04/20/2024
Westenra
3 Reviews
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Westenra
1
New brooms sweep well
I am aware that benevolent statements about reformulations and new editions are often perceived as iconoclasm and sacrilege by die-hard fans of the "originals". I don't necessarily always take myself out of this. As a long-time owner of the "original" - to what extent it is not anachronistic to equate a fragrance that has naturally matured and concentrated in the bottle with the new bottle that you bought many, many moons ago remains to be seen - I dare to say that this fragrance has its raison d'être. In the following, I would like to explain why and compare the fragrance itself with the old version - first from memory, and then in direct juxtaposition.
The fragrance is available in two sizes, 100 ml and 15 ml, and this (as of 2024) exclusively on the Jean Paul Gaultier website. The bottle design is simple, the large one is square, its atomizer is decorated with a kind of "slave ring", the lettering of the name is broken up over several lines. I like the bottle - in contrast to the 15 ml version, which comes in a very simple cylindrical bottle with a simple golden cap and linear lettering. For me, the design evokes the inexpensive "Spirit" fragrances from the drugstore.
The fragrance notes are all very heavy and therefore cannot be divided into top, heart and base notes and include jasmine, vanilla, musk, ambergris and sandalwood, so jasmine and sandalwood have been added to the old fragrance from 2005. When the fragrance is sprayed on, with knowledge of the old version, the scent impression is prima facie the same for me: warmth, a slight sting, sweetness and something slightly animalic. However, without having made a direct comparison, I instinctively knew that the similarity in juxtaposition would be much less, because: I like this one. There's a reason why I still have the rest of the old version. I wasn't enthusiastic. I'll go so far as to say I didn't like it. Very pungent on me, headachey, kind of wrong, almost tilted. Maybe it was also because I bought my little bottle back then to cover up an olfactory jumpscare at the time, the first time Jicky was on the back of my hand. Who knows. In my opinion, the intensity is at least the same, very strong and very long-lasting.
After running the fragrance today and finding a priori that it is, with reservations, a worthy replacement, I just rumbled through my stepchildren at the back of my perfume cupboard to make a direct comparison with the old version. And lo and behold, there are clear differences, which I think could have an impact on the demographic that the fragrance will appeal to.
The jasmine now included makes the new version significantly sweeter and, in my opinion, rounder - one person's "roundness" may, however, be another's "diffuse indefinability", nothing is in the foreground in the new version, or is even decidedly recognizable. In contrast, ambergris is the absolute star of the old version - in my opinion, the fragrance even has quite a Le Male, almost "showery" vibe in direct comparison to the new version. However, it was precisely this unrestrained ambergris that made the fragrance borderline unpalatable for me. As a result, I think the new fragrance had a lot more unisex appeal, pun not intended, than the new version, which I think is a little more feminine, a little more pleasing, less eccentric and a lot more digestible overall. Apologies to the purists: if it was too strong back then, then I was just too weak.
Could this have been a flanker? Certainly. Should the new one HAVE been labeled as a flanker? I don't think so. What counts for me is that I like it. Not everything was better in the past and there were reasons why the old version was discontinued and, for once, I think the new fragrance surpasses the old one.
The fragrance is available in two sizes, 100 ml and 15 ml, and this (as of 2024) exclusively on the Jean Paul Gaultier website. The bottle design is simple, the large one is square, its atomizer is decorated with a kind of "slave ring", the lettering of the name is broken up over several lines. I like the bottle - in contrast to the 15 ml version, which comes in a very simple cylindrical bottle with a simple golden cap and linear lettering. For me, the design evokes the inexpensive "Spirit" fragrances from the drugstore.
The fragrance notes are all very heavy and therefore cannot be divided into top, heart and base notes and include jasmine, vanilla, musk, ambergris and sandalwood, so jasmine and sandalwood have been added to the old fragrance from 2005. When the fragrance is sprayed on, with knowledge of the old version, the scent impression is prima facie the same for me: warmth, a slight sting, sweetness and something slightly animalic. However, without having made a direct comparison, I instinctively knew that the similarity in juxtaposition would be much less, because: I like this one. There's a reason why I still have the rest of the old version. I wasn't enthusiastic. I'll go so far as to say I didn't like it. Very pungent on me, headachey, kind of wrong, almost tilted. Maybe it was also because I bought my little bottle back then to cover up an olfactory jumpscare at the time, the first time Jicky was on the back of my hand. Who knows. In my opinion, the intensity is at least the same, very strong and very long-lasting.
After running the fragrance today and finding a priori that it is, with reservations, a worthy replacement, I just rumbled through my stepchildren at the back of my perfume cupboard to make a direct comparison with the old version. And lo and behold, there are clear differences, which I think could have an impact on the demographic that the fragrance will appeal to.
The jasmine now included makes the new version significantly sweeter and, in my opinion, rounder - one person's "roundness" may, however, be another's "diffuse indefinability", nothing is in the foreground in the new version, or is even decidedly recognizable. In contrast, ambergris is the absolute star of the old version - in my opinion, the fragrance even has quite a Le Male, almost "showery" vibe in direct comparison to the new version. However, it was precisely this unrestrained ambergris that made the fragrance borderline unpalatable for me. As a result, I think the new fragrance had a lot more unisex appeal, pun not intended, than the new version, which I think is a little more feminine, a little more pleasing, less eccentric and a lot more digestible overall. Apologies to the purists: if it was too strong back then, then I was just too weak.
Could this have been a flanker? Certainly. Should the new one HAVE been labeled as a flanker? I don't think so. What counts for me is that I like it. Not everything was better in the past and there were reasons why the old version was discontinued and, for once, I think the new fragrance surpasses the old one.
BertolucciK
