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Notes11/11/2019
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MrHonest
67 Reviews
MrHonest
Helpful Review 5
Evergreen Terrace
In the wake of all the blue fragrances being released nowadays, L’eau Bleue d’Issey is a semi-vintage breath of sharp green air. Don’t let the colour of the bottle fool you. It’s as far from an aquatic as you can possibly get, given its mid-2000s release date.
The fragrance opens up with a monstrous blast of dark, herbal rosemary and juniper. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a rosemary bomb, but it’s probably as close as you can get in the designer realm. If you’ve ever smelled Ralph Lauren’s Polo Black, there are subtle aspects that the two have in common (minus the tropical fruit of course), although both scents go in very different directions.
Within 5 minutes, cypress and ginger become incredibly obvious, to be joined by a dash of dirty patchouli, giving the fragrance an uncanny resemblance to the smell of a fresh evergreen branch. And when I say resemblance, I mean it smells EXACTLY like an evergreen branch, spicy nuances ‘n’ all. It nearly blew my mind the first time I wore it. I would imagine that you would be hard pressed to find a more realistic portrayal, even in the niche market.
However, give it another 15 minutes, and a sour orange begins to peek through with a touch of pepper, maxing out the blend at about the 30 minute mark. The scent then essentially becomes a strong rosemary and cypress, spiced with ginger and pepper with a dash of patchouli and cedar in the background. There is a hint of lavender that provides some smoothness at about the hour mark, but by then, the projection has significantly receded.
In fact, the biggest letdown of the current formulation is the performance (I have a January 2019 bottle). Despite the projection being rather strong for the first 30 minutes, it dies to about a foot for about another hour and then becomes almost imperceptible for an additional 3. Total longevity is barely 5-6 hours on my skin, with only the first 2 being of any real significance.
Interestingly enough, as the composition falls apart at 2 hours, the notes separate, and a fine gossamer of sweet amber and creamy sandalwood become detectable. Fortunately, the fragrance never comes close to any degree of sweetness, but methinks that a tad more amber could have made a difference in the performance category.
Overall though, I absolutely adore the stuff. Not only does it remind me of a rosemary garden within a grove of vibrant evergreen trees, but it also evokes the smell of the holiday season – festive decorations, spicy desserts and shopping madness. For me, it’s like stepping into the not-too-distant past, when things were simpler, fragrance companies took chances on unique blends and sweet coumarin or ambrox fragrances hadn’t yet taken over the majority of the designer market. If you want to smell different by today’s standards, this is the juice. A superbly herbal pine scent in a dark blue bottle. Take THAT blue fragrances.
The fragrance opens up with a monstrous blast of dark, herbal rosemary and juniper. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a rosemary bomb, but it’s probably as close as you can get in the designer realm. If you’ve ever smelled Ralph Lauren’s Polo Black, there are subtle aspects that the two have in common (minus the tropical fruit of course), although both scents go in very different directions.
Within 5 minutes, cypress and ginger become incredibly obvious, to be joined by a dash of dirty patchouli, giving the fragrance an uncanny resemblance to the smell of a fresh evergreen branch. And when I say resemblance, I mean it smells EXACTLY like an evergreen branch, spicy nuances ‘n’ all. It nearly blew my mind the first time I wore it. I would imagine that you would be hard pressed to find a more realistic portrayal, even in the niche market.
However, give it another 15 minutes, and a sour orange begins to peek through with a touch of pepper, maxing out the blend at about the 30 minute mark. The scent then essentially becomes a strong rosemary and cypress, spiced with ginger and pepper with a dash of patchouli and cedar in the background. There is a hint of lavender that provides some smoothness at about the hour mark, but by then, the projection has significantly receded.
In fact, the biggest letdown of the current formulation is the performance (I have a January 2019 bottle). Despite the projection being rather strong for the first 30 minutes, it dies to about a foot for about another hour and then becomes almost imperceptible for an additional 3. Total longevity is barely 5-6 hours on my skin, with only the first 2 being of any real significance.
Interestingly enough, as the composition falls apart at 2 hours, the notes separate, and a fine gossamer of sweet amber and creamy sandalwood become detectable. Fortunately, the fragrance never comes close to any degree of sweetness, but methinks that a tad more amber could have made a difference in the performance category.
Overall though, I absolutely adore the stuff. Not only does it remind me of a rosemary garden within a grove of vibrant evergreen trees, but it also evokes the smell of the holiday season – festive decorations, spicy desserts and shopping madness. For me, it’s like stepping into the not-too-distant past, when things were simpler, fragrance companies took chances on unique blends and sweet coumarin or ambrox fragrances hadn’t yet taken over the majority of the designer market. If you want to smell different by today’s standards, this is the juice. A superbly herbal pine scent in a dark blue bottle. Take THAT blue fragrances.
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