DerDefcon

I came across Serge Lutens more by chance when I was looking for an alternative to Valentino Uomo Intense and just looked around a bit away from the iris scents. In a large department store, an entire area within the perfume segment was dedicated to this brand. So I started my mobile phone, walked wildly through the building to finally have a reception and do some research at Parfumo, only to run back again afterwards and remember the correct brand name. It's "Serge Lutens," not "Sergei Lutens," manomaniac.

Well, a little browsing at Parfumo, looking at the scents of various products of this brand and then after a little reading session I became aware of the Sultan here. I have to admit right at the start that I couldn't smell every single note here. I'm still too fresh in the perfume world for that. But let's get started.

The prelude is very spicy woody. That makes the scent pretty dark and a little dirty. But it all changes pretty quickly and the one I've been eagerly awaiting gets through - the vanilla, I just love it when it's skillfully used on perfumes.
The wood, the spice and the dark are now accompanied by the sweetness of vanilla and pleasantly contrasted. So this fragrance almost already has - true fans of gourmand fragrances will now cry out loud - a slightly gourmand note.
So the vanilla was already present - very good. She may now please present herself even more splendidly. Wood and spice are dominant enough. So come on, my vanilla. There's a little more to it, isn't there? No? Not at all? Too bad.
In my eyes the vanilla should have pressed itself a little further into the foreground. Fear that it will provide too much sweetness would be unfounded, because the woody spicy one, which my vanilla would have shown the limits of at any time, is definitely strong enough. So personally, she's not sweet enough for me. It's really just a little bit missing and I would have found a candidate for next winter that stands out from the whole cinnamon vanilla tonka bean brew of some designer brands.

Conclusion: If you like vanilla, but don't want it too much and are a friend of wood and strong spices, you'll find the right choice here. The durability is in a good range, but should be a bit better, considering that we are already moving a bit higher here. It is the same with the Sillage

I'll say it very clearly at the beginning. That iris fragrance from Prada surprised me. I decided to wait for the delivery bottlenecks at the Valentino Uomo Intense at the online shop where I ordered, but in the meantime I had become curious when I was made aware of the Prada in the forum.

It is the beginning, as we also find in Dior Homme Intense or Valentino Uomo Intense - iris-heavy, slightly stinging, scratchy. But with this fragrance, that subsides very, very quickly. The iris remains, but is not as present as in the Valentino. Instead, Patchouli immediately joins it, giving this fragrance a masculine aura. Together with the amber and the tonka bean the whole thing results in a beautiful sweet-spicy note with a slightly powdery background, which makes this fragrance more wearable than the consistently very iris-dominant Uomo Intense, which is still accompanied by vanilla and leather, but which can still hit the mind hard.
The Prada is a clean man who is linear, but by no means boring. It is much more flexible to wear than the other two fragrances I have just mentioned. It can even be integrated into everyday working life - something I wouldn't dare do with Valentino.
I was also amazed by the enormous durability of the Prada. This one lasts longer with me than the Valentino Uomo Intense - attention, this one or the other could feel as funny. Sprayed on at 3 p.m., he was still quite easy to hear even the next morning at 9 a.m., which was no longer the case with Valentino, who has a brutal sillage over the period in which he sticks to his body. But this Sillage is exactly what you have to like. But the Sillage of Prada is by no means weak and one can be sure that one is sufficiently perceived for the first four to five hours.


I'm noting: A great fragrance that has a little darkness and is much more flexible than its scent relatives and shines with an outstanding durability.

My conclusion: The Valentino Uomo Intense is cancelled and the Prada is allowed to move in. It simply suits me better and my everyday life at university and at work. Good that there is perfume, because without this page I would not have had it on the screen at all.

In September of this year it was six years ago that I started my combined education and training. Maybe one or the other will find my train of thought, which came to my mind about this extraordinary smell, crazy or even crazy, but I just can't help it, I have to put it digitally on paper.

Let's start all over again. On 01.09.2013 I started my combined education and training. Each one of you, including myself, will remember his first working day, which on these following days and weeks, was a time with many impressions - at least a little bit. I got to know all my colleagues. I was welcomed warmly and friendly. The first days weren't without it. The retail trade - especially in the furniture industry - demands a lot. At the time I began, however, not all the colloquia were present. A colleague had a two-week vacation. I was curious to see who else would come. The other colleagues grinned at me with a mischievous grin, slightly naïve, still somewhat childish 18-year-old, who passed his Abitur only a few months ago, and said: "You'll get to know her soon", Was that now good or bad?

The fourteen days of vacation were over and the colleague entered the lounge a few minutes after I arrived at the branch. She was small, but radiated an incredible self-confidence. Her clothing style was casual, offensive, but despite her age of almost fifty years, exactly tailored to her. A pair of jeans with one or two holes, a black leather jacket, a watch with a bright red dial, skull earrings and a casual short hairstyle. My first impression: An experienced, offensive and above all self-confident woman whose looks pierced you. As already announced to me, it was the trump card when you no longer knew how to proceed with difficult customers. Her aura ate through the whole room and before I could adapt to the situation, there was a proper rebuke about my work clothes right at the beginning, which was by no means screaming, but loud, self-confident and determining. This determination with the self-confident, loud, but by no means hysterical voice was simply intimidating. But why am I being turned into a sow by a colleague who is running around with skulls in her ears, shrill watch jewellery or torn trousers? Quite simply: She can do it, she does it and she doesn't care what others think about her. She's above all things. When she enters the room and automatically attracts all eyes to herself, she is not uncomfortable at all, because now she knows that she can steer and influence situations and so she becomes a whole head taller

The first days with her were exhausting. She felt everywhere. If I ran double ways, because I forgot again to take garbage or other things automatically on the way to the camp and to make my ways as efficient as possible, she got this, stood already behind the next corner, behind the next door, behind the next carrier of goods, in order to explain to me again determiningly and above all clearly what went wrong. However, this always happens with style, always at the right moment, never in front of customers, and never abusive. Honestly ... i didn't want to work there anymore. I was just scared of that woman. As soon as she came near me, it just didn't work out. Money fell to me, I forgot some of my tasks, while assembling furniture I broke screws and as soon as she was near me, the customers demanded the most complicated things from me, so that she also noticed how I did not solve the situation on my own. I made three crosses in the calendar, when it went for two weeks, this time for me, into the vacation.

But two weeks were quickly over again. I was astonished when I realized that my fear colleague was not working that day. What a pleasure. But then, during the lunch break, the door to the lounge opened. I'm sure anyone who entered it could imagine. Sweat beads ran down my forehead, because the room was already soaked with an aura that I never missed. But unlike the rest, there were no reprimands, no improvements and no admonitions. A conversation developed that was very pleasant. As pleasant as it was, one could still feel her very offensive presence, the glances that pierced one decisively. This time, however, everything was on a tolerable level - available, but pleasantly dosed. I noticed that I was dealing with a very experienced woman who is not so bad at all, but who was washed with all water and never showed weakness. You could get many tips from her, confide in her, and even talk about very intimate things that a young adult would rather not like to talk to his parents about. Most of the time she even looked directly at you where your shoe pinches without you having to say it. She thematized it and simply decided what to talk about now. So it took a few weeks, if not a few months, to realize that the woman, so austere, offensive, surrounded by fear, could emanate an unbelievable intimacy that everyone liked to take care of - not only me, but also customers you saw for the first time who willingly revealed their secrets. I've come across a manipulative co-worker who will give the get-to-know-you phase between you and her a threatening atmosphere - if you meet her then - that is somehow everywhere and leaves no room for error because everyone will be spotted right away. It takes her a while to show you her sensual, charming, understanding, helpful side. She wins your symphathy, your trust, but she's always one step ahead of you. She's got you in her hand, even if she's nice and sweet to you. You don't think so? Well, every now and then, in addition to her warmth, there comes out in her what scared and respected me so much during our first encounter. But these moments of fear are no longer a permanent condition. They are short, but they don't lose their effect at all, but bring you back to the ground of facts as soon as you think you are on the same wavelength with her, because you don't - really.

In the end, I can only say - after all, we are a forum for perfume enthusiasts - that this colleague would never need Tom Ford's "Black Orchid" perfume. Why wouldn't she? It's very simple. She is the black orchid.

In search of a fragrance for the cold season of the year, it is almost impossible not to miss this bottle with its red accents. It doesn't always have to be a hand grenade, with which probably everyone here in the forum knows what to do and there doesn't always have to be an extravagant bottle form available, which focuses more on appearance than on being. After all, the appearance of the product is often the only consideration when it comes to buying a new product. Spicebomb Extreme by Viktor&Rolf is a good example. The fragrance is interesting and therefore has a certain buying power, but especially the bottle is probably the thing that contributes to the final decision for many less perfume enthusiasts.

So, that was quite a lot for the bottle alone and that, although the bottle itself is not responsible for the fragrance and its course. So let's move on to what's probably the most interesting thing for all of us.

Sprayed onto the arm joint, a strong freshness is noticeable at first, which is caused by the bergamot in the top note. Very fast, however, nothing more is to be perceived magnificent from this however and cinnamon as well as Muskat use. The fragrance becomes warmer, softer and automatically spicier, which is definitely due to the very present cinnamon note. That resembles the brew for a certain time, which by the way should not be meant contemptuously at all, which can be found in the orange-black hand grenade. But even these parallels are soon no longer to be heard, as sandalwood and vanilla now provide a little more sensuality and sweetness, which somewhat damps the cinnamon spiciness and harmonizes perfectly with it. Spicebomb Extreme is, probably by name, even more radical when it comes to contrasting sweetness with pepper and tobacco.
We can state that Givenchy's fragrance has a great harmony, which is sensually warm and whose sweetness is accompanied by a wonderful spice. This is the fragrance for those for whom Spicebomb Extreme is too extreme, too strong, too proll. It is a fragrance that fits perfectly on the Christmas market, which can also be worn on Christmas Eve, when you are sitting in front of the fireplace, the family is visiting and wrapping themselves in a cuddly sweater. For me it's just a Christmas scent, thanks to cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. For the autumn or for the winter it is simply inappropriate in my eyes.

But what definitely doesn't fit here are durability and sillage, because here I simply expect more from such a heavy fragrance.

Before I talk about the scent characteristics and my evaluation in this regard, I would like to inform you in advance that this scent radiates unbelievably well in all directions and is also perceptible for a long time.

The Opening:

The opening is very fresh in my eyes, but also loud - very loud. The bergamot does a good job here and can wake you up even at uncomfortable times. A short time later the companion, who is responsible for the fact that the scent is not quite so my case, joins in. We are talking here, as the title already suggests, about the bitter almond and yes ... it lives up to its name. For me this is simply too much and in combination with the still strongly projecting bergamot too unpleasant. I can therefore understand one or the other who is talking here about a - please take a look at the statements - scent for chemists. I hoped that something would change in the olfactory picture and luckily it did. The base note begins and the vanilla finally provides some warmth and security, but unfortunately it can't compete with the power of the bitter almond. This still pushes itself strongly into the foreground and provides for the "metallic" smell, of which one or the other speaks here. For me, however, this olfactory picture is rather of synthetic nature, which unfortunately also pulls down the vanilla, which is good in itself.

Conclusion: Pegasus can't convince me. Durability and sillage are absolutely top, but the strong stinging note, caused by the bitter almond, is something I don't like