I’m writing from a sunny beach in Lanzarote for a two week’s vacation. Tacky, I know, what’s a classy girl like me doing in a place like this, surrounded by English, German and (alas), Italian tourists, and sometimes even by some local…. It’s pretty fun actually, I’m here with my friend Denise (remember the Chloe perfume review), who left her sadness at the airport, and is taking a well deserved relax from her emotional turmoil.
So, here, with my sunglasses and my wide-bream hat, under my beach umbrella, I felt the urge to write about perfumes again.
Back to the initial question, our beach umbrella neighbour here is a quite attractive young girl who has this disgraceful habit of spraying perfume on her, right after the sun lotion. Why? Why would you do this to humanity? I mean, unless the sun lotion and the perfume are part of the same line, that is a chemical disaster awaiting to happen. This thing went on for two days, until yesterday for some reason, she forgot to apply the tanning lotion, andc the perfume turned out to be pretty darn good, and turned out to be Diesel Fuel for life.
What’s more fun than a casual stroll in the local perfume shop then? (I know you have at least a couple of things that would answer this question)
SO I was back to my room with two testers, one for the masculine, one for the feminine version. My nose never stops, so here we go with this Diesel Fuel For Life review, summer sale is on: two Diesel perfumes for one. Venghino signori, venghino.
Both versions were launched together and were the first attempts of this Italian jeans house in the perfume market.

Diesel Fuel For Life men
The notes

The opening is quite fresh with a note of fern and hawthorn mixed with a cold vanilla. It reminded me of Wings perfume by Giorgio Beverly Hills (more of that later).
The official notes in the Diesel website are anise, heliotrope flower and strawberry, but I stopped believing in perfume propaganda a long time ago, so of course you will hardly smell any of these notes. In the middle notes the fern is still dominant and quite fresh, with occasional apparitions of spices in the form of anise and pepper, which make it very lukewarm.
The fern in this Diesel perfume men gives a feeling of sweet and juicy fruit (just like in Wings perfume), in the line of mandarin and grapefruit, but (please note) only the juice and not the zest.
The fern will be there in the base notes too. It is still dominant but with less intensity, and this allows other notes to come out, like lavender, and a slightly spicy anise, plus a wood similar to cedar, mixed with other sweet notes which could be residues of fruits, traces of amber, of hints of musk

To Sum Up
This Diesel perfume for men is the result of notes that are pure, isolated, intense and dominant. It’s fresh and lukewarm and the same time, and goes well all-year around. I the office it’s intense and catchy, which serves it well in night events, as long as they’re not too formal (like a couple of pints in one of the hundreds of English pubs in Lanzarote).
For a date? Both Denise and I say: ok. Ferns are masculine and addictive.
Oh, and don’t do like the man I saw at the perfume shop who was buying this Diesel Fuel For Life for himself: don’t wear this perfume if you’re over 45, please, that’s pathetic!

Diesel Fuel for life women
The notes
The opening notes are less intense than the masculine version (this is why I didn’t beat up my lovely neighbour with the umbrella pole).
Just for the record, the official notes for this Diesel perfume for women are: blackcurrant, jasmine, patchouli.
The opening is with red fruits and a sweet praline and preserve. The middle phase starts after about twenty minutes and adds jasmine and other white florals to the mix. At this point, the intensity is even lower, and in the base notes the preserve aroma is still present, but now it’s mixed with fruit, patchouli and amber.

To Sum Up
This Diesel perfume women has a well recognisable opening, but it becomes more low profile from the middle notes. Let’s say that the notes of the opening are for the night, whereas the middle ones are for the office.
Its sweetness makes it more suitable for the winter, although it could be used during the summer, and by no means on the beach. Romantic side, so and so, but what do men know about perfumes after all?
Age range, from 25 to 40 years.
Ok, I’ll go back to my wonderful tan now. Hasta pronto. Emma out.

Davidoff Perfume Cool Water

Ok now you know my shame (no, not my admiration for Sawyer, isn’t he hot btw?): I am so crazy about perfumes, and so inclined to waste my money on them that I would even buy a man’s perfume if I really, really like it, even if I know I won’t be able to wear it. Eventually, I will give it as a present to some male friend or relative of mine, but in the meantime it’s still there on my perfume shelf. The only thing missing is a gigantic poster of Josh Holloway.

The notes

From the first whiff Cool Water by Davidoff reminds you where it comes from: the nineties. It’s a clean watery mix of fruity notes, ginger, lavender, mint, and some florals, with a style which reminds of Aqua di Gio, but more loaded with classic ginger.
In the middle notes, the ginger is still at the centre, but with a very aromatic lavender, which mixes extremely well with the florals, the mint and some light spices. The floral side is probably jasmine, but it remains very light and low-profile (too much jasmine and this Davidoff perfume would steer dangerously towards the feminine side).
In the final notes there is a lemon blossom aroma, mixed with jasmine, which gives the fragrance a clean character, plus some secondary spicy notes. Ginger is still there, whereas lavender has almost completely disappeared. At the very bottom there are dry earthy notes, which I think are cedar wood, but the clean floral remains dominant through the end.
The aroma of this Davidoff pour homme reflects a trend of the nineties, when perfume were less aromatic and spicy than those of the eighties (think of Opium perfume by YSL for example). In spite of its intensity and broad trail, this Cool Water cologne is still suitable for a daily use, most of all between spring and summer, but also for week-end breaks or holidays.
Like other perfumes of that period, the place where this Davidoff cologne gives its best is an office environment where it stands out from the average. Its clean aroma, and the use of different florals, make it attractive and easy to remember. Cool Water won’t let you down in your night outs either, although it’s perhaps more suitable for formal and semi-informal events.
As far as romantic dates are concerned, well, you should know by now that my opinion is biased, and if you have read so far, you deserve to know that the word MAN, all uppercase, in the title is not a typo. Basically, my dear male reader, if your date is on the Sawyer side, it’s practically done. If she’s not, this Davidoff for men will still smell great if you’re the right type for classic perfumes, with a solid old school footprint of the eighties.

Acqua di Gio

Impossible. Buy one perfume for each of your personality and wear them one at the time. Being none of these things? Get yourself a men’s fragrance. Men’s perfumes market is less saturated, less aggressive, and therefore offer more choice.
Of course I wasn’t thinking of any of these things when I decided to give this Acqua di Gio for men to my dad. I needed a classy, dry and fresh fragrance (if you find a perfume for women with all these qualities together please let me know).
The feminine version of this Armani perfume was first launched in 1995 followed by the one for men the year after. The latter was more successful, and in fact made the brand Armani more popular. After Acqua di Gio, Armani started to launch new perfumes more often, almost every year.
The opening notes are pretty alcoholic but they are happily tamed by a marine aroma. I actually think it can work really well as a sport fragrance, if you can afford to use it that way. By this I mean I found it a bit expensive (whatever it means to me), even if the Acqua di Gio 6.7 oz is actually good value compared to the 3.4 bottle.
Back to the perfume, other than water, there are melon and pear, and also white roses.
In the middle notes, fruits take a step back, and roses stand out together with other flowers, like jasmine and something denser that smells like hyacinth.

Compared to its predecessor “Gio,” Acqua di Gio perfume is fresher, with a totally different style. More suitable for summertime, quite informal, maybe too much for a work environment. On a date it will not give much help, as the bitter note will remain until the base notes, making this Armani perfume suitable for a personal use. Age range, I would say between 20 and 50.

Who is the best person for this 1 Million perfume? A seducing guy. Are you not that type of guy but you would like to be? Sorry, I don’t have any trick to teach you, but this perfume at least won’t make things worse. It may even increase your chances a little bit. Ah actually I may help you on the seducing thing, I may have a trick to offer: women like men that are a mix between classic and rebel (I’m not afraid to admit I’m one of them). Don’t you believe me? Well don’t come complain after. However, even if you’re not, with this perfume you may do as if you were, at least for a couple of hours. For the record, I gave this perfume as a gift to one of my relatives, who’s single and loved it. Too soon to have results on the seducing part though.

The notes

The opening notes are fruity with a spicy hint which I cannot define, but among the official notes are cinnamon and cardamom, so it could be either. Paco Rabanne One Million perfume becomes more defined towards the middle notes and the citrus are stand out a little more, an aromatic orange which reminds me of Amor Amor by Cacharel.
In the (olfactive) distance, this perfume by Paco Rabanne also offers some interesting Mediterranean herbs, like basil and peppermint. Cinnamon now is definitely there, mixed with something very sweet possibly a resin, or amber or patchouli. After a good while a woody note shows up, most likely produced by birch extract. Birch extract and Amber Ketal (both in Paco Rabanne Million official ingredients list) are very common in PR’s fragrances, the first being used as surrogate to produce leather notes, the latter as a fixer.

In the base notes the spicy wood is still there, still intense but relatively fresh. The leather notes don’t become too dense, after all, last time I checked the 80s were long gone.

To sum up…

This Paco Rabanne perfume gives its best in a closed and slightly cold environment, so it’s perfect as a winter gift. Avoid it in a sunny beach if you can. It kind of reminds me of Ultrared perfume, also by Paco Rabanne, even if they have different styles, with 1 Million being more “serious.” I think it’s also great for a daily use. It looks like it was designed to take you through a day at the office: Fresh in the morning, and denser during the day.
Age range: I want to be flexible: between 25 and 55. Just make sure that the 25 years old looks older than he is.

Another reason why Fahrenheit by Christian Dior was perfect for my friend, is that it belongs to the Nineties, which is when it came out. And people between 35 and 40, even if they love to remember the long gone Eighties, they were actually young (I mean, teenagers) during the less cool transition to the Nineties.

Back then, this Dior perfume was pretty popular between sophisticated males and people in their fifties who hadn’t overcome the shock of leaving the decade behind. In particular, I remember, and not with pleasure, a professor at my university, guilty of over using Fahrenheit by Dior (a friend of mine even caught him spraying it on himself in the toilet right before class), which is after all a perfume to be used wisely.

Like all successful perfumes, Fahrenheit also started a line of fragrances under the same name (think of Angel or Opium). 2009 was the year of Fahrenheit Absolute. Dior showed they didn’t want to milk the cow as much as possible, as this version of Fahrenheit perfume was only the third one in 21 years. The bottle is very similar to the original of 1988, but similarities end here.
Except some violet and leather notes, the fragrance is a completely different one, as it’s based on a not very common type of resin. The name “Absolute” is probably related to the Absolute zero. After all, the first Fahrenheit perfume spin off was Fahrenheit 32, which equals to 0°C.
The ads for the different versions of Fahrehenheit perhaps give an idea of how this perfume has changed in the mind of its creator. The first Fahrenheit placed a man on a pier before a sea, made red by sunset. In Fahrenheit 32, the same man was on the peak of a mountain, almost touching the clouds. In Fahrenheit Absolute our guy is on a volcano surrounded by incandescent lava, which makes the sea waves boil. I’m not sure what I should read in all this, maybe it means something, maybe it’s all marketing BS, so I’ll leave it up to you.

According to the Christian Dior website, these are the notes: violet, leather, resin di myrrh and agar (or aquilaria) wood, a type of resinous wood used to make incense.

The notes

What does the nose say? The opening notes are indeed dominated by violet. In the background there are some notes of sweet resin, and a growing hint of animal and slightly spicy notes. After 15 minutes, there’s cumin, or a spicy note to that effect.
After a few minutes, the violet stands out again, together with something else which is musky and spicy at the same time, probably the result of this  mystery called resin (which to me, it’s mainly something that comes out of the bark of the trees, or a material used to make canoes).
Towards the third hour, the main notes of Fahrenheit Absolute are powdery amber, together with incense and oriental woods.
After three days (yes, it was a test paper), the perfume is still there, with the same notes of sweet amber and spicy resins.

To sum up

If you have the presence, it can be used daily also in a work environment, but it’s out of the office, on informal or semi-formal occasions that this Fahrenheit Dior gives its best.

In my head Fahrenheit Absolute is the perfect example of a well balanced fragrance. It’s an elegant perfume for an everyday use, strong enough to stand a walk on the open air, but flexible enough to be suitable for work, much more than its Uncle, the original Fahrenheit by Christian Dior.

Kenzo perfume

After all these years, this fragrance by Kenzo is part of that vast category of fragrances that are no longer best sellers, but have become classics with a remarkable steady market.
And, after all these years, my friend is still a friend of mine, but Kenzo pour homme is no longer his favorite perfume. Maybe I could give it to him as a Christmas present this year, or maybe I should wait for 2011…
One thing I have always loved of this perfume is the bamboo shaped perfume bottle, shaken by the wind. This theme is featured in many Kenzo perfumes (like Tokyo or Kenzo Flower Perfume), with different styles, but in Kenzo pour homme it remains unique in its simplicity and unpretentiousness (have I spelt it right?).

The notes

Ok enough rambling, let’s talk about the notes now. The opening is a mix of light and fresh floral, where salted water and seaweed are the dominant idea. The middle notes the sea water notes are still there but they are joined by a hint of light amber. It’s where you think this Kenzo perfume for men begins the transition to a woody perfume, going through a middle stage of resinous freshness.
Here and there, spices show up, maybe nutmeg and cinnamon, but they tend to merge with the woody notes, keeping the dominant watery side intact.
The base notes will surprise you: if you thought the woody and resinous notes would stand out, well, you’re very wrong. This Kenzo perfume for men is about sea water, which becomes more and more refined towards the end. It’s sage, a non-metallic and earthy sage, which adds a humid and musky note to the salt

To sum up…

As I said before, this Kenzo perfume for men is a classic, if you are between 25 and 50 years old, and you don’t look like a 70 year-old, you should have no problem wearing this perfume in any activity. This Kenzo pour homme can be an office perfume, an after work-out perfume, or a perfume for informal or semi-informal events. Maybe (maybe) the only time you should wear some other perfume is in a date. But hey, if you think your date likes the sailor type of man, then this Kenzo perfume pour homme will pay off. Guaranteed.

Prada perfume

The notes

Prada for women starts with a vanilla note, but it soon becomes a red fruit, probably mimosa flower mixed with oranges. In the middle notes there is also a floral layer, with rose, masked by spicy notes like pepper and patchouli.
As the perfume evolves towards the heart notes, it becomes more oriental, with again touches of vanilla with tonka bean, a black wrinkled seed of the family of legumes. The addition of pepper and sandalwood make it smell like an aromatherapy oil.

The version pour homme has no similarity at all with the one for women. The opening notes at the first spray are also quite different from other fragrances: it’s a fresh non-oriental resinous perfume, that becomes woody and somehow soapy in the middle notes, like a shampoo or cologne of the thirties, together with floral masculine notes of geranium or vetiver. After two hours on the test paper, the note of classic cologne starts to disappear and a new layer of leather appears, together with vanilla and touches of spice (supposedly saffron, according to the bottle).

After 24 hours, the test paper still has a note of amber on it, but the traditional shaving cream smell is there again. It’s like an old barber shop must have smelt like.

When to use it

Prada perfume for men is fresher than its counterpart (it reminds of the fresh sensation after the shower), which makes it suitable both for a summer and a winter use, better by day than by night.The spicy flower note and the oriental aromas work better in cold days or for an office use when it’s not too hot. Pretty much a winter fragrance.

Creed Cologne

History is important, and to keep up with it, all Creed perfumes have to be a precious, luxury fragrance with the best quality ingredients like roses from Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco, Italian jasmine and laurel.
Among Creed’s customers, the list of celebrities is long. All the most beautiful men in the world wear them: Richard Gere, Robert Redford, Robbie Williams (ok, not so beautiful maybe), George Clooney and… the Prince of Wales.
To me this air of exclusivity makes this Creed parfume the ideal gift every time I need to buy or advise a perfume as a gift for any male friend older than 30, with a professional style.

The notes

The opening of notes of this fragrance have a fairly classic style, with different ingredients that remain separated rather than mixed together and are easy to detect. The ingredients here are green herbs, like basil, other soft spices, less intense than pepper, and a dry base which could be a subtle trace of iris and amber. The shift to the middle phase comes out very gradually, as some of the initial notes fade. Iris and amber are still there, slightly more intense, and a line of notes on the verge of floral start, between lavender and juniper, which reminds of Eternity perfume by Calvin Klein. At this point this fragrance remains stable for several hours, remaining intense from a very close distance, but not reaching one meter from the skin. In the final phase juniper mixes with mint, and also with some new florals like violet and more lukewarm notes of musk.

To sum up

This Creeed perfume Green Irish Tweed is a good balance between the originality of artisanal, almost home made perfumery, and the current romantic style of many perfumes of the same category. The style is very similar to Eternity or Davidoff Cool Water (with which is often compared)

Ok, I admit I’m taking a tragic event as an excuse to ramble. What I really wanted to say is that  I love this Versace cologne, even if my judgment is biased. The thing is, the first time I bought The Dreamer, it wasn’t a gift, it was for me. You know how these things work, right? I didn’t buy it for me, I did it because it reminded me of someone, but I’d better leave this stroll down memory lane for another time and maybe another blog and go back to the perfume review…

Versace Perfume The Dreamer

I usually don’t pay too much attention to a perfume bottle but I like The Dreamer’s. I think in its simplicity it does its job very well. If what they wanted was to convey a sense of strength, confidence and love for freedom, I guess they made it.

The notes

This is not an Opium perfume dream, but a floral one. The opening notes are strong and floral: lavender and lily above all. Flowers in a men’s fragrance (and in a Versace perfume pour homme in particular) can be seen as eccentric (or fascinating, it’s your call), but this is just the beginning, because it doesn’t take long before the masculine side takes the stage with the something between tobacco and leather, amber and some other light spice like tarragon.

To sum up

Like many other perfumes by Versace, The Dreamer has a mixed personality, which sometimes clashes with individual skins and/or ideas of what a men’s perfume should be and, as a result, not everybody likes it.

I’ve nonetheless read some unfair bad perfume reviews about it being too “chemical.” I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean, as almost all perfumes on the market, even the latest most expensive ones are 80% chemical, but if the terms is used as opposed to “natural smelling,” then it’s somehow true.

I blame the strong opening notes, maybe a bit too strong, which scare off first timers easily. For the brave, the great tobacco middle notes of this mens cologne are a pleasant reward. All in all a great mens fragrance.