ThomC

I confess, it was love at first sight that made me buy blind. By that I mean the exterior of the bottle - how it would smell, I could not guess on the part of the online store. But this Cheapie sparkled at me from the monitor, with its adorable crass 80s design. Such style I like 1985 futurism: Everything neon, edgy, angular, pixelated 8-bit staircase graphics, RoboCop and Disney's Tron, edgy-cold synthpop, heartless drum machines and mercilessly bloated digital sound of a Trevor Horn or even Def Leppard's masterpiece 'Hysteria'. And of course the angular DeLorean in polished aluminum, plus the four-cylinder BMW turbocharger and supercooled Thatcherism. Yes, that's how they went the pop-cultural eighties - it was anything but warm, round, analog and cuddly. This zeitgeist broken down: 'Suddenly everything was digital - but no one knew what it was.'

As a fan of zeitgeist fragrances, I just had to buy the 'Le Coupé'. The person responsible for this design history lesson: Lomani from Paris. For the small money have the quite nice things, often oldschool and something out-to-date - which per se must not be bad. No matter how the fragrance will give - the 'Le Coupé' has already shot with its appearance my hat trick.

I expected a tranige petty synthetic broth - out comes nevertheless a small surprise, at least a respect success. Quite well he does on the skin, clean, clean. A bit shrill at first, then it settles down. Decent, nicely done synthetic lavender, rather round and firm. With increasing drydown it becomes more fruity. Reminiscent of blueberries and afterwards a touch of ice bonbons and lavender, with subtle plastic foil tonka bean. Soft and clean smelling like a laundry at opening time. It's never annoying, doesn't seem cheap but not classy either. Can pass for an office guy and a sportsman after, but doesn't smell showery either. In any case, despite his appearance, he doesn't seem at all 80s-brachial. Rather, it wants to hide - its sillage has a lot of room for improvement. You can break it down as a "blueberry lavender synthetic"

The 'Le Coupé' is nothing that would reverse the axis rotation of the globe - but is still solid in its class. Could the fans of the 'Prada L'Homme' quite like, perhaps also the Sauvage disciples. In any case, fans of the silver 'Power' by Kenzo. All fragrances, which I am by nature rather heartless towards, because they are very clean.

And yet I catch myself after hours, as I have to sniff it again and again, at the cheap 'digital' from France.

PS: After some thought, I came up with it: There is even a matching hotel to the bottle of 'Le Coupé' - namely the Ryugyŏng Hotel in Pyongyang - North Korea. It was - hearsay - started in 1987 and is still not completely finished. From the outside, however, it looks as impressively contemporary as Lomani's 'Le Coupé'. Makes you wonder what came first: the French perfume or the North Korean hotel?

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyŏng-Hotel

The music to the fragrance ---> Jean Michel Jarre 'Zoolook'

---> https://youtu.be/_x-v8KamefA

Most of the time, this goes wrong with a perfume, when everything is mixed in that is perceived to be possible. Some Arabs tailored to the Western audience like to be so, also some niche brands, as well as the bulk of the nice Rammsteiner, to give a popular example. In it, you'll find a mishmash of individual components that make the final product thick and immobile. Like pizza from a cab with a meter-thick cheese layer of analog Gouda: initially quite nice for the primitive calorie hunger - but bad for the gourmet conscience towards the last slice. Is this something you want more often? If you love a feeling of fullness, then yes. But with 'BlackSoul Imperial', this thick potpourri fits, so that this rather unknown French men's perfume rises to real greatness. And this fragrance is strong, that anticipated.

He gives himself almost sweet without crossing the line to the ladies. On the other hand, also emphatically masculine with woody hints that waft through warming and fit fantastically to the changing October trees of German forests. Yes, it has that autumnal vibe of a walk in the woods and especially that of a cup of warm yogi tea - the spicy one with cinnamon and milk. Plus star anise, and amber. Always insanely soft on the skin, never pungent. In the drydown, cocoa powder and vanilla. Remains, as always, Ted Lapidus-typically very independent. He oscillates between Europe and Arabia, trying to cite both fragrance traditions to 'synthesize' something new from them. And he succeeds. BTW: No, it does not smell synthetic. To the rear, however, it smells like Western-adapted psyeudo oud. And that skillfully done.

An extremely intense, broad fragrance, but then - and this is surprising - can not really hold long on the skin. After three, four hours is namely Sense. If you consider that he is just as u20€ Cheapie verballert, that is absolutely verschmerzbar. Thick gourmandige friends for the end of the year we both become anyway.

A blind purchase. Bam. Bull's eye. And then a quirky, Turkish cheapie from HUNCA, over thirty years old. These are exactly the kind of stories I like. But what is the most beautiful story framework if the scent itself is no good? But that's exactly what it does, and how. A wonderful coherent fragrance, a kind of flux compensator to the eighties. I have never been to Turkey, but deep down I have the feeling that I smelled it over and over again a very long time ago. Although it was released just under 1990, stylistically I want to place it earlier in the eighties. But so what.

The flacon? Okay, given. Black with gold font, somehow bisserl ugly, but typical for its time. Hardly trash factor. But on the skin he makes a wonderful figure. Don't misunderstand: this is not a highly complex noble fragrance, but a kind of wonderful bourgeois lentil stew with bacon and fresh homemade bread and good cheese to go with it. An authentic for around twenty euros. A real charmer, then, who is abhorrent to ostentation, but loves continuity.

On skin he gives himself wonderfully through-composed. No single scents stand out, it is an impeccable melange. Unkitischig, but broad-legged with the mindset of the eighties. The drydown gets more interesting: it becomes more and more harmonious, all the individual notes seem to magically come together. Musk with vanilla peek out the most, but both again very subtle. It actually seems Southern European, evoking associations with dry landscapes. Has something warm. Like a sultry summer late afternoon on the Mediterranean. Foreign smells on people and city. Great.

Its durability is slightly above average - a nachsprayen never annoying. The longer it lingers on the skin, the more elegant it appears. Everything done right, Hunca.

In the well-known category 'For fans of...' the Jagler is comparable to the 'Sergio Soldano Black' from 1985 and with the pseudo eighties 'Bogart One Man Show Gold'. Frankly, I have all three of them on my skin right now. The Jagler stabs them away. Any questions?

The Jagler seems almost meek and different from the countless soap-leather Mackers from the '70s and early '80s, which, yes, operate somewhat on the 'know one, know them all' principle. The Jagler doesn't. A great oldschooler at a joke price.

Ouch, a men's perfume from 1998. Let's think back in fashion terms: it was the phase of the smoothly polished, the heyday of rimless glasses - even away from doctors and manager types. Men were clean-shaven. Beard, hair, rimless glasses, masculine? Ewwwwww, please don't. Back then, anything slick was kind of pop culture. Now there they were wearing their graphite grey jackets and white shirts and the buzzed haircut (not too short please - and certainly not too long!). The hype of the metrosexual was already in its infancy, but not yet visible.

Today this then style summarized: Oh, please do not stand out! The brute excesses of 80s hairspray shoulder pads were gone, the opposite was true: Smooth. Unisex. Light. Asexual. Discreet. Wispy. Clean. Dotcom bubble. PC with Windows 98.

From this time of the late 90s springs the "S.T. Dupont pour Homme" and is quite a child of its time. But what for one! In advance: I really like him. Because apparently one could create quite original fragrances even in this chlorine-pure style bubble, which survived this time and proved to be timeless.

The flacon, in any case, you can see the origin of this era. Cool, clean, minimal. Hardly flashy, a little silver and yet elegant as timeless. So one that is overlooked in the collection and yet sparkles again like a small gemstone.

The fragrance itself is idiosyncratic as well as stylish - yet a clean fragrance of its time. His only cliffhanger is - as previous speakers said - his so-called "mustiness". I say: yes, it smells. But no, please, not "musty"! Because I associate that negatively, my impression, on the other hand, is positive.

To me, this scent chord reminds me of freshly fried food in better restaurants. And I don't mean nasty meat, but freshly fried vegetables in a batter coating. There it is now on the plate and smells, not even penetrating, but fine, nutty, crispy and warm. Frittatas can be divine. Given good fat and proper craftsmanship, it transforms neutrals into a simply gourmet dish. Belgian fritters from good "fritteries" send their regards.

I do like comparisons. And this frittaty, this one accord, reminds me of Penhaligon's "Belgravia Chypre". That rather celebrated fragrance also had this funny twist, which we unanimously identified as "Belgian fritter shop" during the checkup. A great scent, by the way. And this one has that one from S.T. Dupont now, too. And that twenty years earlier. Applause!

Today, the "S.T. Dupont pour Homme" no longer costs the bean. Yes, he is distribution-wise on the siding of all Cheapies. Since I say: buy now more than ever. A real character piggy among the cheapies.

The music to the fragrance ---> the Belgian national anthem "La Brabançonne" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9u_Ituu2Q8 )

My latest insight: being able to understand perfumes I don't understand over ones I do. Sounds complicated? Well, it isn't.

Recent example: the rare Ruby Edition of Jacques Bogart's bourgeois One Man Show range. The red in the retro-flakon design of the late 70s I had procured a year and a half ago - as a blind purchase, which was suitably intended only to complete the One Man Show series, rather than the perfume itself will.

Then it gathered dust on the shelf after a few test sprays, with no use, no enthusiasm. To me, it was too squeaky, too fruity at the time, and thus didn't fit into any of my pigeonholes. There was no twist needed to appreciate anything. I kept it anyway because having five different one-man shows lined up with the color contrast of a test pattern looks pretty sublime. I never really gave him a chance, though.

The twist came when I was sent a sample of the rather acclaimed Lost Cherry by Tom Ford. So, there it was, arguably Tom Ford's funniest and most "unserious" fragrance. Hailed by a large part of the perfumos. But to me, it smelled unisex - too much unisex. The concept, however, I immediately understood: Cherry! Quite wearable, and increasingly elegant in the drydown. Can be done, is even for men courageous to original. Wear gladly - want to have but rather not, because I have one on the shelf with cherry, which is gathering dust: the Ruby Edition by Jacques Bogart. Action remove dust began.

Keep in mind, the Ruby Edition came out a few years before the Lost Cherry (2018) and actually disappeared soundlessly into the valley of disregard - though it does pop up in waves every now and then. For no 20 euros, this fragrance is a blast - also stylistically as of the Bogart-typical projection.

First, it shows a lot of cherry lolly (these nasty little beasts of KÜFA from Dörentrup / Lipperland) and nuances of raspberries, an olfactory roller. At the beginning very noticeable and a touch too sweetish for me. But this settles with time: the cherry rounds off, remains distinct but less artificial. Nuances of red ripe apple come in (which I think is typical of many one-man shows). In the further drydown it becomes more masculine, edgier. Only later does the DNA of the One Man Shows shimmer out: typical male soap of the 70s, a stylistic device of that decade. With Ruby, however, very discreet and not superficial. A nice symbiosis of classic oldschooler and modern unisex cherry squeak. Crude mixture - you have to come up with it first!

If I compare it with Tom Ford's "Lost Cherry" on the forearm, it is striking how much they are brothers in spirit. Strikingly equal, and yet at home on different planets: here the likeable, flashy bohemian of Bogart, poor and cheap as church mouse - and there the Tom Ford's ludicrously overpriced status symbol with bling-bling appeal. Goes both ways. If you love one, check out the other - and you'll be surprised how much is possible for under 20 euros.

The music to the fragrance ---> "Rote Kirschen ess ich gern!" (nursery rhyme) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jevEH-o8CfU]