Spirito Meo Fusciuni 2019

My dad wore Drakkar Noir Eau de Toilette when I was growing up. My wife's dad wore Paco Rabanne pour Homme Eau de Toilette. We both associate fougeres with our fathers and an age gone by. I've often wondered what scent my children's generation will think of when they think of their dads. I won't say my children specifically, since their noses are probably already confused to hell and back with the number of scents I rotate. But in general, men usually stick to one scent once they've found it, and I would think Gen Alpha's "dad scent" would be something in the Fierce Cologne family. It was ubiquitous when I was in high school, and I'm sure many Millennial men are wearing it or something like it, in the same "blue" genre, to this day.

Spirito is the grown-up version of Fierce Cologne, who took a bit of surliness from his dad yet still kept some starry-eyed Millennial idealism. It's definitely got the Drakkar Noir Eau de Toilette herbaceousness, but it also has the "deconstructed"/incomplete Fierce ISO-E dominated ozonicity (is that a word?). There's something in here that is leathery or like a new car smell as well that is not in the notes, which reminds me a bit of the leather in Legend Eau de Parfum. The drydown is absolutely lovely, the Drakkar oakmoss is eschewed for a clean vetiver-cedarwood combination.

I had been trying to find a replacement for my empty bottle of Percival, something a little bit different but in the same genre, and I think this is it. It's less playful and youthful than Percival; which makes sense: I've graduated to dad.