Stulle

So, after the third day test on my skin, I am starting to understand SWIMMING IN LIPARI.
It is a fresh, slightly aquatic, and almost light summer-by-the-Mediterranean scent that resists the temptation to drift into kitschy sweetness; the predominant note is sea salt, which I am slowly beginning to appreciate.
The lemon is subtle and tastefully embedded in the clear and crystalline salt ambiance, giving the EdT a refreshing start. Shortly thereafter, the mandarin appears and adds a sweet-sour fruitiness that makes your mouth water after a hot day at the beach.
The whole thing ends in a mineral and slightly woody finish; the citrus fruits remain until the end, making me think of a delicious and cool cocktail with a salt rim on the glass and a slice of lemon.
This is how I want to wear it: freshly showered after a wonderful hot day at the beach, sitting on a reddish-brown rock above the sea, catching the last rays of sunshine in the rising evening breeze. Thoughts drift freely over the waves, to the horizon and beyond - and no earthly weight can hold them down…

The name is indeed programmatic for this Spanish EdT: the top note resembles an olfactory grenade impact in the nose thanks to juniper and burning conifer vapors. Alongside this, there is a relentless tobacco note that does not want to be pleasing at all. Something about it reminds me of a trench in the dried-up Iberian steppe. It's clear from the outset: this is only for the truly hardcore perfume lovers!

I believe I catch a glimpse of bergamot as I pass by, but if it is there, it is only for a brief moment. This is also due in part to the garnish of pepper, with plenty of pepper - actually an outrageous amount of pepper, which makes the beginning of the fragrance experience quite a borderline affair.

A rough experience, dear perfume friend - I need at least 10 minutes to survive this start. During this time, I actually regret the testing attempt every time and hope that no one speaks to me. Although at least professional saleswomen should be used to such demanding scents.

However, look at that, after agonizingly slow minutes, a spicy and pleasant nutmeg note gently and smoothly emerges from the darkness of the dry thicket, wanting to make me forget the previous horror and gradually mixing with something lavender-clove-like, which gives IMPACTO a reassuring coziness. I even believe I can perceive a hint of cinnamon and vanilla, but that could just be the wonderful feeling as the pain subsides.

Now IMPACTO has transformed into a dark and resinous-woody, yet quite cuddly fragrance. Who would have thought! The sandalwood that some smell is hard for me to detect; for me, tobacco, juniper, and nutmeg clearly dominate here - but no longer biting or burning or even smelling of a lost war, but warm, spicy, resinous, and masculine-stable.

My limited horizon only allows for a limping comparison with the beautiful old MONTANA, which I really loved back in the day; although there isn’t much sweetness to discover here, I still find IMPACTO on my skin to be very pleasantly soft, spicy-warm, and not bitter at all.

All in all, a beautiful and unexpected encounter in the Spanish supermarket shelf. Men, dare to try!

Edit May 2018:

Reformulated. The fragrance is now more citrusy in the top note and much less peppery.
Otherwise, a lot of nutmeg, clove, hints of cinnamon; overall more differentiated and slimmer than the old version. Has gained in wearability.

Well, it smells like summer! One spray and suddenly I’m in the woods. Or better: on the lemon-scented beach. Seriously, I just did that recently; I flew away for a few days to a place where it’s always pleasantly warm, with a beach and everything. Flight from Tegel, nice short bus ride from Alex, in case any of you want to do that. So there - in the village of course, and not where everyone is chugging down Sangría - it smells exactly like that!
A strong burst of lemon, a good amount of neroli, some chopped cedar or other fireplace wood, something green, and that’s it! It’s not the world’s greatest five-dimensional perfumery art - but it’s fresh, it’s tasty, and you don’t want to stop sweating so you can cool off with it again! That’s how I imagine a proper cologne.

The scent doesn’t evolve much for me; it just hangs out relaxed at a corner of a Mallorcan village street and always smells reliably the same. Thank goodness, I’d say!
It also reminds me a bit of the good old 1916 by Myrurgia, just a tad more masculine because of the wood, you know?! It lasts quite well for a cologne. The box looks nice, and the bottle is also cool. Haha, made a joke!
By the way, my dear partner says it’s totally okay and could also serve as a light and fresh summer scent for a lady of the world in a pinch when there’s nothing else at home.
So, I’m looking forward to every summer like last year when Berlin becomes Ballermann and there’s a cloud - namely a cloud of fire starter, charcoal, burnt sausages, overcooked tofu patties, and Berliner Pilsner, vegan of course. Then off with the stuff (for a fiver on sale at Rossi!), shorts on, cycling to Friedrichshain or straight out to Köpenick, and you feel like you’re on vacation; you’ve also saved the money for the flight. I’m just saying: MÜGGELSEE INSTEAD OF MALLE!!

BRUT, my very first aftershave from 30 years ago. Suddenly, the memories come flooding back:

A hot summer in the late 80s, graduated from high school, got my driver's license, the first year of my apprenticeship, first love, the first VW Golf, bonfire parties somewhere in the greenery of the hilly countryside, the trip to the Côte d’Azur with a view of the bay of St. Tropez; a whirlwind of joy, discoveries, and big plans - all framed by this first scent that accompanied me everywhere.

Even today, after all this time, BRUT still brings me pleasure: warm, powdery, subtly sweet, and at the same time mossy-masculine. Not an alpha male and not a macho, but certainly self-assured; not spectacular, not loud, not annoying, but a youthful and calm companion who never loses his sense of humor.
One you can trust and who discreetly steps back when the time is right.
The characteristic of short longevity undoubtedly has the advantage that later in the day you can either reapply or even switch to another fragrance - that’s also an idea and explains the sale in replacement canisters.

BRUT is a good guy, I’ll just say thank you for the lovely times!

Association: 1977, the door opens, and there stands a robust, tanned guy smelling sharply of soap, with a mustache, a mullet, a gold chain, bell-bottoms, and a shirt unbuttoned to his heavily haired belly button: “Whoa ladies, here I come! So, where are my little cutie pies?”

After an hour, the guy has relaxed a bit, sitting on the leather sofa with his cowboy-booted legs propped up on the table - and then there it is, the shoe polish. Sweet shoe polish! How the hell do you get that scent into an Eau de Cologne?

It disturbs me immensely, but perhaps that was very sexy at the end of the 70s. One has to see everything in its temporal context. Well then, something for the retro fan.

Edit 02.05.2016:
It really is that soap note that drives me crazy. If it could just slowly, very slowly, mellow out, then it would be bearable for me. But I clearly tend towards Lagerfeld if I want a scent like this. What LAGERFELD CLASSIC achieves with style and in a suit, JOVAN MUSK accomplishes with power and in a work uniform - like a somewhat uncouth and casual, but still good-hearted brother.