Pur Kinkan Cartier 2020

Just two ingredients - citrus notes and kumquat - for 263, - euros is an announcement. It is not even a 100 ml bottle with which we could generously spray the supposedly light-footed summer freshener, but the fine bottle in the style of L'heure fragrances holds only 75 ml. With the wrapped light yellow ribbon and the citrus finely etched into the glass, it emphasizes the summer impression and the noble style of the house of Cartier.

Les épures de Parfum means "The sketches of perfume" and lives up to this claim brilliantly in the flacon design, with the minimalist number of ingredients and in the selection of purely citrus notes that stand for clarity, purity and freshness. I like purism and thus already like the concept without even sniffing the bottle. On it goes ...

Imagine you're sitting in bright sunshine in a lemon grove and cut up plump fresh lemons, limes, yuzu and kumquats, the juice runs over your hands, in the air is the scent of summer, right next to you pulls someone with the Zestenreißer very fine strips of peel off. Very carefully, so that he doesn't touch the bitter white underlayer. I named it Lemon Grove to evoke an image, and because I don't know if there are lime, yuzu, or kumquat groves, but it's actually these three that make up the scent. Pur Kinkan smells hocharomatiasch, intense, radiant, fresh and tart, but not at all sour or even pungent after many kinds of citrus, and perhaps two, three orange petals (more really not) floated down to the table.

This has so nothing at all to do with classic fresh fragrances, which like to use neroli. Here no trace of it - for me, fortunately. Also no flushing lemon, no toilet freshness and no lemon cream ball. There is no perceivable accessory to my nose in the form of musk, cedar, herbs, mosses, or whatever else you might find in other fresh fragrances. Pur Kinkan smells like you are rubbing the juice and peels of fresh fruit directly on your skin. Totally natural, not synthetic at all, totally unscented, full of joie de vivre, pleasant, sunny, modern, pure, unique. In hot temperatures it is a pure blessing, for other weather conditions Pur Kinkan is not suitable in my opinion. Unfortunately, this joie de vivre lasts with me only half an hour and then quickly flattens.

Pur Kinkan smells of nothing but the most beautiful citrus fruits, but that at the highest level. The name and the ingredients reflect the fragrance exactly. Whether that must cost 263, - Euro, I will not judge and it is certainly not everyone's thing to smell like rubbed with limes, yuzu and kumquats - I find it wonderful on hot summer days.