Gumschel

I first came across Relax at the end of the 90s. It was in the bathroom in our shared flat for 2 people. My flatmate had received it as a gift from his girlfriend. He rarely used it. Once in a while to go out or something.

At that time, I didn't have much money and therefore only ever wore one perfume. Back then, I think it was 'What about Adam' by Joop. Very green/fresh with the great tomato leaf.

That was the time when the oversweet Joop Hommes and Mugler Amens were still doing the rounds. I was a bit suspicious and brutal back then. Including the iconic 'Le Male', which I never liked because of its linear hairspray note (whatever that means :-).

That's how I ended up eating the neglected green bottle.

Ok. The bottle had the classic Davidoff shape. Just in green. So good - so boring. But what's with the little fluting devil on the back? Mysterious.

The first time I tested it, I found it old-fashioned and exuberant. I didn't like it.

After a long time, I sprayed it on again rather unmotivated.

And then suddenly this green powdery warmth appeared under this classic AS top note. So delicious, attractive, warm and enveloping. So it had docked and I loved it.

As soon as Aftershave Cloud of the Head recedes, which is only slightly perplexing because of the mint, the gate opens to the garden where this devil aka faun aka forest spirit lets his flute play. There is this wonderfully warm, powdery heliotrope/woodruff note that makes Relax so cuddly. This then fades after hours into a beautiful, warm vanilla/tonka base. The ace has long since taken its leave.

At some point, the bottle was empty. I mentally parked it in the sidings and started to addict Escada 'Casual Friday'.

Every now and then I saw another bottle in a Douglas, but didn't buy it because I thought: later..

And then suddenly it was no longer available. Sadness and anger about missed buying opportunities set in.
Who hasn't experienced this:-]

But miracles do happen and in the mid-2000s there was a new edition in 75ml and without Faun on the bottle. I treated myself to at least 2 bottles of my beloved Relax back then. And as quickly as it was back, it disappeared from the scene again.

I still have just under 20ml of it in a 30ml vintage bottle. It has lost none of its magic. And 2 or 3 times a year I go for a walk in this wonderful little forest of my fragrance past...

Together with 'Zino' and 'CoolWater', the Davidoff circle is complete. For me, the best 3 Davidoffs and 3 of the best perfumes of all time...

I had my first contact with Kouros sometime in the mid-80s, when I was still a young boy.

In the magazines at that time, there were perfumed, stick-on peel-off strips placed under the advertisements for the advertised fragrances. These strips revealed their olfactory secret as soon as they were torn from the page.
I loved these things and so I eagerly got to grips with the Kouros. I liked it immediately. Spicy, strong, fresh.
My father happened to be there and I held the strip under his nose.

What can I say. My father, a die-hard perfume fanatic whose comment on every perfume is the same: 'Stinks! So enthusiastic that he ordered a colleague to bring a bottle of it back from the city.

It was the aftershave version.
I can still remember my father getting quite a few compliments when he put it on, only on special occasions of course.

As a youngster, I was not allowed to use the expensive stuff. Which, of course, I did from time to time and was always promptly betrayed by the scent. This didn't happen very often, though, because it felt somehow inappropriate for me, too grown-up.

Due to the all too sporadic, sparing use over the years, the fine juice eventually turned into Maggi and ended up in the bin.
It remained firmly anchored in my memory.

In my mid-20s, I treated myself to 1 or 2 bottles of EdT. I loved it as much as ever and I had grown up in the meantime.
That was in the early/mid-2000s. I only got positive reactions to it.

It plays with the contrasts of fresh/clean and spicy/animal and has the unfathomable magic that turns a perfume into an icon.

He plays the game with the dose that makes the poison well and with style.
He is not a (somewhat boring?) clean man. This role was later taken on by Cool Water, for example. Also a classic.

Everyone knows odors that smell good or bad depending on their concentration. The small border area is then the hotspot. This is also what makes animalic so appealing.

I never thought of Kouros as a station toilet. I first read about it much later on Parfumo.

OK. This train station toilet smells very appealing
And I can understand the association. But what the heck, in reality Kouros just smells good!

I still have plenty in an original 90s bottle. The current one is also good.
And I'll always have Kouros, gods willing...

Test obligation!