrance of the Year FiFi Award for Women’s Nouveau Niche Category.” Aha. Setting aside the fact that I would have expected Fifi to prefer completely different scents (Ha.Ha.Ha.), I was immediately reminded of a passage from Krämer's aforementioned book: “No matter how mediocre a performance may be, there is always room for a superlative…. An impresario who wants to finally award a prize to a weakly talented protégé simply creates one for the most listened-to up-and-coming singer under 23 years from Romania. The coveted Oscar will soon also be awarded for the best unmarried Mexican makeup artist without a high school diploma.”

I find it completely incomprehensible what about this Bond is award-worthy. And it honestly has nothing to do with the fact that I find the entire brand presentation, in its optical over-the-topness - to put it mildly - disgustingly intrusive.

Pure coincidence that Bond No. 9 is a US company and is based in New York like “The Fragrance Foundation”? Don’t the Americans love to celebrate themselves - see Oscar - the most? I remember a radio report about a Grammy award ceremony. It stated that the non-American experts shook their heads over the award for the US pianist Emanuel Ax. Apparently, the rest of the world agreed that Ax is certainly a very good artist, but not world-class, just as little as the specific CD recording awarded to him. At least, that’s the tenor of the broadcast that has stuck in my memory. A peak of embarrassment was that the Grammy winners were read out by none other than…Emanuel Ax. For that - as well as for the Grammy - he could of course do nothing.

Now finally to the perfume. I’ll be quick, I promise.

At the opening, there is a sharp citrus fruit, grapefruit is fine. There’s a bit of herbaceousness, which fits with the blackcurrant. The subsequent fruit is quite muted, already carries a base of wood, yet it is pleasantly fruity-fresh. In the best sense, average. This phase, which extends over the entire span from the third to the eighth quarter-hour, is the top time of the scent with its gentle fruitiness, imperceptibly supported by the openly mentioned Hedione.

From the ninth quarter-hour onward, the chemistry takes over. A flabby mixture of Hedione, light synthetic wood, and perhaps a hint of heliotrope-vanilla almost completely replaces the fruit, and The Scent of Peace becomes woody-watery. In the further course, which already reaches the sediment around noon, a mixture of synthetic wood and white musk with the usual long-lasting effect emerges.

Speaking of “award-worthy”: Offering something like this at a price of more than 200 euros for 50 ml is an outrageousness that justifies a deduction in the rating. Based solely on the scent, I would have chosen a 5.0.

I thank Taurus1967 for the sample.