Samir0804

I thought about it for a long time. Should I really buy it? Do I really like it that much? Isn't it too sweet for me? And so I sniffed this fragrance again and again, pondered and then ultimately left it on the shelf. Until that one fateful Black Friday. It's the year 2023 and, like every year, I see lots of messages about various offers two days before "Black Friday". My inner anti-capitalist just wrinkles his nose. "I'm not going to take part" I say to myself. Long story short: I bought it after all. On Black Friday. At full price. And I couldn't be happier about this decision. After this far too long intro, here's a brief summary of why I'm so happy with this fragrance.

Flacon:

The bottle is nice and heavy, slightly rounded as with every fragrance in the Gentleman range and fits well in the hand. I really love the color gradient of the glass from black to brown to transparent. For me, this color gradient makes it by far the most beautiful bottle in the whole range.

Fragrance:
The fragrance starts with a very present whisky note, which actually reminds me of a nice glass on the couch in the evening. Despite the strong sweetness, the fragrance never becomes unpleasant or pungent, which for me is also due to the beautiful iris and chestnut. Both blend in very well and make the fragrance incredibly soft. In the drydown, it then loses some of its sweetness and becomes woodier without changing its basic orientation significantly. You could say the fragrance is linear. This is perhaps true in comparison to other fragrances, but this simplicity is incredibly fitting here in particular. It seems reduced to the essentials, calm, elegant, serene without the urge to really stand out.

Sillage:

Striking is a good keyword. Because if you want to stand out, you can stop reading at this point and look for an alternative. Or keep reading and simply spray a little more. Joking aside, Réserve Privee really doesn't have a brute sillage. However, like its aforementioned simplicity, this is what makes it what it is: an incredibly sophisticated fragrance that you don't wear if you want to stand out, but rather if you know how to make your fragrance blend in perfectly with the rest of your appearance. If this fragrance were a person, it would be much more Ben Bernschneider than Andrew Tate and since I like the former much more than the latter, I can make this comparison with a clear conscience.

Durability:

The shelf life of the Gentleman is probably the only point where I really have something to complain about. And even that is complaining at a high level. The fragrance lasts a reasonably long time, but I would still like a fragrance with this rather inconspicuous sillage to last a little longer, because after about 6-8 hours you can really only smell it very subtly. In my opinion, this also distinguishes it from similarly designed fragrances such as "Dior Homme Intense (2011) | Dior". While the latter can still be clearly smelled after 8-10 hours, the Gentleman is more or less just a nice memory at this point. It's not tragic, but that's also part of the truth.

Price:
I don't need to say much about the price. For 50-60€, this is pretty much the finest fragrance you can imagine, so the price/performance ratio is almost unbeatable.

Conclusion/overall impression:

The fragrance does a hell of a lot right. If you are looking for an alternative to "Dior Homme Intense (2011) | Dior" with a nice alcohol note, you should definitely take a closer look at this one. For me, it is still a perfect fragrance for fall and milder winter days. Cozy, relaxed and yet classy. What a beautiful creation!

This fragrance is a mystery. He starts beautifully fruity sweet and immediately shoot me associations of cherry brandy and custard in the head. This may first sound sticky and overly sweet but stop! The fragrance is not linear, on the contrary. Relatively quickly, the rose joins in, giving the scent an elegance and lightness that I would not have expected here. It is not an oppressive heavy rose but one of the kind that nestles quite gently and enigmatically. I have the association with cake mainly thanks to the sweetness of the tonka bean that comes in later. This reinforces the vanilla impression once again and makes the fragrance something I would love to dive into. Head over heels. With open mouth. This combination of fruit sweetness and enveloping vanilla just makes sense. Like a dessert with cherry sauce makes sense when I come home completely frozen and want something sweet. Then this is just the thing... But I digress. I smell the specified leather note only very casually, if at all. It possibly provides the noble touch of the base note, however, far less present than in other fragrances. Nevertheless, in conclusion I can simply say: this fragrance is the prototype of a noble gourmand, it hardly gets better, especially for this price! So if you are looking for a gourmand that combines beautiful notes with incredibly high quality, I think you have found it here.

And I love it, to start with. As a newcomer to the perfume circus, I haven't tested or worn many fragrances yet, which is precisely why Arabians Tonka made such an impression on me. The sweetness and spiciness paired with the truly enormous longevity and sillage make it a real statement fragrance for me. And as is so often the case, something so expressive can sometimes backfire, so I understand if you feel a little "overwhelmed" by the fragrance, especially as an outsider. For me, however, it is something very special despite the headwinds I have already encountered with the fragrance. "Why?" you might ask me now. Well, there's the aforementioned longevity of up to 3 (in words THREE) days for me. I've never experienced anything like it with any other fragrance. Furthermore, it is of course the incredibly beautiful composition of tonka bean, leather, an (extremely pleasant) oud and the noble and spicy saffron that always magically attracts and enchants me. Sweet and spicy fragrances may be a dime a dozen, but for my (admittedly inexperienced) nose, this is simply the best possible way to achieve this combination. The oriental nature of the fragrance makes it mysterious but not too difficult to grasp, which makes it seem tangible even for me as a beginner. And all of this makes it what it currently is for me: one of my absolute favorites. And a fragrance that I can unreservedly recommend to anyone who likes special scents.