03/23/2020

DerDefcon
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DerDefcon
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There's a little problem!
Problems with Creed's exclusive product line? What might they be? Is it the usually very high expectations that are often disappointed - also with other expensive waters, of course? Is it perhaps the fear that here too different batches will result in a non-uniform fragrance character and that after enthusiastic testing, made possible by bottling, you will acquire a bottle whose contents do not correspond to what you meant to test?
The house of Creed has thus launched several fragrances that are sometimes very popular. One has meanwhile achieved cult status, represents a kind of substitute religion for many and causes a lot of furore in the most diverse scent forums. It is being discussed whether such a popular and frequently sold fragrance can or may be a niche at all. There is bickering about batch deviations. Whether these are actually present, I cannot judge, because I only have a bottle of the bestseller in my cupboard.
Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" is not supposed to deal with all the problems just mentioned - they are "first-world problems", if we are honest, hence "little problems" - because there is a very specific "little problem" for this fragrance that is worth devoting time to. What is meant here is the sillage or projection. Now, some may wonder to what extent this could be a specific problem. After all, there are other candidates in that famous fragrance house that quickly evaporate or even become very close. The specific little problem is - and I would like to explain this in the following - caused by the combination of a sluggish scent and a low sillage.
An attempt at explanation:
Creed's "Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" begins with a clearly identifiable apple note. This is relatively unsweet, rather a bit bitter and by no means as playful or synthetic as in Versaces blue Cash Cow or Yves Saint Laurent's "Y". The apple here is not quite ripe yet, thus quite unspectacular, but authentic and very mature and sublime, somehow also distanced due to its non-offensiveness. It doesn't take long to smell the woody birch, whose wood has a rather green and mossy touch. Birch is a wood that you like or hate, because it can be a bit musty. If you want to sniff such a thing in absolute perfection, you should try "Orion", but this is not the point of this article.
The wet mossy birch is tamed a little later by a completely opposite dry appearance typical of cedar wood. Cedar wood, with all its dryness, quite often reminds me of a freshly sharpened pencil, which is probably the reason why I like that one so much. However, associations with such a pencil are not awakened in the case of this fragrance creation, as the birch, although no longer so dominant, still maintains its mossy contrast program. The combination of cedar and birch thus results in an overall woodiness that is not wet and damp, but rather dry (cedar) and at the same time with a green tinge (birch). Together with the somewhat sour, not quite so juicy apple, all this results in a very luxurious and above all timeless scent character, with which one really can't get offended anywhere, but which also doesn't cause any leaps of enthusiasm in me, since it still lacks that certain something. It does not look completely finished yet.
What exactly is missing?
What is missing is the musk, which gives this apple-like, green-dry wood - I don't notice any spices (I wanted to mention that) - a creamy finish, just like you know it from many other fragrance creations. In fact, the musk does its job, rounds off the composition and gives the sour and especially woody scent a little more suppleness. Now comes the big "but".
Musk rounds everything off and ensures a perfect embedding of the fragrances I just described, BUT it simply takes too long. This is a dawdling musk, which unnecessarily lengthens the fragrance process. If we then have to deal with a small or quickly skin-tightening Sillage, which has already been discussed at the beginning of this commentary, I myself as the wearer don't notice much of this creamy perfection and my surroundings of course don't notice much either. Wearing the scent on the back of my hand, I can smell the effect of the musk, because after all I can move my hand to my nose. Wearing the scent on my neck, I unfortunately don't notice much or nothing of all this anymore. Since perfume is usually worn on the neck, a part of the body that cannot be actively moved towards the nose, "Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" has the problem of not noticing much of the most beautiful phase of the fragrance process, which simply takes too much time to develop. This is how the little problem, consisting of a long-lasting scent and quickly fading silage, is composed.
I really didn't expect a Sillagekracher here and I'm not always a friend of one, because otherwise you always have to be careful when dosing, which can be quite exhausting. I also don't have the need to "delight" whole rooms with one scent, but I do expect a minimum amount of sillage and it doesn't matter if a scent is cheap or sinfully expensive. The latter clearly applies to this creed and has already disqualified it as a potential candidate for purchase anyway. I tested it anyway, because curiosity is what makes us on Parfumo. And so I will continue to put scents under my nose that I'm sure won't move in with me - for whatever reason. "Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" was one of them.
The house of Creed has thus launched several fragrances that are sometimes very popular. One has meanwhile achieved cult status, represents a kind of substitute religion for many and causes a lot of furore in the most diverse scent forums. It is being discussed whether such a popular and frequently sold fragrance can or may be a niche at all. There is bickering about batch deviations. Whether these are actually present, I cannot judge, because I only have a bottle of the bestseller in my cupboard.
Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" is not supposed to deal with all the problems just mentioned - they are "first-world problems", if we are honest, hence "little problems" - because there is a very specific "little problem" for this fragrance that is worth devoting time to. What is meant here is the sillage or projection. Now, some may wonder to what extent this could be a specific problem. After all, there are other candidates in that famous fragrance house that quickly evaporate or even become very close. The specific little problem is - and I would like to explain this in the following - caused by the combination of a sluggish scent and a low sillage.
An attempt at explanation:
Creed's "Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" begins with a clearly identifiable apple note. This is relatively unsweet, rather a bit bitter and by no means as playful or synthetic as in Versaces blue Cash Cow or Yves Saint Laurent's "Y". The apple here is not quite ripe yet, thus quite unspectacular, but authentic and very mature and sublime, somehow also distanced due to its non-offensiveness. It doesn't take long to smell the woody birch, whose wood has a rather green and mossy touch. Birch is a wood that you like or hate, because it can be a bit musty. If you want to sniff such a thing in absolute perfection, you should try "Orion", but this is not the point of this article.
The wet mossy birch is tamed a little later by a completely opposite dry appearance typical of cedar wood. Cedar wood, with all its dryness, quite often reminds me of a freshly sharpened pencil, which is probably the reason why I like that one so much. However, associations with such a pencil are not awakened in the case of this fragrance creation, as the birch, although no longer so dominant, still maintains its mossy contrast program. The combination of cedar and birch thus results in an overall woodiness that is not wet and damp, but rather dry (cedar) and at the same time with a green tinge (birch). Together with the somewhat sour, not quite so juicy apple, all this results in a very luxurious and above all timeless scent character, with which one really can't get offended anywhere, but which also doesn't cause any leaps of enthusiasm in me, since it still lacks that certain something. It does not look completely finished yet.
What exactly is missing?
What is missing is the musk, which gives this apple-like, green-dry wood - I don't notice any spices (I wanted to mention that) - a creamy finish, just like you know it from many other fragrance creations. In fact, the musk does its job, rounds off the composition and gives the sour and especially woody scent a little more suppleness. Now comes the big "but".
Musk rounds everything off and ensures a perfect embedding of the fragrances I just described, BUT it simply takes too long. This is a dawdling musk, which unnecessarily lengthens the fragrance process. If we then have to deal with a small or quickly skin-tightening Sillage, which has already been discussed at the beginning of this commentary, I myself as the wearer don't notice much of this creamy perfection and my surroundings of course don't notice much either. Wearing the scent on the back of my hand, I can smell the effect of the musk, because after all I can move my hand to my nose. Wearing the scent on my neck, I unfortunately don't notice much or nothing of all this anymore. Since perfume is usually worn on the neck, a part of the body that cannot be actively moved towards the nose, "Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" has the problem of not noticing much of the most beautiful phase of the fragrance process, which simply takes too much time to develop. This is how the little problem, consisting of a long-lasting scent and quickly fading silage, is composed.
I really didn't expect a Sillagekracher here and I'm not always a friend of one, because otherwise you always have to be careful when dosing, which can be quite exhausting. I also don't have the need to "delight" whole rooms with one scent, but I do expect a minimum amount of sillage and it doesn't matter if a scent is cheap or sinfully expensive. The latter clearly applies to this creed and has already disqualified it as a potential candidate for purchase anyway. I tested it anyway, because curiosity is what makes us on Parfumo. And so I will continue to put scents under my nose that I'm sure won't move in with me - for whatever reason. "Les Royales Exclusives - Spice and Wood" was one of them.
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