Stulle

@Parfumaholic, what have you done to me? You catapulted me mercilessly back into the past with this fragrance.

She was 17, I was not much older. My meagre apprentice's wages were unrestrainedly exchanged for this fragrance (the first one for her was Byzance), and I have to say: later in life I made many worse purchases for a lot more money.

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- laced leather pants in black and red, cowboy boots, denim vest
- an old Opel Kadett C with tape deck: Metallica, Queensrÿche, Whitesnake etc.
- Twix = raider; smoker in the pub; Germany with a wall; the chancellor loved to eat Saumagen
- Northern lights on freezing cold January nights
- driving through Italy and the south of France on summer vacation, without a satnav, but in an old Daimler whose fuel consumption almost ruined me - I still haven't really recovered from that to this day ;)
@!*

The eighties at their most wonderful, but without becoming overly chypresque or floral; FENDI offers a wonderfully sprawling palette of fragrance notes and details that is more than impressive and memorable.

I experience the beginning as green rather than citrusy, bright, soft and woody-dry at the same time. I think I recognize the standard heart notes of carnation, rose, jasmine and ylang ylang, but they are all very finely blended so that nothing dominates for me. So don't be afraid of cloves!

As the fragrance progresses, there it is, the extraordinary leathery yet soft and cuddly base: sandalwood, delicate vanilla, oakmoss and a present spiciness that cannot be exclusively patchouli, but rather a potpourri of striking yet gentle fullness. At this point at the latest, I would no longer consider the fragrance to be just a leather chypre. Musk is not over-present, but combines all elements with its warmth.

Incidentally, FENDI is one of the very few fragrances that I can take off the rosewood. I know it as pure wood and think I can occasionally identify it in perfumes - rare enough, you little perfumery rascals!

Thank you @Parfumaholic for this exciting and also moving journey!

Apart from a few fragrances, I don't want anything back from the past. Almost nothing.

Tarry, leathery oud, wherever that may come from. Light, fresh overtones, very slightly lemony, garnish the beautiful cardamom. A floral, sweet and soft floral bouquet in the middle section, which nevertheless remains rather subtle on textiles.

At some point during the fragrance, the citrusy notes marry with the smoky, medicinal-animalic tones; all paired with a strong and almost earthy spiciness. This is somehow ingenious and also demanding to a certain extent. I think that fans of strong ouds will really enjoy this one.

MGO fragrances generally don't seem to me to be made for every perfume@, and certainly not for quick, thoughtless use ("Immergeher", "No Brainer", "Daily Driver").
It requires attention, a deeper interest, the desire to embark on an olfactory journey of discovery and sometimes a little courage.
The fragrances - and Arabian Oudh once again in particular - thank you with a truly great and exciting fragrance experience.
I can only thank the donor for this really great experience!

Masculine depth and warmth: extensively greened with lavender and a hint of petitgrain, paired with fatty, resinous patchouli spice. Nutmeg, cloves and allspice are quickly present.
Then cedar and woody, at the same time mossy soft, almost a little juicy, and yet kept in balance by vetiver and galbanum. Rose geranium also creates an additional green accent. And then something dry, bitter green: laurel? Or the listed oregano alone?
Peppery freshness characterizes the fragrance impression on textiles, but less so on my skin.

The development is very slow, and over the next hour I keep discovering new facets of the fragrance; in the middle of it, I even feel slightly reminded of Agua Brava Eau de Cologne (I'll have to add it to my watch list again), but from my memory it can't keep up with this warmth and fullness.

What I really only notice after a good hour is the lovely warm smoky note - like cigarette smoke in its most pleasant form (even for a non-smoker like me).
Finally, the perfume enters its final spurt with wonderful oakmoss and the warm, sanded cinnamon note that has already been mentioned here several times.
The impression of allspice runs through the entire fragrance, and what remains is an astonishingly strong, almost massive, ambery sweetness - the perfumer's connection to oriental fragrances is clear here. You should like this kind of base; less of it would have been better to my taste, and so the fragrance unfortunately loses half a point in the last few meters.

Nevertheless: MGO POUR HOMME fragrance impresses with its complexity, richness, three-dimensionality and never boring development. The powerful drydown alone is underestimated - it makes sense to use the label's fragrances sparingly in general. Two sprays are enough for me, but that's no different with Xerjöffen or other current hits.

I would like to thank the sample donor for the discovery of this formidable fragrance!

At least that's what I've been asking myself for the last three weeks. An eau de toilette that is rather unloved here, seen either as a pure office fragrance or even as a "fragrance for beginners in the perfume game". Semi-respected, but rather smiled down on with pity from above.

Anyway, I wanted to do something good for a friend (a perpetual Invictus dupe wearer) who is not particularly fond of perfume. That friend needed a well-meaning perfumer like me *cough* to buy something from the "Kiek ma Atze, dit is'n jeiler Duft - wie det Orijinaaal, nur viiieeeel billja! So for DIT money issa vieeeeel bessa, oda?!" - Number to come out.

Since not everyone is as financially well equipped as some advanced young buyers, I was thinking of a mid-range and -priced fragrance that doesn't polarize, could at least give a stranger to our matter/addiction a little "Oho! Die Marke kennick, die is juut, wa?" and could be repurchased by him if he likes it.

And (almost) selflessly, as I am, I bravely went ahead of my friend, bought an almost new bottle of this BOSS fragrance in the souk (thanks to the nice sales clerk) and then tried it out myself fearlessly and without reservations. A little longer, in fact, because I keep noticing changes in perception over the middle distance and thus come to new detailed insights.

By this I mean - and quite honestly: who hasn't experienced this - that even some spectacular luxury niche home for a lot of money starts to annoy you a little (or even a little more) after a few days, doesn't want to please you even with obsessive self-conviction or simply doesn't suit you.
When the parents come into the children's room or even colleagues come into the office, their faces turn pale green and they grumble in a friendly manner: "Wow, what does it smell like in here? Tell me, what are you doing here all the time?" - then, dear friends, the moment is approaching to think about your perhaps already overflowing perfume collection, which costs hundreds of euros.

In any case, this is the great moment of (*fanfares*): BOSS - THE SCENT!

At the beginning, it smells kind of fruity - I still don't know what the legendary maninka fruit smells like, but take it from the Boss marketing department that it will be halfway like in this perfume.
Ginger-like notes create some structure: it's not sticky, but rather a bit freshly sweetened. As it progresses, it still has a subtle herbaceousness that, like the ginger, keeps the sweetness well in check. According to DuPy, it's lavender, and that's fine by me.
A very light leathery note in the drydown makes the fragrance quite masculine, without even beginning to imitate leather in the style of Knize 10 or Tuscan Leather, for example.

Now you might say that all this is not very exciting: yes, that's exactly how it is, and that's how it should be!
This is exactly what makes THE SCENT so pleasant - nothing seems booming, bold, unrounded, overly demanding, laborious, egocentric, creaky, loud, intrusive, niche-torturing, deliberate and not skillful, but everything remains embedded in the overall concept of a generally pleasing fragrance.

Is this great fragrance art? Nope, probably not. There's much more exciting stuff on the market, as we all know, and if you want something highly individual and special, you don't need to try this EdT.
But THE SCENT is simply never annoying, and when it is noticed in passing, there are always nice and positive comments. In any case, no one has ever said to me: "Alta, it's really good, but a bit of East Philippine ylang-ylang, Cambodian oud and Botswanan hyraceum would have done the fragrance a world of good, wouldn't it?"

Anyway: I have a problem. I would like to keep the fragrance after these weeks of testing, because it simply gives me down-to-earth pleasure. No scratchy aromachemicals, no annoying potential, but on the contrary: unobtrusive fruity notes with a masculine base - I like that and now I'm afraid that my Atze might run out of fragrance. I can't really do that to him, the boy needs to smell sensible for once!

Maybe my altruism will get the upper hand after all (or my selfishness, because I meet him from time to time and want to sniff the stuff. Höhö.) and I'll give it to him.
Ai'll kiep juu informt. Have a nice second Advent.

- Without any introduction -

I perceive a kind of citricity in the top note; it is neither clearly citrus nor is any other fruit clearly recognizable. I would most likely attribute this high frequency to cardamom - I have just chewed a grain and I think it goes in this direction.
Nutmeg is rather subtle. In any case, dark and spicy lavender is the protagonist; it smells neither fresh nor herbaceous, and this may irritate a more classically oriented lavender fan. It is simply a slightly different version of this fragrance.

As so often, vetiver provides structure within the composition, and soft coumarin then steers towards fougère - you have to like that and I would say that the old-school barbershop comparisons are also due to this coumarin in combination with the somewhat unusual lavender.

I like that kind of thing, I'm getting a bit old for it, but I can also understand a certain discomfort in younger olfactory bulbs. Lavender was very often used as a soap or scented sachet to combat bedroom wardrobe mustiness and the nasty clothes moth!
I can't smell licorice, by the way, and I've just recently been chewing on a piece of licorice again. A little reminder for the older perfume@s among us: it's supposed to raise your blood pressure. So there's no harm in missing it ;)

The difference to the Eau de Toilette (which I really like) is surprisingly big. For me, the Elixir is something like a Sauvage with a lot of weight. Round, balanced and probably - riding the advertising wave - to be found under various Christmas trees this Christmas. Only five weeks to go - it's best to get your presents now, right?