Eliseoo

I did not like the idea of a more concentrated version of Oud Ispahan since the EDP lasted 3 days on my skin and gave me a migraine, but I liked what the EDP was trying to do so I decided to give it a shot. I was blown away. Very high quality fragrance.

This opens very spicy and woody with cloves and cumin, these accords are so well done but are not in your face, its not like sniffing those spices straight up. Along with a certain mass appealing smell that Dior's private line tends to have, I appreciate this being in the fragrance because it just makes it more wearable, and blends very nicely with the woody spicy opening, I am also glad that it goes away after a short time to let the oud do its thing later on. This very airy and rich rose starts lurking in very quickly, and the longer its on your skin the more powerful the rose becomes and the spices subside. The rose section of this fragrance lasts around 2 hours until it goes away and then the oud starts to shine WONDERFULLY. This is when it gets animalic, but doesn't smell like your surrounded by feces like Frederic Malle The Night. I love punchy animalic ouds and this does the job for me while not being too challenging, think of Oud Ispahan Esprit being a dog on a leash, and FM The Night being an aggressive dog off the leash. This is overall a very dry fragrance and there's no holes in the composition, to me it feels like nothing is missing. This is truly a designer oud masterpiece and I don't think any other designer could top this, I would go as far as to say this is way better composed, and smells better than Bortnikoff's ouds and higher quality than many other niche ouds. This is my second favorite oud fragrance of all time, Frederic Malle The Night takes first place due to its complexity.

Comparing to the original Oud Ispahan EDP, Esprit is smoother, the oud note is significantly better, its spicier, and does not have this beast mode molecule that the EDP had that gave me a migraine and lasted for days on my skin. So the performance for Oud Ispahan Esprit is a bit weaker but I have no problem with it whatsoever because the smell is WAY better. Esprit lasts around 24 hours with the first 3 hours having slightly higher than average projection.

This is the best fragrance marketed for men. Hands down.
I have smelled both vintage and modern, I personally prefer the modern, however, both are great.

The main differences are: the modern is more dry and woody and the vintage is more wet and dense with a significantly bolder myrrh, both equally animalic with a similar if not the same castoreum in both. I would even argue that modern is more (noticeably) animalic.
With the vintage smelling incredibly resinous, it limits the versatility. But with the modern, It's got that Chanel classiness that makes this scent profile more versatile in terms of weather, however it's arguable that they are both worn in the same situations, as the castoreum is incredibly similar.

The reformulation doesn't feel like Chanel changed it SPECIFICALLY for sales, they just wanted to make Antaeus more buttoned up while retaining its animalic characteristic. Think of the vintage as a bold, confident, gentle, and free willed hard working man in his 30's. And the modern as the exact same person, but in his 50's and owns a business and wears a black suit every day at work.

Don't take that analogy as me saying age restricts this fragrance, as I'm 22 and am currently rocking modern Antaeus as my daily. I love the hell out of this fragrance. It is worth sniffing both modern and vintage just to see which one you prefer. Also very well priced (currently $135 for 100ml) but even with the tariffs coming I would gladly pay more for a second bottle.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you love/will love Antaeus as much as I do.

Opening is very safe, like, something a designer would make? The way the vanilla and lavender is used here is very common with a tinge of basil and bergamot. But the SPICES quickly come in.. lots of cinnamon and cloves with a very wearable tobacco and the florals here a become a backbone for this fragrance balancing everything out. My only problem with this is, as a niche brand that is expensive, coming out with a safe designer-like smell. Not bashing on the quality as you can definitely tell this is VERY well made, but an upset but not let down moment. However, this fragrance does give me a sense of happiness.

Opens with lots and LOTS of spice! The frankincense feels like a supporting note, but this also has a very prominent myrtle note making this very bright and green especially paired with that cardamom. Then comes in the myrrh and a very prominent geranium note giving it that clean, soapy, masculine touch with a clean leather. Later, even more frankincense comes in and now its a little more prominent, dry woods come up, giving this a really classy touch. I haven't smelled anything like this I'll give it that. I will say you smell the resins a lot more in the air compared to up close and that's probably my favorite part, the geranium is a bit too prominent for my taste (I was never a big fan of that note anyways) Its good but doesn't specifically fit me.

Opens with lots of frankincense and elemi, very resinous, but the spices balance it out very well along with a dry background of tobacco. As the mid comes in, the licorice root comes in with the fenugreek, orange blossom, with a rich bourbon vanilla, and the prunol adding a bit of fruitiness. The longer this settles, the woody notes and the other resins come out more and pair VERY well with the tobacco, sort of giving that musty smoky smell (but not exactly unclean smell) when youre around someone smoking, however its not overbearing as vanilla and tonka feel like theyre supporting the sweetness from the myrrh and eventually become more prominent. For how much this changes, it transitions VERY smoothly I'm very impressed.