Actually, I'm not so interested in perfumers unless maybe I meet them myself, as is sometimes the case with Jens Lehmann, the heir of Harry Lehmann, and Lady Le Fèbvre of Urban Scents in their Berlin shops. But with a fragrance mixer with the extremely wicked name "Rosendo Mateu" it is of course different, you have to get curious. At first I thought his name was "Mateu Rosendo", like Matthias Rosenthal, but he's neither Hungarian nor Korean, so it can't be assumed that his family name comes first. And in fact Rosendo is probably not a completely uncommon first name in Spain; because of Saint Rudesind, who in the 10th century held the office of viceroy as well as bishop in northern Spain and founded monasteries or commanded campaigns as required. At that time professional versatility was still written in capital letters!
If you do some research here on Parfumo and on the Internet in general, you will find that Mr Mateu is a gentleman of a somewhat advanced age who, as a proud Spaniard (the name sounds a bit Catalan, but I can be wrong), has worked for several fragrance houses in his home country for decades, namely Puig, Zara, Carolina Herrera, Mango and Paco Rabanne. I only found one fragrance he created for a non-Spanish company (Ermegildo Zegna, Italy).
The works created by him, all of which I don't know, don't seem to belong to the top class. His first one, Agua Brava from Puig (1968!), gets 7.6 points with over 100 ratings (still in production), but quite often ratings like 5.5 (for "delirium"; I don't know if there is a flanker "delirium tremens"). And his "Textures-Green" certainly belongs to the fragrances with the most infantile carton design ever, although he can't help it.
It seems understandable that our friend Rosendo, after a long life as a perfumer in the service of big fragrance houses that stuffed his works in weird bottles and packagings and perhaps also otherwise thirsted and enslaved him, has the desire in old age to let off steam all by himself and undisturbed and to see his rare and conspicuous name finally also himself (as Cattarella would say) standing thick on the bottle. Therefore, it is to be assumed, the line "Rosendo Mateu" was created. And so that this beautiful name is really the center of attention and is not affected by a fragrance name, the fragrances are also only numbered.
What can I say, I find this number 4 very successful. Oud I can only perceive here in traces, but he doesn't appear as a pure oudist, the saffron is in first place on the label. But one by one.
I do not encounter the sweaty or sour notes criticized here. For me number 4 starts very dry, almost dusty and creaky, but at the same time spicy and resinous in a very charming way. Unlike many other fragrances of this direction, this is a rather vegetarian affair, some leather men or stink secretions are not looking around the corner. Woods, resins, vegetable spices do their work here in the most charming and artful way. I have to admit that unlike "Safran Troublant", for example, I do NOT separately detect the saffron that gives this fragrance its name. However, since I like saffron, it may well be that the presence of this note generally contributes to the sense of well-being I feel with this fragrance. Despite all the dryness (which easily plays into the stinging), the scent is not hard for me even in this initial phase, it already has a warm, vegetable, almost soft spice, into which you can sink.
As the wine progresses, the fragrance becomes less dry, very nicely round, smoother and even softer than before. After about two hours it seems to be almost fruity, here I also mean very delicately a little bit smelly, but quite pleasant Oud to make out. After about nine hours it sounds in a honey-like and still differentiated (the many listed ingredients from the base note must go somewhere) sweetness.
All in all, this is not a highly original fragrance for me, but a rich, multi-faceted, characterful and boring fragrance. I like him. The durability is adequate, the projection for an EdP, especially with these noisy ingredients rather no crusher. The price - as I mentioned it in parts 1 and 2 of this miniseries - is about 175 Euro in the internet shop, which I consider to be quite elevated, but in view of the quality of the fragrance and the price of comparable products not moonlike. The fragrance is rightly declared to be unisex and certainly universally wearable; however, I tend to see it in a gentleman in his prime rather than in a young girl (which, if I think about it correctly, would also give an attractive contrast).