20: Iconic Masculine

20: The Masculine Perfume of an Iconic Pair

Clive Christian 2019

This one feels very “correct.”

From the first spray, 20 Iconic Masculine delivers that polished, classic masculine profile — citrus lift, smooth woods, subtle spice. Nothing sharp. Nothing messy. It smells expensive and put together. On skin, it stayed composed the entire wear. Balanced. Professional. Very wearable. But it never surprised me. It never shifted into something textured or memorable. It felt like a luxury execution of a familiar idea.

That’s the issue. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, it’s very well done. But when I finished wearing it, I didn’t feel the urge to revisit it — appreciated but not prioiritized.

Alone, full of tears in the rain,
I wander through the gray streets,
and their soulless "Erba Pura | XerJoff" fog.
But then a rainbow appears,
and a blue Clive stands up there.
I climb onto him, seize him, and see the tears pulling away.
Spray him on, we become one, the citrus soul shines like ice.
Bitter-sour yuzu juices,
awaken my life forces.
Juicy mandarin peel,
brings a smile on these days.
Only the herbal lemonade is missing,
and then I’m in the mood today.
Recently, one is allowed to smoke grasses, the Haitian one I could use.
Gasoline earth, its smoke flows out,
and brings me into a new high.
Balsamic incense joins in,
the woody cedar spreads as well.
The end of the rain is now not far away,
and the summer soul is finally free.

Clive Christian has long taken over Crown Perfumery & what remains of them is just the beautiful, royal bottle design with the crown.
As mainstream trends evolve, and growth is paramount for big brands like Clive C., they have increasingly distanced themselves from classic chypre & fougère DNAs and have catered to the modern zeitgeist (they have still released some classic fragrances), which is good for modern souls, and rather bad for classics (presumably also fans of Crown?).
For this can result in both great creativity & excellent blending in the interplay of nature & synthetics, as well as monotonous uniformity with a penetratingly high synthetic content. Here, I believe the former is the case, as from start to finish, there is a pleasant scent experience that is free from overly pronounced & disturbing synthetics, which unfortunately are becoming more common nowadays.

But now to the scent:
The combination of citrus fruits is one of the most unique & beautiful I know, and I really test A LOT in this area, as it is one of my favorites (I also own the pure oils of almost all notes here). Juiciest grapefruit, with sweet mandarin & bitter-sour petitgrain-yuzu accent, all refreshed by the herbaceous-citrusy bergamot… I have truly arrived in citrus heaven.
A dry woody note briefly joins in (I must think of a mix of cashmeran & iso-e-super here), but disappears faster than it came. Because now there’s herbal lemonade! That’s how the middle phase or heart note smells for a long time. As if you had put some herbs (here Mediterranean, fresh-cool rosemary) into a lemonade. For a friend of mine, it also has something of fruity herbal liqueur in the direction of Boonekamp, where the fruitiness from the citrus notes could come from the pink pepper, whose oil also smells fruity. The juniper berry also adds some spice, but it always remains cool & fresh through the present citrus notes, which harmonize excellently with the rest and merge into an overall scent. A very aromatic “Iconic” heart!
What makes the scent truly “masculine” is the base. The Haitian vetiver comes through beautifully smoky, gasoline-like, earthy & woody with the cedarwood, but is never too strong. The incense gives the whole thing a balsamic-bright undertone, and this citrus herbal lemonade is always retained. This is how a base should smell for me, beautifully woody, masculine & deep, free from powder or cream, but also not too overwhelming. All my wishes for a beautiful & special men’s fragrance that is always wearable have been met here. My favorite top, heart & base notes with great quality have been harmoniously combined, and the longevity is more than sufficient. Can you tell how happy I am?
This is how 99% of the scent lasts over 8 hours.

Now let’s get to the last percent:
The synthetic fixatives, among which I can identify musk, ambroxan & another woody (iso-e-super or cashmeran would be plausible with this dry-woody character. This is felt much earlier than musk & ambroxan, but only briefly and periodically, as described above), are only subtly recognizable after 8 hours in the last remnants of the scent, as vetiver, cedarwood & incense remain very long & pyramidally scent-dominant in the base. The mentioned synthetic fixatives are, contrary to their bad reputation, of the pleasant kind with a powdery-creamy & woody character, free from any hairspray sting or shower gel. For that, substances like ambrocenide or dihydromyrcenol would be responsible, which I can hardly identify here. So despite the blue color of the bottle (which I love), the scent is by no means a generic blue shower gel scent. They merely ensure that the scent lasts long enough without standing out or disturbing early on, and I find that very important, as this is only achieved by a few fragrances from the mainstream nowadays. And as I said, you only smell them very subtly as the last remnants of the scent when the day is already over, so they are technically absolutely secondary. We mainly owe them the longer life of the fresh & other natural notes. The scent feels surprisingly valuable for an aromatic freshie. That’s why I find the choice of fixatives & the skillful handling of the perfumer (whom I would love to know) with them excellent. Sure, natural fixatives like ambergris could do that too, maybe even better & completely synthetic-free, but the price would then be even more beyond good & evil than it already is.

So we come to the point of price-performance:
Well, it is simply overpriced for what it is. 450€ for 50ml! One doesn’t need to sugarcoat that. Nevertheless, it is one of the most beautiful fresh men’s fragrances I know with this, for me, quite unique DNA. Similarly priced fresh Rojas, for example, fall worlds below for me in terms of quality & uniqueness, so they seem significantly more synthetic & generic. There are few that hit my nerve as precisely as this one does, and I have never smelled this scent in a very similar form satisfactorily enough. All the other Clives I have tested so far have also been rather less or not at all to my taste. That’s why I am all the more surprised that one came along that I fell so much in love with that I had to have it.

Thank you Clive for this wonderful scent & for emptying my wallet! Here, my citrus heart triumphed over reason. But I am happy with it, in every season & especially in summer, and that is what ultimately counts.
Thanks to Cfr, who showed me this scent back then.
And thank you all for reading. :)

When Clive Christian launches an anniversary fragrance and it lands in my email inbox as a mystery tease, niche fans usually perk up. Of course, I gladly signed up for the chance to receive free samples and was very pleasantly surprised when yesterday a package from the UK actually arrived in my mailbox. At the end of a hot day, the notes promised a lot of freshness, and the unusual clarity of the accords for niche fragrances made me hopeful right away.

I started with just one spray, as I often find that with evening scent tests, especially with EDPs and extraits, I end up being quite perfumed until the next morning with such a small dose. Depending on the fragrance, that can be nice, but it can also be quite bothersome when trying to sleep. Strangely, I hardly noticed Clive's latest creation. So, this morning, with the threat of the hottest day of the week, I reached for the small vial much more frequently.

In numbers: 6 sprays!

The fragrance starts with the subdued impression of fresh mandarin peels, citrusy, almost like behind a veil. So, it’s not a freshness invasion like Mandarino di Amalfi, but rather a familiar, calm understatement. Already here, accords of blonde wood are present.

After about an hour, petitgrain joins in, giving everything an even softer touch. Thus, CC's anniversary fragrance remains for hours. However, after 8 hours, there is hardly anything left to perceive from this already quite skin-close scent.

Throughout the entire scent development - despite the mentioned dosage - everything is so skin-close that I briefly consider needing to apply significantly more.

I let it be.

It’s obvious why. In this price range, with the self-induced epic claim, I expect more. The fragrance is by no means bad. No, it’s actually really beautiful. Almost classic. However, regarding the creativity of launching this fragrance in this form, I unfortunately have to shake my head. Blind, I would not have guessed Clive or niche. And certainly not an extrait.

Because, given the scent concentration, I expect a noticeable projection.

I am very curious to see how the fragrance performs in your tests.

And somehow it’s also reassuring to remove a fragrance from the watchlist. ;)

Hello everyone,

Today I would like to say something about the "Anniversary Collection - 20: The Masculine Perfume of an Iconic Pair | Clive Christian".

I've been in the niche world for a WHILE now, and somehow I'm missing one thing here - a freshie! Many people say - okay, just take the Imagination and that's it! And yes, I can understand everyone who says this, but for ME, the Imagination is too widespread, and certain other fragrances have a limited performance...

Many are wondering, why do I need a freshie or even a shower gel scent in the niche?

Valid question - but why not!

The real answer:

I've had enough of the quality (..) in the designer sector, and that's why I switched to niche, this applies to all types of fragrances. I was looking for a pleasant, fine, clean, refreshing, and specifically really high-quality scent. One could say, yes, take for example Percival, it covers that - not necessarily, it's not a summery scent - then there's Sedley, yes, those aspects apply, BUT it has too little performance and unfortunately is too synthetic.
(Batch 2020 is good, from 2021 onwards, stop it....)

And fragrances from this house are definitely not synthetic, not at all! The grapefruit, yuzu, and mandarins - petitgrain refresh you for soooo many hours in a truly high-quality way - it's insane. And in the drydown, you can still notice 1 or 2 woods like, for example, cedar and maybe a hint of vetiver...

Still, I cannot, although I honestly would like to, give the scent a 10 out of 10, and that's "really only" because of the price...

Regarding the price...?

I find it really hard to say "yes" or "100% no", because yes (!) it really does rock (and now an important point), you can already notice the fine tuning, the high-quality aspect, and you can tell that it's the case with (most!) fragrances from the house - oh come on, let's just add something better/more expensive...

Many houses in the niche sector, like MFK, primarily work on a purely synthetic basis, but here you can definitely notice a certain quality difference!!!!

My conclusion on the topic of price, purchase, and recommendation..., IF you find a leftover bottle, take it and if possible DO NOT pay the current collector's price (!) then I recommend certain fragrances from the house, like this one!

The fragrances from this house are generally not performance monsters,
they are characterized by a noticeable and very decent composition,
tuning, selection of oils, etc., and for me, that is worth much more than a 16h
performance with a synthetic monster = personal opinion!

And that brings me to the performance:

The "Anniversary Collection - 20: The Masculine Perfume of an Iconic Pair | Clive Christian" gets a 7 - 8 from me and in my opinion, that's okay + good, it is a fresh, fruity-woody high-end scent and not a 20h rose-oud bomb..., would I want more performance? Sure, gladly, but a higher % of fragrance oils/concentration often has a negative effect on the scent, so good job!

How does it come across and when would I recommend it?

It works for any occasion, fits anytime (season and event) = really top-notch!
However, I see it more in the months from May to September,
because the mix of grapefruit, yuzu, and the perfect balance
of incense, cedar, and vetiver makes it one of the best niche scents
for summer, alongside the Imagination.

If I really weren't convinced, I wouldn't recommend it to you!

And now have a nice day/evening or whenever you read this review, best regards, Benny
_______

(Now the same as almost always - because it applies!)

Now to the topic of luxury:

As you can partially see in my profile, I have really smelled many fragrances, and there are fragrances where you can smell a certain (partly) strong synthetic note, and you quickly realize that some fragrance houses focus more on quantity than quality, and there are some where you can tell "oh come on, let's just add more + better stuff" and you can smell that at the end of the day.

A brief word on the topic of packaging, bottle, sprayer:

I'll keep it short, I give a 10 out of 10 in every category, and I know very well that tastes are very different. So if someone honestly rates this with a 7 or less... - PHEW. Beautiful and very high-quality cap, nice timeless bottle design, etc.... so I find it very hard to rate it differently, and I say this not because I like or dislike a brand!

Now a short note on my opinion:

I am not sponsored, influenced by anyone, receive money or anything else. I approach the topic of perfume as I am, honestly, anything else is not my style. My true personal opinion is very VALUABLE to me, and I hope maybe ;) that you can tell. If I don't like something, like packaging, bottle, sprayer, or H/S, I will communicate that too!

Oops, actually... it is an Elysium Cologne clone.

In the opening, you briefly think that some overpowering anise-like spice is hitting you, but I managed to suppress the urge to wash it off, and suddenly... mhhh wow, this has become much better.

Wait... I know this....

Encre Noir?

Hmmmm a bit, but zestier.

Oh, oops, it's Elysium Cologne... let's say, 70% Elysium, 30% Encre Noir.

But well done, less "oily" than the Dua clone "Supernova" and yes... it’s worth it if you can get it cheaper than other competitors.

Have fun! :)