09/02/2012

Ysbrand
84 Reviews

Ysbrand
Helpful Review
3
All purpose antidote for not too deadly poisons
I really wanted to like Antidote. First of all, i remember, back in the time, i liked the marketing campaign´s visuals a lot: the bottle rising from a mess of loose chains, like a houdini that released himself, the green light, implying with that name some sort of toxicity, and this blurry, doble faced albine young model appearing in a mist, like some sort of ghost... it was way more complex and mysterious than the most men´s launches in the last years (which are simplistic and boring most of the times)
Second reason is, i really love the bottle.
But i remember i tried it, in a time when i still didnt give a lot of thought to fragances, and dissapointed with the misleading campaign,i discarded it very fast. Being not a mainstream brand i was expecting something way less... mainstream. Classic, phew.
Six years after, god, time flies, i am back to it. It starts as i remember: clean fresh blast of austere citrus, in the company of some green herbs and aromatic notes... I get a chypre feeling on the paper, not so mossy on my skin. I see here Mint is listed; it must be some sweet type of it, spearmint, or i thought it was basil. I cling to the aromatic note because otherwise Antidote has nothing so far that awakens any interest, indeed i find hard to pay attention to the fragance. In the paper it smells notably different!
Then slowly and subtlely, some changes occur under the bright different citrus. A very thin warmth form the core of the fragance (tonka and vanilla) comes to counterbalance the aromatic notes (i notice a dark lavender and a more dominant geranium), creating a well tempered accord.
Once the citric top notes are (finally) gone (or the cells inside my nose are already numb and burnt ) the fougere gets greener and sweeter, thanks to a pinch of cinnamon and the flowers: you smell, sure enough, a peppery freesia, and i would say sweet-pea flowers, and a bit of lily (more yellow than white if that makes any sense) but is all too soft and a bit ozonic: I wish Antidote had focused in this mid-phase and made it more obvious, because it is lovely.
As it dries down, a mossy, earthy, very clean base reveals, with a bitter greeness of labdanum and then a non-descript warm woods .
Six years after i appreciate Antidote, even if it doesnt keep up with the mystic of the campaign. It is well done, is elegant, and it is not completely pointless, but plays too safe and you can find many similar smelling scents (not with such a nice bottle though)
Sillage is just ok (specially the loud citric notes and not so much the aromatic, herbaceous...etc, that lack projection), and the lasting power is not groundbreaking.
Second reason is, i really love the bottle.
But i remember i tried it, in a time when i still didnt give a lot of thought to fragances, and dissapointed with the misleading campaign,i discarded it very fast. Being not a mainstream brand i was expecting something way less... mainstream. Classic, phew.
Six years after, god, time flies, i am back to it. It starts as i remember: clean fresh blast of austere citrus, in the company of some green herbs and aromatic notes... I get a chypre feeling on the paper, not so mossy on my skin. I see here Mint is listed; it must be some sweet type of it, spearmint, or i thought it was basil. I cling to the aromatic note because otherwise Antidote has nothing so far that awakens any interest, indeed i find hard to pay attention to the fragance. In the paper it smells notably different!
Then slowly and subtlely, some changes occur under the bright different citrus. A very thin warmth form the core of the fragance (tonka and vanilla) comes to counterbalance the aromatic notes (i notice a dark lavender and a more dominant geranium), creating a well tempered accord.
Once the citric top notes are (finally) gone (or the cells inside my nose are already numb and burnt ) the fougere gets greener and sweeter, thanks to a pinch of cinnamon and the flowers: you smell, sure enough, a peppery freesia, and i would say sweet-pea flowers, and a bit of lily (more yellow than white if that makes any sense) but is all too soft and a bit ozonic: I wish Antidote had focused in this mid-phase and made it more obvious, because it is lovely.
As it dries down, a mossy, earthy, very clean base reveals, with a bitter greeness of labdanum and then a non-descript warm woods .
Six years after i appreciate Antidote, even if it doesnt keep up with the mystic of the campaign. It is well done, is elegant, and it is not completely pointless, but plays too safe and you can find many similar smelling scents (not with such a nice bottle though)
Sillage is just ok (specially the loud citric notes and not so much the aromatic, herbaceous...etc, that lack projection), and the lasting power is not groundbreaking.