1881 Signature Cerruti 2017

..his big brother 1881 Signature will surely pick him up there! Now that's what I call a "like a phoenix from the ashes," because after the 127 different 1881 flankers, I would have expected nothing, zero, niente from the brand. Discovered by chance a few weeks ago at Rossmann, I was already quite taken with it, and today I sprayed it again for verification, the same result!
Signature is a wonderful autumn and winter fragrance that greets me at the beginning with spicy pepper and sweet-spicy cardamom; it smells delicious and especially high-quality from the start. But the twist of this fragrance is that it reverses the usual and very typical progression for mainstream scents. Many fragrances in this price range, including flankers of good scents, start off quite interestingly, lay an intriguing top note over the (well-known) base theme, promise more than they can deliver, and then end up showing the unkillable tonka syrup again (a good example is YSL La Nuit L'Intense with its grandiose iris top note!).
Here it is exactly the opposite; first, there's a wintry sweetness, albeit subtle, but well noticeable, as the vanilla amber also seeps through a bit, but then the fragrance quickly turns into a bitter-spicy and masculine scent. This is thanks to the powerful wild leather accord and the cellar-free patchouli. There’s no sign of the usual synthetic penetrance to be found anywhere, which I had expected in this price range, thinking that at 39€ there would be a big catch at the end, nope, it doesn’t!!!
The spicy-earthy leather-patchouli base smells simply seamless and doesn’t have to hide from more expensive fragrances. I would even go so far as to say, see my statement on this fragrance, that if this scent were labeled with a chic niche brand and equipped with a more valuable bottle, it would receive absolutely the highest accolades. It gets that from me as well, because another brand would have to show me how to create such a wonderful and high-quality fragrance for 40€. The longevity is also completely okay at 6-7 hours, the sillage is strong but not in the typical sugary extent or like one might know from Montale. This is another plus point, not a simplistic crowd-pleaser for the village disco that tries to compensate for lack of quality with sillage. Also, no "I knew it!" or "couldn't be any other way!" at the end...everything va bene così!!
Long story short, Signature may not become my new signature scent, as I don’t have one anymore, but it earns the golden medal in this price category (and even in some above it!) and will surely be purchased in the autumn.