Clockwork Roads 2014

I’m open to a lot of things. I also like to test things (not just “something,” but often a lot!), I’m flexible, I understand fun (yes, even olfactory) and can adapt to many situations - but even I know my limits.
And as if I had sensed it, Clockwork happened to be the last fragrance from the Roads line that I tested. After that, I was done.

My experiences with the Roads fragrances have overall not been very positive. The scents are sometimes okay, sometimes very trivial, and sometimes very “fragmented”; they often smell neither homogeneous nor like they were made in one go.

However, Clockwork somehow crowns the whole affair.

The opening alone nearly drives me to give up immediately and flee to the nearest place with water and soap. Clockwork starts off quite cool, green, and smoky. That wouldn’t be so bad if the cool green didn’t come from the immediately noticeable fir balsam and the smoky note was created by nutmeg and pepper. Overall, it smells like certain places do at half past nine in the morning after you’ve thrown out the last visitors along with their leftover drinks and half-smoked cigarettes. Since Mr. Clean unfortunately had the day off, one quickly grabbed the bath foam that smells so nice of pine needles and turns the water a toxic green.
In short: The whole thing results in a combination of cold cigarette and pine needle bath water. Why anyone would want to smell like that is beyond me.

Since I don’t dare to bring my nose to my wrist for the next 80 minutes, I must briefly hit the skip button. The journey between the heart note and base note becomes more bearable anyway. The “smoky note” dissipates, the fir balsam becomes more resinous (and no, the scent isn’t to blame for my aversion to resinous things) and oak moss gives a slight depth, while vetiver slowly becomes noticeable and makes the bath water a bit greener.

However, that doesn’t really save the fragrance anymore. Terrible, really terrible, all of it.

Much has been speculated here about the names of the fragrances. Perhaps the creator was watching Clockwork Orange when the idea for this scent came about.
I could understand that.