Chnokfir

With gifts it is always such a thing to meet the right taste of the recipient. But so far it is my mother-in-law always quite well managed to add me after sifting my clear perfume collection a new treasure. Also this Christmas was again a ride on the razor blade for them.

Guerlain was and still is a benchmark for me when it comes to perfume bottle design. Even though I can hardly blame them for having traded the individual old flacons of classics like "L'Instant" or "Vetiver" for the new flacons with their uniform design features. No matter, the elegant silver box with belly band and neatly centered nameplate and clear letters is recognizable as Guerlain from afar. So is the solid, slightly faceted square with the solid red knob. The perfect spray button releases a fine mist of the reddish liquid, which could easily be mistaken for a delicious cognac or whisky. The way this fragrance stands, just ideal. Such a thing you can also confidently pack instead of a vase or other decorative object alone on the coffee table or in the showcase.

As soon as you uncork the bottle, respectively take off the Knöpke, you know what to expect: A fruity-tart sweetness spreads. With the Aufsprühen this impression is then also rapidly strengthened, but for me not to the advantage. A sweet cloud surrounds you and almost takes your breath away. Lots of almond, lots of cinnamon, lots of heliotrope, even more patchouli, too much of everything in concentration, too powerful, too expansive. If it weren't for a few tart notes of wood or leather, ritual ablutions would be in order. Fortunately, this prelude only has a half-life of half an hour on me, after a whole hour the almond and patchouli have completely evaporated. Now you can dare to bring the back of your hand to your nose and try to locate what else the fragrance has to offer. And there it is again, that childhood memory of my father's leather tobacco pouches in which he stored his cherry, peach, plum or whisky flavoured pipe tobacco. Wonderful fruity notes of wild cherry and fully ripe plums combined with soft leather and dry woods, wrapped in an aromatic, bright tobacco leaf. You could truly get used to this, lose yourself in it like a dream, but unfortunately these accords very quickly retreat further and further into the skin. After just under six hours, you have to dig your nose deep into the skin to be able to guess the last molecules. Unfortunately.

The arrival chords in isolation, I would blindly guess a sweet, not exactly delightful women's fragrance. The fragrance base, on the other hand, is from the composition of a straight classic men's fragrance, which you could well and easily locate in a time of 50, 60, 70 years ago. Unfortunately, this fragrance is no longer even remotely as voluminous as it was back then. From the typical at that time, expansive silage and the proverbial days-long shelf life is nothing left. Unfortunately.

My mother in law had to acknowledge that the fragrance on me does not come into its own. May be due to the fact that the fragrance in my by heating air dried out winter skin just seeps. Let's test it again in spring. Until then, I find everywhere the prelude extreme, but the fragrance is far from ideal for me.

No sooner did the shops reopen after Corona than they started again, the stalking for new, beautiful scents. Even though testing with a snuggly sweater was considerably more difficult, I was in the best buying mood, something fresh, aquatic, green was what I wanted. Searched, found, bought were "Lune d'Eau" and "Tulsivivah!" Very deep in the drawer they searched for samples for me and even longer they studied if they could put these testers into my bag. In the end it was "Insulo" among other things and I quickly went from the assumption "insulin" to "island" ... oh, maybe a sparkling holiday scent! Far from it. Unfortunately

The fragrances from Jeroboam come in a black cardboard box with a golden bandage and a type that I would like to call Art Nouveau meets Arabia. Pleasing at first sight. The flacon is also convincing, with clear glass painted black on the inside and a relatively simple, golden cap.

However, the first spraying with the tester revealed to me that with the discreet restraint it should have been for the next few hours. One can certainly describe the fragrance as opulent. One also quickly comes to the conclusion that the pyramid does not give us one or the other chord after all. Vanilla, tonka, chocolate, condensed milk, coffee in different brews all at once crowd into the nose together with dark flowers in full bloom and musk and don't want to get out of it so quickly.

It does not force me to speak of a course. No, the individual components don't hit you all at once, but together with the sledgehammer. If someone should know a classical piece of music, which starts with a crescendo in the first chord and does not fade away in the course of the first movement, please mention it in the commentary function below.

In any case it was clearly too much for me, clearly too intense and in its entirety also clearly too sweet. The scent is described as unisex. At least in Central Europe, I don't think this idea is likely to come to mind. I once knew a Persian carpet dealer who smelled similar. But then the overall impression in the portrait to be conveyed was also appropriate. Although I don't necessarily want to classify Insulo as an oriental scent - but I miss the typical additions like patchouli or oud.

But I can't think more about this scent than that, because I quickly get headaches that force me to perform ritual ablutions before my wife comes home from the office and asks me, unnerved, what kind of foul-smelling soup I would have brought again. (Small question in the margin: Is it still allowed to say hooker diesel in public nowadays?)

Anything positive to finish? Insulo holds up pretty well. Anyway, several intensive hand washes with fat solvents and vinegar cleaners. That's worth a lot in Corona days.

Imagine that a perfumer, highly esteemed and equally revered on all sides, sends you an anonymous sample for blind tasting, with a subtle hint of a common fragrance preference. That makes you sit up and take notice and give hope. Well, yeah... yeah, well, ...

Unfortunately, instead of the original flacon, the blind tasting only shows the despicable plastic tube. It's a pity, but it's not, because the bottle is a standard square from the shelf with a simple black stopper. The whole thing is decorated by a simple sticker without any special decoration. An outer box is apparently not offered at all. It's OK, in this small one-man business everything is reduced to the essentials.

The name of the perfume reduces it as well. Yeah, that's the smell of a good espresso. Full coffee aroma. Even if the inclined Italian barista now crosses himself and sends shock prayers to heaven, there was also no skimping on sugar. Yeah, it's that coffee-caramel fusion I love. But if you inhale the scent a little deeper and longer, unfortunately some unpleasant undertones come through. On the one hand, there is a tart rum note with sharp tips, which I don't like at all. There are also other bitter and smoky notes, as if a little water, milk or cream had not all been added to the caramel from time to time, while constantly stirring, but two pounds of sugar were burned on the highest flame for several hours until the pot was white-hot, while the plastic handles melted at the same time.

This is usually followed by a general refurbishment of the kitchen. Since I cannot do this with my nose, I stopped the blind tasting prematurely after less than five minutes and subjected my affected hand to an extensive ritual washing with all kinds of fat-dissolving substances.

Yes, the scent is strong, radiates very well and certainly has an appealing stability. Unfortunately I lack the balance between sweet and rough notes. Nevertheless, I can imagine the scent on both a woman and a man.

Should I now be sorry to my Spezl that he has olfactorically smacked me so badly? No, let's share the love of sweetened coffee and he showed me the somewhat coarser version of this passion. Let him enjoy this. Meanwhile, I'm living it up with Montale's "Intense Cafe" and Kerosenes' "Follow." Yeah, I like them a lot better

Aventus I approach myself by nature rather a little more cautiously - oriental fragrances are on the one hand not so my ride, on the other hand it becomes with this fragrance house very fast times somewhat more expensive. But when a bright yellow bottle shines at me, it has almost happened to me. It became dramatic quickly when I noticed that the ladies' bottle smiled so seductively at me. But since the Amouages always appear as couples, the search for their male counterpart turned into an almost two-year wait. But I was disappointed in the end, because the men's fragrance has hardly anything in common with the women's version, but above all nothing beautiful. Hopefully more of them soon at another place.

If one acquires an Amouage perfume, the scent in a solid brick of a cardboard receives one, here in a very appealing light blue, which reminds by its grain of broken smallest waves on the beach or in the pool, on it a playful golden sun. A wonderful contrast is the glittering yellow of the bottle - puts it in the sunlight and the grip on the Ray Ban becomes imperative. I don't have to mention the fact that the bottle lies in the hand like a glove. And although I am not necessarily a fan of oriental ornamentation, I am always pleased to see that the bottle's design is not completed by a showy and at the same time harmonious lid and logo. Less is like so often more and here it is perfectly balanced.

From the beginning I was fascinated by the smell of the omnipresent and voluminous Cassis chord. I like this taste in lemonade, I love blackcurrants in cocktails. Here the same sound is reproduced optimally. I am glad that this note lasts long and clearly in the fragrance and does not fly away as a top note after the first sniffers. "Sunshine Woman" is a fragrance for aroma therapy. You have to soak him up and let him in. Here, one gradually discovers some very soft, slightly powdery, almost balsamic floral notes, which never surpass the Cassis chord, but rather underline it. At some point you'll notice some slightly woody and spicy notes, in which the fruit gently rises at the end.

I find no words, how relieved I am that no oriental notes and certainly no oud mix with it. Thus it remains an international fragrance with summery Mediterranean hints. With its very soft, fruity and flowery accents, "Sunshine Woman" is clearly a feminine fragrance that I like to wear as a man. Not so much in public, but rather as a fragrance to feel good at home, if you want to get some of the smells and feelings of summer and the sun into your house during the dreary and dark season of the year.

Despite its soft facets and subtle chords, the fragrance is surprisingly stable with eight to ten hours. His presence unfortunately doesn't go beyond arm length, which is a pity on the one hand, but on the other hand I'm sure that here, too, one would be almost too much.

I always argue with myself why Amouage didn't release an adequate men's version of "Sunshine Woman" for me. On the other hand, I am also happy to help, because I had to struggle my way through sometime and buy this sinfully expensive women's fragrance and so I got the ideal for me feel-good fragrance home. Sun for the soul ...

I'm a tea drinker.

This statement alone is hardly reprehensible. It is perhaps astonishing if one cannot really do much with coffee as a drink, because in comparison to the taste in my eyes, it falls off strongly, but one cannot escape the smell of freshly roasted and ground coffee beans. When I drink an espresso, it's in the form of a saturated sugar solution. I have probably taken this from the black tea, which I drink with Kluntjes in the North German way, whereby I do not stir until the last sip is a real sugar bomb. But I guess that's how everyone has their strange-looking idiosyncrasies.

My love for coffee in front of my nose was strongly recommended to me by a much respected perfume, almost missionary, "Follow." I can't confess that the black velvet bag as packaging fascinated me. But the simple dark cube bottle is then exactly mine - for me the ideal shape for a bottle. The hand-made writing in the brass plate has both a childlike naive and an arachaic quality, and even after some time it still appeals to me almost magically. So be it.

There aren't many fragrances that give me a borderdebil wide grienen in the face when I sniff them for the first time. This was just the case with "Follow". There is exactly the coffee-sugar note that I love so much in the office when I have sipped my espresso, but at the bottom of the cup a thumb still sticks up a tough, brown sugar mass. If I search for an inspiration, an idea, now and then also for inner peace, then I sniff at it. And that's exactly what this perfume is. Fresh, soft, harmonious roast, brewed seconds ago and filled with sugar until the cup almost goes over. Aromatic, sweet, off! That's all I need. The outside world recognizes immediately that I am hardly responsive before ecstasy any more.

I can't tell you what else is in the perfume. Read the pyramid, maybe you can see something from it, with me it's only coffee and sugar, now and then also in the other order. I don't care, though. What is important to me is that my quintessence does not disappear, does not evaporate, does not change. And luckily, she hardly does in my nose. After about twelve or sixteen hours, the aroma retreats a little, but is still perceptible the next day. In the clothes, the scent has one more day. That's enough, that's good.

For me "Follow" is in another way an ingenious fragrance, because it is refined. That's not because of the scents themselves, but because of when you wear the scent. As an office fragrance, it sinks wonderfully, even if excessively dosed, because almost every colleague has a coffee pot on his desk anyway. In other situations, where there is no coffee cup to be seen far and wide, people standing around will ask themselves where the coffee is or whether it has spilled over their clothes opposite their coffee. But no matter also, one will hardly touch with this smell, too broadly the general acceptance. And unisex is a coffee anyway. What more could you want?!

Once again the question comes up if you want to smell like a hot drink. Well, some people also go through life outside the carnival season as fruit smoothie or bouquet of flowers. The only thing that bites you hard when you wear this scent and want to drink an unperfumed green tea. That doesn't want to happen together with the best will in the world, there's too much confusion. But there's always something. I just console myself with a piece of chocolate ...