Phantom Paco Rabanne 2021

There's no other way to say it, I was olfactorically influenced by Italian fragrance classics. One of them was clearly "Paco Rabanne pour Homme" - a fragrance as old as I am, classic, green, spicy, a little barbershop, just wonderful. Since then I am happy about every new release from that house. The fresher "Paco Rabanne pour Homme Eau" then also became my signature scent for a few years until it was discontinued. But the more plastic was used in the individual bottles since the millennium, the less I could do with the respective fragrances. But I was sure, Phantom must also be tested, each gets its fair chance.

The specially for this fragrance set up display was then also hard to miss at Douglas. On it some silver boxes with the big name and the somewhat smaller robot on it. So far, so simple, everything still acceptable. Next to it, two saleswomen are frantically discussing, one is playing around with a bottle, or rather, with its individual parts. Apparently this toy robot from the Far East wouldn't even survive the first hour of excited play after being unpacked under a Christmas tree. Broken off, sharp-edged and pointed individual parts, a colleague rushes over with a new tester. I finger the new tester: Yes, seems to be a thin-walled plastic construction of the kind that likes to break quickly once. Although the atomizer makes a pretty good impression, I wonder if this is supposed to be a refill that will last for a long time? Who has a soft spot for Japanese science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s with the associated films and toys, which will hardly come past this bottle and place it in the showcase.

Two sprays on the back of the hand and I immediately ask myself the question, whether I would not like to undergo better equal ritual ablutions. A few minutes later on the open street, my wife wants to drag me by force into the next department store, to perform this procedure on me in person in the customer toilet.

With the first gush overcomes one a rich load of sweet fruitiness, which within minutes turns into a fruity sweetness and is accompanied by a slight metallic note of lavender. All half bad if it weren't for a chord, nay, a crescendo of sticky sweet chords that build to a fortissimo forte of patchouli, vanilla and probably tonka. Wouldn't be so bad, perhaps, if this weren't all at once, so intense, so synthetically vehement in its expression and, above all, already so familiar through so many other designer fragrances in this or similar combinations. No, this fragrance offers truly nothing new, even in the combination of its individual notes.

A "phantom" should be this fragrance, so a mirage, a ghost. Consequently, rather a light appearance. But for this, this fragrance with the initial chord is much too intense, too loud, too dominant. However, as the fruits quickly hide behind patchouli and vanilla, the initial chord swells reasonably quickly, the familiar, slightly oriental sweetness remains. It is less of a nuisance to one's own nose, probably for reasons of self-protection a certain habituation sets in. For the environment, however, it remains longer clearly beyond the arm's length just as clearly sweet perceptible. I attest the fragrance an impressively above-average durability of over 12 hours nowadays and even the next morning you can still sniff out sweet remnants on the skin.

No, I don't like the scent. Too sweet, too synthetic, too bold, too annoying. But it seems to be for some years exactly what so many distinguished young men are looking for in so many designer fragrances. So if you feel at home with "Invictus" and "1 Million" and its numerous flankers and friends, you should definitely also try "Phantom".

A "Domo arigato misuta Robotto" does not want to come over my lips with this perfume, neither for the fragrance, nor for the bottle. But probably the machines have already taken over the world, but to me old man went completely past that again. Must soon necessarily "Matrix 4" look, red or blue pill ...