Chnokfir

When I go to a perfumery for advice, and I now enjoy being advised, I am usually quite open-minded with one small restriction. I never leave anyone in any doubt that I prefer lighter fragrances and know next to nothing about oriental notes. And so it came to pass that in one week in two old Bavarian towns in three perfumeries, this fragrance was recommended to me in the warmest of words and with the utmost insistence. So what else can I do but lead my nose to the test strip. (Actually the other way around, but that reads funny.)

There it is, a small square with golden liquid and a solid gold plaque and an even more solid gold metal button. Not too big and yet self-confident for a first. I like that. Just like the black box with bold, golden print, which is barely bigger than the bottle and not, as is now often the case, the size of a shoe box.

The fragrance is just as the name promises. Oud envelops you from the very first sniff and gives you the certain promise that it won't let you go any time soon. Even if I'm not a great specialist in oud, I now know that there are domesticated, soft, light, light oud and a few less tame cousins that are a little darker, darker, drier, heavier, more animalic. And it is precisely this animalic oud that is used here in all its glory. I can't help but think of the Augean stables here and secretly hope that I don't have to channel two rivers through my nostrils to get this smell out again. But that's how it is in the end. This rather dark and animalic oud is soon joined by a sweet and very aromatic (Bulgarian?) rose in somewhat larger quantities - in other words, nothing that could have been described in a container size such as a dozen or a bouquet, but rather as a bed, garden or field. You might guess that I'm not a particularly big fan of expressive roses either. So my enjoyment of this fragrance is just increasing. It's possible that I can also smell some lavender from afar, but I don't want to swear to it. In any case, this impression was not strong. If you look at the fragrance pyramid, fresh and green notes are also said to be present alongside other ingredients. Unfortunately, I am unable to perceive these, my nose is too overloaded and overwhelmed with oud and rose. Nor can I speak of a fragrance progression: Oud and its best friend, the rose, came and stayed until the bitter end.

I carried the fragrance strip, which had two sprays on it, in the breast pocket of my shirt for some time, maybe two or three hours, then unfortunately it became too much for me. Three days later, the shirt still smelled distinctly of "Oud 31". My skin took on the scent through the shirt and I still smelled subtly but clearly recognizable "Oud 31" the next morning. So you get your money's worth here. You should try to apply this fragrance in homeopathic doses, otherwise vehement unfortunately quickly becomes penetrating.

I'm trying to imagine where men and women - I'll call the fragrance 50/50 unisex - can wear such an expressive, potent scent. In the theater, on the train or in the office, I imagine it tends to be difficult. That leaves the private environment, the shisha bar, a club or a large Turkish/Arabic wedding in a large hall, if not a hall. Yes, that's where I imagine this fragrance would be in good hands, even though I've only attended two large Turkish weddings myself.

... and so it came to pass that, once again, these latest perfume tastings did not result in a friendship for life between me and oud. Maybe, if it didn't have the thorny rose in tow again!

You can hardly get past "Invictus" at the moment. Whether you have children in the advertised target group 15-25 around him or but colleagues, every second trainee, intern or working student smells of similar fragrance chords. And Paco Rabanne of course continues to ride this zeitgeist wave until it breaks ... or the person who has to smell it. Every year they delight us with either a "collector's edition" of the triumphant flacon or with a flanker. Now we are promised a particularly intense spicy variation of the "classic", which finally gives the wearer the end... ,#pfui, the final victory. After the predecessor has already dropped all panties, one wants to finally crack the high score of received compliments.

Black comes the familiar box now around the corner, black is also the content. Nix more of because of bling-bling. Discreetly black appears the cup, yet more reminiscent of an old, burnt-out cylinder head. If it weren't for the discreet golden "V", the well-known sign of victory. Those who celebrated the beloved silver bottle will have fun with this one, too. Heavy it is yes, the cup, there might be the plastic attachments around the atomizer but also like something more solid worked, then the overall impression would be right again.

A push on the atomizer and all expectations are met. A familiar maritime accord of citrus, lavender and peppery notes creates the usual freshness, unfortunately again in a somewhat artificial expansion stage. A green accord - is it lavender? - tries to play itself into the foreground, not at all wrong, but regrettably cannot assert itself. Because after just under an hour, the sweetish notes are already pushing in, vanilla and tonka are relentless. It becomes sweet, sticky and that for me again in a synthetic way, as one knows it unfortunately from cheap air fresheners from the drugstore and fragrance trees for the car. Here "Invictus Victory" tilts me in an unpleasant direction, which manifests itself over hours. After 10-12 hours the scent retreats into the skin and if you sniff the drydown, you'll be surprised to find that next to the fading sweetness, there's still something pleasantly spicy lurking, which was previously imperceptible and certainly not nameable. A pity actually, now that it slowly starts to become exciting and beautiful, it's already over again. Even in two further test sessions, I can't find out what it is. Is it the incense accord, which I could not perceive before? No idea.

While currently many designer fragrances with very decent durability and radiation for displeasure worries, "Invictus Victory" is here on the winning track. Good 10-12 hours he radiates his sweet notes very clearly and vehemently and even the next morning are still fragmentary remains to sniff. That is nowadays already once not to despise.

Maritime fresh notes and exuberant sweetness, the secret of success with the current target group. It is delivered and that is celebrated. For this a cup! At older semesters see this fragrance rather not. People are neither after these striking fragrances nor a trophy for the shelf. There must be room for quite different status symbols.

With me, "Invictus Victory" once again can not take a victory. Also for a certificate of honor it will not quite be enough. But no sooner did I take my A-levels in those days than certificates of participation were introduced. Yes, apart from all the precious metal, a certificate of participation is probably OK for a black trophy. On their back you can then make a tally sheet with the received compliments or note the numbers of the ladies, if the one does not immediately drag in your bower.

There's no other way to say it, I was olfactorically influenced by Italian fragrance classics. One of them was clearly "Paco Rabanne pour Homme" - a fragrance as old as I am, classic, green, spicy, a little barbershop, just wonderful. Since then I am happy about every new release from that house. The fresher "Paco Rabanne pour Homme Eau" then also became my signature scent for a few years until it was discontinued. But the more plastic was used in the individual bottles since the millennium, the less I could do with the respective fragrances. But I was sure, Phantom must also be tested, each gets its fair chance.

The specially for this fragrance set up display was then also hard to miss at Douglas. On it some silver boxes with the big name and the somewhat smaller robot on it. So far, so simple, everything still acceptable. Next to it, two saleswomen are frantically discussing, one is playing around with a bottle, or rather, with its individual parts. Apparently this toy robot from the Far East wouldn't even survive the first hour of excited play after being unpacked under a Christmas tree. Broken off, sharp-edged and pointed individual parts, a colleague rushes over with a new tester. I finger the new tester: Yes, seems to be a thin-walled plastic construction of the kind that likes to break quickly once. Although the atomizer makes a pretty good impression, I wonder if this is supposed to be a refill that will last for a long time? Who has a soft spot for Japanese science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s with the associated films and toys, which will hardly come past this bottle and place it in the showcase.

Two sprays on the back of the hand and I immediately ask myself the question, whether I would not like to undergo better equal ritual ablutions. A few minutes later on the open street, my wife wants to drag me by force into the next department store, to perform this procedure on me in person in the customer toilet.

With the first gush overcomes one a rich load of sweet fruitiness, which within minutes turns into a fruity sweetness and is accompanied by a slight metallic note of lavender. All half bad if it weren't for a chord, nay, a crescendo of sticky sweet chords that build to a fortissimo forte of patchouli, vanilla and probably tonka. Wouldn't be so bad, perhaps, if this weren't all at once, so intense, so synthetically vehement in its expression and, above all, already so familiar through so many other designer fragrances in this or similar combinations. No, this fragrance offers truly nothing new, even in the combination of its individual notes.

A "phantom" should be this fragrance, so a mirage, a ghost. Consequently, rather a light appearance. But for this, this fragrance with the initial chord is much too intense, too loud, too dominant. However, as the fruits quickly hide behind patchouli and vanilla, the initial chord swells reasonably quickly, the familiar, slightly oriental sweetness remains. It is less of a nuisance to one's own nose, probably for reasons of self-protection a certain habituation sets in. For the environment, however, it remains longer clearly beyond the arm's length just as clearly sweet perceptible. I attest the fragrance an impressively above-average durability of over 12 hours nowadays and even the next morning you can still sniff out sweet remnants on the skin.

No, I don't like the scent. Too sweet, too synthetic, too bold, too annoying. But it seems to be for some years exactly what so many distinguished young men are looking for in so many designer fragrances. So if you feel at home with "Invictus" and "1 Million" and its numerous flankers and friends, you should definitely also try "Phantom".

A "Domo arigato misuta Robotto" does not want to come over my lips with this perfume, neither for the fragrance, nor for the bottle. But probably the machines have already taken over the world, but to me old man went completely past that again. Must soon necessarily "Matrix 4" look, red or blue pill ...

There are those fragrances where the product marketing doesn't pick me up at all and I end up standing in front of the shelf at the local perfumery with my mouth wide open, my entire posture signaling desperation and need for help. "Scandal" reminded me first and foremost of Alice in the girly variety, stuck upside down the rabbit hole, but that didn't help me even back in 2017. What is this little crown of a scandal supposed to report to me now? Yes, it almost borders on scandalous that the valued customer is misled with abstruse associations and fantasies.

A red box with coronet welcomes me, is it in royal red? One does not know it so exactly. In any case, the letters remind me of a British brand of sports and leisurewear of sometimes dubious reputation, at least as far as some of its wearers are concerned. This ingratiation is a scandal, at least a minor one. Inside, a solid bottle with silver-grey liquid and gold emblem with lettering and a crown on top. If I'd studied the tabloids in the waiting room of my dentist's office, I'd have figured out which crown this piece of work reminds me of. Yes, we already have gold bars, trophies and cups, we need more, we put a crown on it. It's all there! But who the hell knows Clive Christian?! Besides, this crown is much bigger and much nicer! A push on the unfortunately rather inferior atomizer brings out only bigger drops. A scandal, not at all sovereign!

The first sniff hits you like a whole, hard, a very hard chunk to hot caramel. It's sweet, and it gets sweeter. Of a synthetic sweetness that hardly suggests sugar in it, but all sorts of sugar substitutes from the lab, which are then used in American confectionery and soft drinks. However, without any fruity additions. At most, there are synthetic vanilla or tonka flavors involved and something I can't name. It is supposed to simulate something spicy, but which fortunately keeps me clearly in the background. More happens then also not.

The fragrance starts strongly sweet, becomes a little sweeter and then decreases in intensity. More does not happen there. Good 8-10 hours long.

For the target audience who is looking for a certain stage of development of a fragrance and only wants this one linear fragrance, it must be the fulfillment. For those who carry an inner Monk around with them, for whom the development of a fragrance with its different notes and progressions means physical torment, this fragrance must be salvation.
For sons who are pampered by their mothers and carried on hands, who are the very sweetest thing in the world, royal children, crown princes, future family princes, who have already imbibed their status with their mother's milk, this bottle is the epitome of their being, this fragrance is a reflection of their essence. This fragrance will once again amplify and manifest their appearance, as bombproof as caramel can pry out any seal.
The consumer of this perfume is truly not looking for a scent experience, the scent is just meant to stick to them unchanged all day, to make them seem sugary sweet, and Scandal manages to do that for almost an entire day.

I could have titled this review "crown of creation", but that would have put this fragrance in a completely wrong light. Because there must still be room for at least one "Night" and one "Intense" version.

Like so many other fragrance houses, Prada provides us every year with a brilliant new offshoot of its Luna Rossa series. But what to do when you can't think of an innovative theme for the upcoming flanker? That's right, either simply observe what the competition or the company's step-siblings are up to and then either swim along with them or do the complete opposite. Or choose an ever-present theme with which you can't really go wrong in principle, unless the fragrance is no good per se: summer, holiday, sea, an aquatic fresh fragrance that evokes summer holiday feelings even in the deepest lockdown and dreariest rainy weather. Just rummage in the clothes box.
But one could also argue otherwise: A fragrance that harmonizes with many fresh shower gels and allows men a good addition after the daily washing rite. Previously, so 30 years ago, there was for the vast majority of designer fragrances an almost unimaginable range of care products with the corresponding fragrance. That fell victim to the controller's red pen almost everywhere. So put out a fragrance that would willingly hop in the box with any discount shower gel, if you want to put it that way. Voila!

I like the Prada bottles. There's still a certain value behind them, even in this plain blue box. A beautiful, solid, dark blue bottle, with a very high-quality atomizer and a red logo for contrast. The transparent protective button is best disposed of immediately, after transport it is useless. Such a flacon you can put on the shelf, the declassifies all crowns, bars or cups. Solidity just.

A first spray and it's like coming home to your parents or grandma and grandpa after a long time. Not that it would smell like Prada Luna Rossa Ocean with them. But it smells very familiar, as if you had never been away, just like home.
Many old familiar freshness components come out, citrusy notes provide the necessary opening freshness kick. Quickly push herbs and spices after and there is again this reminder of all the aquatic fragrances of the 1990s, which were so innovative and tone-setting at the time. A few big names of that time come to mind, here sometimes more, sometimes less similar and pronounced. Too many warm notes do not come even in the finish, it remains rather herbaceous-green, which I like, because most modern designer fragrances are much too sweet for me in the back.

A masculine fresh scent, as if fresh out of the shower, if you have then there to a blue packaging has reached. This fragrance fits complementary and helps one to feel and transport this freshness experience qualitatively further. Unfortunately, the durability is not particularly pronounced, after a good six hours the last herbaceous notes disappear. The fragrance was initially still quite voluminous, only after a good hour he retreats to arm's length.

Prada Luna Rossa Ocean lives up to its name, it develops a certain Mediterranean freshness. The theme of many other similar fragrances is indeed skillfully taken up, but unfortunately also not modern further developed. So it remains a drop in the ocean - a drop in the ocean.