Chnokfir

Wintertime is stew time! True, but doesn't quite fit the theme....

But wintertime is also southern fruit time. This wisdom comes from a time when you could not buy any fruit on any day of the year in any discount store (which did not exist at that time), because fruits and vegetables were not yet flown to Germany every day freshly caught from all parts of the world. At that time, citrus fruits lasted several days and weeks in the fruit bowl and you could safely send them in a package to the dear relatives in the East Zone, which at that time took two to three weeks by mail without them immediately rotting away. At that time I was hooked by the taste and the sweet smell of mandarins, which you can hardly find nowadays, because you can almost only buy clementines, a cross between mandarins and bitter oranges, with the wish to cross out the annoying seeds as a hybrid. In the process, unfortunately, the flavor has largely fallen by the wayside. Visit the well-sorted fruit shop around the corner - as far as they still exist - and do a tasting of a real mandarin compared to the discounter clementine. The difference is as glaring as between Angus pastured beef and Styrofoam. Vegetarians and vegans substitute tofu for the beef, but the difference should still be similar. This is just as a brief commodity fact beforehand.

Who ever strolls past an Hermès counter with all the wonderfully illuminated bottles, the eyes are certainly stuck with one or the other color. With me, it is naturally mostly orange. A very intense yet natural color, a gorgeous splash of color for any perfume collection. I'm a sucker for that standard massive yet delicate Hermes bottle, but in this just reminiscent of clear amber color, it's quite special. The black knob goes well with it, but also isn't distracting, and the atomizer reliably disperses a fine mist. Overall, a fine package.

With the first sniff receive and embrace one also immediately the fruits. Depending on the mood of the day and one smells first sometimes more passion fruit, sometimes more tangerine. But these two fruits play, dance, circle around each other, sometimes one leads, sometimes the other. At the same time, they complement each other in a wonderful way with their natural fruit, with their acidity, with their sweetness, their juiciness. Overall, the mandarin lasts longer with me, the passion fruit fades slightly after three to four hours. If its acidity decreases, a warm and soft accord spreads in the base, which supports and underpins the tangerine brilliantly, but never displaces.

On me, the fragrance lasts a good eight to ten hours, sometimes longer and remains over the time also very pleasantly present. However, since the scent progression is minimal thanks to the few fragrance chords, you can always add, especially in the summer, to intensify the olfactory experience again, without the chords would ever bite. I have made the experience that "Eau de Mandarine Ambrée" is also excellent for layering with other Hermès fragrances. A spritz of "Bel Ami" or "Equipage" over it and you have a slightly more tart and masculine impact. On the other hand, a spritz of "Eau de Mandarine Ambrée" on the classic "Bel Ami" or "Equipage" offers a friendlier, more summery face. These scents don't clash, but can complement each other beautifully when layered sparingly. Overall, I would not want to talk about a women's or men's fragrance with "Eau de Mandarine Ambrée", it is clearly wearable by everyone, because it is generally unisex due to its fruit as in aromatherapy.

In general, I see "Eau de Mandarine Ambrée" less as a fragrance, but as a mood-lifting companion that simply spreads good mood. Whether in the office or in leisure, this fragrance fits always and at any time of year. It is not perceived as disturbing, although I always get surprised looks, because the environment first looks for the fruit and only notices with time that I smell like that. Is perhaps also because that the fragrance chords are very intense on the one hand, but always have an absolutely unadulterated and especially natural character.

As I said, "Eau de Mandarine Ambrée" is good mood in drop form, perhaps not necessarily for everyone a must-have, but extensively tested you should have him in any case times.

By the way, the orange originated from the crossing of mandarin and grapefruit. But that only in the margin ...

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 ...