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08/07/2021
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The victim of my nose or maybe the biggest perfume fake of the last decades
Preliminary: Liquid Karl is the only fragrance so far, which I have approached about its genesis.
And that for a designer fragrance in the cheap segment. Who would have thought that.
Admittedly, the collaboration between Karl Lagerfeld or his label and H&M in 2004 was already something not quite common. Perhaps that is already the first reason that makes this fragrance special for me.
And since I approached the fragrance in this way, I would also like to follow this path in the review.
First encountered the perfume is me still nameless and unfortunately no longer fully reconstructible in one of the numerous interviews or talk show appearances of Karl Lagerfeld. I still can not exactly grasp why, but somehow fascinate me, yes captivate me these conversations, especially those from the early 2000s, the after the last great external transformation. Many will probably know, but nevertheless it should be said again, that it was predominantly a strict diet, with which about 40 kilos dissolved and which was altogether part of a kind of metamorphosis of the person.
So one of the conversations was - as is often the case - about losing weight, slimness, the narrow, even thin, "figure-hugging" men's fashion coined by Hedi Slimane at Dior, through which "slim fit" and "skinny fit" replaced the era of baggy jeans.
Ultimately, of course, many of the conversations condensed into the questions "how did you do it?" and "how do you maintain your weight?" Among various references to the doctor, the diet, the changed habits, it was also once said that Karl Lagerfeld had a fragrance created that made him feel full. As someone who is interested in fragrances and not really in dieting, this naturally made me sit up and take notice. Unfortunately, this was only a short episode, but the thought and the idea were anchored in my head.
Of course, I then started to do some research. However, I couldn't really find anything about what this "saturation scent" was all about. Probably a special production of some perfumer or aromatherapist. The customer was solvent, after all...
I ticked off the subject, but never quite forgot it.
A few years later, however, a few more pieces of the puzzle fell into place for me, bringing me closer to the mysterious scent. The most important were a book and an interview from 2004.
The interview took place in 2004 at Reinhold Beckmann. It is also still good to find on youtube. Also here it is about the diet and also about the question about the influence of the smells.
Two sentences fall there. First of Beckmann: "There are moments, where you can smell the hunger". Later by Lagerfeld: "Before, I was the victim of my nose".
For this you have to know that 2004 was exactly the year in which the Lagerfeld brand entered into a cooperation with H&M for one season. I then read about this cooperation in the book "Merci Karl" by Arnaud Maillard.
Here it says at the crucial point:
"To complete the collection, Karl also designed some accessories: Bangles, rings and belts. And then there's the perfume. The couturier pays attention to little niceties - so he requested that a sample of the perfume be sent to Stockholm (to the people in charge at H&M) with the designs. He created the fragrance a few months ago, and its code name is "Liquid Karl". The perfume smells like warm bread and chocolate, which Karl "prefers to have in his nose than on his hips." The Swedes are sure to go weak...and in fact, they accept all the accessories and the perfume."
After what is otherwise admittedly a rather mediocre book, I was naturally electrified. Was this "Liquid Karl" about to be the "saturation fragrance" I was looking for?
A final proof I have of course not, but when I could get the (now rare and hard to get) perfume here at Parfumo at the dear Easyfish (thanks again at this point for the pleasant deal) and smelled it for the first time, everything fit for me together.
Liquid Karl smells unique. I have yet to smell anything comparable. I actually smell bread. Toasted, dark bread. I compared it directly. Toasted whole wheat bread has an earthy/fashionable aspect to it. You don't get that with croissants or light bread.
Chocolate, on the other hand, I don't smell. So no sweet chocolate, as you perceive it for example in the Benzoe resin. A cocoa aspect there is already, but rather the cocoa bean in the pure and rather little edible state. To the "bakery smell", the sweet greasiness is completely missing here. Consequently, the scent doesn't make me hungry either. He is rather a reminder that the satisfaction of ravenous hunger also means no lasting bliss.
But the components of the fragrance pyramid are quite perceptible. The frangipani seems to provide here for the slightly musty sweetness, which is just no sugar sweetness.
The combination of cedar and oak moss in the base is of course very familiar and should perhaps make the fragrance wearable. In short, however, I consider this a failure. I feel the fragrance as unwearable. Therefore, I spare myself here also any words to the performance.
However, the image that joined in my head makes this fragrance for me all the more exciting and makes me cheer to know it in my collection. This could be a purpose fragrance for a well-known fashion designer that he initially had created to personally help himself lose weight. Whether he used it as a perfume himself or more as a selective scent stimulus is unknown, but I would guess the latter. The most amazing thing about the whole story, however, is that this fragrance was then offered (possibly with a few minor adjustments but in essence as is) to one of the most successful heavyweights in low-priced fashion at the time, and that those responsible immediately accepted this unwearable scent and put it on the market as a perfume.
Commercially successful, the fragrance seems to have been, as was the entire short season of Lagerfeld and H&M collaboration. However, he was probably rightly not continued, perhaps the biggest perfume fake of the last decades.
And that for a designer fragrance in the cheap segment. Who would have thought that.
Admittedly, the collaboration between Karl Lagerfeld or his label and H&M in 2004 was already something not quite common. Perhaps that is already the first reason that makes this fragrance special for me.
And since I approached the fragrance in this way, I would also like to follow this path in the review.
First encountered the perfume is me still nameless and unfortunately no longer fully reconstructible in one of the numerous interviews or talk show appearances of Karl Lagerfeld. I still can not exactly grasp why, but somehow fascinate me, yes captivate me these conversations, especially those from the early 2000s, the after the last great external transformation. Many will probably know, but nevertheless it should be said again, that it was predominantly a strict diet, with which about 40 kilos dissolved and which was altogether part of a kind of metamorphosis of the person.
So one of the conversations was - as is often the case - about losing weight, slimness, the narrow, even thin, "figure-hugging" men's fashion coined by Hedi Slimane at Dior, through which "slim fit" and "skinny fit" replaced the era of baggy jeans.
Ultimately, of course, many of the conversations condensed into the questions "how did you do it?" and "how do you maintain your weight?" Among various references to the doctor, the diet, the changed habits, it was also once said that Karl Lagerfeld had a fragrance created that made him feel full. As someone who is interested in fragrances and not really in dieting, this naturally made me sit up and take notice. Unfortunately, this was only a short episode, but the thought and the idea were anchored in my head.
Of course, I then started to do some research. However, I couldn't really find anything about what this "saturation scent" was all about. Probably a special production of some perfumer or aromatherapist. The customer was solvent, after all...
I ticked off the subject, but never quite forgot it.
A few years later, however, a few more pieces of the puzzle fell into place for me, bringing me closer to the mysterious scent. The most important were a book and an interview from 2004.
The interview took place in 2004 at Reinhold Beckmann. It is also still good to find on youtube. Also here it is about the diet and also about the question about the influence of the smells.
Two sentences fall there. First of Beckmann: "There are moments, where you can smell the hunger". Later by Lagerfeld: "Before, I was the victim of my nose".
For this you have to know that 2004 was exactly the year in which the Lagerfeld brand entered into a cooperation with H&M for one season. I then read about this cooperation in the book "Merci Karl" by Arnaud Maillard.
Here it says at the crucial point:
"To complete the collection, Karl also designed some accessories: Bangles, rings and belts. And then there's the perfume. The couturier pays attention to little niceties - so he requested that a sample of the perfume be sent to Stockholm (to the people in charge at H&M) with the designs. He created the fragrance a few months ago, and its code name is "Liquid Karl". The perfume smells like warm bread and chocolate, which Karl "prefers to have in his nose than on his hips." The Swedes are sure to go weak...and in fact, they accept all the accessories and the perfume."
After what is otherwise admittedly a rather mediocre book, I was naturally electrified. Was this "Liquid Karl" about to be the "saturation fragrance" I was looking for?
A final proof I have of course not, but when I could get the (now rare and hard to get) perfume here at Parfumo at the dear Easyfish (thanks again at this point for the pleasant deal) and smelled it for the first time, everything fit for me together.
Liquid Karl smells unique. I have yet to smell anything comparable. I actually smell bread. Toasted, dark bread. I compared it directly. Toasted whole wheat bread has an earthy/fashionable aspect to it. You don't get that with croissants or light bread.
Chocolate, on the other hand, I don't smell. So no sweet chocolate, as you perceive it for example in the Benzoe resin. A cocoa aspect there is already, but rather the cocoa bean in the pure and rather little edible state. To the "bakery smell", the sweet greasiness is completely missing here. Consequently, the scent doesn't make me hungry either. He is rather a reminder that the satisfaction of ravenous hunger also means no lasting bliss.
But the components of the fragrance pyramid are quite perceptible. The frangipani seems to provide here for the slightly musty sweetness, which is just no sugar sweetness.
The combination of cedar and oak moss in the base is of course very familiar and should perhaps make the fragrance wearable. In short, however, I consider this a failure. I feel the fragrance as unwearable. Therefore, I spare myself here also any words to the performance.
However, the image that joined in my head makes this fragrance for me all the more exciting and makes me cheer to know it in my collection. This could be a purpose fragrance for a well-known fashion designer that he initially had created to personally help himself lose weight. Whether he used it as a perfume himself or more as a selective scent stimulus is unknown, but I would guess the latter. The most amazing thing about the whole story, however, is that this fragrance was then offered (possibly with a few minor adjustments but in essence as is) to one of the most successful heavyweights in low-priced fashion at the time, and that those responsible immediately accepted this unwearable scent and put it on the market as a perfume.
Commercially successful, the fragrance seems to have been, as was the entire short season of Lagerfeld and H&M collaboration. However, he was probably rightly not continued, perhaps the biggest perfume fake of the last decades.
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