Ignika

"Rarely been so disappointed by a fragrance" unfortunately I don't think about it so seldom anymore the last few months. Does this have anything to do with the samples I get from them in turquoise? Maybe. Why am I mentioning this? BdC perfume reminds me that BdC exists. But I have to admit that lately I have tended towards dramaturgy; the disappointment does not necessarily stem from the quality of the work, but rather from my sometimes snobbish elitism. Bleu de Chanel, whether EdT, EdP or just P, is not bad, but by far not good either.

The perfume resembles the eau de parfum and the eau de toilette like an egg to another. No matter if the skin is different or not, the variance in taste is very small anyway, but that's why I'm writing this comment here. The opening is dominated by mandarin with vetiver. Citric-sweet, but also earthy, musty, a little smoky. Bad combination, I think. After a few minutes the sandalwood comes out that it is New Caledonian, I dare to doubt. Very. And then a little shy Tonka and Bleu de Chanel Parfum is ready.

As previous speakers have already said: the differences are very small. Apart from the suddenly embarrassing performance, most people don't pay much attention to the small differences, for example that the EdP contains more lemon than mandarin. I like trying to nuance so fine, but then Chanel shouldn't do that first, it's a good match for online mix-it-yourself providers, but a primary rock? and second, the perfume should be more than just passable.

A great fragrance. One of my oldest rehearsals, empty for years, but still in memory, as if it had only been yesterday.

For a long time the (strong!) orange blossom dominates with cinnamon. There's a bit too much of that in it, sometimes it seems quite sharp, as the cinnamon (pure) does. In the beginning you can still hear some bergamot, but after a maximum of half an hour it goes down. The lily sometimes appears between orange blossom and cinnamon. If she comes from Florence I don't know, she can't ask very well; sample is already empty :s
Only few black pepper and juniper are to be smelled. I'm grateful for the pepper, it hardly fits in here. Vanilla (actually vanilla, not tonka, or vanillin or anything else) and amber form a nice, quiet base. The Vetiver also floats around on this level when it appears after a few hours. Pleasant, dry, woody. IF it finally comes to light what takes the endurance of the main actors.

1899 is a real feel-good fragrance. Never intrusive, beautiful, but present enough that you can hear the orange-cinnamon flair again and again without sniffing at your wrist. Durability is also convincing, sometimes even above average for me, mostly above the typical 6 to 7 hours.
Because of the association of orange-cinnamon with winter, I say boldly: Hemingway is for cold weather. For man and woman, young and old.

With every fragrance creation Masque wants to represent an act (of an opera). I found that very interesting and Montecristo sounded best for me. But then I didn't like him then somehow. Too tart, and so herbaceous (without being green), and a bit gourmand sweet? Not for beginners at all.

Montecristo begins already bitter and spicy, but still a little fresh and loosened up by some citrus. The remaining notes are not easy to recognize, interwoven. I recognize Patchouli(heavy, sweet, earthy), Rum(fine sweet and fine spicy), Styrax(heavy, sweetish, spicy hints) and celery seeds (earthy and celery halt...). The fragrance has much less wood than the note tree suggests, the cistus rose is said to be slightly woody and Cab(p?)reuva is said to be reminiscent of cedar. Montecristo never delivers more wood. In addition, both are somewhat sweetish, have musk-like nuances. The tobacco, on the other hand, is noticeably more present and gives a cigar flair to the sweet earthiness. This is pleasant, but bites something with the chocolate, or rather, through the astringency of the overall picture, cocoa note (of benzoin). All in all, Montecristo is an earthy fragrance with a few spicy and many sweet nuances, but which are not very noticeable because of the tobacco.

For my taste there is too much celery and benzoin in it: less earthy, without cocoa Montecristo would be lived Dolce Vita, Kuba Style. The way he is, it makes you think more of a tobacco farmer's summerhouse in the evening. The field outside the front door would be freshly ploughed. The woman has cooked celery, the children eat chocolate, the tobacco leaves hang on the walls and ferment. Very interesting, but fortunately the Sillage is not obtrusive. Bauernbudenstimmung remains around 7 hours.

Out of curiosity I ordered a sample from AlzD 5 years ago. I immediately liked Sequioa, but I still find it difficult to describe him. I'll try anyway.

The absence of a note tree already indicates: Sequoia is linear. All notes appear to me to be equally long-lived and almost equally strong. Apart from the mahogany note, all notes are more or less sweet, even the Chinese oud: it is described as first medicinal, then woody and sweet with a dry finish. To the sweetness (quasi) of all notes comes a certain fresh-fruity note, fine and not too sweet itself. If I had to guess, I'd say Granny Smith, but I'm not too good with apples. In addition to the (light) woody-sweet mixture, the last notable factor is rum. Characteristically decently spicy, also sweet, but more than sweet so...watery. She doesn't seem alcoholic to me. The same sweet-spicy dilution I also know from Kilian's Straight to Heaven and Joop's Homme Wild. Since the note is not too dominant, it goes down a bit in all compositions, here just behind wood and apple.

The endurance was neither positive nor negative for me, it is in the green range of about 7 hours. The Sillage seemed to me always quite close to the body, but in a club I was asked about it! I'm afraid not because I liked it, and not the opposite sex. Very bad :/

So: sweet, woody, with spicy and fruity hints. Sounds funny, but it is; is better than it sounds, and it sounds like it's worth a few tests.

Sometimes I'm hard-core with my scent capades. Once I came to a sample of this and wanted to test it again, sat in the lecture hall...all the members of my troupe wanted me to wash off Wazamba as soon as possible. For the first time I became aware of the factor projection; there was probably 1 sprayer 1 sprayer too much! Good old times...

Wazamba is smoky throughout, and greenish-herb! As much as some of the listed notes should have (finely) spicy or/and warm nuances, I didn't notice anything about it. Incense from head to base note, accompanied by green tones (+ cypress). The aldehydes add a lot of radiance and possibly also some citrus, with all the herb smoke it's hard to make out anything so far in the background. Up to after maximum 2 hours an apple scurries through the smoke clouds, which also irritated me. Green, so bitter, so smoky, and then... an apple too? That hardly fits.

I probably only found it strange the first time I smelled it. How quickly an olfactory reference to reality can go unrecognized in a perfume. I still like him a bit, but with such a concept with such endurance and bombastic sillage I have to say: Wazamba is as suitable for everyday use as cloves of garlic. You smell intensely, you smell for a long time, the least will like it.