DasCroe

The black sheep of the 'Absolue les parfums' range in terms of flacon design does not wrap itself in cheerful candy colors like its siblings, no, smoky gray spoils in advance that we are probably not dealing with a fresh and cheerful rose fragrance here.

'From the dark' - how fitting, as I'm sitting in my completely darkened room against the heat. Perhaps not the best conditions in terms of temperature, but we'll see. Buffy and her demons, that's not a rose! That's the salesman in the restaurant with two arms full of "Wolluuuu buy a rose?"!

Rose! Lots of roses! Dark, thick, opulent rose! Spread out in bags on the dark wooden table. An incense stick cokes somewhere in the background. Aromatically dense, warmly spicy. Get me Lucifer, there's no incense or anything like that in there? Well at least not listed, doesn't mean anything...

Compared to the also relatively recently released Taif Rose, the Lancome is completely (!) unsweet, but has the same rose opulence. And the Lancome roses are more beautiful/realistic.

I'm not usually a big fan of heavy or oriental rose fragrances, so I would only wear this rose when I go out or in the evening or in the darker months of the year. However, the fragrance also works in the heat/ in summer - but please not in combination with high humidity but rather in dry, hot areas! And perhaps rather after sunset, nomen est omen!

Tremor finger sprayers need to be careful, less is more. Here, one spray was enough to scent the entire room, any more and the whole thing threatens to turn into sweet death 'in the name of the rose' in closed rooms. The child of the night also lasts at least from Dusk till Dawn, whereby after 2 hours almost only woody amber remains (or I no longer smell the roses, I don't want to rule that out).

Expectations are dangerous, as one of three cases always occurs:
a) Disappointment - fragrance is NOT as expected
b) Confirmation - fragrance meets expectations
c) Positive surprise - fragrance does not meet expectations, but still pleases

with Out of the Shower Skin Musk, my expectations based on the note pyramid were something between Dove soap, perhaps You Eau de Parfum and Marseille. White, clean, maybe a little creamy.

Spoiler - case c) occurred. And strictly speaking, even the pink-pink flacon coloring, which initially bothered me a bit, fits quite well again. Because... *drum roll* ... instead of white curd soap, there is soft pink floral body lotion.
Clean? Check!
Well-groomed? So much!
Skin accord? Joooah but by no means as extreme as in You Eau de Parfum

In addition - and the pyramid conceals this - there are some pink flowers at the start. Magnolia, cherry blossom, something like that. Nothing overpowering, no monster rose or anything like that, but it's definitely floral, not clean/aldehydically soapy! And - and this is my only personal criticism - with a borderline sweetness similar to some "Fresh Flower" fabric softeners. I could have done without it, prevents me from "wanting to have it".

Out of the Shower Skin Musk reminds me of a light version of Chance Eau Tendre Eau de Toilette or also very similar to Angelica Florae - the latter is, in my opinion, very similar despite having COMPLETELY different listed notes (although much cheaper).

In terms of price, I think the Overrose is a little overpriced for what is on offer, especially the designer range offers some alternatives. H/S are in the normal range, not airy but also not atomic durability.

Normally, one would assume that if there are two fragrances, one with and one without "intense" in the name, we are dealing with the EdT to EdP or, for all I care, EdP to Parfum intensification. Chloé only seems to follow this logic to a limited extent; the Nomade series already conjured up completely different notes between the fragrance variants, so that you always had to be terribly careful about which concentration you tested/liked.
I like to call such fragrances Janus fragrances, quasi one head (=name) but several faces and the dichotomy that you can love one version and detest the other...

First of all, I own "Cedrus | Chloé", I like to wear it often and even did the parallel tasting especially for the Cedrus Intense tasting.
Even when the fragrance was first launched here, I was a little surprised at what the rose had lost in the fragrance notes and was already preparing myself for a deviant.

"Cedrus | Chloé" is incredibly fine, white-green with lots of cardamom and beautiful woody notes, especially dry cedar (pleasantly little sandalwood, even if listed) and at least for me a normal to good durability. 100% unisex wearable. Actually no need to tweak it and make it worse.

So what has been done that justifies the word "intense"? To be honest, I don't know! Because Cedrus Intense didn't mutate into a sillage beast overnight, nor does it last until the next full moon, and (thankfully!) they didn't dump the tanker of whatever-xan/xol into it either. Instead, an almost cool, white-green fragrance became a quite warm, summery, golden rose/woody scent with a very pretty green-yellow start. No longer unisex but very feminine. Really a beautiful fragrance but has absolutely NOTHING in common with its namesake cousin. Sister from another mother or something...

The top note is really pretty but as soon as it disappears, all that's left is rose, vetiver and, yes, sandalwood. Wait, isn't the fragrance called Cedrus (=cedar)? For my personal taste, they should have used significantly (!) less sandalwood and more cedar, then at least the name would still be justified. As it is, you could almost accuse it of fraudulent labeling and might as well call it 'Rosa Santal'. Intense is also misleading in terms of sillage/longevity; I would classify it as a normal, socially acceptable middle-of-the-road fragrance.

Don't get me wrong, I'm getting very hung up on the naming. But Chloé hasn't done itself any favors here, especially because the fragrance isn't bad - you just shouldn't expect to get a more potent version of Cedrus. Then it's all good!

The common North German, who has been living in exile in NRW for years, is particularly good at subtlety. Or, as my British colleague once put it, "you're as subtle as a hippopotamus is graceful". I think the hippo is being done a massive injustice here! Have you ever seen Disney's Phantasia? Well,
This rather pretty rose fragrance is also being done an injustice by being given "only" 4.8, partly due to its durability according to the comments - which is why I'm coming to the defense of Hippo ääh Rose.

The rose in "Subtile | Brecourt" is also not very subtle. A not so shy Provence rose (also called "hundred-petalled" - beautiful!) , green-fresh, powerful - not youthfully light!, not too sweet, accompanied by a good dose of patchouli. I'm not a huge fan of the latter, Eau de feuchter Keller is not really my thing, but in this combination, the earthiness goes really well with the fresh green flowers of the roses. You are literally standing in the middle of the bed. I also like the slightly tart (bromine) berry, which I mistook for blackcurrant at first, as a fan of green roses like in L'Ombre dans L'Eau Eau de Toilette! The bottle may be a little misleading at this point, because the whole thing is fresh and not at all dark, heavy or oriental. Just saying!

The tried-and-tested wood+musk+amber base doesn't hurt anyone, I note at this point that the roses remain present for a surprisingly long time.
And here we come to the alleged crux of this fragrance: its longevity. I can only speak for myself, of course, but when I sprayed it on the back of my hand in the current cold temperatures, I could clearly detect the fragrance for the first hour sitting at my desk (if I gesticulated too much again) and now, after 5 hours, I can still find it ~10cm away from my nose and skin. I don't think that's bad! And normally I have a skin that sculpts everything right away.

Give it a chance!

A fragrant homage to a psychopath and murderer? To a book (and later movie) that contains some of the most disturbing scenes I know (cue the rat!)? A unisex fragrance for a narcissistic, misogynistic character? Okay, maybe I missed the well-hidden social criticism at the time, but that's only of secondary importance at this point.

However, I find the target group point quite valid, because although the fragrance is not marketed as a men's fragrance, the name and marketing are, in my opinion, aimed more at a male audience. Quote 19-69: " In the creation of American Psycho EdP I tapped into a few key elements from the book [...]: Bateman's vanity rituals, fine sparkling water, icy sorbet and Wall Street in the 1980s." There probably weren't that many women in the Wall Street offices of the 80s - at most as champagne waitresses (or adoring the Coca-Cola man... oh no, that was the 90s).
This "male focus" is already reflected here in the WL/ML distribution with 30:60. And that's a shame!!! BECAUSE the fragrance is really unisex wearable. And Psycho is pretty much nothing here, you're used to something completely different from other brands - yay BTSO and ELdO I'm looking in your direction! - are used to something completely different. The name and the marketing are the only polarizing factors here, the fragrance itself is a pleasant newcomer without any eye-catching disruptive notes (unless the jasmine turns out to be super nasty indolic...)

Although it starts with a clear, fresh yet delicate aquatic note, it avoids the sports shower gel trap well and can be classified more in the "walk by the sea" corner à la A'mmare or Wood Sage & Sea Salt Cologne. Sage supports this reference. I confess, I was expecting something much nastier, a load of cool water vibes or something similar. I don't detect bergamot or citrus.
As it progresses, the (unidolous! ha! even super-brave) jasmine softens it considerably, lily of the valley is completely absent from my nose. I really like the very woody and thankfully XY-oxane-free base. Guaiac/cedar + amber is the kind of combination that immediately catches my attention.

The overall effect is fresh, super pleasant, nothing tugs. It's not particularly retro either, no 80s fragrance homage. American Psycho is not a sillage monster and is good for the office or leisure time, for evenings etc. I find it almost too average and light. You can do it! The name and marketing can then be discussed further ;)