L!ve Lacoste 2014

The opening is good and fresh but nothing new. The drydown is awful,in my skin at least smells bad.
I give thanks that the sillage and the projection isn't better and this scene gone in less than 5 hours

This is a modern, woody fragrance with a sense of clarity; marine notes and subtle green accents combine to create an impression of strength and dynamism.

The clear, gentle marine notes energize the bold green accents, resulting in a lively and spirited impression.

Guaiac wood forms the base, providing a solid structure beneath the scent's airy clarity. It goes beyond mere "freshness," offering a modern fragrance that capitalizes on the transparency and dynamism of marine notes. It embodies masculinity without being heavy, evoking the aura of a youthful man.

A fragrance that perfectly captures the Lacoste spirit, blending sporty freshness with sophisticated elegance.

There is no significant difference between how the scent smells on the skin and on a fragrance blotter.

L!ve wants to take us back to the past. In films, time travel usually happens very quickly - within seconds, eons are bridged to move the actual plot forward. Lacoste has taken this as a model; after all, a long scent development would only slow things down. That's why even Fanta Lime has more to do with lime than the top note of Lacoste. A bit of acidity for a few minutes, that's it. Without any announcement, I would have guessed mandarin. It tends to turn musty and somewhat diffuse-aquatic on me, which elegantly means that the so-called heart note would already be essentially checked off. Dull-synthetic so-called aquatic with the often common plywood charm underneath. Wow, in just one paragraph, two pyramid levels have been celebrated. For me, that's a record.

For about an hour, it looks like L!ve might still make the curve. The woody must recedes, a bearable sweetness emerges, which even has a bit of spiciness to it, possibly clove and its companions. Unsupported, I would have guessed a DIY sandalwood made from cedar, artificial wood, cinnamon, and a bit of eugenol plus something sweet-woody (at least that fits!). Maybe also coumarin. Guaiac? Alright. On a quality scale for guaiac in fragrances, L!ve would, from my humble experience, certainly be at the lower end - the upper end would probably be marked by Bois d’Armenie. Anyway, it doesn't last long, as soon the lab wood pseudo-aquatic takes over, sweetened up. We didn't want to be held back.

So let's finally get to the destination of the time travel: In front of his cave sits cave man Grumpf in the rain, thoughtfully chewing on a heavily chewed piece of licorice. In his hand, he holds a L!ve bottle - the Rubik's Cube for Neanderthals.

------------------------------------------

Rubik's Cube was already mentioned in the first comment. I honestly came up with that all by myself - it’s quite obvious.

I thank Tiara for the sample.

After the color perfumes in the style of their world-famous polos, Lacoste had 2 options: a) close the store, stand in a corner, and be ashamed or b) muster the courage to take time for a brand new scent and move back towards former strength. The heavily advertised new fragrance L!ve lies somewhere in the middle of these two options, perhaps even closer to the positive direction, which makes me very happy.

L!ve is, at its best, a casual office companion for the modern man of the world. At its worst, it reminds me of the men's locker room at the gym. But one step at a time, the rating is almost too harsh, and it is a good scent. However, I didn't want to make it too easy for the Lacoste failures and cash grabbers of recent years.

The cube, marketed as a cool lifestyle scent, starts off slightly citrusy but muted. More lime or woody-citrus notes than the usual citrus blast in the mainstream top note. This beginning is pleasing, not cheap, and not ordinary, as even in the year of the World Cup in Brazil, lime has not yet become the 08/15 citrus fruit. It still has something down-to-earth about it, a bitterness, and a lot of green. This simple-sunny summer top note could also have a chance with me. Then, in between, some sweaty notes come through, which likely lead to associations with cheap lavender and wet socks. Unfortunately, the middle part falters and cannot connect to the great beginning. The finish is then a solid wood base that could have been sweeter and more licorice-like for me - that sounds better and more spectacular when reading than in the actual test.

Bottle: urban, young, stylish, and brand-true - successful!
Longevity: with 6 hours, it is at least not a quick shot.
Sillage: follows the counter-trend to oriental powerhouses.

Even if not everything that glitters is gold and there are still more than a few steps to old class, rather a day's march - the beginning is made for me with L!ve. And the will counts.

Gone! gone! gone!

I no longer believe that the traditional brand with the crocodile will be able to create a men's fragrance worth buying again.

It just doesn't make sense anymore. I don't want to overdramatize, but I'm slowly reaching a point where it no longer brings me joy to test new men's fragrances in stores. When will this qualitative downward trend come to an end?

It can't be that after 20 visits to perfume shops, one hardly manages to come across a nice, charismatic new scent.
Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, that was common.

Not to mention the 80s, which I unfortunately did not experience "l!ve" (to use that dreadful fragrance name meaningfully), when you look at the milestones that were released monthly or at least annually back then.

I keep coming back to the original father of Lacoste fragrances from 1984, "Lacoste Original," a masterpiece, a milestone, a timeless classic.

Available on every corner in France and taken for granted, here it has been phased out to make room for the ridiculous red-green-white watery scents of the label.
Even the "Booster," released in the 90s, while by no means a masterpiece, is still miles better than anything that came after.

Procter & Gamble is truly selling the olfactory soul of the brand, and "L!ve" is another coffin nail.

A piercing, sharply sour start - a scratchy lime. And then - once again, like with almost every third new release - aquatic notes. Great! Creative!
If someone could just get the synthetic aspect out, it would already be a step forward. But apparently, no one cares.

The green leaves give me a somewhat immature, unnatural, slightly
sweaty impression. The whole thing remains sour, narrow, and trivial.

Guaiac wood, another mainstream essence for about 3-4 years, just wafts monotonously, slightly rubbery-sweet-woody. Iris? I don't recognize it. Licorice? With a lot of imagination in the background.

The bottle is yet another fashion joke, somehow reminiscent of game consoles, bulky, sterile.

It's probably not entirely fair that my anger is now directed at Lacoste as just one representative of many soulless canned fragrances of this decade - but my level of annoyance is simply increasing.

Especially considering that for every lousy new release, a classic is increasingly disappearing from the shelves (see "Lacoste Original," see "Zino," see "Boss Elements".....). Otherwise, I wouldn't care what comes along.