40 Knots Xerjoff 2012

Sometimes fragrances really fascinate me. As a Freshie opponent, I usually hit my limits quickly when it gets fresh, which also makes me many opponents.

Nevertheless.. I wanted to try 40 Knots. What kind of fragrance pyramid is that? It sounds like my sister's old saltwater aquarium, just without the notes of pufferfish & osmosis system.

Sample purchased (thank you!), and it arrived two days later. I opened the sprayer, and.. What is this? Why does it smell like every 0815 designer freshie, aquatic, mixed with.. salt? I never thought that salt could be such a good fragrance note. I don't know what the best description for this note could be, but just think of band-aids. Somehow the smell of salt reminds me of band-aids.

As off-putting as that may sound at first, it had to go on the skin. Paper testers never work, and the opening can be absolutely terrible and repulsive for many UNBELIEVABLY GREAT fragrances (Oajan, I'm looking at you). So, the back of my hand gets misted. We know, if you want sillage, you have to wave, and the hand does that well. And there it was - 40 Knots, on my skin.

And now there is first.. Nivea cream? Huh? What? Nivea cream with a sharpness in the background that is difficult to describe. Somehow a bit soapy, salty. Even now, on the third spray (I wanted to test it in everyday life today), immediately again a salty Nivea cream as soon as the sharp salty opening disappears in a few minutes. I don't see honey here at all. With this fragrance, at first, you smell as if you had rubbed yourself with Nivea cream after a swimming session on vacation in blazing heat. It really smells like beach, sea, salty coastal air in summer, and that cream.

And so it stays for a good half hour. It becomes more aquatic over time, a bit soapier. Then it changes drastically, completely unexpectedly. Suddenly, from Nivea cream, it becomes a very masculine, robust scent, MUCH more complex than the "fragrance pyramid" indicates, but my nose lacks the education to pinpoint it; I just notice that there is much more depth than stated.

Suddenly, it operates in a whole different league. From salt comes wood, from Nivea comes honey; I feel like Theon Greyjoy on the Iron Islands saying this. Somehow the fragrance develops completely differently for me than in the other reviews, strange. The scent becomes warm, sweeter, a hint of honey lies close to the skin, the sillage becomes woodier, but not dry-woody, really creamy warm woody. Nothing I would have ever expected!

And it stays like that for hours. You can fall asleep to this fragrance, but only when the opening has long disappeared. The soapy, the salty, it blends more and more with the woody warm sweet notes, paired with the honey, until the initial freshness slowly completely disappears, and the creamy warmth is now proudly presented. I like developments like this, even if I don't quite get along with the opening, and only in the later stages of the drydown (which takes a good 1-2 hours here) do the notes come that I absolutely love. Overall, a salty-fresh note will always remain in the background, but it disappears more and more until in the end, only a woody-creamy note is left, but then the fragrance is almost gone.

On the skin, it lasts a good 8-12 hours, without any problems. Even a bit longer than 12 hours, but then it becomes unnoticeable unless you get close to the skin.

I can't say anything about the bottle, but Xerjoff is Xerjoff, everything is always top-notch.

Overall, I somehow like the fragrance, but also somehow not. Nevertheless, I can't give it a bad rating, simply because everything after the drydown fascinates me so much; it becomes truly wonderful. For me, as an absolute Freshie opponent.. a little sin. I love it!