SvenScent

'This Is Him!' is probably the most famous fragrance of the French designer label 'Zadig & Voltaire'. This fragrance has already completely convinced me at the first test, so that I immediately bought a bottle. [As a little tip for interested parties: The set together with the shower gel is often cheaper to have than the solo fragrance!]

As for the fragrance, I can neither understand why some users here write of a sweet fragrance, it is in my opinion rather spicy, smoky and woody, nor why some commentators here talk about milkiness, where he comes along (bone) dry. Also from boredom or linearity I have to read, obzwar the fragrance has at least four fragrance phases.

After its minimally fruity and herbal liqueur opening (with an unfortunately somewhat medicinal Beigeruch) takes over very quickly the incense the helm and gives it so quickly also not again out of the hand. Here, at its heart, TIH exudes the sacred aura of an Orthodox church. Where the vanilla heart note comes from here at Parfumo is not clear to me. This clearly belongs in the base of the fragrance. Only when the spice and smoke subside does the vanilla note slowly emerge. But even here it remains rather background, while the sandalwood plays first fiddle.

With 'This Is Him!" we have 'Zadig & Voltaire' a relatively unique and successful composition to thank. (Similarities to the Moustache EdP by Rochas are present.) The perfume is of good durability and has an appealing sillage, which is hardly less with time. Meine Wenigkeit can only recommend this very masculine and yet gentle and warm fragrance, and over time he has even grown in my esteem.

Mamluk from the 'Oud Stars' series by Xerjoff is an interesting fragrance. This is, as otherwise often, neither pejorative nor disrespectful meant.

He opens with a wonderfully natural honey accord underpinned by a bar of dark chocolate.
In the heart - and here lies, in my opinion, its weakness - it then unfortunately develops a certain, probably mainly due to the osmanthus, mustiness, which goes hand in hand with 'older' floral notes, which make the fragrance in my eyes appear less attractive in this phase.

Here the nose then already wants to turn away, would not the mustiness evaporate after some time again and lead over to an extremely successful comeback of honey. This is subsequently also underpinned by a wonderfully gentle oud, which together inexorably leads to the well-known 'I-can't-let-the-nose-from-my-skin-anymore effect'. And this for a long, long time, because the durability of the fragrance is enormous and covers almost 24 hours.

Without his 'heart weakness' it would be an overall wonderful fragrance. So, however, he is then but only limited to recommend. Whereby the Drydown but probably possible some may compensate for the weakness...

Since Black Orchid is one of my absolute favourite fragrances and I have followed its reception continuously, I know not only from myself but also from many other fragrance enthusiasts that the release of the perfume variant was eagerly awaited.

Because I think, for this reason, that there could be an increased interest in a comparison of the two, and because a statement simply offers too few signs for this project, I would like to concretize here, in a rather condensed and brief form, the statement I made some time ago. My impressions here are based on a solo-carry-tag as well as a direct arm-arm comparison.

The head of the perfume version is quite chocolaty. While chocolate was already a chord at EdP that many users (me less) noticed, this note is clearly evident in the perfume's opening. The opening at the EdP, on the other hand, I find noticeably darker, truffier, earthier, even dirtier.
The heart of the new fragrance is also a little rounder, floral, balsamic, fruity, with the newly added plum note contributing to the latter. The more the drydown settles down, the more similar the two variants become, so that with the duration they are actually no longer distinguishable.
I find the appearance of rum in the new perfume disappointing. This can only be guessed a little bit late in the drydown. I had expected a lot more, because I think this rum note could have given the orchid that certain twist, that certain something that made it special and made its purchase mandatory.

As far as performance is concerned, the two versions hardly take anything away from each other. I perceive the Sillage in both equally strong - so they're both Sillage monsters - and in terms of durability, the perfume may have minimal advantages, nothing more.

The bottom line is - and this should be emphasized - that both variants are impressive scents, unique and great!
It should also be noted that although Black Orchid in the new version appears unisex for the first time on the market, I consider the old eau de parfum to be the more masculine of the two in the end.

Cordovan is a fragrance by the Californian fashion label Banana Republic, which has been making a name for itself in recent years, especially with its very successful ICON range. The name of the perfume does not reveal itself to me, however, as Cordovan is a type of leather, as far as I know. But from a leather scent Cordovan has, even if listed here, nothing at all...

When I first put on Cordovan - which I bought as a blindbuy (cheaply), having been made aware of it by a video review - this DNA seemed strangely familiar to me. At first, however, I could not clarify for myself what the scent reminded me of. It had to be a familiar, fresh, fruity, aquatic scent. Acqua Di Gio? No. D&G Light Blue? No. Bleu de Chanel? No. Hm. Until I realised I was on the wrong track; it was Dolce & Gabbanas The One that I remembered. It was The One, if you think about its tobacco flavour...

Yes, you could say that Cordovan is an airy and light The One for the spring or summer day. It opens very nicely citric-fresh and fruity. The fruity component settles immediately, while the freshness, enriched with floral and woody notes, remains. As with Bleu de Chanel, although you might think that the fragrance has long since disappeared, the feeling of lasting freshness lingers on. In my opinion, the Achilles' heel of this fragrance is more the lack of sillage than its durability, because after a short time, everything happens relatively close up.

By the way, the flacon (and the outer packaging) unfortunately doesn't look as noble as on the official perfume photo, but as it did below on the one shot by Ernie. But the clear glass flacon also characterizes the perfume better than the brown or half-brown one, since it's rather light and transparent than brown, dark, woody, leathery and heavy...

Midnight Oud is an oriental scent, which despite oud and frankincense is rather soft and sweet. Compared to 'Oud Mood' by Lataffa for example (similar scent, similar origin, same price range), which I also own, Midnight Oud is much more pompous and has less edges and corners, not to mention animalism. What bothers me most is the sweetish-creamy caramel note that runs through the entire fragrance. This gives the whole fragrance an almost childlike character and eventually becomes too penetrating, in my opinion. Incense, leather and oud, on the other hand, I find very reserved, so that I would definitely like to place the perfume more on the female side.

The shelf life and silage is, as you would expect from an oriental fragrance, extremely good.
But even though Midnight Oud is considered an insiders' tip and a viable alternative to the Amouage Interlude, the scent was unfortunately not quite convincing. As a man I would definitely prefer to go for 'Oud Mood' by Lataffa. This one also has a caramel accord, but much smokier, more masculine and less obtrusive.