Zoaholic

A perfume is nothing more than a fragrance, yes, but wearing a perfume is something completely different - more of a state, a feeling, an individual overall experience, and sometimes a process of back and forth, of yes and no and the thousand shades of gray of 'maybe'. The magic of the whole thing is created between the fragrance and the wearer, one could snobbishly say, but there is also a field of tension there.

For me it's quite simple: either something clicks when I smell a perfume, then I give it a 9+ and the fragrance goes into the "buy" category, or nothing clicks. In this case, it was clearly the former: the fragrance immediately triggered its eponymous state of mind in my head.

I think the saffron and the citrus note in the opening already clicked audibly. Here it is already very finely tuned and not pungent to my nose (unlike the "Aoud Vanilla | Mancera", for example). What comes next is pure magic and very difficult to describe, because the fragrance notes flow together wonderfully and waft around the wearer in a smooth, comforting, sweetish veil. I can primarily smell rose, vanilla and something woody. Marshmallows? Not really. The scent creates roughly the same feeling I get when I wrap one of those three-meter-long scarves around me: no more freezing today!

So, do I get it or not? Well. 76% male, 23% female owners. So far, so good. But a majority of people here, albeit a small one, see the fragrance on ladies: 34% W, 30% M shows the pie chart. (Very curious, I guess there's a discrepancy between how people see themselves and how others see them?) But that's not a problem for me, is it? You wear the scent you like, regardless of whether others associate it with masculinity or femininity. What do I care about the opinion of the majority!

Yes, unfortunately it's not that simple. Here we are back at the beginning: it's the way you feel wearing it that counts, just like a chic scarf, and I would be lying if I claimed that this feeling could remain completely unaffected by the opinion of others. "No man is an island", or something like that. So I came to the decision not to buy the "Instant Crush | Mancera", as I (like many others here) initially saw it on a woman. I was almost ready to give the sample to a friend in the hope that I would at least be able to put it under my nose from time to time.

But then the sealing began. The longer I pondered, the more I came to terms with the idea of actually just wearing what I liked, regardless of gender. In small, slow steps, I approached the purchase decision like a flabby sea lion on the beach. Then I saw a good offer and snapped it up. I can only wish the same to every undecided lover of this fragrance!

(The H/S was not intoxicating in my sample of Mancera from December '23, but in my bottle (batch from 2022) it is convincing. It could be my imagination, it could be the atomizer, I don't know; in any case, I'm happy with it.)

There are days when I feel like the Black Eyed Peas in the distant year 2003. "Where is the love?" comes from the car radio. "Yes, where is it?", I ask myself silently and duck behind the steering wheel, somewhat resigned, because I just can't think of the answer.

This fragrance is forged from the existential melancholy of such days, and yet there is nothing snivelling or backward-looking about it. It is only a few years younger, at least in its DNA, than the song in question, and it has aged at least as well as that song.

Reflection Man is not just elegant, like a Prada L'Homme. No, it is also fresh, it is bold, it is airy. It does not cling to its wearer, it does not fade away directly into the skin like Prada, but it floats, it dissolves and develops a fabulous life of its own in a heavenly cloud of iris with notes of orange and pepper. Radiant, glistening, angelic, at least for the first two or three hours after application.

Would I ever have dreamed that I would be able to show off what I usually keep hidden, my timid, classically feminine side, in such a fantastically beautiful way? Never.

Do I see myself here as if in a mirror, photorealistically? Definitely not. For me, it's more of a feeling, an introspection, a thoughtful reflection that is reflected in the fragrance, but if I wanted to describe it metaphorically, it would probably be a mosaic of myself that I see when I close my eyes. Not a realistic one, but an artistic, dreamy, fragile portrait that offers room for interpretation and reason for hope.

But well, back down to earth. The bottom line is that I don't think I'm reading too much into the many resounding hymns of praise here when I say in general terms: it does something to you. In this sense, Reflection Man is an almost metaphysical fragrance for me. If he were human, he would certainly be a philosopher.

"The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love." So says Terence, freely translated from the Latin, and this line could not be truer. The latter, the renewal of love (integratio amoris), is hard to find some days, but this fragrance gives me the tools to keep searching and keep moving forward. You have to achieve that first as a perfume.

An objective conclusion at the end: If you're looking for a signature that makes you feel good anytime, anywhere, and don't have a problem with the fact that it gets skin-tight very quickly and is synthetic from the ground up, then buy L'Homme. If you want better longevity, a more delicate, natural, floating composition and to bathe in the absolute twilight of the gods for two to three hours after application, then buy this one.

New Year's greetings,

-zh

To sum up: A top fragrance for me, extremely profound and interestingly composed, in my eyes definitely suitable for more mature men (not necessarily just older ones).

About the fragrance: The combination of blackcurrant and citrus notes in the opening is very successful, not pungent and synthetic, but also not overly fresh for me, because the spicy, woody, leathery notes join in very quickly and the fruits leave again. In the heart note, I mainly smell the leather. Combined with the oud, this gives the fragrance a masculine, down-to-earth, mature impact, which for me is the most striking feature of Intense Cedrat Boise. The vanilla in the base note is definitely there, pleasantly warm, but not too much in the foreground for me.

Overall very masculine, concise, signature-worthy. Sillage and longevity are very good - I filled the entire room with the fragrance with two sprays on my wrist while playing darts, although I also throw with my right hand ;-)

For me, despite my thoroughly positive impression, it's not a candidate for purchase because I'm not quite comfortable with leather and oud fragrances yet. Perhaps that will be different in a few years when I reach the age of 30. Regardless of my personality, I see this fragrance on a mature and down-to-earth man, and I imagine a leather coat. With this association, I see it directly in the cold season, and for my taste it belongs there rather than in the summer, but it can probably be worn all year round.

Louis and I are no longer friends (unlike Freddie Mercury, who is a legend). He's always staring at me, in the city center, in the mall, in class, LV logomania as far as the eye can see. The spearhead of a social media-driven status symbol culture that I have developed a small allergy to. I had actually sworn to myself that I would never enter a Louis store.

So you can imagine the mindset with which I approached this test. But I had to test it, the Imagination, that was for sure, and I wanted to do my best to approach it with an open mind despite my aversion to the brand.

First of all, the fragrance notes: In my nose, the citrusy note clearly dominates at the beginning, but it doesn't come across as overly pungent. Later on, it turns woody, although I can actually detect some cinnamon in between. The teen note is also there - not too present for me, but it rounds off the fragrance very nicely. The overall impression doesn't remind me of shower gel or soap at all. To me, Imagination smells more like a room fragrance, if I had to assign it a pejorative association.

Overall, it is very refreshing for me, a great scent for the warm weather, but it didn't give me an olfactory out-of-body experience like I had with Reflection Man, for example. It's a completely different story for those around me, however. I have never received so many compliments on any other perfume. The positive response has overwhelmed me like a freight train loaded with overpriced leather goods. I have taken note of this with a mixture of irritation and astonishment, after all, it is winter, when I would normally consider a beast like Carlisle to be much more harmonious than this little water here. In the feedback I've received, I haven't heard anything along the lines of "it smells like an 800-euro handbag with 500 logos on it", but rather positive reactions to the fragrance notes or the neat cleanliness that I would radiate.

I can only assume that Imagination gets this pleasantness and attraction from the ambroxan, of which LV says it contains a "more than generous dose". Sauvage and its flankers are the best examples of the positive effect of this substance. To be honest, I'm not particularly keen on the "white gold" myself, at most I perceive it as a pleasant accessory; but if it provides such a boost in the attractiveness of a fragrance for those around me, let's have it - we'll take the whole stock.

In the end, I realized that I could hardly do without this fragrance in summer because it is so well received by those around me that I almost feel like I'm in the wrong movie. So I ordered it online from LV, and yes, I will have to look dear Louis in the eye for a refill. But Future Zoaholic will take care of that, he'll manage.

Edit: Now I haven't said anything about the H/S. Very good for a fresh scent, about 8 hours I would say. I've done well with about 5-8 sprays so far.

New Year's greetings,

-zh

I sniffed this fragrance as part of the Masculine Discovery set from PdM. If I could have chosen, I would have tried Sedley instead, but that's just a side note.

Something strange happened in my nose with Greenley: When I first sprayed it on, the apple note, which incidentally also smells a bit woody - like sauna - to me from the start, was clearly too tart. It clearly went in the direction that would probably be described as traditionally masculine. The second time I tested it, about three weeks later, I found the opening to be much sweeter, and the tart aftertaste was significantly reduced to my nose, almost completely gone. I like the fragrance much better this way, I'm just not the tart type.

Unfortunately, the opening is the only thing worth mentioning about Greenley. I can clearly perceive the apple for about 2-3 hours, on clothing and close to the skin even longer. After about 4-5 hours, only the remnants of the Schützenfest are still present, a musky base that can only be perceived close to the skin, which also disappears after a total of 7 hours.

Despite the lovely apple note, not a candidate for purchase.