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02/13/2024
Pawly
13 Reviews
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Pawly
Very helpful Review
11
Master class from another world
FanFan - a fragrance that flies under the radar in the Henry Jacques collection, and then again in the Special Editions that fly much lower under the radar, is incredibly unknown and can therefore only be tested by a few noses. What can it do, what makes it so special and why is it flying so low under the radar? Wouldn't a submarine be more practical? We get to the bottom of all these questions in this review... of the Mariana Trench, where the FanFan is also on the familiarity scale.
Henry Jacques' collections work something like this: there is the regular collection, consisting of 50 fragrances. These can be tested in every boutique, they are always available and are structured in the same way in every country. Although this is "only" the regular collection, it is already exciting here: the fragrances can only be tested in the Henry Jacques boutiques, there are no samples and only full bottles can be purchased in the online store. It continues with the limited editions, which are limited to the respective city. These can only be tested and purchased there and are usually composed to represent the respective city. Then come the Special Editions, which include the FanFan together with the Galileo. There are only a handful of these Special Editions in the world and only a few are added each year. These no longer come in 15ml bottles but in 150ml bottles, and at a hefty price. While the regular and limited edition collections are somewhere between a new iPhone and a used small car, the special editions are more in the range of new luxury Mercedes or used sports cars from renowned brands - a scale that sets completely new standards in the perfume world and is out of reach for most ordinary mortals. But can this price be justified in any way? Can it be understood anywhere? And does this fragrance smell good at all?
We'll answer these questions in reverse order, and start quite simply: Yes.
The fragrance contains a whole list of different roses, and it is precisely this type of rose that I find so inspiring: sweet, floral, dark and far from green or woody. Slightly soapy in the most positive sense. Lavender and saffron add an oriental twist and make FanFan seem incredibly sophisticated, yet light and airy. Sandalwood and cedar round off the fragrance, it remains soft and gentle, never too strong, too penetrating, too floral or too much of... anything. It is strong, decisive and lasts forever, but is not annoying, and this is certainly due to the natural substances, which do not burn themselves penetratingly into the noses of others, but merely tickle them a little and then disappear again, because they know exactly how valuable they are and that you cannot get enough of them. This fragrance is rose through and through, and this rose simply won't let go. It sits firmly and dominantly, yet gently and pleasantly at the center and influences every other note to dance to its tune, making for a really pleasant, great interplay.
The performance is absurd. The fragrance simply does not stop smelling. For days on end. Everything that comes into contact with FanFan smells like FanFan - not that that's a problem, this fragrance smells really great, but for me the question arises as to why I can't simply wear and enjoy this great perfume art myself with my small budget and have to leave it to the rich and beautiful. The bottle is incredibly beautiful, decorated with gold, made with perfection as the goal, and you can see that immediately. Everything is well thought out, it no longer looks like a regular perfume bottle, but like a piece of art, and that's exactly what it is - both inside and out, and good art has never been cheap. It gets funny when you don't get any samples for your 120,000 euro fragrance, because they simply don't exist at HJ.
I was told that there were only ten of these bottles and that all ten were sold out. There was a waiting list, people would travel from other countries without hesitation to buy this fragrance as soon as the call came that the fragrance was available again. I was told that people would come into the store and, after a quick sniff, say they wouldn't leave the store without it. I was also told that refills are possible, but only for people who have purchased the fragrance. This is documented with your name at the time of purchase. A transfer to another person is not possible. The enormously expensive investment in such a bottle is therefore also a lifelong guarantee that you can buy this fragrance again and again, while others continue to stand impatiently on the waiting list and have to wait.
Can I understand why people buy this fragrance? Yes. And even though I absolutely don't have that money and won't have it, and even if I did, I would never dream of spending it on a fragrance, I can understand why someone with a certain amount of money would buy this fragrance. As always with HJ, the fragrance, the purchase, the consultation is an absolute experience. Fragrances of this kind are incredibly special, and you notice this not only when you read about them, but also when you smell them. For me, this is an incredibly important criterion that is often overlooked in the high-end world. The price is the feature, everything else is irrelevant. That's different here, and that's what I like so much, and even if it's difficult to label a fragrance like this as "worth it" or "not worth it", I would find it hard to say it's not worth it at all. Nevertheless, the price is of course beyond all limits, as beautiful as the fragrance may be. I am incredibly grateful to have tested it, especially considering that even the tester bottle was incredibly small and almost empty, and even for this employee it doesn't seem to have been that easy to get hold of.
Somewhere here is probably the end of the fragrance rabbit hole.
Henry Jacques' collections work something like this: there is the regular collection, consisting of 50 fragrances. These can be tested in every boutique, they are always available and are structured in the same way in every country. Although this is "only" the regular collection, it is already exciting here: the fragrances can only be tested in the Henry Jacques boutiques, there are no samples and only full bottles can be purchased in the online store. It continues with the limited editions, which are limited to the respective city. These can only be tested and purchased there and are usually composed to represent the respective city. Then come the Special Editions, which include the FanFan together with the Galileo. There are only a handful of these Special Editions in the world and only a few are added each year. These no longer come in 15ml bottles but in 150ml bottles, and at a hefty price. While the regular and limited edition collections are somewhere between a new iPhone and a used small car, the special editions are more in the range of new luxury Mercedes or used sports cars from renowned brands - a scale that sets completely new standards in the perfume world and is out of reach for most ordinary mortals. But can this price be justified in any way? Can it be understood anywhere? And does this fragrance smell good at all?
We'll answer these questions in reverse order, and start quite simply: Yes.
The fragrance contains a whole list of different roses, and it is precisely this type of rose that I find so inspiring: sweet, floral, dark and far from green or woody. Slightly soapy in the most positive sense. Lavender and saffron add an oriental twist and make FanFan seem incredibly sophisticated, yet light and airy. Sandalwood and cedar round off the fragrance, it remains soft and gentle, never too strong, too penetrating, too floral or too much of... anything. It is strong, decisive and lasts forever, but is not annoying, and this is certainly due to the natural substances, which do not burn themselves penetratingly into the noses of others, but merely tickle them a little and then disappear again, because they know exactly how valuable they are and that you cannot get enough of them. This fragrance is rose through and through, and this rose simply won't let go. It sits firmly and dominantly, yet gently and pleasantly at the center and influences every other note to dance to its tune, making for a really pleasant, great interplay.
The performance is absurd. The fragrance simply does not stop smelling. For days on end. Everything that comes into contact with FanFan smells like FanFan - not that that's a problem, this fragrance smells really great, but for me the question arises as to why I can't simply wear and enjoy this great perfume art myself with my small budget and have to leave it to the rich and beautiful. The bottle is incredibly beautiful, decorated with gold, made with perfection as the goal, and you can see that immediately. Everything is well thought out, it no longer looks like a regular perfume bottle, but like a piece of art, and that's exactly what it is - both inside and out, and good art has never been cheap. It gets funny when you don't get any samples for your 120,000 euro fragrance, because they simply don't exist at HJ.
I was told that there were only ten of these bottles and that all ten were sold out. There was a waiting list, people would travel from other countries without hesitation to buy this fragrance as soon as the call came that the fragrance was available again. I was told that people would come into the store and, after a quick sniff, say they wouldn't leave the store without it. I was also told that refills are possible, but only for people who have purchased the fragrance. This is documented with your name at the time of purchase. A transfer to another person is not possible. The enormously expensive investment in such a bottle is therefore also a lifelong guarantee that you can buy this fragrance again and again, while others continue to stand impatiently on the waiting list and have to wait.
Can I understand why people buy this fragrance? Yes. And even though I absolutely don't have that money and won't have it, and even if I did, I would never dream of spending it on a fragrance, I can understand why someone with a certain amount of money would buy this fragrance. As always with HJ, the fragrance, the purchase, the consultation is an absolute experience. Fragrances of this kind are incredibly special, and you notice this not only when you read about them, but also when you smell them. For me, this is an incredibly important criterion that is often overlooked in the high-end world. The price is the feature, everything else is irrelevant. That's different here, and that's what I like so much, and even if it's difficult to label a fragrance like this as "worth it" or "not worth it", I would find it hard to say it's not worth it at all. Nevertheless, the price is of course beyond all limits, as beautiful as the fragrance may be. I am incredibly grateful to have tested it, especially considering that even the tester bottle was incredibly small and almost empty, and even for this employee it doesn't seem to have been that easy to get hold of.
Somewhere here is probably the end of the fragrance rabbit hole.
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