MickeyRourke

Havicat is one of the fragrances that I recently got as a sample to compare with Creed Aventus. The others I would like to mention here also briefly. There were still Al Haramain L'Aventure, Mancerea Cetrat Boise and Swiss Arabian Shawq to choose from. Comparing these scents was a sobering experience. Not necessarily because they are all grotty bad, but because to me they all don't really have much in common. I also can't share the comparison with Aventus. But here it is about Nishane Hacivat - and so surprised me once again anew, where one leads the subject of fragrances so.

Havicat, I learned and so it is already referred to, is a character in a Turkish shadow play called Karagöztheater, a kind of Turkish Punch and Judy show in which the characters are staged by light effects. According to Wikipedia, ".... Havicat associates with everyone and thus pursues his interests, he is moderate and can play all roles....he adheres to the social rules of conduct, but not out of conviction. Hacivat practices any profession for money...he makes the character Karagöz do hard work for a small wage. Hacivat usually embodies the role of the employer and is thus the representative of the social order. In terms of character, he is an opportunist. Hacivat loves to express himself turgidly and in Ottoman high language...". Karagöz, on the other hand, is rather the opposite, inane, uneducated, always looking for sexual contacts without great pretensions and regularly falling for Havicat. The Karaöztheater caused quite a stir in its time, provoked and mocked and crossed many a boundary at the time with its satirical, cynical nature and licentiousness.

Now why did Nishane choose that name? Opportunism, satire, cynicism, provocation, licentiousness? Or does it refer more to the play of light and shadow, the contrasts between the two characters, what we are supposed to recognize in this fragrance? Let's see.

A fresh, slightly fruity opening, thanks to bergamot, pineapple and grapefruit pours into my nose. The grapefruit gives the whole a pleasantly acidic touch. At the beginning I have associations with an alcoholic summer cocktail. Now this is not wrong, Hacivat already fits well into the summer. The floral, sweet character of jasmine takes the initial fruity tangy impression back for a while. Patchouli and cedarwood do not push themselves to the fore at any time and a little woody notes are added by the oakmoss. On a positive note for me, the slightly tangy impression from the top note comes back at some point. Slightly acidic grapefruit with an earthy touch then remains in the base.

Yes, a certain shadow play and certain contrasts can be recognized. And opposites should also attract each other again. All in all, not a bad impression. A little more striking it could be for me. Those who like it rather discreet, as far as smoky and woody notes are concerned, should like Hacivat. Personally, however, I lack the aha effect and at a whopping 200 EUR for the 100ml is too little or too much for me. By the way, Havicat wasn't a rich entrepreneur either, just a wannabe who was somehow looking for recognition, but in the end was too comfortable to really put himself out there. But that's probably not the reason why Nishane named his fragrance Havicat.

With the name Cedrat Boise, Mancera has gone back to the basics - the sweet woody lemon.

The prelude is accordingly also only briefly lemony fresh and is then overlaid by a fruity, later syrupy sweetness. What is meant there by currant reminds me more of his sweet, sticky candy, which is supposed to taste like currant according to the packaging, but remains rather indefinably sweet, with a very slight spice in the background. After that, woody impressions then make themselves felt. The initial sweetness gets company from vanilla, which is then unfortunately a bit too much for me and for me with the woody impressions also no longer really goes together. If you wait a while, come still smoky and leathery impressions, but unfortunately also something musty.

So I'm sorry to say that I'm rather disappointed with Cedrat Boise. And with an Aventus clone has in my opinion purely nothing to do.

Swiss Arabian Shawq, in Arabic probably synonymous with longing, was actually intended for me as an alternative for Creed Aventus. In any case, I could read in several posts that he could certainly come into question. After I had already tested Al Haramain L'Aventure and found it a bit too woody and smoky, I ordered SAS among others. Also I had already thought of layern.

Now I have to add, I also tested Cetrat Boise and Nishane Hacivat as samples. These were also recommended to me as alternatives to Aventus. So why not order samples and compare. And while they've all been called similar to Aventus or Aventus clones before, and the ingredients definitely suggest an Aventus clone, they all don't really have much in common for me. One is too distinctively woody, the other not enough, the other too sweet and so on. But now to Swiss Arabian Shawq.

SAS opens with an initially slightly fresh and fruity pineapple. The currant makes it a bit more fruity and sweet, perhaps a bit too sweet. The woody notes stay too much in the background and could have more pep in my opinion. I can't detect the lily of the valley too directly, probably because it gets lost in the initial sweetness. Patchouli barely makes an appearance here either, so a certain smoky, earthy distinctive touch is all but absent. Instead, Ambroxan makes itself felt and at that moment comes the surprise.

Swiss Arabian Shawq reminds me much more of a sweet, pineapple-heavy Sauvage perfume with a splash of Francis Kurdjian's Gentle Fluidity Silver, both of which I have. The ambroxan in Sauvage is just unmistakable and those synthetics of Gentle Fluidity I just think I recognize too. This may sound a bit far-fetched, since completely different fragrances were used for this, but I just can't help but get this impression. Does that awaken longing in me? Not so really.

Do I need a fragrance similar to Sauvage Parfum with associations to Gentle Fluidity Silver? No.

On its own, it's rather not enough to make me buy SAS. In the end, however, I tend to simply layer this fragrance with spicy, woody L'Aventure. Who knows, maybe that results in longing.

Actually, after receiving a sample, I had intended to give only a brief description and evaluation on the scent progression of Sauvage Parfum. But after I had used this fascinated over and over again in the last few days, that now seems no longer possible. The more I sniffed, the more questions I had in my head. Do you know this scent from somewhere? In which drawer does it belong now? What is so special about it? And what, pray tell, is Ambroxan again?

One does not suspect sometimes, how much time one spends with a smell and the whole Drumher so. But I enjoy it, it pleases my nose and my brain. I type on my keyboard, enter the first keyword...type...type...ambroxan. A contemporary substitute for amber, which like musk is considered one of the most valuable animal scents. However, ambroxan has also been known for a very long time.

Moving on, ...hint...hint...Ambrox(an) enhances the body's own scent aromas in a chemical reaction with human skin. Interesting, you can buy ambroxan in a bottle without any other additives, without distraction from other floral, sweet or spicy scents.

Moving on...hint...hint...waxy corpse...excuse me? Yes, indeed, ambrox(an) forms in small quantities on corpses whose bodies do not follow the original decomposition process. The movie "Perfume" promptly comes to mind, the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who kills women in order to extract from their bodies the perfect ingredient for the perfect perfume. I grin to myself for a moment. No, I have no intention of creating such a perfume myself.

But now back to Sauvage.

It wasn't love at first sniff, but I've had that with another fragrance that is now a permanent part of my collection. Sauvage starts with a nice, slightly fruity freshness, with mandarin, subtle bergamot as well as lavender and some pepper. Nutmeg adds a bit of spice to everything. As it progresses, pleasantly sweet woody warm notes mingle with the slightly spicy and powdery notes of tonka bean. I'm not surprised that I like this fragrance with such ingredients, I find them but also with the other fragrances in my collection.

Sauvage fits well on cooler days, especially if you don't like it so extremely sweet. Sauvage has apart from that qualities of a real all-rounder, as I could already find with Bleu de Chanel, not intrusive and suitable for many occasions. And yet, this also applies to BdC, Sauvage perfume has its very own character.
Jonny Depp as a figurehead for the advertising campaign still underlines the intention of the creators to Sauvage to a large mass, and that seems to have succeeded. For some, this is already a reason not to wear the fragrance or not to like it at all. For me, however, that's not a criterion and for me, surprisingly, Sauvage perfume doesn't fit into any pigeonhole either. If I hadn't gotten this sample of Sauvage Parfum, I probably wouldn't have cared much about it. As it is, however, I'm quite glad I tested it. It's already on my watch list for the coming fall and winter.

Is it age that makes me feel that fragrances like this might suit me better and appeal more than they have in the last 35 years? As a child I smelled them everywhere, on my father, on my uncle, at the hairdresser. Those droughts are as familiar as Grandma's Sunday pig roast. But is it enough for a scent alone to evoke such associations and memories? Don't you instinctively resist scents that put you in the old man's corner? No, I don't, I don't resist, I don't look at a fragrance from just one perspective, and I don't necessarily want to please others with a fragrance either.

Icon starts off wonderfully fresh. Bergamot, petitgrain, pepper and neroli form a very nice team, nothing about it is overdone, pungent or monotonous. With ease, the team up with the slightly woody, fresh and spicy notes of cardamom, lavender and juniper. Vetiver and oakmoss give everything still a green note.

The skillful interplay of all ingredients makes me enjoy Icon just off clichés and buzzwords. Icon gives freshness, a subtle masculinity, of course, also awakens certain associations, but is still far from being a shaving lotion or monotonous barber scent. For me, it differs positively from woodier and spicier variants of its faction, which should actually increase the circle of interested parties. If a fragrance manages that, then he has in any case good chances in my mirror cabinet and on my skin to land.

Did he make it then? Not quite, only one bottling. But why not, do I end up feeling too young for this fragrance? No, I don't either. Do I have the fear of coming across old-fashioned at my next Rendesvouz?
No. I simply already have several fresh scents and with Declaration, I found a scent that is not that dissimilar to Icon. He meets with his musk-like notes and a subliminally sweeter note just a little more my taste, and that's all - and enough in the closet.

But I want to give Dunhill Icon credit, because it deserves it. A really nice, fresh, summery fragrance that gives a man that certain maturity and edge.