Benlives

at least in my humble opinion. An ingenious blend of tea, herbs, leather and musk. If you like Old School Suggestion Hammers á la VC&A Pour Homme too much of a good thing but generally leathery and teel-heavy fragrances are not averse, should strike here. At least if there's one at the dumping price at the red outlet.

Citrus and cardamom go directly steep and quickly a fine but very present herbal note in the direction of lavender and sage is added. A subtle leather note surrounds everything and soapy musk can be more and more guessed as a primer. Sounds unexciting? Smells fucking awesome! Especially with cardamom-heavy scents I react quickly annoyed, but here everything is so well balanced that nothing disturbs. No tea, no leather, no fougère, no chypre. Nothing so real anyway. Something of all, but independent, not clearly assignable to a genre. Strong character. Persevering. Masculine with modern twist. Millions of miles from modern unit (fruit) porridge. A milestone of Morabito. Without knowledge of the vintage version I can say that.

A word on the "gloomy" impression of the fragrance which is often mentioned here. The name is only part of the program here. I don't think it's as gloomy as the first time I tested it anymore. Dark, yes, but not unapproachable. The teenage note, which comes with a certain basic sweetness, certainly contributes to this. Of course no comparison to current gourmands, but just right to make it "accessible". The dark knight of Morabito is not as cold as an "Encre Noir". Doesn't have to be. Because Or Black shows that even a "black" can be multi-faceted in terms of perfume technology.

Flash = Trash? I kind of do. But with that certain something! Synthetics cannot be denied. To put it mildly. But he has a recognition value, holla the forest fairy. At least on my girlfriend. He'll hold onto her for half an eternity. I would not expect such attributes at all with the smell, I would use only the Parfumo - data base as info source. There you can see again what a dominant influence skin chemistry can have on an olfactory experience. I can't make out any strawberries on my girlfriend either, nor is the scent in any way sweet on her. A bitter-flowery trash spectacle, which comes across very funny and unique.
I think Jimmy Choo used Flash to create a fragrance that is extremely polarizing. Between hate and love there probably isn't much in between. I like him very much about my girlfriend, this trashy-synthetic, very likeable loner. Maybe also because then I always have to think about the song... "Flash, a-aaaah... you saved everyone of us!"

...and no popcorn. The encounter with Yves Saints Laurent's "Parfum" Y is about as "exciting" as the one in the "Parfum". One expects tension, emotions, complexity, a charming course and the like in a fragrance. Y does not even meet the minimum requirements for a men's fragrance. A scent at all. He's monotonous, he's meaningless, he's boring. Yawning boring. His "scent" pyramid is a bad joke in view of the synthetic umbrella that reveals itself here. At least he'll be gone in a hurry. In the year 2017 YSL jumps on the fruity squeaky cheap plastic train, which still doesn't seem to have left the perfume world (and still seems to be flushing a few Euros into the till).

"Everything starts with a (wh) y" is the word in the commercials, so flowery. Unfortunately, the scent leaves me with the question of "why". Lose face as a label because of a few cheaply earned euros? Do you really want to degrade to the 0815 manufacturer like so many other labels and give up your own handwriting, your character? Those soulless mainstream corpses really piss me off by now. I expect more authentic entries in the database at Parfumo in the future, in the case of Y about:

Y is a nasal anaesthetic by Yves Saint Laurent from 2017 for men and women. The smell is cheap synthetic. Shelf life and Sillage are below average. Unfortunately it is still produced.

That would be something, wouldn't it ;-) ?

At least I like the song from the commercial.

Unfortunately I miss (again) the comparison possibilities to the original version. I find that particularly unfortunate here, because on the one hand I think definitely that the current version is a quite large exception smell, on the other hand I read here already much and in the direct comparison the original formulation comes away usually clearly better.
Such a fine and well-balanced mixture as in Antaeus is rare. A difficult to describe mix of herbal-soapy, balsamic, mossy and animal essences, which is extremely successful. Masculine, mysterious, timeless. Similarly well balanced as the original Davidoff or Vermeil pour Homme, but more serious and gloomy in its olfactory appearance. No doubt, it's a men's fragrance. Not for pussies, not for boys. Nevertheless: For such a meaningful name he lacks the last determination in terms of durability and sillage. Even there he must be "giant", no matter how great the olfactory impression is. I simply expect that with such a fragrance milestone (and corresponding price). He lingers on my skin for about eight hours. A Van Cleef PH in its current version, which only costs a fraction, beats it here, for example, and goes in a not dissimilar direction in terms of fragrance technology. That's just too bad. All the more since it was apparently much more powerful in the original version. So he stays tall and looks down on most perfumes, but unfortunately it is not enough to see the giant (anymore)...

Light Blue is a very good example that sometimes less can be more. No endlessly overloaded fragrance pyramid, but a clearly structured fragrance structure distinguishes this cream-fresh hit which is predestined for the summer. "Keep it simple." Whether Mr. Cresp already had this motto in mind when approaching this composition I don't know, but the finished product reflects this guiding principle perfectly. Apple, lemon (a very mandarin lemon in my opinion...), a hint of jasmine and wood. All accompanied by this clean and light creaminess. Beautiful, successful scent for the warm days. I don't need a big bouquet of flowers or a sticky carnival sweetness, which I also appreciate with a woman's scent and is rare nowadays.
Lasts about 5 hours with my girlfriend, which is really remarkable for a rather light summer perfume. I am also astonished by the fact that there are only marginal differences between the men's and women's versions.
All in all a great candidate for the warm season, which can score well with its simplicity and harmonic composition.