Wow! for Women Joop! 2018 Eau de Toilette

I needed a few tries to appreciate the scent - so not exactly what a "Wow!" usually expresses. So much for the name ;)
Otherwise, I can't say much about Joop; the only ones that come to mind are Le Bain, which I have always found horrendous, and Homme Extreme, which my friend found horrendous. So I usually walk straight past the Joop section. But something about the packaging prompted me to test it, and I found the scent interesting enough that I didn't just dismiss it afterward. The top notes and parts of the heart note are somewhat unusual and suggest a completely different scent than what it later becomes. It has an exciting progression ;)

But over time, I got used to the "disturbing" somewhat squeaky raspberry note, and after about 20-30 minutes, it beautifully blends with the rose instead of overpowering it. Up until this point, I would have expected some kind of pink raspberry rose candy water (probably with vanilla and cashmeran as a base, yawn). Instead, a kind of deep dark red rose scent emerges here, which I have only rarely sniffed in the drugstore to mainstream perfumery chains ("Rosenrot" would also be a candidate, but I find that one more oily, while "Wow!" is distinctly fruitier). Well, it can't compete with Moonlight Patchouli (which, despite the name, is also a rose scent) in terms of quality, but it is also more versatile, especially because it lacks those high-quality, powdery-elegant nuances.

I would consider it more of a sweeter alternative to Aigner's Explosive - the heart and base have almost the same dark patchouli rose (someone once described it as metallic in Explosive, and I would partially agree). In Explosive, it is drier; here it is fruitier and softer. The patchouli is not quite as earthy, which makes the scent much more pleasant for those nearby who are not fans of cellar mustiness. The combination here is more smooth than musty or rough.
Explosive is, of course, much more complex (some would call it overloaded, the 80s say hello - oak moss! Aldehydes!!), but sometimes I prefer something more straightforward that isn't so taxing on the nose.

You could probably make the top notes a bit more harmonious, but after years of testing perfumes, I've learned to tune them out. I would even estimate that about 1/3 of my favorite scents have a rather unpleasant start. Conversely, there are many more scents where I like the top notes, but then they turn nasty, weak, or boring, and I find that much more annoying.

I had to correct my statement about the longevity upwards: I sprayed Wow! "properly" in the drugstore, testing it for about the 5th time, and two days later, I wore the same sweater again, this time with Encre Noire (yes, the men's scent; my nose perceives it as gender-neutral). One day later, the sweater still smelled of Encre Noire, but also of the patchouli rose from Wow! (by the way, the combination is also great; I will probably layer the scents more often. And maybe I can get my friend used to the "old cupboard" EN :P).

The bottle is, to put it nicely, not so special. The color is pretty and matches the scent, but in the drugstore, I chipped a fingernail on the extremely tight cap, and otherwise, it's just a glass bottle with a paper label that already looks worn out compared to the test bottle that was freshly unwrapped in front of my eyes. But at least it sprayed well.