Veteran 2015

FvSpee
07.12.2018 - 10:00 AM
17
Top Review
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7
Sillage
8
Longevity
8.5
Scent

Emperor Red Beard

Veteran" is a fragrance that is original in every respect, almost curious, and quite original. It is hardly available in Germany and also came to me - as to my previous speaker - by means of a sample of the friendly Angelliese, for which I would like to express my sincere thanks.

Mirum (probably from Latin "mirus", wonderful - also a pun with the Slavic root "mir" for peace can't be excluded) is once again one of those little Italian scent houses that you meet every now and then when you are on your way here. It has only a handful of fragrances on offer, all allegedly "handmade", and all with "hippie covers" in name and design. The website is funny, but not very information-heavy. If you want information about the fragrance, you have to have it sent to you by e-mail and you will then receive an excerpt from an (Italian) book (without a correct beginning and without a correct end), which does not necessarily show what has to do with this fragrance. For me it reads like a diary of people like Giogrio, Jicky and Michelle, who did something with Amore, Ganja and Chitarra in London in September 1970. Also from Vietnam and from an Isola di Wight, which appears again and again on the homepage.

Veteran (apparently the English or German word is used here, Italian would be "veterano") is in the first seconds an ultraclassic citric fresh, spicier, woody, a little bit green men's scent, somewhere between Barbershop, Fougère and Colgone, very beautiful, but a little bit know-man-sufficient, maybe you can think of the good old "Azzaro".

But then he goes crazy in the next hours and has a lot of weird twists ready for the wearer, which finally make him refreshingly unconventional.

After a minute or so, for example, a slightly stinky, somewhat biting, twisted and entangled (but not really annoying!) note appears for the first time, which could possibly be related to the vetiver (to which I sometimes react very sensitively). This also comes to the fore again and again in the following time. This interplay of a rather conventional citric-spicy freshness with a somewhat, well, not directly malicious, but nevertheless somewhat cryptic note reminds me of Byredo's Sunday Cologne, which I greatly appreciate. Veteran is however more playful - and above all clearly durable, in addition still more.

After about an hour I have peppery, strongly spicy notes in the foreground, and after about two hours the strong aquatic influences that have been noticed by other reviewers - albeit earlier - are coming to the fore for the first time, which then never completely leave the fragrance. Sometimes the fragrance becomes quite sweet, almost a little apricot, and then even a little feminine. In this phase I think then almost, och nee, now they exaggerate but with the Potpurri, that is too much for me now.

Afterwards the veteran comes back into calmer water - you can enjoy a nice long lasting, spicy-aquatic-stinkinge and towards the end then again slightly sweet base.

What I like very much are Sillage and durability. The projection is regulated to a measure that is exactly appropriate for me. It seems as if the fragrance has something like an overdose barrier, it appears stable, present, beautiful, full and substantial, without getting on the wearer's nerves with a murderer's projection of the environment or with a hammer intensity. The shelf life of about 7 to 8 hours is actually pretty much right, and considerable for a rather fresh fragrance. I guess you can get such a development only with some chemistry, but good, it's not an organic fragrance.

For me in any case an absolutely funny, sympathetic Italian! And when I was thinking of the coverboy I had to think of Friedrich I. Barbarossa, who spent long periods of his reign in Italy and was also a rather original guy (although not quite as original and not quite as Italian as Friedrich II. (von Hohenstaufen).

Addendum: "Veteran" would actually have been a fragrance for whose review it would have been worthwhile to reactivate the old friend and copper engraver Federico di Spé, who last appeared here on Parfumo with his review of Fleur de Bambù. Unfortunately, my time was not enough to consult him, so I had to write this comment myself, which surely made it a bit more boring.
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