CD1810

Like many others, I am on Parfumo to get new ideas and inspiration from the world of fragrances. But you don't always need this forum for that. Sometimes a knowledgeable, well-run niche perfumery can help you discover new brands or fragrances.
In this case, I came across a small stand with 30 ml bottles of L'Essence des Notes at the checkout at la Schiller in Oldenburg. The equivalent of the Snickers shelf at the supermarket checkout, no question. And it had the same effect on me, because I immediately bought the wonderfully green and citrusy Pampelmousse et Basilic. After buying and giving away two more fragrances from this range, it was Cardamome er Enbruns the day before yesterday.
And again I am very satisfied. As with all the fragrances in this range, you get a simple, light fragrance with a special quality that delivers what it says on the tin. There is a green, somewhat dry spice note mixed with salty aquatics, amber and musk round it off and give it a slightly floral base. This is really excellently constructed and more complex than you might initially expect.
However, you can't expect much in terms of longevity and silage. Re-spraying is a must, but at €39 for 30 ML, it's perfectly justifiable.
If you don't have access to the fragrances from L'Essence des Notes, I recommend ordering a Discovery Set. This house has a lot to offer and is worth discovering. And hardly anyone can resist a Snickers in between!

Actually, it is not a quality feature, if at a fragrance the price is what seems most worth mentioning. Here but already.

So, 24€ for 100 ml I put down in the niche perfumery of my confidence.
Yes, the flacon looks like 24€. Yes, the packaging is also spartan. But the content is not.

You get a fresh-woody-fruity Aquaten with very, very neat performance. Synthetic it is also, but what aquat is not? Others hide their artificiality perhaps better, but cost many times more. I feel reminded of one or the other offshoot of the Acqua di Gio series, Calone, as already smelled below, says hello.

Poured into a fancy Armani or YSL- Flacon at four times the price, I would not pay attention to this one. But as a cheap "guilty pleasure" - fragrance for in between he is a killer, a price killer stop!

Yet another unappreciated fragrance from the much too unappreciated house of Acqua del Garda. I like these upper Italians because I find that they deliver high-quality, relaxed, largely niche fragrances without overdoing it price-wise. They're also not exactly overambitious, but unexciting and deliver what's on the box in a very neat way.

This time, no. Actually, should be here Neroli Portofino leggiero or Colonia Essenza light, at least in the fragrance pyramid Neroli should appear in a prominent place. It doesn't, but I smell above all the not exactly new combination of neroli and orange blossom. Like a classic refreshing cloth deluxe.

Colonia Mea is then also quickly described: It begins with a veritable flash of neroli orange blossom freshness, and in the first quarter of an hour to a truly intoxicating extent. Wonderfully imaginable in Italy at temperatures beyond 35 degrees. So not really appropriate in northwest Germany at the moment, but by no means less refreshing. A certain Mediterranean-like woodiness with hints of rosemary and thyme comes in after about half an hour, gives more core, before tonka mellows and softens the whole thing.

Longevity and sillage Colonia Mea delivers in a limited way. It is just a light, summery Eau de Cologne, which wants to be re-sprayed and can due to the moderate price.

Colonia Mea certainly does not deserve an originality award, it certainly does not aspire to. But who is looking for a classic Neroli- Eau de Cologne and especially for financial reasons do not want to Acqua di Parma or in the end still to Tom Ford reach, which should try it with Acqua del Garda.
Although you do not quite get what is in the fragrance pyramid, but that at least at its best.

There is reason for hope. I was a big fan of the Kenzo brand. I thought they used to make unusual, not everyday, but everyday mainstream fragrances: Kenzo Homme Eau de Toilette- a classic, to this day. Jungle, Homme Boisee and especially Tokyo and Power. Unusual, different and yet clearly Kenzo.
And then came the descent, which began with Homme Sport cautiously (especially boring and irrelevant), continued with Homme Night (inharmonious and somehow intrusive), to then come to the Eau de Parfum lows of the two classics Homme and L'Eau, which threatened to let the brand sink into a seemingly never-ending whirlpool of sweet sticky irrelevance. Sure sign of that: the even worse Aqua Kenzo. I must confess that I had given up on Kenzo.
And now Kenzo Homme, Eau de Toilette intense- a new beginning, reason for hope?
Actually, yes, as I find. The new has nothing to do with the original fragrance. Kenzo also does not try to find the old DNA of Jungle and Tokyo again. But they finally bring out a multi-layered, well-made mainstreamer again, which has a decent development, a certain independence and a tremendous durability and projection, without coming across too clashing synthetic.
It starts with a powerfully peppered pinch of aquatic, before the fragrance develops into the slightly sweet (fig, I love fig!) and especially in the green-earthy (vetiver, patchouli). The sandalwood ensures that a certain basic freshness is always maintained. And that is the strength of the new Kenzo. He has a bit of many directions, but creates a main direction and an excellent performance.
Yes, there is a certain synthetic quality that cannot be denied. I would compare Kenzo's new one most closely to H24 from Hermes, although the scents are quite different. But it seems that a new mainstream trend is a slightly unisex, distinctly greened, slightly sweetened freshness that is also definitely synthetic, but above all, despite all the performance, comes across more unobtrusively and with more understatement than recent trends (1 Million Candy Bombs, Sauvage Synthetic Slings). I can live with that trend just fine.
And Kenzo makes a first, very big step in the direction of rehabilitation.

I can share much of what you read here about Eau de Minthé. But I draw somewhat differently accentuated conclusions from it.
Yes, a fougère through and through.
Yes, fougère, but not stale at that.
Yes, fresh and spicy it is.
Yes, the mint plays a much smaller role than the name might suggest.

So far, so good. On those four points, most who have commented here on Eau de Minthé seem pretty much in agreement. But many don't think it's anything special.

Yes, I do think it is. The combination of old-fashioned fougère and fresh, minty spiciness makes it special. The fact that an old-fashioned theme is interpreted in a modern way without falling into overly synthetic excesses is something special today (unfortunately). And for me, the longevity and sillage are also special, namely very decent. This is rather unusual in a Freshie, at least if too much Ambroxan or ISO-E-Super is dispensed with.

Eau de Minthé comes extremely well received, he generates many compliments (one röche indeed particularly), he is universally applicable and he offers his qualities at a still decent price.

In this respect, I plead for more distribution and more approval and condemn all whiners to four weeks Gualtieri- Dauerbedampfung!