12/23/2013




Ceylon for respectable gentlemen
This Spanish fragrance is a brainchild of Ramon Monegal whose other creations (for his own brand) I'd call more imaginative than this product he made for Adolfo Dominguez. Neither design nor content are bold, let alone unconventional. "Viaje a Ceylan" is an average spicy-woody-aromatic scent which smells slightly medicinal to me. It emphasises the aroma of cedarwood and doesn't evoke "Ceylon" to me at all. I would have imagined tea leaves, cinnamon...whatever, but what I get is pink pepper, grapefruit and a weird "marine note" which doesn't seem to belong here. It accounts for the clean start of the fragrance - no oriental fantasy, but a whiff of the ordinary "sports fragrance". The scent improves after several minutes and turns into a respectable, extremely conventional, balanced male cologne. "Viaje a Ceylan" is not cloying, it will appeal to the gentleman who hates being "pinned down" and doesn't like his scent to smell seductive or "kinky". Not as colourful as I had imagined (blind buy because of extremely good reviews, I can't share any of the enthusiasm).