DN1982

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Something clever from the house of D.? Or just another deterrent a la Cool Water?
Well, the ingredients are rich and even the top note doesn't sound extraordinary, but it is certainly exciting: Mint, tarragon, marigold, lemon, lavender and bergamot. Yes, they are all there, faintly, you can sense them.
This is not to say that the fragrance is a breeze. No, the presence is there, but it is not easy to pick out the details. None of them stand out, it's a web where each component carries the others.
Harsh and bitter, almost pungent, the marigold. And I'm not talking about the scent of the flower, which is standard in every cottage garden, but the herb of the plant, which has a repulsive effect on me.
But don't worry, the marigold, which persists into the middles, is not overdosed, but blends into the net, which would inevitably get a hole if it were removed.

The middle in general. For me, it's no longer a men's fragrance, very floral, feminine - I definitely miss more vapor of vetiver, laurel, rosemary, which would give Davidoff's relaxed fragrance the masculinity that is simply missing at this point.

The base becomes more interesting again. The overabundance of flowers does not disappear completely for a long time, making way for tonka and vanilla. Tonka? Hey, I thought that stuff was a modern invention? Probably not, but I don't really like these two components. However, Davidoff has managed a good dose here, because despite the clear presence of these sweet ingredients, they never seem overpowering, on the contrary, they go perfectly with ambergris, a typical ingredient in many men's fragrances at the base. A little leather vibe supports the classicism and there is also a hint of tartness. Benzoin? It's there, but too subliminal. Moss? Ditto, it must be patchouli. But why do I have the impression that marigold sends out its X-ray flashes for milliseconds? Actually, I wanted to relax...

Those of us who didn't just hatch out of the egg yesterday may still remember this absolutely dreadful commercial in which a handful of windswept puppies rattle the shutters and shout egoist.

I still don't understand this low point - indeed, absolute zero point - of advertising! But do I understand what was advertised there?

From an egoist, an alpha animal, you expect an appearance with rough edges. So do angular droplets fly out of the spray head into our noses? Well, the opening is straightforward on the one hand, but it is not really understandable. It's a strange melange of woods plus a little citrus and cinnamon, which doesn't just shamelessly push its way to the front. Rose and carnation provide a strong base that is very reminiscent of the (sun) creams that you could buy at the launch of Egoist and even before. The Egoisten Parade ends on a faintly leathery note, the flowers still sweetened like vanilla tobacco. What reads briefly here feels like it lasts forever, because the old egomaniac certainly has stamina.

The fragrance has few facets. It levels out for the first half hour and then nothing more happens. With egoists, there's usually always action, the world revolves around them and they're always bickering and bitching, the spoiled characters. But no action here. As straightforward as the torque curve of a turbo diesel engine.

What about Eck's and Kant's? By the standards of the time, the corners and edges were already there. But not in the form that the name suggests: Harsh and masculine. And what do you get? Contrary to all claims, nothing overly masculine, but a unisex fragrance before this category even existed.
Jil Sander took up this concept just a few years later and put the finishing touches to it with her milestone background. Was there ever a men's fragrance by the good Jil that couldn't be considered a milestone? Never mind, another topic. Take Jil's Background, throw out the raspberry and replace it with a wimpy mandarin, which is overwhelmed by tropical wood and pulsating cinnamon and you have - Egoiste! And now you can rattle your shutters.

When they say synthetic-aquatic, that's usually a reason for me to run away screaming, because usually the search for something good from one of these two genres is something like looking for the (not) existing needle in the haystack. But should I carelessly throw away the samples that were in my package from S. Oliver?

In fact, the prelude is a little daunting: I wondered why Sidolin is now also available as an eau de toilette - from the pre-reformulated era, of course. But that goes by quite quickly, cardamom and pink pepper don't want to know anything about window cleaning.
The rosemary does really well here - in a classic way, i like! I have basic problems with moss: if it's missing, I notice it immediately, but as a single note it's hard for me to smell, it's the kind of note that forms the net without playing along in front. I have the impression that the head and base quickly intertwine, or rather, the base levels in early on before it retreats again and celebrates the Rosemary-Moss Duo Classic pure. Interesting here is also that the cedar doesn't appear too dry, but contributes a slightly resinous note, which is never the case otherwise.
Yes, this fragrance corresponds to the genre mentioned. However, practically everything on the market that is synthetic and/or aquatic is completely out of level in at least one component, making it a real nerve killer. Here, however, a well-balanced mixture with quite classic borrowings shows up, which makes it a good all-rounder. However, the boy lacks endurance and range and not too little! Is it simply a matter of saving money and does it really have to be called Eau de Cologne? Or do the syntheticians and aquaticists first have to give some of their composition the nerve-killer so that in the end endurance and range are the result? Here I clearly miss a bit of "pressure", although this fragrance is really not to be sneezed at.

I have a good acquaintance who has at least as much of a penchant for good scents as I do. But in one thing he is a good step ahead of me: he has no scruples about pushing a three-figure amount of money for an eau-chen over the counter, where the Achzisch-Oiro border is as insurmountable as the death strip of the inner-German border. We don't see each other so often and at one of the last meetings he gave me a huge pleasure with Ford's Tobacco Vanilla. This time he waved Ombré Leather in his hand. "Check it out, it's from the same place as the summer gingerbread."
Since I didn't have a cold just now, I was happy to do so. Leather... - is always good! But I know only hombre, Ombré is unknown to me. So I'd rather be careful. I take off my cap and I don't want to land on my wrist Basically, the head and heart notes consist of only 2 things: black leather and the Arabic jasmine. Black leather, how best to describe it? Well, it's not the skin of some exotic cattle stuff, it's leather that's been through a lot. This smell reminds me a little bit of leather that has been soaked, even drowned, in the grease of a car. Not a clean grease, but a black, dirty sludge that has the smell of the street all over it: dust and metal abrasion. The actual leather note becomes black and tart as such.
And now comes the fatal part: Jasmine. This floral ingredient turns the daredevil leather note, which in itself is not a pleasant scent, into something that inevitably makes me think of PAHs: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, contained in tar oils, among other things.
Thank God I only took it on a test strip, contrary to my habits, because that is really too much of a good thing.
Unfortunately this basic mood lasts for hours. The cardamom brings a little bit of light sharpness, vetiver sets small sharp needle stitches again and again and never has the intention or the power to give more, which even the patchouli can't do, but remains rather diffuse.
It is only at the base that this fragrance becomes wearable for me. Amber and moss do not take away the blackness of the leather, so they do not take away its goo. But they do something with it. They age the leather. It still hangs on the old ladder wagon, but it hasn't come into contact with the grease for 20, 30 or even 50 years. Whatever's still sticking to it has dried up and lets a little sweetness shine through. But when I scratch the thicker grease spots on the leather, I notice that in places it is not completely dried out after all and spreads its PAH-teristic smell.
I'm going to locate the scent with a vintage car driver, no matter if they are old trucks, cars, motorcycles or tractors, they just shouldn't be younger than from the 1930s. I also associate the scent with old trades, some of which are now extinct, or the stoker on a steam locomotive. It doesn't go with Daytona 675 and a GTI. And unisex? Well, not really...

I haven't given a fragrance the full 10 for years - not even my all-time favourite Drakkar Noir. Always hoping that something will come along that will make me flash like never before. Now the 9.5 phase is finally history thanks to this milestone in men's fragrances. It's been a couple of months since I've picked up a few minis from the good Jil in a drawer, and they've been eking out a living in the back corner. It was Background and Man Pure. One of the Man Pure minis I had got rid of years ago because it wasn't quite kosher anymore. But I had a subliminal feeling that it was not unknown to me. And so time went by and then there was this little gem. I did not expect anything, because the other one was tilted as well, at least I felt that way at that time.

No, the eau didn't break, this one was okay. Applied - it was like seeing an old acquaintance again whom you had not seen for a quarter of a century, like a rebirth in the early eighties. Man, I'm so euphoric I don't even know where to start. Okay, so let's start over: application, rebirth in the eighties. Sweet basil meets sage and oregano. Sage is one of the few spices that can act as either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hide. I have this stuff in my garden and it's a difference like day and night whether you use it dried or otherwise processed or use it fresh. In the first case it can give off its typical (sweet-)sour kick or in the second case it can let the dirty stuff hang out and show itself urine-like and rotten like flower stems that have been standing in the same water for a week. In MP he shows the gentleman's part and together with citrus, clove, geranium and the patchouli a wonderful scent is generated: a fresh green-herbal soap. You moan because of the soap? I usually do too, because it always reminds me so much of cheap shaving lotions and Toni's hairdressing salon. Here it looks a bit different. Even though the soapy vein is the supporting part in much of the late top note and early heart note, nothing looks cheap here. It doesn't exaggerate anything and nothing goes under here, the right balance was struck here. So it doesn't bother that the soapy vein makes itself comfortable in the heart of the fragrance for several hours before the hitherto bombastic fragrance rises to the divine in the base. Oak moss in pure culture - of course, at that time it was still allowed, the allergies were only spun out later - with the earthy patchouli, the beaver's horny plays with the labdanum, the nutmeg unmistakably tart. The cinnamon, which rounds off the whole thing perfectly, dominates, but is never obtrusive.

But there was something else. Right, MP also has an animal vein and here Mr. Artatit did no less bad work, because it can't be 100% determined if it's just beaver horny. I say no, because at least there is still the sage hanging in there, which lets a little bit of the dirty pig hang out from under the spices here and thus also shows its other side. And I have a strong tendency to think that the labdanum has its fingers in the animalistic game, and here, too, the right measure was found to the thousandth part.

This fragrance, which had escaped my memories of the last 20 years, is one of THE fragrances of the 1980s! It shows a multi-faceted, clean freshness, herbaceous and spicy green, grounded and noble. It is beyond all doubt and at the same time it is damn sexy, not to say even a little bit wicked.
The fragrance is clearly perceptible in all its phases, the radiance is very high. This is one that you not only pull behind you, but also push in front of you, but always remains a gentleman due to its perfect composition. Whereas other fragrances from this era like to elicit a "Hey, you smell like daddy (or grandpa)" from the person opposite, a "Hey, you smell... You smell... Unfortunately cool!" come in.
MP could be heard well into the nineties, even omnipresent, in my opinion one of the few milestones of men's perfume and it's really a shame that it no longer exists. Yes, I know that allergenic and poisonous stuff or maybe it was just outdated - but hey, that was a fragrance that would have been really worth dying for. And it still fucking is, actually!

Unfortunately MP is not so easy to get today and it is already three times not cheap. If you want to have the DNA and are willing to do without a few percent of the finest details of MP, you should try Eclat 719. And if you enjoy the equally past Halston Catalyst for Men and don't mind an animal impact, you'll also get something you might like with MP or the 719.