DaveGahan101

The right-left-hand battle weeks continue:-)! I have been looking forward to this test for days...today I finally got the VIW. I had already had the (apparent) fragrance twin Eau Parfumee Rouge by Bvlgari for a few days...so I had a sniffing head start.

As if my gut feeling (yes, there is also male intuition; -)) had told me, what a truly magnificent scent awaited me. My expectations were exceeded here.

VIW opens with an ultra-ultra-fresh citrus-lime-bergamot note that I have never experienced in this form before. If you combine Silver Mountain Water, Acqua Classica by Borsari, and Bigarade Concentree by Ellena, you can guess the freshness level of VIW! Both fragrances take their own path from the start...where VIW showcases this green, ultra-fresh note, Rouge presents a fresh warmth note from the beginning...here, the herbal-sweet rooibos tea-rum note is clearly noticeable...which remains until the end.

With VIW, after about 10 minutes, a subtle unsweet coconut note appears...which smells very natural and never reminds me of Bounty or anything sticky and/or artificial. What a captivating South Sea cocktail that immediately brings to mind beach, sunscreen, and lightly alcoholic drinks. The rum note in Rouge is also wonderful, never dominant, and does not come across as so penetratingly artificial as, for example, Joop Homme Wild (although I also like that fragrance very much).

Better, more beautifully, and more accurately than Leimbacher, I could not have formulated it. Rouge is the absolute in-house feel-good scent for the sofa and bed (pillow), for oneself or for others. Anyone who comes into the aura (of both!) will enjoy it immensely. Rouge is the gentle romantic to which a glass of Vino Rosso, candlelight, and Adesso tu fits...VIW, on the other hand, is a sexy seducer for me. Here too, both take their own path, as they appeal to very different senses. Rouge will be a great pleasure in autumn/winter, thanks to its herbal sweetness. VIW will be able to impress all year round and will also accompany me in the office, which I cannot necessarily imagine with Rouge. I discover few parallels between the two fragrances...or even fragrance twin ambitions...it doesn’t have to...both are great scents...independently, both can stand in any good collection. Rouge is great, VIW, like so many Creed fragrances (are they the natural essences?), is top class. You would want to lie down in the slightly sweet wood note (very subtly in the background).

Actually, I wanted to buy Aventus on Saturday, but now it will definitely be Virgin Island Water! A new highlight in my still young and (still) mainstream-dominated perfume collection.

The longevity of both is very good; after 5 hours, both fragrances are still noticeably present...very remarkable considering that Rouge is an EdC and costs about a third of VIW.

Since I don't know all the statutes here, I'm not entirely sure if the profile will be deleted when comparing a budget fragrance with a real Creed and writing it down;-). I really enjoy the right-hand-left-hand battles...even though it's quite challenging for the nose to constantly switch sides...but this principle has proven itself with wines as well and is now simply adapted by me time and again. And NO...before questions arise, I do NOT pour red wine over my hand or wrist;-)!

The challenger Silver from Al Rehab enters the blue corner against the reigning world champion of all essences, Silver Mountain Water from Creed in the red corner.

Yes, I'm still fresh, I still have all my marbles in the cupboard...even my supervisor says "all good"...I really am making this comparison!!!

Silver is a wonderful citrus fragrance...it starts with a citrus-bergamot note that essentially lasts until the end after a few hours...after a certain time (45-60 min), a dry musk/moss note joins in...which gives the fragrance a certain depth...before it gets confused with a pure lemon cleaning cloth. Silver smells greener in the nose from the very beginning...it also has a bit of a sting in the nose...with SMW everything is "tutto bene" (see extra comment on SMW)...so I won't repeat my praises here. To be completely honest, and it’s a bit hard for me...at first sniff, the risk of confusion is at 90-95%...my holy grail gets its first little scratch;-). Maybe there are also a few percent of imagination involved...because on one side you have a product costing around €130-150 and on the other side, hold on to your seats, €9.80 for 30ml Eau de Parfum...and THAT is simply unbelievable!!!! I admit I'm a marketing victim...an original at an exclusive price influences me...it's just nice to own something valuable and exclusive...whether it's a car, fashion, wine, or perfumes...therefore, I might be a bit biased in my assessment;-). The sommeliers among the fragrance junkies will still recognize a few differences...which are also noticeable to me...especially when testing the fragrance twins against the Creed scents...you always notice the harmonious, rounded, homogeneous essences (with Creed)...which simply smell NOBLE. Silver is perfect for summer and stays very fresh for several hours...except this week at 38 degrees, it was game over after 2 hours...but even the nasty Duro would have had problems. Great fragrance, lasts super long, incredible price (actually subject to gift tax)...it’s easily confused with a big one...what more could you want;-)))????? Silver will be my everyday companion in the office when I need to freshen up before an appointment...but SMW remains the king (to stay in boxing terms, SMW had to go the full 12 rounds and narrowly won on points)...and will only be used on special days or in the evenings when the nobler perfume should round off my day in a worthy and elegant way...basically as a reward for a great and successful day.

I have to chuckle at the reports here. Is there even anyone who bought the perfume simply because they liked it without ever having heard the name Aventus before? Or just to satisfy their curiosity about whether there is a very cheap Aventus twin??!

Well, curiosity won out for me... and 150-180 euros for Mr. Black & White is quite a statement and something you have to be willing to indulge in.

Left is TdF and right is Aventus for about 4 hours now. TdF is incredibly fruity and very delicious in the first 10 seconds... that's exactly the period where I can recognize a parallel between the two scents, but I must note that I am a fragrance novice fan (why do so many people write "Leihe" when "Laie" is meant??). I can't pick out pineapple as a single fruit... more like a fresh blueberry note... anyway. After that, TdF immediately becomes scratchy and herbal for me... something stings my nose for about 10 minutes... disturbing and unpleasant... sharp. With Aventus, there is nothing... absolutely nothing that scratches or disturbs... everything is rounded, homogeneous... harmonious... simply perfect. It radiates an incredible elegance and superiority compared to TdF... wonderful! The fruity freshness and later a slightly more robust freshness is also noticeably higher with Aventus... just before the drydown, TdF even becomes slightly sweet for me... and at the very end, after about 1 hour, both smell almost identical again... after that, both have not changed until now (4.5 hours). I really like the figurative language as a car salesman... you could compare the two scents like this: TdF behaves towards Aventus like a rough, clunky Breitling imitation does to an IWC or Glashütte. If TdF is the rough blacksmith for the fittings, then Aventus is a Florentine goldsmith on the dreamy and timeless Ponte Vecchio. Due to my inflationary perfume usage, TdF could be quite okay to good for everyday wear... without much emotion... but sooner or later, I will treat myself to Mr. Beau, because he does EVERYTHING better. Or as Lilienfeld beautifully expressed it... Creed and Mercedes fit perfectly together:-).

34 degrees...the sun is burning mercilessly..the skin is sticky...there's a thick layer of dirt on you...and you have only one wish left...suit off..tie gone..shirt off...socks off..and for an ice-cold shower, you would sell your own mother right now...! At 7 PM, all of this came true...(I did keep my mother after all!)...as powdered sugar on top, my first perfume love in life (late 80s/early 90s) Nightflight was to serve as the finishing touch on my cool skin. This is the only perfume I have consistently had in my collection for the last 20 years.
Last week, I bought it again...

My mega-super-fresh all-rounder...with which I was never wrong "dressed"...not in summer, not in winter, never at the office (except when overdosed...the hint from my colleagues "ohhh Mr. Douglas is coming, should we say something????")...not after sports...not in the evening when going out...I always received compliments for it everywhere...only the very very few guessed the scent...that was the beauty compared to Cool Water. Although back then, the selection was significantly smaller than today.

Two situations have decisively shaped my perception of the scent, the new boyfriend of my first ex-girlfriend wore this perfume during our first three-way meeting. Actually a situation that screams for escalation...and normally would cost you 2 years without parole with a reasonable reaction...but nothing...I only noticed his perfume...fresh..delicious..noble...with depth..somehow I couldn't be really angry with him anymore. Is there a harsher test for a perfume???? As an apprentice, I didn't have the money to buy the perfume. Then I discovered the complete Nightlight collection in my older brother's bathroom, perfume...deodorant..shower gel...wow this great blue star bottle...then I knew it was THE perfume of my ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Actually, with such a thought, the best perfume turns into sludge!!! But from then on, I was under its spell...after all, the big brother is one of the first role models in life...and HE has a real perfume...WOW..magic!!! He even had two...Joop Homme and Nightflight. So I secretly used both perfumes in large amounts every day, wanting to be as cool as my brother and my ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend :-) To make it less noticeable, I always filled the Homme with red juice-water and the Nightlight only with water. My brother was smarter and filled the Homme with the red Hexal gargle solution...and Nightlight with Blue Curacao...and placed it very obviously...and I casually and lavishly sprayed myself with it in the evenings when going out. The revenge from back then hits me today after 3 hours of wearing the 2013 Nightflight again...I smell almost nothing anymore...and what I do smell has nothing to do with the NF from back then or even from the last years. Mega disappointment...flat..fresh yes..but it only fleetingly reminds me of the original...I am 100% sure of that..this scent has burned itself into my memory :-). Especially the longevity back then was over 12 hours...on clothes forever..only topped by Issey Miyake. No more..not even the depth...the perfume has transformed you into pure cleanliness and purity after 2-3 hours...now it smells at most like Nightflight Cologne...it hurts that my first (perfume) love has left me...this was the LAST-Flight :-(

From the club of the extremely rejected to one of my favorite fragrances...and that within just a few days this week. TdH was to me the epitome of the dusty-old-man scent, in the same club as Tabac Original and Grey Flannel...also Antaeus...whenever I got close, I would grimace and had to make a wide detour. I always thought, so this is what an old man smells like...and you never want to smell like that(!). My latent tendency towards sweeter perfumes or citrusy fresh scents has (so far) denied me access to such fragrances. In the past, I had tested the scent repeatedly...and always thought that only motor oil combined with battery acid could be worse than TdH. I always had to look at the advertising posters with a subtle smirk...in the style of...they don't know what they're doing. Can one go through phases of fragrance preferences...I mean, independent of the seasons and/or wallet? ?? Because I can't quite understand such a 180-degree turn...or am I just a miserable perfume victim who lets himself be influenced by the top ratings and statements ("this is how a REAL man smells")...after all, one doesn't want to be a FAKE man, right??? Yet I have always liked "such" scents...like Fahrenheit or Zino Davidoff, which I like to compare with TdH...okay, I don't get it...but before I drift too much into Freudian territory (masculine side and all...) I can only say that the scent is a dream.

Last night, after a warm day, I wore the fragrance for the first time during a visit to the beer garden.

I felt fantastic all evening. Fresh, masculine, clear, tidy, with edges and corners, not so smoothed out and round...unshaven, dusty, hearty, attractive, tough, superior, earthy, self-confident, charismatic, daring...wow....what they always pour into a bottle;-)!!!!

I believe there must have been a re-release of the fragrance in June 2013...because how could the scent excite me so much now??! The fragrance was clearly perceptible for the entire 5 hours (I immediately tried the tip from my suboptimal perfumer...spraying on the nape/hairline and on the belly)...with every movement, there was a mix of citrus freshness and peppery-stony spiciness (like a hot stone after the thunderstorm), also reminiscent of damp leather, clearly noticeable. I discover new nuances of the scent hour by hour. However, it will definitely not be a scent for every day or for 2-3 consecutive days. I always find comparisons with wines very good and illustrative...you wouldn't want to drink a strong, dry, opulent, heavy red wine every day...sometimes a light and refreshing Pinot Grigio is enough...both can be a great pleasure in their own way. It's like after a 2-week holiday in Tuscany...after 10 bottles of red wine from the top wineries and antipasti with parmesan and olive oil front and back...it can be a supreme pleasure to drive home through Switzerland and take a break with an ice-cold white beer and a large and simple, sour sausage salad. So, enjoy my comment;-)