Eaux de Caron Forte Caron 1999

Recently, I have come across several fragrances featuring Black Currant. I received a sample of Eaux de Caron Forte from Pluto - thank you very much for that!

The good lady is quite shy in this scent; after less than a minute, she disappears again. She gets hit by an apple. Although it is mushy, extraordinarily mushy even, that doesn't help the currant at all. What the soft apple alone cannot achieve, the glass around it does. It simply knocks the (otherwise truly potent) garden shrub out cold. A striking experience, how this botanical stinker at Bundesliga level (Champions League is played by the Stinking Geranium, which is named for a reason) is flattened by a mass of fruit.

I mention the glass because the apple here presents itself cooked down in the form of a spread. Sweetened with caramelized sugar and - it says prominently on the outside - "Now with ten percent bitter orange marmalade." I suspect Neroli is involved in this special twist in the background. It's warming up, as you can see below.

Already within the second hour, the scent retreats to the skin and shifts slightly into the bitter. In this case, coriander emphasizes its green facet rather than its spicy character. Lilac is fine by me; however, the scent is so close to the skin that with the required imagination, quite a lot could be possible.

These are nuances anyway; primarily, a sweetened, thickened, floral honey-like (perhaps apple blossom...) Neroli note is now character-defining. And every time I think it can't concentrate any stronger, I find that there's still more to come. By the fifth hour, I practically reach candied fruits. So, it really can't get any thicker!

Well, I’m curious about the progression. So, the progression - where is it? Against the dry honey, the colleagues from the base simply have little chance. I perceive cedar, but only directly on the skin; just a few centimeters away, it is gently and lovingly suffocated by the (by now) fruit concentrate patina.

And this, in turn, does not give way long after the cedar, during the sixth hour. Victorious, but dead. The fruit-sweet crystal glaze has dried and no longer smells. Where are the hammer and chisel?