Eau de Polder L'Essence de Mastenbroek 2005

With Eau de Polder, the main goal was to achieve one thing: to capture the scent of Dutch nature in small bottles. Birthe Leemeijer, an artist from Amsterdam and the mind behind this project, moved heaven and earth to realize that idea. The world should know how Holland smells, and all the people who have ever visited the Dutch countryside should receive an olfactory memory of that experience.

First, the "Essence Club" was founded, which included local farmers among its members. Birthe Leemeijer provided those selected members with pure scent samples of hay, earth, and other typical fragrance notes of rural idyll. They discussed the smell of freshly cut grass in a silo, the significance of scent perception in all four seasons, and the smell of shearing cows in autumn. With Alessandro Gualtieri, the "mad nose" of the Nasomatto fragrance line, they brought a creative and extroverted fragrance designer on board and began to create scent accords from the notes discussed in the club. The resulting blends were meticulously deconstructed and evaluated by the club's fragrance jury. After many iterations and three years, they had explored numerous proposals, and only one remained: the essence of Mastenbroek - "L`Essence de Mastenbroek - Eau de Polder".

So much for the creation of the fragrance, a wonderful endeavor with a very nice story, in my opinion. It should be mentioned upfront that it is particularly difficult to pass judgment on this scent, so I will instead try to list the pros and cons dryly.

The execution of the fragrance is definitely successful; I smell both earth and hay. Grass and herbs come through, and the wildflowers remain subtly in the background. The scent is incredibly quiet, almost only perceivable when you bring your nose close to the skin, which, for my taste, is unfortunately far too shy. The leading scent component is the hay, which, with its slight sweetness and airy appearance, neither dominates nor invites. The entire fragrance affects my scent perception much like the flap of a butterfly's wings on the Richter scale (leaving chaos theory aside). Eau de Polder is olfactorily exactly what was intended in terms of scent, but for an Extrait de Parfum, it ultimately is simply one thing: a coward without a backbone!

The second drawback is the greasy consistency of the perfume. Eau de Polder has exactly the same properties as olive oil; it smears, does not dry, leaves a shiny, greasy film on the skin, and is oily, oily, and again oily! For those with fragrance allergies, it might be worth a try; who knows what was used here, but I certainly don't think of typical perfume ingredients. Nevertheless, the possibly natural production of the fragrance harmonizes with its story - at least regarding the artistic aspect.

With the following list, I would like to give insight into my scoring and analyze further aspects such as longevity and wearability:

* Intention of the fragrance: 0% (nice, but irrelevant for the scent)
* Fragrance notes: 100% (who doesn't love the scent of Mother Nature?!)
* Execution of the fragrance notes: 90% (everything is detectable, albeit unbalanced)
* Scent perception: 10% (not really recognizable, far too weak)
* Consistency: 0% (catastrophically oily)
* Longevity: 30% (the little bit that remains is for tea)
* Wearability: 50% (completely wearable, but where to put the oil?)

* OVERALL RATING: 40% (280/7)

It's a pity because the fragrance really had potential, but unfortunately, it fails in its execution. Ultimately, Eau de Polder is nothing more and nothing less than a good idea from a creative artist, L`Essence de Mastenbroek, the first fragrance line from the Netherlands, and Alessandro Gualtieri's tolerated faux pas before his creative phase with Nasomatto. Mother Nature can do better, and the beautifully packaged Eau de Polder joins the ranks of fragrances of insignificance, boredom, and nothingness. Unfortunately!

CONCLUSION: All those who cannot find their way to potent fragrances might find pleasure in this shy concoction; those who have no problem spraying on a perfume that resembles a spray sun oil in terms of consistency can test it here, and those who want the scent of hay, grass, and earth as a quiet companion before falling asleep should grab it quickly, as production has already been discontinued and the "scent of the Netherlands" is running out - climate change will take care of the rest.