Cologne Intense Houbigant (2015)Eau de Parfum

Cologne Intense (Eau de Parfum) by Houbigant

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Cologne Intense (Eau de Parfum) (Houbigant)

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7.7 / 10 87 Ratings

Cologne Intense (Eau de Parfum) is a popular perfume by Houbigant for men and was released in 2015. The scent is citrusy-spicy. It is being marketed by Perris Group.

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Perfumer

Luca Maffei

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Calabrian bergamot, Sicilian lemon, Paraguayan petigrain, Moroccan neroli, Lavender, Tarragon, Pink pepper
Heart Notes	Frankincense, Jasmine absolute, Mate
Base Notes	Patchouli, Labdanum absolute, Amber, Oakmoss, Musk

Ratings

Scent

7.7 (87 Ratings)

Longevity

7.1 (77 Ratings)

Sillage

6.5 (80 Ratings)

Bottle

8.5 (78 Ratings)

Submitted by OPomone, last update on 14.01.2020.

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Reviews

12/01/2019

8.0 8.0 9.0/10

Torfdoen
0 Reviews

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Torfdoen

Greatly helpful Review 23

A summer thunderstorm

The air in expectant trembling. Lightning. The last rays of citric-orange light cut off and hidden behind dark clouds. An interval of cooling incense, a slightly ethereal breeze blowing up. It's all in my head. On the dusty streets, rain inertly draws an increasing pattern. The soil reacts and gives off an intense aroma of dominant culinary herbs. Caraway, greasy, coarse leather, but also vital sprouting tobacco. Noble organic barrel material that radiates a dark musty character. Residues of human rule have come to the surface everywhere. Mighty flowers act from the hidden, entice with a beguiling greeting of life. The combination of these fragrances weaves itself into a dirty sultriness, hidden in the light summer haze. Better than the relentless, dust-dry heat. Much better. There is an orange earth refreshment after the shock and some sweetened liquorice screw rubber for calming.

Squatting in the street puddle. Blissful splashing in the murky herb water. Don't be afraid of dirt and filth. Memories of Azzaro Homme, although no lavender soap far and wide, only dirty-orange high pleasure. In the fall. Probably the best time of year for this thunderstorm.

18 Replies

05/26/2018

10.0 7.0 8.0 9.5/10

Yatagan
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Yatagan

Greatly helpful Review 42

Black Cologne Water

I am fascinated by fragrances that combine seemingly irreconcilable opposites: Jasmine or tuberose fragrances for men, oriental vetivers - and dark, heavy eau de colognes / cologne waters.
As explained in my blog on the subject of Eau de Cologne, the following components belong to a classic Cologne water: Neroli (possibly orange blossom, but usually too sweet), lemon, bergamot and / or: petitgrain, mandarin, lime, grapefruit (Hesperidia), cedar (as light, light wood), lavender (as the freshest and lightest of all florals), rosemary (and / or comparable light herbs).
In my blog I further claim that the absence of dark, heavy, oriental tones such as patchouli, sandalwood, oud, vanilla, amber / amber, larger amounts of musk, labdanum, tonka, civet and beaver geil (at best in the smallest doses) is just as important. The green-woody and earthy basic accent vetiver (in all its derived variants: vetivery acetate, vetiver oil) is also more likely to be avoided, since it can quickly imprint a vetiver stamp on a fragrance and would thus inadmissibly change its basic character. The list could be extended by other striking green resinous tones (mint, resin, moss) (quoted after my blog "Kölnische Wässer - 1709 und heute").

But what if you enrich a fragrance that initially meets all the criteria of a classic eau de cologne with darker, oriental or warm accents? Then something very fascinating can come out, in the best case a fragrance like Cologne Intense by Houbigant.
If you take a closer look at the list of ingredients, you won't notice anything unusual in the top note (and you could say that a Kölnisch Wasser has nothing else). It's all there: Neroli, bergamot, petitgrain, lemon, lavender, the light herbs (tarragon), but then surprisingly also a good portion of frankincense (the only drawback: you could have been a little more economical with the dosage of this ingredient), Labdanum / resin of the cistus (you smell: resinous, almost animal-like, as I always perceive Labdanum). Labdanum gives the fragrance a chypre twist that suits it well and makes it a few semitones deeper. The frankincense provides for an oriental impact, which remains however still very bright. I can't isolate patchouli and amber at all, and I can imagine the moss smelling from many, but I don't see it in the foreground. More like musk, which in the base note intensifies the tingling tones of incense.

All in all, Cologne Intense is a good example of a bold creation that uses a basic scheme but varies it greatly. Oriental Colgnes would be worth a blog of their own, but at least I want to mention Eau de Memo, which varies the Cologne theme with leather, the Chypre-Cologne men's classic Pour Monsieur by Chanel - or some Acqua, the Parma fragrances and the Déclaration series by Cartier. But that's just a first, very rough grid. Here is the proposal for a collection ("Black Colognes"):
https://www.parfumo.de/Benutzer/Yatagan/Sammlung/Cust19

For getting to know such an experiment, a test of Houbigant's second big litter after Fougère Royale would be highly recommended, but a black Cologne would be strongly discouraged from blind purchases.

30 Replies