03/01/2015
ColinM
516 Reviews
ColinM
Underrated! (by me too)
A classic formal herbal-mossy fougère with a leather base accord, aldehydes and a floral-spicy “barbershop” heart (citrus, coriander, lavender, tonka) on woods, mostly vetiver to my nose. Honestly a little dull at first to me, as it reminded me a lot of other cheaper (quality and price wise) scents of that era based on the same herbal-floral-leather structure. Coriolan is undoubtedly pleasant, mellow and refined, and you can tell it’s a Guerlain by the particular high quality of the composition, the solid feel of elegance, the range of colorful nuances from soapy, to leathery, to bitter-greenish and to smoky: yet... well, to me it’s not exactly a must unless you’re really a Guerlain collector or a fougère enthusiast, this meaning it is rather conventional and as I said, not that far from most of other similar fougères from the ‘80s or the ‘90s. Let’s put it this way: good and classy, and surely an utter pleasure to wear, but in my opinion probably the most negligible among Guerlain’s “vintage” masculine offerings (obviously they’ve done worse later on...).
6,5-7/10
EDIT: I revisited this having the chance to wear it more properly for one day. It's much better than my review above, the keys are its understatement and above all, the evolution, which is fantastic and leading to an incredibly elegant, rich and nuanced drydown. Still nothing "groundbreaking" but easy to underrate.
6,5-7/10
EDIT: I revisited this having the chance to wear it more properly for one day. It's much better than my review above, the keys are its understatement and above all, the evolution, which is fantastic and leading to an incredibly elegant, rich and nuanced drydown. Still nothing "groundbreaking" but easy to underrate.