Andin

I enter the garden through a wonderfully tangy yellow-green opening, spicy-tart with a sunny smile instead of citric acidity. Bergamot and basil can be clearly smelled in the first 10 minutes, and I wouldn't have been surprised to find a mint leaf in the fragrance notes. From the background, the concentrated sweetness of the white blossoms quickly comes to the fore: lots of jasmine and gardenia, some neroli - really, no tuberose? Mimosa makes the whole thing nice and fluffy, but it is already quite sweet. Luckily, cooler, blue notes flash up in between, otherwise I would be completely buried under the stream of flowers.
Funnily enough, during my first test, I suddenly get real indoor swimming pool-in-summer associations, including chlorine, sunscreen and accumulated heat under the glass roof. On my second pass (with more sprays) I don't have that, now the balance between white and blue is better here. Very slowly, the floral sweetness creeps out and gives way to a soft, light woodiness.
This fragrance bears its name quite rightly - clearly a large, sunlit garden in full bloom on the Mediterranean. What makes it special for me is the skillful depiction of the blue, cooler parts, which I would like to be even more pronounced. I would like it even more if it were a little less bloomingly sweet.

This fragrance made me change my inner evaluation several times.
It starts light green, delicate and somehow... vegetable!!! It clicks, I think of freshly harvested cucumbers, still cold from the night air. Quickly, within the first few minutes, something pungent creeps in, initially reminding me of rubbed leaves with lots of plant juice. But the spiciness becomes stronger, taking on a biting, cold character for my nose, alcoholic and somewhat synthetic. It almost burns the eyes, opening up a sea of white spirit in which pieces of cucumber are still floating. The salty note is also clear to me, everything has a thick salt crust. It really bites and scratches over the green, I can't imagine this part as a fragrance for me with the best will in the world.

After a good hour, it becomes softer, woodier, the scratchiness is gone. I stand on a pebbly beach and look out at the white clouds of musk in the cool sea air. Silvery driftwood warms slightly under the scattered rays of the morning sun. Seaweed lies in shrinking puddles of seawater. The green becomes darker and carries the scent of the sharp, rustling blades of grass in the dunes to me.
I find the base pleasantly rough, like a short trip to a coast in the north. Here I finally find the promised Dune Roads.
So my rating went from 6.5 (cucumber??) to 5.5 (it bites me!), and then climbed bit by bit to 7.5 for the pleasant base. So I end up with a 6.5 - a fragrance that I wouldn't want to wear myself, but which brings impressive and exciting images.

Here you get pure hydrocyanic acid straight from the atomizer onto your skin, whose squeaky sweetness and bitingly sterile pungency is only complemented by a hint of saffron. It's quite intense and massively unpleasant for my nose.
For me, it takes around 20 minutes for this attack to subside and for the screeching bitter almond to be replaced by a pleasantly darker, very tamed oud note. Woodruff clearly flows into this, which briefly brings back sweet memories.
Over the next hour, a soft, slightly smoky leather note develops from this, reminiscent of brown, high-quality leather armchairs in a country club - bringing us closer to my idea of the highest diplomatic circles (or who knows, maybe we were already there from the start?)
A good hour later, the leather scent expands to include a subtle vanilla tobacco note, which goes well with it. In my mind's eye, the gentlemen have now retreated to the smoking room and remain there until the evening fades away softly in amber musk.

If I had washed off the fragrance in the first half hour, outraged by this nasal assault, I would not have experienced the clear change that followed. The fragrance takes its time, gliding from scent to scent and changing its face again and again throughout the day. For me, it is well-made and exciting to wear, but certainly not something I would find myself in and would have to add to my collection.

In search of the most beautiful fig in the country, today I tested this new fragrance from Mancera. Thanks to dear member GökNes the fragrance arrived so quickly to me:)

The first impression pleases me at first, because here fig full tumbles out of the spray head. No coconut association, no accessories, no alcohol - directly fig. After a few minutes of waiting, in which this fig broadside is allowed to act, I notice that something increasingly bothers me about this fig note. Fig can bring an artificial plastic note, after all, and unfortunately this one increasingly does that for me. In addition, it is also very sweet, I think of "Barbie plastic" and that dampens my initial enthusiasm somewhat. Unfortunately, I can perceive neither incense nor pepper. The ginger I guess with good will (and because I currently drink masses of ginger tea and know how it smells) after a few minutes delicately perceived as a dampening background note.
The fig is the absolute dominatrix during the first 30 minutes. Then it finally gives up the plastic whip and wraps itself in soft suede. The leather note blends very nicely with the fig, it becomes rounder, more natural and fruity. Lavender follows later and adds a nice fresh spice without becoming soapy. I can't detect the other notes separately. Overall, the fragrance changes in the course of the first hour from light sweet to warmer "fully ripe" sweet without being too juicy.
After three hours, the base beckons: the fig leaves, the suede stays and nestles into a balsamic sweetness. Vanilla does not jump into focus here, as it so often does, but blends in nicely with the other balsamic notes. So it remains until I can smell nothing more after a good six hours, even directly on the skin.

The sillage is powerful in the first hour and is perceived even at a distance of 2m (I always test with two sprays on the forearm). Then it plays around me at arm's length and dims in the base down to skin-tight.

I like about Fig Extasy that the fig is really good and for hours to smell. Also the connection with leather is harmonious and has positively surprised me, I had not yet this combination.
What I do not like is the plastic sweetness at the beginning ... well, and "Exstasy" I have not found here. The moment when a fragrance gets you totally, is quite a "euphoric state with deeply felt happiness" (loosely based on Netdoctor to the effect of MDMA) - only there was not the Fig Extasy for me, the search continues.

EDIT November 2021: the course is similar today, as described above, however, I feel especially the prelude today not so sweet. He develops spicier and less synthetic.

There is an overview of my fig test series here:
https://www.parfumo.de/Benutzer/Andin/Blog/Eintrag/reise-durch-den-feigenhain

This morning I had, after several days of testing powder fragrances, again in the mood for something green. Since came to me the "The Soft Lawn" sample just right. The prelude brought me, however, first time on the carpet, and a little musty. In my grandparents' attic, for example, there was a piece like this and the first ten minutes reminded me of it: warm, slightly stuffy air with something old in it. And maybe there's a little moss growing olfactorily over it. At this stage, I additionally smell something very tart - grapefruit sits smiling on the carpet.

For me, these first few minutes are the most unpleasant, especially since I can not get much out of citrus fruits in general. But the change has already begun: there remains a tart green undertone, but the carpet mustiness disappears. It smells strong dark green and even a bit juicy without any sweetness. Ivy and laurel fit well here and mentally I stepped from the attic to a shady spring in the middle of the woods, where water trickles from the damp earth between tree roots, ivy and herb. At that moment, "The Soft Lawn" reminds me of "Eau de Lierre" by Diptyque, only with a more powerful performance.

The change that's coming now is slower, more of a creeping shift from dark green to medium green. It becomes bit by bit more lovely and lighter, subtle lime blossoms shimmer in the green and a good hour after the first spray I arrived at the lawn. The sweetness never becomes dominant here, it remains green without a sea of flowers. Vetiver and galbanum now outweigh ivy and laurel. That's how it stays now - green-fresh - and just mellows and skins out over the course of the next four hours.

Creamy or even fig-sweet I do not feel the fragrance on my cool skin, but that may develop on other skins rather. The sillage is typically green: initially about arm's length, then briskly more and more towards the skin (I always test with two times spraying on the arm). There, however, the fragrance is perceptible for seven hours, which I noticed positively.

Overall, the scent has pleased me as a lover of green well. The unpleasant tones from the beginning disappeared quickly enough, the remaining, quite linear course appeals to me. Sillage and longevity speak for "The soft Lawn." It would not be for me a fragrance for every day, but if I were in the mood for an unexciting, consistently green companion, then this would be right