Les 4 Saisons - Hiver M. Micallef 2003

Here it certainly wasn't the bottle that attracted me: I can usually do without golden paintings and rhinestones! But: This fragrance is, so to speak, a true gem in my fragrance cabinet.

The opening is already a delight: I doubt that the notes listed in the top are complete. Many fragrances open hesperidic, but here the orange and neroli are downright full-bodied, rich, ripe - and I think the iris is already pushing its way in. A shimmer and softness at the same time, a fruitiness that has nothing in common with sharp, artificial penetration.

Hölderlin laments in his poem "Half of Life"

"Alas, where do I take, when winter comes

The flowers and shadows of the earth." (1806 - no worries about copyright)

We miss colors in winter - those who go outside notice that there are indeed splashes of color even in winter: evergreens, red branches, moss, brown buds, tree fungi, edible winter mushrooms, and sometimes even a few cheeky little flowers, colorful shrubs. You just have to look closely. Here you have to smell closely, and it's hard for me to name the details:

The scent is full of colors and warmth - and yet composed in such a way that it fits into winter: lightly semi-oriental warming, but not contrastingly shrill. The "spices" are "missing," yet I don't miss them at all here. If I imagine it in colors, there are many shades from yellowish to ochre and brown, muted dark red - and anthracite speckles, always woven together differently. Some paintings by Klee are done this way. All transitions are soft, ylang-ylang and soft jasmine seem to be the centering gentle forces that integrate, embrace, and do not intend to show off, but rather rise in common sense, and a dry musk serves as a supporting element for fluffiness as well as for a transparent stability. It leans towards the more powdery-elegant fragrances like "Cornubia," the latter being significantly spicier. This relative restraint, if one were to take an oriental as a benchmark, does not turn into arbitrariness! Definition of this winter fragrance: No oriental broiling heat, but gentle, intelligent emphasis on winter colors. Subdued refinement. A candidate for repurchase!