First

Ode to Dullness has made it: After a long time without writing any new reviews, I feel the urge to express my impression here: On the one hand, because this JhaG has something fascinating about it again, after the last new releases of the brand couldn't quite convince me, on the other hand, because I perceive the fragrance differently than it is described in the previous statements and reviews: I think it's great!

Yes, this JhaG is also very synthetic, so it joins the newer JhaGs, which are even more extreme in this respect than the brand's earlier ones. I think the use of a lot of artificial fragrances at the same time is also the reason why the perception of this fragrance is so different, because those who are allergic to one or more of the synthetic fragrances used will smell much less and find the fragrance weak at best, if not unbalanced.

It is interesting that some write that it is primarily ambroxan, Iso-E Super or even musk that they smell and that the fragrance is creamy. I don't feel that way. And this is despite the fact that I often perceive certain artificial musks much more strongly than others. We all know this: what we don't like, we can smell in the smallest quantities. Hairspray was mentioned here. I wouldn't have called it that myself because the hairspray of my childhood and youth smelled different and I no longer use hairspray. But still, now that I've read it: There are hairsprays that smell similar to this JhaG on approach.

I smell one thing in particular with Ode to Dullness: "water flowers".
Water flowers is a term I got from Parfumo. I don't even know which flowers it is supposed to be. Maybe lotus? It doesn't matter, because I'm sure you know this term from Parfumo from some of the pyramids and know what smell it usually refers to. I usually feel ambivalent when I read this term in a pyramid. To my nose, it usually means something watery and beautiful and floral that is different from other floral fragrances, very delicate and bright and beguiling without being pungent or even overpowering. I am ambivalent about it because, unfortunately, it is accompanied with reliable regularity by a rottenness factor, as if these flowers were already perishing slightly in stagnant fresh water.

In Ode to Dullness, I smell water flowers without the bumminess factor and that is the reason why I would like to take up the cudgels for this fragrance here.

I noticed something else interesting: I received the manufacturer's sample in a package from a perfumery as an encore. The package was scented and the perfumery had written to me that Ode to Dullness was the fragrance used. Of course, when I opened the package, I immediately noticed that it was scented. In that first moment from the freshly opened package, I smelled only bright, friendly, gentle, soft flowers, without being able to tell which flowers they were. No ubiquitous jasmine, no currently so modern rose, no tiare, no tuberose, not even my beloved ylang-ylang, nothing herbaceous like some lavenders, no lily, no gardenia,....but also no water flowers.
I am pretty sure that this JhaG contains a fairly new fragrance for flowers, which, because it is so artificial, cannot be spontaneously assigned to a real flower, but still smells floral, and also seems to change: no water flowers in the package, clearly water flowers on my skin.

What about the pyramid? Okay, the freesia is a flower. I can't smell it, but Ode to Dullness is very floral for me. Floral notes - yes, that too - we've already had it.

Sandalwood is written in capital letters. However, I smell neither the beautiful sandalwood scent of the real wood nor the substitute that is so often used, unfortunately, to my nose. I simply smell nothing of either.

Star anise. In fact, now that I read it, I can detect it in the fragrance. Delicately, more at the beginning, less in the course, but yes, I can detect star anise, albeit well embedded and in the background, so that I would not have thought of it on my own. There is also a minimal sweetness. It could come from the star anise.

Musk, we've already had that too: I don't smell any musk.

Tonka. Hm. I don't really smell tonka either, but something soft and warm that doesn't come from the flowers. I could attribute that to tonka.

It may well be that the whole thing is underlaid with Iso-E-Super and Ambroxan, but for me they are only slightly perceptible here because the water flowers are in the foreground for me.

I find the sillage to be rather low, but the longevity is very good: the day after wearing it, I can smell intense water flowers with star anise on my clothes.

I have now tested the fragrance twice and still had the scented package. I usually test three times before writing a review. So I am writing this review with the proviso that after smelling it several times, I may still feel that the fragrance is annoying after a while. I often have this feeling with such artificial fragrances and unfortunately such a fragrance is then burnt for me for the time being.

So far, however, my conclusion is: Great! Finally water flowers without the bum ambivalence!

P.S. I don't think we need to talk about the name of the fragrance. It's best to remember it until you've bought the bottling or the bottle and then quickly forget the name.

I think everyone knows what I experience with Fleur de Orientica, although perhaps not with fragrances. This fascination and at the same time somehow aversion, but also enthusiasm. And then you ask yourself, yes, what is it? Do I like it or not? And then it starts again, yes, I think it's great, but also - strange, unpleasant - and somehow great. And you get the desire to understand your own strange reaction, try to break the whole thing down in more detail.
I've been trying to do that for five days now, the five days I've been wearing Fleur de Orientica. And since I always come to the same, still ambivalent conclusion, I'm going to write it down here too.

The opening is a delicate orange blossom that does 4711 proud. I'm serious, the orange blossom of the original 4711 Eau des Colognes is the best ever for me. However, it is only perceptible here for a few seconds, because something strange, strangely creamy and muted, with a hint of heliotrope, is added. Immediately afterwards, many blossoms appear, and the creamy, dimmed note somehow connects them.
I can't recognize a single familiar flower, it's just floral in a dense but not stuffy way. Now I recognize something tart, which may also be due to the flowers, minimally indolic, but in such a way that it's okay.

After the first five minutes or so, I notice water flowers. Water flowers have spoiled many a scent for me, but here they're not at all bland. Here they are paired with a sweetness that is now setting in. My inner image is of a water lily pond with stagnant fresh water into which large quantities of oversized wine gums have been sunk. It all seems very strange. On the other hand, I have to admit that I don't know of any other perfume that even comes close to smelling like this.

As the fragrance progresses, it does become a little stuffy; I have found the jasmine lactone fragrance in other fragrances to be similarly stuffy and dimmed at the same time. Perhaps a little bit of it has been used here too. In addition, the focus of the fragrance is now moving even further in a fruity direction.
There are a few hours when it smells to me like creamy wine gums with a little marigold. Now, unfortunately, the creaminess becomes even stickier, but only when I smell the spray. In the projection, I experience a wonderfully cheerful, bright fruity bouquet!

And it stays like this for a few hours. When I'm not smelling the spray, I'm really happy with the fragrance.

By late evening, Fleur de Orientica has thinned out, the fruitiness has receded somewhat and the marigold note has softened a little, so that I would no longer describe it as marigold. It is as if all the notes have now come together. If I want to, I can still recognize them all: The creamy, the hint of heliotrope, unspecified florals, a hint of jasmine lactones, wine gum, sweetness, water flowers, bright fruit, tamed marigolds. Only the orange blossom has completely evaporated.

Fleur de Orientica lasts for 12 hours and can still be detected on clothing the next day. It is a unique fragrance, I don't know of anything comparable. It is very flexible and has a strong progression, in which other notes come to the fore again and again, just a magic spell in which all the stops are pulled out.

Do I like it? Yes, I think it's great - but also funny - unpleasant and somehow great.

By the way, I can't see any resemblance to Fleur Narcotique. Fleur Narcotique, after a fantastically beautiful opening, unfortunately had a continuous hint of plastic for me, which spoiled the fragrance for me.
And: I wrote this review without reading the pyramid.

in 1969, Yoko Ono and John Lennon held a so-called "bed-in" at the Amsterdam Hilton to demonstrate for peace and against the Vietnam War.
The press was able to visit the two in their room, as well as film and photograph them just lying or sitting in bed for 6 days, getting media attention for their cause.

This remarkable story came to mind when I was testing Nightly Kiss.
Indeed, I felt a bit like the public at the time when I tested it, because of course you ask yourself: is this about a harmless goodnight kiss, or does something else follow it? Lie John Lennon and Yoko Ono there really only sweet and peaceful in bed and hold court or it goes nevertheless in the direction of make-love-not-war, emphasis on make.
Although there had been nude photos of John and Yoko before - at the bed-in they remained quite demurely dressed in a white-covered, completely normal bed and you didn't get to see anything remotely scandalous at all, as extraordinary and in its own way stirring the whole happening was in itself.

And that's just the way this fragrance is: there's a certain disconnect between a decidedly strange and curious note that shook me up from the start, reminding me of a mix of green car tire iris and wicker stink, on the one hand, and a side of Nivea cream between clean sheets, on the other.
While the Nivea cream would certainly promote my falling asleep, the slanted Korbblütler tire irritates me, however, so properly that I will certainly not fall asleep. Again and again I have to smell my wrists to reassure myself: Yes, this really smells so strange, a fragrance between Mommy's perfect world with Nivea cream and the showdown of a thriller with car chases, emergency braking and everything that goes with it.

Interestingly, while I am so awake and at the same time niveageküsst musing my nose can not leave the spray sites, I notice that the scent changes amazingly depending on the distance of my nose to the arm: The closer the car tires, the further away the Nivea. Somewhere in the middle in between, the scent is wonderfully mild floral, soft and still unique, but now pleasantly spicy. After a few hours, the overall impression moves in that direction as well and the scent seems to settle in the middle. Now Nightly Kiss begins to please me so right.

I wonder if this beguiling powdery mild floral sleepy feature, where I would not recognize any of the listed flowers except the already mentioned iris, is now owed to Epigaea repens? I read on Wikipedia that it is a shrub that is supposed to have healing effects on kidneys and rheumatism. But that's another story, it can be told another time or you can read about it.

I will go to sleep now first of all relaxed.
Peace!

"Pick-Me-Up Cologne Spray", it says on the bottle and I can only advise you: Do it, pick this cologne up, put it in your shopping basket and take it with you.
"Each Day. Everywhere.", it says and yes: This is a so-called Immergeher, at least for me.
In the first moment, the fragrance knows how to surprise: Hey, that awakens memories, that smells 1:1 like the incense corner in the India stores, so the one with the jasmine, melon, flower incense sticks, so not the one with the resinous, but it smells unburned, fresh and in my nose also a little artificial. Exactly so I felt this kind of incense sticks also earlier.
And so the scent then remains over a few hours.
After a time, however, the incense impression fades and also the slightly artificial makes way for an unexpectedly lovely, fine floral gentleness, which is unparalleled. Delicate and rather quiet, slightly sweet, but in my nose not in the way mimosa blossoms are sweet, this fragrance envelops me with bright friendliness.
And remains - more hours.
"Simple. Subtle." as it says on the bottle.
I thank LysdeKerk for the wonderful new discovery.

...and I am alone again, alone
She is gone - AWAY
Before it was nicer to be alone..."

Yes. She is (almost) gone, my Amour Kenzo Indian Holi. It is only a puddle after. Shake. My tester restflakon - once of Miracel in the exchange game here got - as good as all.
A repurchase would still be possible, at an auction platform. 50ml for 249.00€. Am I Croesus? Maybe Midas? Unfortunately no.

So I have to ask myself like the Fantastic Four in their song: Have I valued my Amour Kenzo Indian Holi too little? Deceived her with other fragrances? Sprayed her too naturally? She didn't even get a comment. But - I have to defend myself - that was due to something else: I find her scent so extraordinary that I never managed to find the right words. And now I sit here with the vorvor...last sprays on the forearms and try again, because soon it may be too late for it, if she is then completely gone.

So, first of all, I can preface that Indian Holi for me has nothing in common with the other amoureuses of Kenzo, which so far all had a too stuffy share in the foreground, which oppressed me.

Indian Holi starts off lightly fruity-floral with a subtle soft powder note. I love frangipani very much, but would not have recognized it here. But it probably contributes the only very moderately sweetened, bright florality. This is added with a dry lightness that frangipani alone does not have about it. The fragrance has transparency, yet is powerful. It seems to float. If I had to name one fruit that I can most likely guess, I would say it is cherry. The powder note is very strong, rather one of the very rare for me pleasant musky powders and definitely not the typical powder of iris. Nevertheless, the fragrance also gives me the impression of lush stamens. In the course, the fruity note fades a little to give more space to the dry stamens of the flowers.
Kenzo Amour Indian Holi lasts throughout the day and combines more and more to a dry floating powder melange with a hint of cherry on stamens of fine flowers. Until it then disappears.

"She's gone - GONE
and I'm alone again, alone"

The Fantastic Four put it in a nutshell:

"You don't just feel alone, man, you are.
So let the whining be, because that's the way it
now times on this world. Even if you don't like it,
Watch your own movie and be your own hero."

Yes. And just not Croesus or Midas. There are, after all, other heroes.
Bygones.