DasguteLeben

I appreciate Laura Tonatto as an outstanding perfumer and her long-standing collaboration with Robertet is a guarantor for high-quality natural raw materials in higher proportions than we are accustomed to today. Iss moves in a very traditional area of men's fragrances the white floral citrus fragrance - my expectations were accordingly high. The absolute benchmark for this genre is John Stephen's Cotswold for Dukes of Pall Mall (1983), the neo-Edwardian paradise fragrance par excellence. Tonatto's approach is clearly more Mediterranean in comparison. When Cotswold, in his unaudringly perfect creation of seamless elegance, where citrus and floral notes complement each other perfectly, exudes the aura of a cream-coloured Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, then Iss is a lemon-yellow... Ferrari? No, more like Alfa Romeo. Where she succeeds in perfectly squaring the circle with Albi, Iss does not go beyond a successful imitation of classic Mediterranean men's fragrances with 50s vibe - sporty, somewhat creamy-scratchy, like a slightly machistic roaring exhaust. The florality doesn't really come into its own, the wood notes are a bit rough - yet the whole thing has a certain Italian charm, like a bit too darkly roasted espresso. I can imagine the summer fragrance on a guy like Lino Ieluzzi, the famous owner of the men's outfitter Al Bazar, a stylish bird of paradise par excellence. And I like him too, although I would prefer Cotswold or Albi most of the time.