01/20/2013

Coutureguru
223 Reviews

Coutureguru
Top Review
10
Back to the Future
With the release of CK One in the mid 90's the landscape of designer fragrances changed from one that promoted exclusivity, to one that inspired accesibility for all ... a sort of 'revolution for the people'. I was one of those sucked into the vision and admit to wearing copious amounts of this one on a regular basis!
Never having been one for ascribing gender to fragrances, the hullabaloo about it being 'shared' or 'unisex' never meant very much to me. It was more a situation of wanting to feel part of the herd ... I had just moved halfway across the planet on my own and felt a desperate need to feel integrated within my new surroundings. Along came frags like Acqua di Gio, Cool Water and Issey Miyake which allowed this, as most social situations were permeated by the fresh, clean ozonic smells of bergamot, calone and the like.
I haven't had a bottle of CK One for the longest time, but trapped by work on a tropical Island for the moment and having run out of a daytime fragrance, I asked a friend to bring me a bottle from Duty Free on his way in. I confess to being quite enchanted once again!
The notes here at Parfumo seem a little incomplete. Various sources list them as bergamot, lemon, mandarin, cardamom, pineapple, papaya, lily of the valley, green tea, oakmoss, cedar, sandalwood, musk and amber ... and curiously one source even lists Hedione, a Firmenich molecule that recently celebrated 50 years of use in fragrances.
My nose having become a little more discerning since my original CK One days, I find that my wearings of the last few days certainly inspire memories of the past ... but I am also looking at this classic from a fresh perspective. I have Hedione in a collection of aroma chemicals and I definitely smell it in CK One. Chemically referred to as Methyl Dihydrojasmonate it brings a beautiful, non indolic jasmine note to the composition, complimented by major quantities of hesperides up top. The base here is powdery and woody, reminding me a lot of a Sandalwood compound from Robertet that I was lucky enough to try recently.
I find CK One every bit as valid now as it was back in 1994. Sure, it may be the 'one' fragrance that 90% of people on the planet who wear perfume have been in contact with one way or another, giving it 'mall rat' status ... but I am enjoying it again for the moment. Call me sentimental :) ...
Never having been one for ascribing gender to fragrances, the hullabaloo about it being 'shared' or 'unisex' never meant very much to me. It was more a situation of wanting to feel part of the herd ... I had just moved halfway across the planet on my own and felt a desperate need to feel integrated within my new surroundings. Along came frags like Acqua di Gio, Cool Water and Issey Miyake which allowed this, as most social situations were permeated by the fresh, clean ozonic smells of bergamot, calone and the like.
I haven't had a bottle of CK One for the longest time, but trapped by work on a tropical Island for the moment and having run out of a daytime fragrance, I asked a friend to bring me a bottle from Duty Free on his way in. I confess to being quite enchanted once again!
The notes here at Parfumo seem a little incomplete. Various sources list them as bergamot, lemon, mandarin, cardamom, pineapple, papaya, lily of the valley, green tea, oakmoss, cedar, sandalwood, musk and amber ... and curiously one source even lists Hedione, a Firmenich molecule that recently celebrated 50 years of use in fragrances.
My nose having become a little more discerning since my original CK One days, I find that my wearings of the last few days certainly inspire memories of the past ... but I am also looking at this classic from a fresh perspective. I have Hedione in a collection of aroma chemicals and I definitely smell it in CK One. Chemically referred to as Methyl Dihydrojasmonate it brings a beautiful, non indolic jasmine note to the composition, complimented by major quantities of hesperides up top. The base here is powdery and woody, reminding me a lot of a Sandalwood compound from Robertet that I was lucky enough to try recently.
I find CK One every bit as valid now as it was back in 1994. Sure, it may be the 'one' fragrance that 90% of people on the planet who wear perfume have been in contact with one way or another, giving it 'mall rat' status ... but I am enjoying it again for the moment. Call me sentimental :) ...
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