Versace The Dreamer EDT

Wandering around Westfield London this afternoon doing something completely unrelated I ventured into a lovely shop and immediately my eyes were drawn to the special offer they had on Versace The Dreamer EDT, a fragrance my brother used to wear in his late teens and one I really used to like. As I have said, this was on offer so after buying myself a bottle I thought, what the hell, and bought another and I’m offering it here as a giveaway to one of my readers. Father’ Day is coming up, so why not enter below. 

Unlike my recent blast from the past disasters with Davidoff Echo and Obsession by Calvin Klein I tested this in the shop, was immediately transported back in time. It’s lovely! 

The notes to The Dreamer are:

• Head: Juniper, Mugwort, Tarragon
• Heart: Ambered Lily, Flax Flowers, Iris
• Dry-down: Amber, Tobacco Flower

It’s now seven hours after spraying myself in the shop with the tester and it’s still so very noticeable after using just a little of it. This would make the perfect gift for a man who likes his aftershave to start off light with a slightly fruity twist that comes from the juniper but who likes them to fade, get warmer and last for ages. 

It has depth and warmth but the fragrance almost evolves through a series of stages. The ambered lily and iris blend with the juniper after around an hour to make this less fruity on the nose and actually it’s like a mild floral explosion for around thirty minutes until it moves into the dry down. The amber and tobacco flower provide an excellent base that compliments the tarragon and lily to make this well worth a look.

This really does fall into the affordable aftershave category, especially when on special offer - it has a gorgeous fragrance that would be out of place in the office or on a night out. Great value for money.

RECOMMENDED

So what is on offer? It is a 100ml bottle of The Dreamer by Versace

• How long will the giveaway last for? 23 days
• Will I get it in time for Father’s Day? Yes, the winner will be drawn on 1 June 2016, the winner notified and posted First Class.
• I don’t live in Great Britain, can I enter? Yes, yes you can.
• There are some mandatory entries which MUST be completed otherwise your entry will be null and void
• If you are under 16, you will need parental consent to enter because I will need your full name and address.

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Ambre Noir by Yves Rocher

If I told you that you could pick up a hard-wearing and lovely smelling fragrance (and a 50ml bottle of it at that) for just £16 you would probably be calling for the men in white coats. No, I haven’t fallen for Old Spice (although a bottle of that is nearly £10). I have fallen for Ambre Noir by Yves Rocher.

Read on into my insanity....

When I was told by my other half (affectionately known as the ball & chain or Beautyqueenuk) that one of her PR contacts was going to send me an aftershave to sample from Yves Rocher my response was quite blunt (the expletives have been removed) - “who are Yves Rocher”.

Fast forward (weird flashback to my last job there) a couple weeks and a 50ml bottle of Ambre Noir popped through the letterbox. After looking for the aftershave online to do a bit of research and seeing that the same bottle could be picked up for £16 here my expectations were low - lower than a world champion limbo dancer in fact.

This is what the Yves Rocher folk have to say about Ambre Noir:

‘The intensity of dark woods, the sensuality of amber.

Assert your seductiveness with AMBRE NOIR, which combines the intense and woody character of patchouli and vetiver with the sensuality of tonka bean. At the heart of this fragrance, the subtlety of cedar and lavender accentuates its elegance.’ 

The main ingredients to Ambre Noir are botanically based: essential oils of patchouli, vetiver, bergamot, cardamom seed, mandarin, cedarwood, elemi and lavender, violet leaves and tonka bean absolutes.

First impressions were good, it was very light and fresh. To me, I was sure that the main top note was a light and very subtle lavender which blended with the mandarin to give a rather fruity citrus aroma (if you really do keep sniffing away you can pull out the sharpness of the mandarin just momentarily).

Within fifteen minutes the top notes die down yet the aftershave becomes sweeter on the nose - weird, but a good kind of weird. This sweetness remains for moments, less than five minutes. 

At this stage, the amber and tonka beans blend beautifully. It’s almost a weird union of the warmth of the amber and the sweetness of the tonka bean. Without the amber this would probably have the same sweetness as Versace Eros, Joop or Valentino Uomo, instead it starts to dry down to a lovely warm reliable fragrance very much on a par with Fahrenheit by Dior. 

As I have said, the fragrance on dry down has the warmth of Dior’s Fahrenheit, it has a depth of both spice and wood to make this probably a bit too earthy and masculine for me to wear out and about at night, but perfect for daywear on a regular basis. That depth and the dry down base keeps Ambre Noir sitting on the skin really well and for over ten hours which is always a plus. 

At every stage of wearing this what I found was a series of ingredients that blended so well it was a pleasure to wear Ambre Noir, and I rarely say that. Take into account the excellent, and I mean astounding value for money and the lack of burn when applying after shaving then I can’t sing it’s praises enough. Top notch stuff - one does doth ones cap to the perfumer who came up with this baby (sorry, I think I added this line after a night out).

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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Ted Baker Hanging Fragrance Gifts

Ted Baker has an innovative approach to decorating your Christmas Tree this year with their new miniature hanging fragrance gifts* which would look amazing on any tree or as a stocking filler for that man in your life. 

There is a set for men and women - I'll be focusing on the male version. 

Each set comes in a pack of four individually wrapped 5ml fragrances - something to stick in the manbag if heading out for the night or smell so much you really need to mask your musk (that's a joke people).

The male fragrances include: 

• XO Fresh, Green and Woody - Designed for the men who like the finer things in life. Fresh Green top notes lead to a heart of aromatic woods, red berries and ginger roots. Mixed with base notes of pink pepper and warm sensual spices.
• X20 Spcy and Intense - Top notes of Tangerine, Tea and Cardamom with Lavender, Rosemary Spices and Violet Leaves and a base of Black Pepper, Sandalwood and Amber.
• Skinwear: Enticingly Aromatic - Fresh zesty extracts of lime, bergamot and lemon are blended with notes of Rosemary, Cypress and Juniper with an enticing base of Sandalwood, Amber and Musk
• M: Understated Sophistication - Top notes of Tonka Bean, Musk and Vertiver which are combined with Coriander, Amber and a rich Woody Base.

Not only do the tree hangers look great, after giving each access to my nose I'm pleased to report that they all smell great. Obviously fragrance is a very personal issue but if you like warm and earthy with hints of citrus and spice you will love these. 

Just launched at Debenhams a set of four will set you back £22, or you can pick them up for £6 each.

RECOMMENDED

*Where I come from in Manchester 'hanging or 'anging' is slang for awful. I do not use the term here to mean this for the avoidance of doubt!

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Comme des Garcons 2 - Unisex Fragrance

It’s rare that a lemon falls into my aftershave collection and it has been a long time since I made a schoolboy error and bought an aftershave that could stun a wild boar at 20 paces - Gucci Rush and Diesel Zero Plus spring instantly to mind. All this changed recently with the deliver of a Selfridges&Co male grooming box.

The box contained a 9ml bottle of Comme des Garcons 2, a unisex fragrance I confess I’d never heard of until I opened the box of other grooming goodies to see what was inside.

Comme des Garcons 2 came in the silver packaging

If this was actually a lemon it would have the saving grace of having a nice citrus aroma, the blunt truth is that it’s overpriced, way too feminine and has the staying power of a car on the slope of a mountain with the handbrake (parking brake for my American readers) left off.

It started with such promise, a whiff from the bottle and it doesn’t seem that bad but that doesn’t last, oh no, it dries down, and down and down in the same way my expectations plummeted through the floor.

Comme des Garcons 2 Eau de Parfum is a unisex fragrance marketed as an aftershave/purfume that has a powerful presence (hmmm, yes, for about 45 minutes and not in a good way).

This is the first time I’ve tried a fragrance with ink in it - the ingredients list like they have thrown what was left at the end of a shift into the mix in an effort to get to the pub while the sun still shines. With baldheads, orange, mandarin and magnolia it also combines the ink, patchouli, labdanum, amber, vetiver along with cedar and juniper.

The full notes are:

• Head: Aldehydes, Orange Mandarin, Tea, Angelica, Mate
• Heart: Nutmeg, Ink, Magnolia, Coriander, West Indian Bay, Cinnamon
• Dry down: Patchouli, Cedar, Vetiver, Labdanum, Amber, Incense

Considering that a 100ml bottle of this will set you back between £55 to £75 it isn’t cheap so I was expecting class, style and quality like you get from established fashion houses such as Bvlgari, Ralph Lauren and Prada. What I got was an assault on my senses.

I used about 2ml of it the first time I tried it and my hand to god I gagged as I splashed it on. It’s like a combination of old gran smell. In fact I had a flashback to being younger trying to escape the clutches of a ‘huggy’ gran welcoming her not so favourite grandson into her house.

Vile - you can pick up strong hints of the magnolia straight away and the labdanum comes through far too much. After 5 minutes my eyes were streaming and I considered washing it off.

As it started to settle my ability to smell it diminished but the cedar was still evident. However, after 45 minutes of wearing I asked a friend to tell me what she thought of it. Her response - “are you wearing any aftershave” which made me think “what they hell”.

Undeterred by this (and stupidly) I tried to apply even more thinking I hadn’t put enough on. Again the gagging and streaming eyes until it clamed down a little. I asked again, what do you think after an hour to get the same response. Not good, not good at all!

I asked for thoughts about 30 minutes after applying in the hope that I’d get some decent feedback on how it smelt on my skin - the pick and most positive of the comments received was:

“You could spray that to keep flies away from the door.”

In summary, this takes the mantle for worst aftershave ever to enter my sizeable collection. It’s overpriced, smells like my gran used to, dries down to give an Old Spice vibe and lasts as long as a candy bar in Death Valley. 

It’s a massive no from me and it’s going in the bin.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

What’ has been your worst aftershave/perfume experience? Why not tell me in the comments below. I always try to respond.

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Silver Shadow by Davidoff

Silver Shadow (sounds like it should be an evil nemesis of Spiderman) was not a fragrance I had ever heard of until a raft of samples of the pure blend Eau de Toilette and regular Eau de Toilette came flying through the post.

Despite the difference in name and price between the two blends, ultimately there is very little difference and therefore no need to write two individual reviews of the aftershaves.

For the record I will be reviewing my thoughts on the pure blend Eau de Toilette, which normally comes in both 50ml and 100ml bottles that don't contain an atomiser - I still find it weird to apply aftershave without an atomiser, I always apply far too much.

Prices range wildly as you would expect from online and high street retailers. Normally a 100ml bottle would cost in the region of £20 online with prices on the high street approaching the £40 mark.

The marketing for Silver Shadow states that it is a non-ordinary fragrance for a non-ordinary man (you can say that again). Charismatic and mysterious, the Davidoff Silver Shadow man leaves behind him an unforgettable fragrance trail. His fragrance is his signature, a fascinating shadow of his personality. (Source: www.zinodavidoff.com)

With the hindsight of smelling the fragrance I can’t help a wry sarcastic smile at the words ‘unforgettable fragrance trail‘. Yes, unforgettable, truly unforgettable!

Functional, but very boring, the bottle doesn't really project the luxurious image it would appear Davidoff aims for. As I’ve said, the bottles do not have an atomiser, therefore the aftershave is simply poured onto the hand to apply.

Personally this reminded me of days gone by when I used to play with (and empty to his displeasure) my dads aftershaves trying to feel grown up. It's been years since I'd used an aftershave where you had to measure out the quantity by sight alone!

The notes to Silver Shadow are:

• Head: Orange, coriander and cedar leaves
• Heart: Saffron and patchouli
• Dry Down: Amber and oak moss

From the notes I had an idea that Silver Shadow would be a heavy fragrance, there were simply too many earthy ingredients for it to be anything else, but on application I was pleasantly surprised by the head notes, the orange citrus was overwhelming and the zest seemed to block out the coriander and cedar fragrances completely.

I wasn't very liberal when applying either, literally a tiny amount of the fragrance was required to leave the room smelling like the inside of an orange box. This is strong and felt like an assault on my senses!

Unfortunately, the citrus orange note faded quickly and only a faint undertone remained and this is in my opinion where the fragrance started to go horribly wrong.

The coriander and cedar start to become overpowering, making what was a strong fragrance overly heavy and arid. There was nothing refreshing about the application or indeed the fragrance. Combined with the heart notes and finally the dry down of amber the fragrance become exceptionally heavy with no redeeming features.

It was too warm and earthy with the oak moss being most evident. In an attempt to give this a masculine aroma, Davidoff have simply added too many ingredients that counteract each other and after around an hour I smelt like I had been camping in woodland for a week.

Overall I was hugely disappointed with Silver Shadow. It is a hard wearing fragrance due to the heavy ingredients and lasts for well over 12 hours, sadly that is not a good thing at all.

When you take into consideration the price, the fragrance and the fact that everyone you pass will look at you as though you have just murdered a close family relative I would not recommend this to anyone. If asked to describe Silver Shadow in a nutshell I would have to say that it is a bastardised blend of old spice combined with topsoil!

Personally after using this once I decided that I would never ever wear it again, and I certainly would not shell out up to £40 for a bottle. If earthy, rugged masculine fragrances are for you then there is a slight chance that you will find Silver Shadow acceptable for daywear and possibly formal occasions.

Silver Shadow is not luxurious, charismatic and mysterious, however it is unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.

NOT RECOMMENDED

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