Vanhera Laboratorio Olfattivo 2017

The first scent from the black series Nerotic didn't quite appeal to me. It felt somewhat blunt and dark, lacking a bit of charisma. I enjoyed smelling it on the back of my hand, but I didn't feel comfortable wearing it; it's more for fragrance fans than for daily use. Vanhera should be more moderate, and today I wore it for the third time... and yes, it is absolutely successful!
For me, Vanhera is an enchanting blend of Herod, Bois Dore, and Grand Soir. No... it doesn't contain any of them in their entirety, but rather extracts from the fragrances. It's like the fusion of the best parts of the scents. No... you won't get a sugar shock; everything is much more moderate, somehow finer. The tobacco is slightly sweetened, but not a penetrating shisha tobacco. The tonka/vanilla is much more subtle and slightly dirty, not animalistic... but smoked through mild, soft smoke... like lightly soot-covered. For me, it is the most beautiful men's vanilla so far, even more beautiful than the Eau Duelle EDP version. The aromatic woods fit wonderfully here and provide balance. I could almost swear that it involves the often slightly sweetened gaiac wood. It comes very close to my gaiac reference "Gaiac" by Micallef. The amber, the heart of Grand Soir, does not come across as honey-sweet here, but rather balsamic. Just like the entire scent has a creamy-balsamic character.
Curiously, Vanhera smells different to me in 3 ways. When I smell it only on the back of my hand, the vanilla is much more prominent for me, which I didn't like as much. When I spray it on my neck, it smells as described above. The smoky-spicy wood note comes out much stronger. If you spray the scent in the room and then walk into the office like today, it has almost classic masculine traits in the air, reminiscent of fine aftershave... really interesting to be surprised by a scent like that. It shows once again the difference it makes to wear fragrances "correctly" and not just sniff them on the back of your hand. Too quickly and somewhat prematurely, I would have probably put it in the "a bit too sweet" drawer, and I would have regretted that.
Vanhera is a flawless scent, a wonderful companion, probably more for the cooler and cold days, but still wearable in spring, even though I tend to reach for lighter and less dense fragrances then. The longevity is perfectly timed at 6-7 hours, the sillage is not overwhelming on the body, but in the room, it really has volume. For me, just right, so I won't be saturated by the aromatic notes too quickly. I like all 3 fragrances mentioned above, but Vanhera is my favorite of them all. However, for fans of classic masculine scents, it probably isn't for them. Unfortunately, my sample is now slowly nearing its end after 2 weeks... and I'm really considering whether I should get the bottle; I'm still skeptical since it feels like spring is already at the door. But I can never say no anyway....;-)))!