Office for Men Fragrance One 2019

Well, I waited quite a long time for my Office for Men and, of course, I went through the previous comments on this fragrance. Yesterday, it finally happened, and I could finally test the perfume.

First of all:
That Jeremy's scent polarizes was clear to everyone from the beginning. Particularly the fact that no one really knew how the scent was structured until its release created a lot of buzz and excitement, as well as uproar among many people. Of course, it is a risk to spend around €160 on a blind purchase when not even the notes are known. But everyone voluntarily took that risk. I spent this amount of money knowing that this fragrance could disappoint. Rather, it is an acknowledgment on my part to Jeremy that he has put this project together with Alberto Morillas, stands 100% behind it, and obviously also kept the delivery dates on time. And for that, I am certainly willing to dig a little deeper into my pockets. Therefore, it increasingly annoys me when I read bashing comments from people in perfume groups, for example on Facebook, who criticize the perfume without ever having tested it. Unfortunately, evaluations are often based more on emotions rather than a differentiated view of the product. Such behavior is simply poor style and inappropriate for anyone who is genuinely interested in the perfume and wants to learn more about it. One doesn't have to like Jeremy, but deliberately bashing his perfume is not fair. Personally, I regularly watch his videos, and he was the one who sparked my enthusiasm for perfumes.

Now, onto the scent itself:
After I absorbed the comments and scent descriptions during my waiting period, I could piece together a little how Office for Men is supposed to smell. And when I saw comparisons to Sauvage or Bleu de Chanel, I initially panicked a bit. Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one in the world - but the fact is: I like neither Sauvage nor BdC. I also wondered if Sauvage or BdC were ever mentioned as potential office scents or could be considered for that purpose. How can a perfume that resembles these two be suitable for the office? How can the perfume be "unique" when this scent DNA is known to pretty much everyone?
I don't want to talk further about the packaging; it really isn't beautiful. Pure minimalism. The same goes for the bottle. I believe the community unanimously agrees that the packaging and bottle deserved a more unique design. Although in the end, the "juice" is the main product, I believe that the bottle plays an important role in the presentation.
When I first sprayed it on my wrist, I initially thought, "Wow! The opening is really great! Better than expected." It first shoots a pleasant citrus scent into the nose, which unfortunately fades after about 2 minutes. I would have liked the bergamot to last a bit longer. After that, I experienced something quite unpleasant, almost medicinal. Luckily, that was gone after about 2 minutes as well. Gradually, what I feared came through, namely this Sauvage / Bleu de Chanel combination, where the scent has more of a BdC vibe for about 10 minutes before the Sauvage character breaks through. To be honest, I have to say that I actually prefer this Ambroxan note in Office for Men compared to Sauvage, as it comes across less piercing and pairs with a light woody note that I find quite pleasant.
What I personally missed over the next few hours was a certain depth and complexity. The Ambroxan-wood mix remains on the skin until the end, so the perfume hardly develops character-wise. I don't smell iris at all, although I expected iris to play a stronger role in the scent's progression (Prada L'Homme as an office scent is also highly praised by Jeremy).
Unfortunately, many fragrances don't last particularly long on my skin. However, Office for Men actually lasted just over 8 hours on me, which is very good performance for a fresh scent. Here, they didn't overpromise. The sillage, on the other hand, is quite restrained.

Conclusion:
Office for Men is by no means a firework. Realistically, I never expected that either, as I was pretty sure that Jeremy and Alberto wanted to play it safe for the first fragrance of the brand Fragrance One. "Mass-appealing" - Check! "Maximum performance" - Check! "Ladies reactions" - still to be tested, but personally, I don't care. "Uniqueness" - unfortunately no!
Still a shame that the scent is settling at a 6.4 here on Parfumo; in my opinion, this solid release deserved something better. I'm curious about his next perfume - the planning is already underway.