04/11/2013
Apicius
222 Reviews
Apicius
Helpful Review
3
The Pencil Sharpener
Hard-to-finds are the gent's perfumes of the Ronaldo Esper series. The most well-known of all living Ronaldo Espers is a Brazilian fashion designer. From what I saw on the internet, this person must be a kind of enfant terrible - maybe a proper compensation for the fact that the kind of fashion he is into is something square: bridal wear! The Perfumed Court describe Ronaldo Esper as an Italian perfumer, but I think they must be wrong. At least, the only place where the complete line has been available – and still is, is an Italian site: www.profumeriagambarini.it
Obviously no advertising, bad distribution, nice but boring flacons and the fact that this designer is hardly known to anybody in Europe possibly made these perfumes shelf-warmers. Worldwide, you will find very few online shops if you are looking for them.
The series isn't bad at all. Each of those fragrances covers a possible aspect of nowadays gent's perfumery, and Graphite is – a very pictographic name. Graphite is what the mines of pencils are made of, I guess. And the taste and smell of pencil mines is one of the hard to describe sensations. Do you remember the scent you get from sharpening a pencil?
In case of Graphite, we can forget about the fragrance notes. Whatever woody, herbal or spicy notes are mentioned here do not give me any clue. What I smell is an aromatic, mineral and slightly sharp stone coal and graphite accord – and that is the closest I come to describe it. This is quite unique and must not be confused with burnt coal or tar notes. A rather aromatic version of musk may be involved, too.
The mood that this accord expresses is something lean, rather working-day-style, straightforward, gripping, like an old-fashioned school-house, and no sunny weather. A teacher's perfume? I'd put it in a line with Hermès Eau de Gentiane Blanche or maybe 7 de Loewe p.H. It definitely misses some warmth – but such one cannot expect by a cold stone.
All fragrances of that series share a certain masculine approach that I would like to call aromatic-musky. I believe they were all made by the same gifted perfumer who unfortunately is unknown. All Ronaldo Esper fragrances are well above average, and Graphite is both a thrilling perfume and a highly artistic reminder of a scent that we usually do not care so much about. I bought one of the Ronaldo Esper's regularly and the rest as bargains. They have a special corner in my collection, and I am sorry all I can do is recommend a blind buy.
Obviously no advertising, bad distribution, nice but boring flacons and the fact that this designer is hardly known to anybody in Europe possibly made these perfumes shelf-warmers. Worldwide, you will find very few online shops if you are looking for them.
The series isn't bad at all. Each of those fragrances covers a possible aspect of nowadays gent's perfumery, and Graphite is – a very pictographic name. Graphite is what the mines of pencils are made of, I guess. And the taste and smell of pencil mines is one of the hard to describe sensations. Do you remember the scent you get from sharpening a pencil?
In case of Graphite, we can forget about the fragrance notes. Whatever woody, herbal or spicy notes are mentioned here do not give me any clue. What I smell is an aromatic, mineral and slightly sharp stone coal and graphite accord – and that is the closest I come to describe it. This is quite unique and must not be confused with burnt coal or tar notes. A rather aromatic version of musk may be involved, too.
The mood that this accord expresses is something lean, rather working-day-style, straightforward, gripping, like an old-fashioned school-house, and no sunny weather. A teacher's perfume? I'd put it in a line with Hermès Eau de Gentiane Blanche or maybe 7 de Loewe p.H. It definitely misses some warmth – but such one cannot expect by a cold stone.
All fragrances of that series share a certain masculine approach that I would like to call aromatic-musky. I believe they were all made by the same gifted perfumer who unfortunately is unknown. All Ronaldo Esper fragrances are well above average, and Graphite is both a thrilling perfume and a highly artistic reminder of a scent that we usually do not care so much about. I bought one of the Ronaldo Esper's regularly and the rest as bargains. They have a special corner in my collection, and I am sorry all I can do is recommend a blind buy.
