Segel

A cologne of the ideal man, still. Forte? Only in the name.

Guerlain can perfectly reproduce natural scents. Natural ingredients, very appealingly presented. The fragrance starts with a freshly squeezed, authentic grapefruit. Zesty, unsweetened, masculine, perfect! "Grapefruit Fantastico" is what I would have called it.

The progression is obvious. The L'Homme Ideal line features specific almond. Sweet, classic, warm.

In the end, vetiver is noticeable, but light, sweet, in the background, mixed with almond. Frankincense? I can only read about it; I hardly smell anything.

As a fragrance DNA, it is, as its name suggests, ideal. After 6 hours, I smell my skin and the scent is still there. The sillage is okay in the first hour, but then very shy.

The fragrance is limited. Do I want to smell like this all the time? Yes and no. For me, there are clearly better alternatives.

The scent starts off citrusy-fruity-sweet. It is neither very citrusy nor extremely fruity, but rather a balanced mix between both + sweetness. The opening doesn't bother me; I personally find it very pleasant.

After about 30 minutes, the roses begin to emerge. No, it is not a sweet rose like in "Oud Satin Mood (Extrait de Parfum) | Maison Francis Kurkdjian," nor is it a fresh-green rose like in "Rose Gold | XerJoff." The roses + rose water are "calm," gentle. The scent becomes very easy to wear.

In the base, the amber wood and musk provide a slightly cuddly effect. I can hardly perceive the vanilla. The roses are still present.

The longevity on my skin is good; after about 8-9 hours, I can still detect the scent. The sillage is not extreme, but comparable to its predecessor "Rosa Moceniga | The Merchant Of Venice."

Overall, an interesting release. As the warmer days are coming (hopefully), I see this scent as ideal for summer evenings. Age group? Perhaps 35+.

These would be my first impressions of the perfume. Thank you for your patience!

The "Asad Zanzibar / اسد | Lattafa / لطافة" was released this year. Initially, it cost around €60 and was hard to find. Anyone who has smelled the "Asad | Lattafa / لطافة" knows exactly what to expect, or at least that's what I thought.

If you like Sauvage Elixir, you will find a very solid budget variant in "Asad | Lattafa / لطافة". And rightly so, as the Asad copies about 90% of the Sauvage Elixir. The "problem" (of the Dior) is that Asad also performs well. Sure, it will never reach the level of its "idol", but for the price, it is a real treasure.

That said, I will continue talking about the "Asad Zanzibar / اسد | Lattafa / لطافة".
From the fragrance notes alone, you know what it’s about. A tropical, aquatic scent, with (hopefully) the same performance as its brother (?) And when you read Zanzibar, you already think of summer, beach, relaxation.

And here comes the disappointment...
(I fell for the hype of the original, but thankfully not here).
As expected from its brother, that good performance doesn’t necessarily have to cost much, you expect the same here. However, that is not the case.
From the very beginning, I smell this coconut water note, which is too sweet, penetrating, and annoying. I found a similar synthetic type in "Invictus Platinum | Paco Rabanne". No, I definitely do not like it. I gave the scent 20 minutes, kept smelling my skin, but unfortunately, I ended up needing to wash it off. I can't say much about the H/S as I didn't give it enough time. In the first few minutes, it did have a good sillage, which probably bothered me even more.

I have come across other fragrances so far, such as Malibù - Party in the Bay and Potamoi, which present the coconut note in such a beautiful and elegant way. (Here, however, the fragrance note is called coconut water and not coconut).

Malibù is very elegant, fine, a real coconut, a dream. Zero synthetic.
Potamoi, even though initially slightly synthetic, develops into a very beautiful coconut in the heart note, somewhat more complex than in Malibù, which, when worn by a woman, becomes very seductive.
I am aware, however, that we are talking about different price ranges of another class here.

Even though the "Asad Zanzibar / اسد | Lattafa / لطافة" is now very cheap to find, currently around €25, I still wouldn’t buy it. Rather something a bit more expensive but good than cheap and bad. Bite the bullet, save a little, and maybe get another coconut scent (e.g. Malibù - Party in the Bay, my favorite coconut).

With "Asad Zanzibar / اسد | Lattafa / لطافة", Lattafa tried to bring a new hype. I find it a failure.
This is not the only case where flankers do not reach the level of the original. Recently, more and more attempts are getting weaker. Some are good, but still weaker.
And here I can name a few examples: Oud for Greatness Neo, "Deified Tony Iommi | XerJoff", and the entire X-series of Nishane fragrances, which were rated lower than the originals.

That is my experience with the scent so far. My opinion: No, a clear, definite "no"!

When the original "Oud for Greatness | Initio" came onto the market, I wasn't even born yet (here on Parfumo). I only had the chance to smell it last year at the Wigger perfumery in Dortmund. When I first sprayed it, I was completely taken aback, but I took the scent strip home with me. On the way, I kept sniffing it. By the time I got home, I was already in love, so I immediately bought the "Oud for Greatness | Initio" here.

The original "Oud for Greatness | Initio" is pure greatness. I won't say much about it here, as many of you know it (and probably like it - I definitely do). I associate it with a young, mid-20s version of myself, full of energy, a "me" that always wants to party, always wants to be in the spotlight. For me, the original has the same energy as, for example, Ombre Nomades.

Between the original and the Neo, six years passed quickly - the "me" got a bit older, calmer. I work and like to look for an everyday scent, perhaps a signature scent, one that isn't too loud (disturbing), but still has that "quelque chose." This is where the Oud for Greatness Neo comes into play. Not every flanker is as good as the original. And here it’s about the same. The magic is about half gone. The beautiful musky opening is gone. Wasn't that what made the "Oud for Greatness | Initio" so special? Instead, at the beginning, there's a citrus note, here referred to as bergamot, paired with a masculine lavender. I can smell the lavender for the next 2-3 hours, in the background with an oud. In the middle, I smell a saffron, but not a strong one like in BR540, rather shy, well blended among the other notes. The whole combination is extremely masculine, well balanced between fresh and sweet. Very elegant, serious, I dare say even sexy.
Later, I smell a warm musk and the fir balsam.
If I were to organize the scent notes, it would be like this: Top notes: bergamot, lavender; Heart notes: lavender, saffron, oud; Base notes: fir balsam, musk.

Performance, the eternal comparison to the original.
The sweet, spicy, gourmand notes always become stronger than the fresh notes. It's the same here, which causes the Oud for Greatness Neo to lose from the start. The lavender-saffron-oud combo feels a bit weaker than the musk-saffron-oud. And I noticed it in the sillage. Good at the beginning, but not as loud anymore, it fades quite quickly. The longevity is there, comparable to the original. On my skin, it is still noticeable for hours after spraying.
(Helpful info: the initial "Oud for Greatness | Initio" had an alcohol content of 77%, nowadays it is marketed with 80%. The new Oud for Greatness Neo has 78% alcohol content.)

The Oud for Greatness Neo tries, in my opinion, to be all-season. While I would wear the original more in the evenings, when going out or on colder days, I can also imagine the Neo on warmer days as well as at work. I find it ideal for the office. It could even become a signature scent.

I am totally in love with the original. I rated it a solid 9. I would give the Neo an 8. The longevity is comparable for both, perhaps 0.5 points less for the Neo. Sillage is also 1 point less for the Neo.

Price/performance - buy/not buy, yes/no/maybe.
Here, I would give the Neo a 7. Good scent, but I can't justify the price.
It currently costs €315. The original can be found for about €200. Given the performance delivered, I personally wouldn't buy it (yet). Maybe at half the price.

Here’s a parenthesis about the P/L:
Many fragrances are rated 10 and 9 for scent-longevity-sillage, but then receive a 6 or 7 for the P/L ratio. I find that unfair. If I find a scent rated 9 to 10 that is really very good, lasts long, and projects strongly, then the price is completely worth it for me. Even if it costs €2-3-, even €400.

Thank you for your patience! It would be nice to read more opinions about the new Oud for Greatness Neo here.

Best, Segel

Arge, Aurelia, Ceo, Crio, Dasos, Phoebe, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Hyades, Hyperion, Kronos, Mnemosyne, Rhea, Stereope, Teia, Thetis, Themis - all characters from Greek mythology, all perfume names from Giardino Benessere.

And finally, in 2024, the last one appeared, the Potamoi - part of the "Titani" collection.

The Potamoi (Ancient Greek: Ποταμοί, romanized: Potamoí, literally "Rivers") are the gods of the rivers and streams of the Earth in Greek mythology.

The river gods were the 3000 sons of the great earth-circling river Oceanus and his wife Tethys, as well as the brothers of the Oceanids. They were also the fathers of the Naiads. The river gods were depicted in one of three forms: as a bull with a human head, as a man with a bull's head and the body of a snake-like fish from the waist down, or as a reclining man whose arm rests on an amphora pouring out water.

"Terenzi, really? What do these names have to do with your fragrances?" Is there a real explanation?..

Back to our topic, the new 2024 release.

The bottle looks better in reality than in the picture posted by Parfumo. (see my picture of the bottle). Dark green, matte, almost the shape of an alcohol flask, it fits very well in the hand and is easy to carry. The spray head is good to very good, almost comparable to the sprayer of Dior bottles, I would say.

The scent
Here at Parfumo, in terms of fragrance direction, it impresses in the middle, with a big point at the front, almost like a warning!, SYNTHETIC.

On the first spray, a lavender note dominates. Initially very fresh and yes, slightly synthetic. Not synthetic like, for example, "Invictus Platinum | Paco Rabanne," which I can no longer stand after getting to know niche fragrances, but also not extremely bad.
On the contrary, the lavender is reminiscent of "Lavender Extrême | Tom Ford," which smells like freshly picked lavender.

In the first 2 minutes, everything becomes fresh-sweet, my nose picks up the cardamom. All at once, maybe too sweet. A cardamom like that from "La Nuit de L'Homme (Eau de Toilette) | Yves Saint Laurent." I continue to smell my wrist and read bergamot and suddenly I start to smell that too. Very faintly, shyly. I wish cardamom hadn't shown its presence here. It would have been better if the bergamot had been stronger.
This whole fresh-sweet-synthetic (but not very synthetic) etc. combination lasts only about 15 minutes.

Over time, the scent becomes much more beautiful. What I smell the most here is coconut and I can already remember "Malibù - Party in the Bay | Simone Andreoli." But it's not just that, there's more. The scent does not become as sweet as the aforementioned. Predominantly the peach that I perceive here and the rest of the notes, listed here but of which my nose only perceives the rose in the background, make the scent complex but somehow calmer (less coconutty). Since I know and miss "Malibù - Party in the Bay | Simone Andreoli," I would have liked to have more of that here.

With about 5-6 proper sprays over skin and clothes, I get a subtle sillage in the first 2 hours. After about 8 hours later, I can no longer mention anything about sillage. What remains is a pleasant sweet-light woody note, my nose suspects, of caramel and sandalwood.

A summer scent? Yes, maybe, but rather in the evening and not in the heat, as it can become slightly suffocating. It remains a fresh-sweet but more sweet scent. Although labeled unisex, I prefer to see it worn by a lady.

P/L: in my opinion, it is not worth paying €235 for the scent. For that price, I would rather, as mentioned, get 2 bottles of "Malibù - Party in the Bay | Simone Andreoli." (just personal opinion). - less complex, but definitely more coconut.

In conclusion, I would like to thank Kai Porten, who offered me this perfume at a more than perfect price.

If you have read this far, thank you for your patience! :D