Noble Néroli

Grand Neroli

Comptoir Cologne

In the past week, after a long break, I have once again made a cascade of fragrance purchases. The fragrances just trickle in little by little by mail. Overall, it was quite a cheap treat, as almost everything was samples and bottlings, here in the souk or in the commercial sample trade. Two genuine new-bottle purchases were there, though, and the two fragrances have four things in common: they're very beautiful, they come from France, they only cost around 10 euros per 100 ml bottle, and they're neroli fragrances.

I was wondering myself why I was buying two neroli perfumes at the same time. One reason was certainly that they were both as (supposedly) "hard to get to impossible" for years on my wish list like the opposite of shopkeepers, so the final purchase also had something of purge and liberation. Lockdown is where many like to clean up, after all. Another reason is probably that neroli is like the chocolate of fragrances, a surefire mood booster, and you can use that these days. I'm tempted to do a pandemic loop at this point, but I'll refrain.

The other of the two fragrances is Neroli Intense by Jeanne en Provence, not a cologne but an almost fragrance oil-like stuff that the wonderful Fittleworth, who I've been missing incredibly around here lately, had once made palatable to me. I have now suddenly discovered it at Notino and bang, bought.

And then so this one, Noble Néroli by Comptoir Cologne. As far as I know, it's only sold offline in France in the Monoprix stores there (a kind of French Woolworth or MäcGeiz), but just taking the train to Chalons or Arles is currently about as easy as it was in 1915. And online via the website of the associated small group, Onivo Cosmetics, a very likeable French company from my point of view with body care products and also some fragrances, all in the low-price segment. I always wondered why they have a website where they present their fragrances, but you can't buy them. Only last week I discovered that I had overlooked the button "E-Shop" for three years.

Ok, normally I'm stupid in IT things, but actually never saublöd, in this case it was just times different. The purchase was then extremely fast and unproblematic, the goods in five days in Berlin, and although my purchase was ridiculously small, they have still packed a fat addition, which I found almost touching.

So today I can add this fragrance to my collection, and the commentary I wrote two and a half years ago, in an act of text recycling, I would like to add it to the 'Neukölln' series as round number twenty today. Because I think it's a great cologne and it deserves a place of honor in this series.

Those who don't know the scent and commentary are welcome to read on. The others, to whom already the headline looked familiar (so mostly the very hard-core subscribers, whom I still have not put to flight even after years), may drop out, because how to buy the fragrance, I have now said, and the part after the three asterisks they already know.

* * *

There are a lot of reasons why I rather did not expect that I like this fragrance: so far rather neutral reviews here; the previously tested by me "Mandarine Sanguine" from the same house was only mediocre; momentary Neroli fatigue with me, after I smelled a few less beautiful Neroli fragrances and a certain skepticism about this cheap label, whose name "Comptoir Cologne", I suspect, hard on the plagiarism to the successful brand "Atelier Cologne" scrapes.

And yet, after multiple testing and involving the nose on my side: this is a really fine, extremely pleasant, suitable for everyday use and yet absolutely not trivial, craftsmanship more than correct, namely decidedly round and quality made fragrance.

The prelude is with me no one-sided annoying Neroli number, also quite not bitter, not sour, not aggressive, but appears as a very, very fresh, summery, clear, richly radiant, perfectly balanced - not too light-etheric, not too dark-blood-angy - mixture of lemon, tangerine, petitgrain and Neroli aromas. "Noble Neroli" is strong and bright at this point, and not at all creamy. On second testing, I almost think I smell something like marine, more precisely salty notes in this freshness, which support it nicely.

After about an hour, the fragrance has turned into the somewhat more floral, very slightly creamy, somewhat softer and more feminine, without losing the summery freshness.

This is followed by a long finish, which is skin close to six hours and longer, in which I smell instead of the expected woody-soft finish (musk!) To my delighted surprise (even with multiple testing) again fresher, now very, very clearly green notes, which for me oscillate somewhere between grass, mint and green lime. There is a slight sweetness noticeable, but at the same time something tingly, sparkling, fun, as you would expect in the top rather than in the base note of a perfume.

When I read my first book on whisky back in my school days (that was over 30 years ago), it basically talked about blends (in wines you'd say cuvées), blends of different malts with neutral grains (sort of industrial alcohol) - that's how the classic big Scotch brands are made. At the very end, for one or two pages, there was talk about some weird birds somewhere in the world who also drink malts neat, but such a thing had a market share of maybe one percent. Today, you're almost considered a bum, if you drink something like "Johnny Walker", if you want to be a connoisseur instead, it must of course be a single malt, preferably one from a tiny distillery that nobody else knows.

Maybe it's time to take up the cudgels again for the art of composing really good whiskies (or wines, or fragrances) on a quasi-industrial scale, i.e. in larger quantities, at affordable prices, with readily available raw ingredients, that meet the highest standards of craftsmanship and are so beautiful that you really enjoy them. This extremely inexpensive fragrance, which never seems chemical, synthetic or cheap, and which also absolutely does not seem boring or trivial to me, which on the contrary even has its moments of surprise ready, belongs for me in this category!