The Colour of Spring is the third studio album by English band Talk Talk, released in February 1986. If you are wondering what all this has to do with Azzaro's Chrome Pure, the answer is that for me, white is the colour that best represents spring. A clean white powdered sugar brightens a serene landscape of nature's blues and greens. It wouldn't be spring or summer without a heavy dose of white to get us in the warm-weather mood. Spring is the time when nature awakens, so to speak. Everything is fresh and alive and new. Opposed to the dull, cold, and grey shades of winter, spring comes with a bright and vibrant palette. After all, the first few flowers that poke through the harsh layer of snow are white as well, ringing in the warmer seasons. Flowers like the lily-of-the-valley bring nice green and white contrast to the scene as well, and how about all the fruit trees that blossom in spring? For example, apple, pier, plum, apricot, and citrus trees have lovely, soft white blossoms that can be seen far and wide. White colour symbolizes purity, innocence, appears tidy and makes you feel clean, and Chrome's transparent azure blue bottle is now in pristine matt white.
I was, and still am, an excellent Chrome amateur. I remember when it was launched on the market, that metallic aura that no other perfume had yet possessed, freshness, extreme durability. Curious that the metal, the chromed steel, in itself does not smell, but in contact with human skin and its lipids, it produces a typical ancestral, penetrating, bloody odour present in Chrome. Is this another Chrome's flanker? No, it isn't. It is a novel reformulation with an even stronger spirit. If I had to find a similarity, Pure is more liken to Legend spin-off than the original, perhaps due to the presence of tonka, musk, and cedar notes in the core.
Chrome Pure is classified as citrus, spicy, and woody scent, and just out of the bottle, welcomes you as a spring morning with a thunderous punch of citrus and orange blossom quickly followed by non-descript woody and watery notes. The freshness is magnified by mandarin that yields a sweet but tangy note, being the essence made from a variety of citrus fruit's peels. The tonka comes out too from the very beginning, which adds a whole creamy, powdery edge to it.
The heart is aquatic and woody, and different than other aqueous frags. A thing that I like about Chrome Pure is how it joins watery notes into the composition. It doesn't over-do them or make them too visible, but they're there, and now and again you'll catch a subtle waft of a cooling, aquatic sea breeze. It stands out a little bit supported by a couple of synthetic molecules, namely Akigala and Pepper Woods. I became aware of Akigala Wood about a year ago when I read it as one of Pure's notes. When I learned it wasn't wood but the enzymatic conversion of patchouli I was very interested. What is left behind in Akigala Wood is an enhancement of the spicy character in an undefined woody matrix, which makes it a near-perfect partner for the Pepper Wood. Like the former, it a fresh, natural, pleasant smelling molecule with a spicy-peppery top note, very dry and austere, the early moments are so dull it might be too much for some, but later unfold to bring power and vibrancy to the fragrance.
The dry-down is where this one blooms and stands above many other warm seasons offerings, especially of today. A woody, creamy, musky spiciness, with a touch of herbal, is what you're left with. Somewhat sweet but the spicy woodiness tames it. The base adds a dollop of roasted sweetness with sensual, warm, and addictive accents of tonka bean and a little sandalwood before finishing with a flare of musk. The tonka texture is conveyed through aspects of coumarin and caramel.
For those of you who find many citruses and aquatics a bit ugh, I would endorse you to try this one out, you may be very pleasingly surprised. After the initial fresh citrus blast, it turns to a lovely masculine powdery scent that's most suited for casual occasions during the day. A great addition to the Chrome line overall, different from the original and I guess more modern since the powdery effect gives it a more popular character. There are improvements and profundity in the composition. Its performance is reliable, with strong projection and better-than-average longevity. And it brings some new ideas to the table, particularly the heart accord of Akigala and Pepper woods, which stick around for most of its life. I don't see why people would think of this as generic because it is very unique. Ignore the hate, try to keep an open mind to this and give it a try because you might like it as much as I do.
-Elysium
Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
Elysium
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