Lilsniffles

Oops, what kind of sample did I get here? I didn't want it, but I can test it anyway. The color alone makes me think the worst.

And yes - where do I start? Unpleasantly cardboardy, intense fragrance, absolutely not my style, but it's all a matter of taste. Personally, I find it awful and would like to wash it off me, but then I can't go into the fragrance any further. This fragrance is old-fashioned, old-school, it's only for people who like the past. My great-grandmother would have loved it, but it would probably be too old-school for my 60-year-old mother.

The opening is pure esoteric store. You're standing in line, today is the big summer sale for crystals and life potions. So many people in the store, you're standing squeezed between two gentlemen in warm old leather coats. It creaks and squeaks as they keep moving and you get stuck. You try to catch your breath, but all you inhale is incense fumes, stale and outdated, you can't smell any spice, just the flimsy old soft sticks. Every breath of this scent gives me a headache, more and more.

Then the leather note comes through even more penetratingly, you slip between the two leather coat men and end up in a basket full of old sandals. Next to you is a child, unattended, throwing plasticine in your face. "How dare you fall on the basket of sandals!" - Plop, plop, plop, one ball of plasticine after another, a few get stuck in your nose, you choke on plasticine, surrounded by leather. A hint of rubber somehow. You want to escape from the basket, but you slip on the plasticine and fall right back in.

An employee comes over, "Hey, you look pretty wasted there in the basket, would you like some carrot cake?" - Yes, why not. It doesn't suit me at the moment, but I'm always in the mood for cake. And then she throws the carrot cake in my face. "How dare you fall on the sandal basket!" - Plop, plop, plop, carrot cake and dough fly into my face. The leather coat lords were actually vampires, and flutter away with the coat, the haze intensified once more by the swirling air.

An hour passes, I have given up. I slowly get used to this haze. Something sweet pokes through, a woman came into the esoteric store, she was wearing something with vanilla, a blast of fresh air paired with her scent. And she disappeared again just as quickly, but the memory remains.

I take a deep breath, "what do I do now?", I'm trapped here. An employee opens the store door, "It's pretty stuffy in here!" - And something fresh comes in, I notice a very slight citrus, someone outside has a lemonade stand, the air slowly relaxes, but the notes from before are still hovering around me.

And that's where the fragrance ends. Not a great progression, initially penetratingly powerful in the face, then it slowly becomes lighter, but continues to linger unpleasantly in my nose. Quite creepy. It lasts a really long time, I've had it on the back of my hand for 10 hours and it doesn't give up, it just becomes calmer. But even when it's calm, it's not beautiful in my opinion. Sillage is strong, the haze sticks to the room.

Oh yes, Creed Aventus. You are someone. Above all, you were always my enemy, I could never do anything with this fruity fresh shower gel cocktail, especially because every freshie tried to smell like you afterwards. Sometimes in the heart, sometimes in the base, sometimes as an overall concept. But you were always the catalyst for everything. You made it a trend. You shaped an entire generation of fragrances, you were one of "them". A star who became a role model for countless others.

And I still don't like you. When I tested you back then, you were already overwhelmingly strong. Intensely fresh, woody, fruity, still smoky somehow. You had something about you that all the imitations didn't have. That made you special, even though you were so stale. I didn't like you, but I realized that you were still something special, that you were worth it. At least for those who liked your style.

But now, with a very recent sample, you're just a shadow of what you used to be. You open with your pineapple, citrus, apples, musk, only 10% of what you did back then. You briefly remember the past, but with severe dementia.

You stick to the skin for 10 minutes, with exactly the opening, and then you're gone. As if you were an EdT from the discount store. After those 10 minutes, you have 1% of the performance you had even after 10 hours. I smell pretty much nothing on the back of my hand, poof and gone. Remnants of the top note stick to me, remnants of wood, pineapple, pepper, lemon. And with every second, 1% more disappears. After half an hour, it's almost gone. Now and then you can still perceive Aventus, a brief ray of hope, but it is gone again just as quickly.

The king has fallen, new kings reign. Rest in peace!

The opening:

"Have you got any chewing gum?"

"No, sorry"

"Of course you have chewing gum, I can smell it. Everything here smells of mint because of you!"

"Yeah okay, you got me. How many do you want?"

"I want to chew at least 30 mint chewing gums with my mouth open"

"...ok"

__________________________________________

The heart:

"I've just chewed so many mints, you wouldn't believe it!"

"Lost another bet again?"

"No, I just felt like it"

"Understandable, I can still smell it a bit. Speaking of which - do you fancy rubbing yourself with herbs? We use my hands for that too, I just have to squeeze 5 kilos of lemons. I love lemon juice"

"Yes, of course, I'm all for it. But please don't wash your hands afterwards"

"...ok"

__________________________________________

The drydown:

"So, what do you think?"

"What do you think?"

"Yes, how do I smell?"

"I don't know, I don't notice anything. Maybe I need to get closer. Yes, yes, you smell like something. Have you been chewing way too much mint gum again & getting rubbed with herbs? Let me guess, that was the guy who always squeezes 5 kilos of lemons and you didn't want him to wash his hands afterwards. I know you like lemons, just not that intensely"

".. Yes"

"But I think it's good. It's got something! The charisma isn't there, but you smell fresh, like an herbal candy with an undertone of freshly laid mulch, somehow."

"Mulch? What makes you think of mulch?"

"I don't know, you smell a bit mulchy, sour woody masculine, but I kind of like mulch. When I press my nose against your skin, I smell herbs and mulch. Your breath tells stories about the gum, but slowly it disappears."

"Did you just say I smell mulchy?"

"Yes"

Torino21.

I don't know why I went straight for Bois Imperial as a blind buy, and then as a whole bottle. Somehow this mystery was so incredibly appealing to me that I couldn't help myself. As a staunch Gourmand supporter and Freshie opponent, I just wanted to take a chance and venture into the unknown. Why gourmand OR freshie when it can also be something completely surreal? Bois Imperial is the answer. I think so. Is it the answer? Depends on what's asked for.

And here it is - packaged like 100g buckwheat semolina from the eco-conscious organic store, I tear it out of 500 layers of cardboard as if I were a vegan King Arthur.

"Bois Imperial!" I shout, the average-looking bling in my hand. 50% of the crowd scream in fear, the other 50% are amazed. Bois Imperial. I elegantly decapitate the bottle, which fits perfectly into the collection of a Berlin street model, so minimalist and yet beautiful, and take a test sniff of the atomizer, first impression... Wow. It smells somehow so... Soft? Fresh? I don't know what I smell here, but it just smells like washed, like "clean".

Sprayed on my arm and got scared. What is that? Close to the skin, this fragrance is definitely not a winner for me. Anyone who has ever had anything to do with "death" will understand what I mean. Not rotten, absolutely not, but any crime scene cleaner will be scared of you because of that pungent sweetness on your arm. It's exactly that sweetness. The creepy sweetness. I've read it somewhere here in the reviews before, and I can understand it 100%. If the elderly gentleman in the apartment below you hasn't shown his face for a week when you've been in this exact situation, you know the smell. At first, the smell is questionable and not bad, but as soon as the door is broken down, you know what I mean. Then you connect with the context. I don't notice disinfectant at all, so not at all. Hospital? Depends, has anyone died there recently? Then yes.

I would like to add here - this is a fragrance that is more in the niche of "molecule" fragrances. It is the intermediate world of molecules and real fragrances. Your skin decides what happens to this fragrance, the fragrance does not.

It. polarizes. More than 10cm away from the place that wears this fragrance, and it just smells incredibly indefinably good. I absolutely can't explain it to you, it's hard to put into words, and it really is an ABSOLUTE niche fragrance. You have to be able to cope with it, either you cut yourself with this blade directly or you learn to deal with it. Some love fish, some tolerate fish, some HATE fish more than anything. This scent doesn't smell like fish, but it is fish. Not a crowd-pleaser / designer, but still more crowd-pleaser than designer. Pretty much EVERYONE will love your sillage, just don't let it get too close. Please never wear this fragrance on a date, it's too risky for that. Wear this fragrance if you want others in the pedestrian zone to remember you in a positive way and wonder what a beautiful, great fragrance it is, because it simply radiates calm and peace.

It opens with "soapy", but not bitterly soapy, and an intensely synthetic-sweet freshness, but not the freshness we are used to. Pure horror close to the skin. But there's a smell in the air that's hard to explain - clean, fresh, light and airy, you think this is what the clouds smell like on a summer evening when you walk through the garden, surrounded by washing lines with freshly washed laundry that is almost dry but still gives off the last remaining moisture. You hear soft lo-fi hip hop, without lyrics, a pure instrumental, a warm bass in the background, with a soft melody. And in this matter he remains quite linear, but powerfully striking. You are constantly surrounded by this cloud of "clean". This fragrance embodies fabric softener fragrance in a way that is respectable and simply cannot be explained until you try it yourself. But if you're into wacky gradients, you're in the wrong place. Not much else changes here.

After an hour, this creepy sweetness on the skin subsides, it becomes drier, pepper stands out, but not Szechuan for me (I have a kilo of authentic Szechuan here, I eat it when I feel like drooling for no reason), Szechuan pepper is more reminiscent of citrus mixed with... Cannabis, no fun, this is more reminiscent of normal spicy pepper. Dry, classy, grapefruit not present, maybe part of the sillage, but more the pepper. Woody, so light, yes, dry wood. Creamy, the ambrofix is permanently there, signaling to your nose that something is simply clean. It becomes more floral on the skin, the sweetness disappears LUCKILY as it progresses.

1 1/2 hours later - I'm starting to feel like I've washed my hair. First shampoo, then conditioner, then conditioner. There's something incredibly clean and creamy in the air, I'm going crazy. Close to the skin, it almost reminds me of Terre de Hermes, only not nearly as masculine, resinous and dry. But the sillage is completely different. The sillage is softer, softer, washed through and through. I love it, and yet I am somehow afraid of it. But I love it more.

And so he stays, and becomes calmer and calmer.

What an adventure, it was really worth the blind buy. If you're tired of buying normal designers and want something REALLY wicked in an acceptable price segment, this is the one for you. Would I recommend it as a blind buy? Yes and no. You have to be open to a strange experience, you have to be open to a fragrance that is different from any fragrance you are used to. That doesn't make it bad, on the contrary, I think it's somehow really cool.

But I can say one more thing - never test this fragrance on a test strip. Never, never, never. Generally a mortal sin, unless you only want to notice the strong top notes. But I'm not judging Coke because I don't like the color of the logo. You have to try it. You MUST test this fragrance on your skin, otherwise you will form a completely wrong opinion. Your skin decides what this fragrance will say.

I had already tested Naxos a long time ago. I wasn't too convinced at the time, somehow it reminded me of a rich grandmother. A nice rich grandmother.

But as time goes on, opinions change. And so it's now back in my collection. Rightly so? Well, let's say "halfway".

I can't understand the hype surrounding Naxos at all. It is praised on social media as the Holy Grail of fragrances, a masterpiece, the spark of the gods, the destroyer of all fragrances, the number one. I can't even begin to support any of this.

Naxos is great, yes. I can't argue with that. A good 7.5/10, simply because it's not intrusive or aggressive, but it's still very present and smells great. Naxos is worth the price as long as you can get it for under 200€. But that's about it. It wouldn't make it into my top 5 fragrances simply because it doesn't embody anything special overall, although that's exactly the case in every "perfume influencer" video. And I'm not a nose pro looking for the most alternative fragrances ever, and absolutely want to smell like goat gland secretions, used sandals from the Byzantine era & freeze-dried blue lobster shells. I'm just a guy who likes to smell good myself, and wants to smell good to others, like most average people. Really don't put too much stock in the promises of a lot of big name people - Most very expensive fragrances just end up smelling as boring and cheap as drugstore fragrances, but a lot of people put too much stock in it because of the price, and then develop stories that belong in an Aladdin movie.

That's why I keep the fragrance process simple and understandable so that the average person can understand it:

Naxos smells intensely of sweet untreated tobacco, tonka and vanilla at the first spray. That is the basic foundation. Then there is honey, which is not overpowering, it just warms up the fragrance in the background. Make yourself a cup of vanilla tea, pour in some honey and then smell a cigarette in the steam of the tea. Tada. The average wearer of fragrances should not imagine a symphony of fragrance facets here, there is no magical play with lavender or bergamot, there is no fascinatingly great duel of opposites, the top notes are hardly or not at all noticeable. Or cashmere. What is cashmere? Cashmere is certainly involved here somewhere, but nobody will notice it. It's just sweet and woody. It's just tobacco, tonka and vanilla, and a little honey. Have you ever smelled a honey cigar? It comes close, only Naxos isn't quite as deeply musty and tart, but a little more attuned to a fresher style that you can wear on your body for longer. And that's about it. You shouldn't expect an ultimate fragrance that makes every other fragrance look ridiculous. Especially because there is no great depth here. The fragrance doesn't tell a good story like some others, but it does tell a pleasantly long story.

Yes, it lasts a long time. Went for a shower on Saturday morning, fragrance arrived, tested it, woke up on Sunday morning, arm still smelled like I had just applied it ~3 hours ago. And after showering, it was still slightly sticky on me. Not bad, it smells great! But as long as it lasts, it hardly changes overall. I know some other fragrances that are half the price and are much more multi-faceted and interesting. But... it's still great!

And the presentation is also great - Xerjoff knows how to present fragrances, just like LV (if you order directly from them). Bottle 10/10, every now and then I'd like to lick it because it looks like a lollipop. Packaging exactly the same, absolute 10/10, I would be buried in it.

But what I won't bury is the Naxos. It can stay. Naxos is a good everyday companion, Naxos is like the noodle for the Ludolfs - you can wear it in the evening, you can wear it in the morning, you can wear it in winter, fall, spring, and sometimes even on summer evenings when it's not quite so warm. Naxos smells pleasant, is soft on the skin and in the nose, but Naxos is not an alien from another planet. Naxos is simple, pleasant, you like to smell it, it suits both men and women, although it tends a little more towards men, and it's just... good. Nothing special, but good.

Naxos is simple and great, and absolutely not worth the hype. That's my experience.