Life Essence Fendi 1996 Eau de Toilette

A dramatic title for a review of what is little more than a 'cologne-like' fragrance from the mid 90's, now fallen into obscurity and discontinuation. Life Essence for me, however, was one of those 'holy grail' fragrances, because it was truly love at first sniff.

This fragrance defines a time in my life when I felt as if I was finally shedding the irresponsibilities of youth and getting my act together. It felt as if life had a direction and a purpose ... and the name of this fragrance simply added to that feeling.
Life Essence opens vigorously ... fresh, green and completely uplifting. It has a 'what a way to start the day' resonance with its touch of spice, but the best thing about this fragrance is the beautiful Cedar note that is evident right from the beginning and continues all the way into the lengthy dry down.
There are other woods present here too, but I am not at all well versed in picking things like Laurel, Olive and Cypress out individually. I rather imagine them to be sweetening the Cedar, obliterating any trace of the pencil shavings sometimes related to this note.
I'm really not sure when the restrictions against Oakmoss began, but I am pretty certain that this fragrance found its demise because of those regulations. The last dwindling bottle I have is from the late 90's, (I stockpiled a few after it started becoming difficult to find) and I am pretty sure that the moss here is unadulterated ... albeit in very small concentration. I find its presence simply supportive ... the slight resinous-ness of the Labdanum too.
Now, in the beginning of this review I called this fragrance 'cologne-like', and while that's true of the way it smells, the performance of Life Essence is simply astounding ... it has a tenacity of at least 8 hours on my skin, with enough sillage that people three or four feet away have complimented me repeatedly on how great I smell when wearing this.

I cannot help but give this fragrance a 100% rating. I feel that its discovery was a milestone in my journey through the wonderful world of smell!!