Description
With the Colognes collection, Hermès expands a territory of olfactive
expression inaugurated in 1979 with its first Cologne, later baptised Eau
d’orange verte, characterised by its refinement and authenticity. Figurative and
generous expressions of instant pleasure, the Hermès Colognes offer a series of
material-based olfactive vignettes. Through the gaze of Jean-Claude Ellena,
Hermès affirms its own interpretation of the Cologne style, between artistic
sensitivity and traditional craftsmanship.
Eau de gentiane blanche: devised by Jean-Claude Ellena as an irreverent take on
the traditional Cologne style, the Eau de gentiane blanche revisits freshness with
a mixture of boldness and delicacy. Complex and sophisticated, gentian proffers
its multiple facets–sometimes bitter, sometimes smooth–in an elegant
vapour of white musks that source their sweetness far from sugary elements,
thus offering the gentian component an unexpected olfactive counterpart. Eau de Gentiane Blanche was launched in 2009.
ruki71 – :
Unexpected unusual discovery. Vegetal, green, dry, with a “marble” finish. There is a coolness about it that has nothing to do with the mainstream fresh and clean fragrances. Charming, daring, bitter and special. It’s a miracle that it’s still in production, because it’s definitely not a mass pleasing perfume. A must for summer. With the right mood it works in autumn as well. Lasts quite well, with an okay projection
папаша – :
Strangely I also get chopped veggies from this one.
This is a very minimalist composition and there is no citrus whatsoever. Pretty unique I’d say.
I normally love JCE’s signature but this one is not one of his best in my opinion. The opening is very dry and afterwards the whole feeling is quite ”vegetal”. The drydown does have a very faint musk but overall I don’t really find this one interesting.
However the longevity is surprisingly good for an EdC.
5/10
Cryss – :
I was so close to buying this online a few days ago after having tried it months ago and loving it, but thought I should maybe test it one more time before buying. Oh man, am I glad that I did. I don’t know what has changed since I last tried this, but it smells like straight up freshly chopped green jalapeños and blue cheese. It’s very metallic, green, spicy, peppery and sharp. I envy those who have a better experience with this one like I used to.
Karismatic – :
One more example of the race for originality between the 2 most prestigious houses of parfumes Hermes and Guerlain.
Gentiane, a rare (and protected, but now planted & grown for it’s famous alcohols) dark blue & very pretty alpine flower is not listed among frag notes on this site. The alcohols are famous for their gentle bitterness (Suze, the Gentianes of local producers) well suited for aperitifs – they “open the appetite” according to the French Chefs …
Guerlain’s AA Gentiane being gone since long, JC Ellena picked up the Guerlain challenge with an even more original combination with the powdery iris, very strong and present in this frag. This combination is marvelous and pure, the rest (incense, musks) are only dressings.
There is nothing in common between a paper strip test and the skin. A must try, and I love it in my bottle for my skin for many days to come! It’s at its best in the Alps or the Rockies, in summer beneath high mountain lakes, just like Hermes Eau des Merveilles Bleue is fantastic on the beachsides of the Mediterranean (a flacon of 100 cc gone within 3 weeks during our most recent stay).
Velik8 – :
I had tried this for my first time on a quite cold winter day, and it reminded me of the pea-flour cake I had at the Imitaion Imperial Cuisine restaurant as Beijing. It has a bitter opening with coolness, and a slightly powdery sweetness blends in after a few seconds, which is pleasant to me. I had to hesitated for several months to get a full bottle, becasue it never lasts over 1 hr on my skin… I really like its opening, for a hint of coolness i smell.
MrWhisper – :
People say spicy, peppery and green bell pepper. I get a combination. It smells like straight up jalapeno on me. I generally love Hermes, but this one doesn’t smell at all like the listed flowers and white musk, which was what I was hoping for.
Dr.Web97 – :
I don’t know how to start with this beauty!I m finally an owner of a bottle,but I have also test it so many times in the past. Maybe is the Hermes house, I own some of their masterpieces so maybe their formulas works for me. Maybe is the central idea of that house-I feel they take the perfume creation as a subject of art or poetry or both- that means they risk with bold creations and unexpected combinations and high quality ingredients.
I tested it without knowing the pyramid of notes and was sure that a more bitter “O” de Lancome type of unisex scent was revealed on my skin which I adored though,immediately.
When I saw the notes on Fragrantica,what a surprise!Flowers? Incense?MUSK? Where is the citrus zest? where is wood? The forest? the rain? the cold breath of the winter wind? Are all there,for me and on my skin.
I love this one for its quality,the high performance on skin and through the day,the uniqueness,the freshness,the mystery,the power of simplicity,the boldness.
Monsieur Ellena, you wrote a fairy tail again.
Thank you for this one.
dickrollland – :
The first thing that comes to mind when smelling any Hermes perfume is expensive. Not in a bad or tacky way, on the contrary, it feels more like Hermes spares no expense in giving us these beautiful, interesting, refined scents. It is an expensive gift, chosen perfectly, nothing extraneous.
I have two sample sprays of Eau de Gentiane Blanche, both from an Hermes boutique and both only half full. After trying it today, I will nurse every precious drop until I can buy my own bottle.
I didn’t know what to expect with this fragrance as I had never heard of a gentiane flower. Plus, I grow Iris in my yard, but they are mostly scentless. So the word Blanche is what I focused on-would this be a white flower smell?
No, it isn’t a typical floral at all. For me, it can only be described in adjectives. I spray, and I am again 18, sitting on large rocks by a deep blue, glittering alpine lake, smelling the forest, the first sun of the year warming my shoulders, a soft breeze blowing my hair, little pockets of snow still lingering in shady parts of the woods. The rocks I sit upon are warming to my brown smooth legs, and I hear spring birds fluttering overhead. The scent of pine and forest green and lake water wafts over me with each puff of breeze. This is my youth in a bottle. Hermes actually and perfectly captured an afternoon of my youth and put it in a bottle.
To me, this is a unisex fragrance. I’d be crazy about it on a man. I’m crazy about it on me.
It stays the same from first spray to dry down, but that does not mean it is uncomplicated or doesn’t tell a story. It whispers to me, and it may whisper something different to you. I think it is flexible for both day and night, for all seasons, beyond all seasons. It’s beautiful.
It seems to last on my skin, although I can’t help but spraying it every couple of hours just to deepen it. But I must resist, to save it. Oh…just a bit more….I think I’d drink it if I could. It’s my favorite Hermes scent so far, although I have liked them all, this one I love. It’s next on my “to be purchased” list.
Kind_Leon – :
A delightful mossy-woody scent. I would characterize it as resembling a vetiver scent, but without the vetiver! Eau de Gentiane Blanche is simple, clean, fresh, and predictable: A peppery light smoke experience that provides a healthy spiciness that isn’t clouded with many other notes. Instantly fell in love with it upon sample, and now I proudly own a bottle.
Nick Baker – :
floral bitter, gloomy, mysterious, but a really good scent on my skin lasted half an hour … I will definitely try it again and make over spray because it’s a great smell.
rabyroals – :
Soft, smooth, bitter flowers. Lovely. Iris and other cold, somewhat bitter florals wrapped in a little bit of light musk to soften and with added aromatic depth.
A linear scent with a surprising staying power.
“Figurative and generous expressions of instant pleasure, the Hermès Colognes offer a series of material-based olfactive vignettes.” This suggests a simpler, linear scent, one that doesn’t develop a story going through a sequence of top, heart and base notes but stays the same throughout its relatively short life.
The linear character is certainly true. A couple of seconds after the initial cloud of alcohol disappears, the actual scent of this fragrance becomes clear and established and once it’s established, it remains the same until it slowly fades a few hours later.
I was nicely surprised at longevity of a fragrance deemed to be a cologne. It stayed noticeable for at least three hours, maybe as long as four. Quite impressive for me as I often lose any traces of a scent couple of hours in, and I kept catching bigger and little reminders of this now and then for much longer than that.
So it’s a linear scent, freely admitting to being a vignette. One would thus expect a fairly simple accord, a base more than a complete fragrance, but Jean-Claude Ellena, responsible for a long list of Hermes’ fragrances as well as several other rather rarefied creations for niche perfume houses, including Acqua di Parma, the Different Company and L`Artisan Parfumeur, has created a rather complex thing here.
The official notes include gentian, iris, incense and musk.
There are florals – incredibly fresh yet intense. I’d call this aspect of the fragrance green, but it’s a strange green, very much alive yet rather grey. If you look at the colour of the bottle, held against light, you’ll get the kind of pale-grey green I am talking about. There is a lot of iris there, which is probably responsible for that grey. But there is also gentian in the notes, and although I don’t know what the gentian flower (an alpine plant, see the other pic) smells like, I feel that it must be contributing there with a purple/grey element.
Actual gentian flowers are vivid royal blue, but in the scent the purple-blue is diluted, less saturated. None of this makes for a weaker fragrance, but decidedly shifts the focus from the floral to the aromatic incense aspects.
There is bitterness there, a medicinal quality so typical of many incense fragrances, but it’s a a bitterness that’s both smooth, set against a soft background of pale musk, and also fresh and open, like a scent of a meadow known far and wide for being particularly abundant in medicinal (and perhaps even hallucinogenic) herbs.
I have seen the word etheral repeated in comments about this fragrance, and yes, it is etheral, as in being airy and a bit unearthly, but not at all weak or vulnerable. This is not a scent of a shrinking-violet young damsel in teary distress. This is a scent that makes me think of Galadriel.
Озмитель – :
Unisex my eye! I received a sample of Gentiane Blanche last year while visiting the Hermes Boutique and making a purchase or two, but tossed them into one of my shoe-boxes filled with other samples. While I was pleasantly surprised to find something unfamiliar to me, I am so glad that I applied a familiar Hermes sample after my gym workout because this fragrance is pure flowers and estrogen…nothing unisex about it.
Upon first spray I got hints of that tell-tale Hermes fresh-aromatic DNA along with a fresh-floral and a light powdery accord. I do not recall ever having smelled a gentiane fragrance, but I do know this one is NOT for me(n) in any form or fashion.
As far as a female fragrance goes…well, it’s somewhat likable, but I wasn’t blown-away. Moreover, I find that this fragrance–and perhaps gentiane more specifically–is not something I crave smelling on les femmes. I wouldn’t mind it, but I find there are just a ton better floral fragrances that I would enjoy sniffing ahead of this one.
Overall, I mildly like this fragrance but I enjoy smelling many more musky-floral fragrances on the ladies. Sadly, I am giving this one a dislike because there is nothing unisex about this scent. Dudes beware!!!
vovchik_volk – :
Eau de Gentiane Blanche is extraordinary – DIVINE!! It’s just gorgeous! Green and cool, and warm; beautiful incense and musk, and earth, and forest, and sunshine and rain – fresh and sharp, yet smooth and aromatic. It’s amazing. I adore it. It smells like nothing else. Lovely flowers I don’t know, but definitely flowers, delicate and ethereal. Definitely smell aniseed. Delightful. Powdery and soft. Oh my. So many different smells. It’s lovely. And lovely bottle too. I love the colour.
xLAVRx – :
Fragrance Review For Eau De Gentiane Blanche
Eau De Cologne
Hermes
Notes
Gentiana Incense Musk Iris
Gentiana is an Alpine flower which I really enjoyed up close to my nose while vacationing in Switzerland a few years ago. I was not expecting this cologne to be floral and I knew as an experienced perfumista that it would not smell of gentiana but I was nevertheless intrigued. Off the bottle it smells quite powdery. The iris flower is stronger than the small dose of gentiana. It has a citrus scent as well, fresh and invigorating like the natural fresh air on mountain slopes. Then it smells of iris. It seems to want to evoke an Alpine setting: flowers, mountains, deer, and green slopes. This is a very green aromatic scent.
There’s some vetiver, musk and green notes, common ingredients in men’s colognes which make this one of the more masculine unisex scents from a unisex line like Hermes. This would smell good on the right guy who can pull off greens, musk or powder based iris. The touch of incense is nice but it’s not smoky at all. It’s green and musky, clean and elegant. With only 4 notes not to mention unlisted citrus and vetiver it’s a linear scent that does not have any real complexity or progression. It smells the same from beginning to end but it’s a hell of a great smell.
mbp882intitytek – :
Gentiane Blanche has an air of a refined hothouse flower or humid rose. It is exquisite bordering on tristesse.
Eivanov – :
upon application it smells fresh and then powdery, a very unisex floral – it could be for men or women, maybe a bit masculine for a woman, there’s a hint of citrus, vetiver, and wood – it reminds me of a lightened up version of terre d’hermes
i like it – i don’t know if this is a full bottle buy for me – good performance more than a few times i could smell it wafting up from my arm
AlexDevil – :
When I’m wearing Eau de Gentiane Blanche it creates a mental image of a forest. But it’s a pretty specific forest. It takes me to an early spring day, just after a cold and slow rain, the sky is gray and the mountain peaks are still covered in snow. You can smell the humid cold air, almost misty. A running water is nearby and the grass is just starting to grow here and there. There is also a hint of “blue” flowers in the air.
Gentian is a mountain flower that smells a bit herbal and a bit sour. The iris here is in no way powdery, it is rather green and sharp, with the smallest hint of sweetness. There is also incense in this fragrance, which might lead you into thinking this would be a smoky autumny fragrance. But here, the incense is toned down a lot, sometimes not even being aware it’s there. To my nose it just acts as a complement to the greenness of the fragrance, making it a bit more balanced, “rounding” the green sharpness.
Eau de Gentiane Blanche ticks all the boxes necessarily for me to consider it being a masterpiece. It is beautifully crafted and blended, having one of the most naturally pleasing smells I have come across in the fragrance world so far. It’s my favorite of the whole Eau de Cologne line of Hermes and I’m really excited to have it in my collection. The performance is also amazing on me, having a very decent sillage (an arm’s length for a good 3-4 hours) and really great longevity (I can trace it up to 10-12 hours after application, sometimes even more than that).
The only problem I have with it is its versatility, as I find it hard wearing it most of the times. It’s my current go-to rainy cold day fragrance, or when I go in vacation to the mountains, but other than that it’s pretty hard to find other contexts in which I can pull it off. It’s also a pretty weird scent to some and sometimes gives a feminine vibe (I’m a guy), which to me is not necessarily off-putting, but to some it may feel odd or awkward. Some may even say it smells a bit “medicinal” and I can totally understand that, it can smell like a green tincture if you think of it that way. But I prefer sticking to my mental image of a rainy misty cold forest.
My “marks”, 10 being highest:
Scent: 9.5
Sillage: 7
Longevity: 9
Uniqueness: 10
Versatility: 4
yavlad007 – :
I am a die-hard fan of incense, iris, and green perfumes, and this is one of the most wonderful combinations of all three of these notes. It’s funny that some people call it melancholy – I’ve been wearing it on the beach all summer, with the smell of sunscreen mixed in, and often layered with Hermes Eau de Rhubarbe Ecarlate! To me, it is more intoxicating than mysterious, more fresh than melancholy, more day- than night-time. Green bell pepper, as a fellow reviewer notes: yes! Aniseed, as does another: yes! I would not have bought it reading the description of “sweet, powdery, floral, balsamic, musky” – none of those I particularly fall for. But this is all that, somehow, and all of the opposites as well: bitter, green, fresh, dry, and even salty (but that may just be because I thought it the perfect beach perfume…)
To me, this and Rhubarbe Ecarlate are my favorite summer perfumes. A smoky modern version of Jacomo Silences.
seregey_bull – :
A blind buy and I really cannot decide how I feel about it… I loved the reviews and was expecting something different. This doesn’t smell like rain on me. As soon as I sprayed it I felt a bit uneasy because although I didn’t hate the smell, I didn’t really like it either. It smelt so familiar and yet I could not figure out what exactly it was reminding me of. On the second day of wearing (and trying to grow to like it) I finally got a vision, a flashback if you will, and I remembered the smell.
When I was little, we used to spend summer holidays in a house in the woods, on a lake. My dad and grandad used to go fishing a lot and I would rise with them before the sunset many a mornings to go fishing in a rowing boat.
The sun would rise and soon it would be so hot, blue skies, the sun and water all around us. When I think of those mornings I remember a distinctive smell of the lake, the water and the plants, sometimes water lilies, sometimes weed that would get caught onto the hook, but mainly calamus, the tall water plant. That’s the smell I recognised as soon as I sprayed the scent on my skin.
I’ll give it a few more tries. I’ll try it in different weather, different moods. I love the memories the smell brings back but I am not yet entirely sure if I want to smell of it. Time will tell.
derdiok – :
7/10
demonneo – :
Not a ‘Musk’ fan but this one is great! well blend Iris and ummm… grass scent! maybe Gentiana.
Imagine when you lay down on grass garden after afternoon rainstorm, when the sky staring blue. That’s what mine description about this one.
Its scent so similarly like Eau de Narcisse Bleu. but EDG has a bit darker.
Scent : 9/10
Longevity : 9/10
Sillage : 8/10 and it’s close to your oily skin.
vcs58 – :
jean-claude ellena è l’autore di questa ennesima colonia minimale a cui hermes ci ha abituati da tempo. si tratta di un accordo del tutto unisex, assai fresco e verde, che ricorda la sensazione odorosa di fogliame sotto la pioggia, più che la genziana (che io proprio non sento), e fin qui tutto bene, anzi benissimo. peccato che poi il profumo viri su territori muschiati e molto saponosi, che il mio naso fa fatica a tollerare. le prime note sono davvero notevoli, per i miei gusti; l’assestamento quasi insopportabile.
DeonisSky – :
scent : 10/10
sillage : 6/10
longevity : 9/10
80% day / 20% night fragrance
nice green,violet and woody scent
the best scent that i ever smell (green, citrus and clean) my signature fall scent, the scent remain on my clothes for 5 continuos days, it got the different kind of green scent i guess its the guintina
simply the best
lena_gorodnich – :
Eau de gentiane blanche is, by all means, striking. It starts off citrusy and musky at the same time. No happy citrus here. It is somehow more muted, down-toned. Like lemon rinds in a foggy misty London afternoon (poetic, I know, but it’s what comes to mind). I have never smelled gentiana, so I cannot really weigh in on whether it smells like it or not. I get iris in the vein of clean ironed linen. I am having great difficulty explaining this, but Eau de gentiane blanche is not sheer as Ellena’s creations are in my mind. This is somehow opaque. Not impenetrable by light, but not diaphanous either. It’s like a clean gauze veil that has been powered and has become kind of weighty and heavier. After a while I get a smokey note – kind of like cigarette butts, but not stale ones, just freshly smoked.
As I said above, this is a difficult one to pin down. I would wear it gladly if it were given to me. For the Hermes price, I don’t think I’ll be getting it. But it is a very remarkable one/ Unique.
datskovromario – :
A masterpiece.
Nepriyatnost – :
Eloquent reviews, diaphanous perfume! I had to try it and my first impression was GREEN! Crisp, luminous green. Then it dries down to an herbal, musty, bitter floral accord, that does remind me of Grey Flannel by Geoffrey Beene a bit. Softer, and more translucent. Surprisingly delicate, like new shoots unfurling fragile leaves, Gentiane Blanche is light. Not quite a skin scent, it floats close to my body for hours. I still smelled it when I woke up the next morning. Love the unusual divergent blend of notes. Quite refreshing!
kolomivan – :
Tested on: paper strip.
Impression:
Rain. Yes literally rain, as you can smell when the rain is coming.
Quite linear.
Bitter, not sweet, raw green. Being raw without added pungent, sourness. Somewhat makes this feels Modern.
This is definitely bitter. It’s more a masculine fragrance than unisex as listed.
I was looking this kind of bitter perfume. I hope that price will go down. I need this badly.
More in depth review after purchase.
Vuffifyiftila – :
Super peppery , i gave it to my dad because i just could not pull it off the pepper was too much, is nice and fresh but if you are not into pepper stay away
ALLEXX737 – :
First time on here given a second review, but this one really takes awhile to appreciate. First off, it’s bitter/fresh which is the main reason why I love this. Sweet/fresh colognes are a dime a dozen (Acqua di Gio, Eternity, etc.) and I don’t like those kind of fragrances. This one is almost a garden variety, a vegetable, grassy green scent with a hint of damp molten leaves laying in a rain soaked forest. Very earthy musky and natural. Although its not listed in the notes here, I also get a strong bitter oregano vibe from it.
The projection and longevity is good, I get whiffs of it all day when I wear it. Some colognes I love initially then I get tired of wearing them. This won’t be the case here, this is one that will stay in my collection forever. Because it is so under the radar, I just hope it never get discontinued, as it’s now my signature.
колчак467 – :
I understand how so many compare Eau de Gentiane Blanche with Geoffrey Beene…in the end it’s not in the same category. I find that Geoffrey Beene is far more spicier with a definite woodsy vib. Eau de Blanche has more herbal/green aroma and heavy on gentian. There’s a hint of floral notes just enough to balance this juice which gives it a real attractive masculine vib. I’ve never smelt a Blanche flower…If it’s anything like this fragrance I do definitely appreciate it and I find it worth having. Musk soften the green/ earthly blend.
Longevity and Silage is moderate overall lasting about 4-6hrs…if you spray it 2x I find it that it would last at least 8hrs.
Finally thoughts,
Whoever loves Geoffrey Beene but you want a more earthy/green blend…this juice does it. Hermès takes awhile to release a frag and that’s because Hermès takes care. This juice is UNBELIEVABLY GREEN. Try it several times before you decide to buy it …you will enjoy this fragrance. Rating this frag is definitely worthy of 8/10. If Hermès decides to make a edt I would enjoy wearing it. Kudos to Hermès
kyzai – :
Kinda smells like that ingredient used in shampoo. That peppery fresh smell. I like this.
il77 – :
Gentiane Blanche is the most sophisticated yet understated scent I have come across with.
It smells clean, uniquely chalky, dry and earthy, very refined, also soapy. Could easily be my signature scent, however something more feminine is holding that place already. What I find odd, is that normally my senses do require pause from perfumes, but Gentiane really doesn’t bore the senses.
Crisp, handsome and perfect as it is- I wouldn’t change anything about Gentiane Blanche. Its crisp purity is energizing, and to my great surprise it is very long lasting- couldn’t possibly wish for more during some long or demanding days.
My favourite cologne of all.
kiesas – :
Love this one, but as others have said it has no longevity. I’d still like a fb though not for everyday use. It gives me an image of a cemetery with mossy gravestones and family tombs – interesting but a little eerie. I get the reference to Massachusetts in tkomaigo77’s review, since I’m from there too- might need to pick up some moxie now.
HermitSpb – :
Extremely dry and very unique.like chalk or perhaps clean laundry.
The most short lived fragrance i ever tried.
Gone in 30 minutes.My best advice on this is try it first.
Hence the short review.
Save your $,because even if you wear this nobody will know.
vitjaz – :
This is a very enchanting scent. Imagine walking through an old garden in the rain, with ivy surrounding on the nearby stone walls, and earth and moss on the ground, as a mist is forming. Good longetivity, Lasts about 7-8 hours with 1-2 sprays.
Definatly worth the buy.
Xeroxxvsqi – :
Just ordered a bottle of this based on the good reviews its had. It sounds really mystical and intreiging. I cant wait to try it.
Leonora – :
Very understated and under rated. Musky, green, earthy and hypnotic. Imagine the ambiance of lheure bleue minus the sense of claustrophobia. Feels like I am wrapped in hermes cashmere, strolling through the Bois de Boulogne on a cold day, comforted, protected. Not a fragrance that will ever be an airport best seller, but more for those who prefer something a bit darker and poetic. Classiest thing you can buy for £50 that’s for sure.
mity0306 – :
At first sniff this fragrance gave me visually color grey – foggy, late autumn air, dying grass. Then the fragrance clears up and more deep green notes come to play – wet forest, moss, dirt, grass.
Overall, very real, calm, earthy fragrance. Although, beautifully crafted and I appreciated very much, I find it to be depressing.
timoxa25 – :
It is simply dry, mossy grass. Nothing to get excited about.
enhassarbaf – :
I like this fragrance because it reminds me of high school when I used to smoke camels drink Moxie and chew on Korean Red Ginseng chewing gum. It’s possible only people from the northeastern US will understand that. Moxie is a kind of soda that was produced in 1886 and it tastes about that old too. The secret to its bitter medicinal “acquired taste” is Gentian root extract.
Most people connect Hermes with elegance but this fragrance brings me back to melancholy teenaged autumn days in Massachusetts. I may have to pick up a bottle when the seasons change.
dima7370377 – :
I was generally interested in this one, considering I am an Hermes fan. I think all of their fragrances for both men and woman are unique and beautiful. There is something natural about how an Hermes fragrance smells on a person.
Anyway, this one is hard to find so I stopped by a Hermes boutique to try it on one night as they were closing…and…well I was kinda speechless.
I can’t say I hate it or love it but I was intrigued and confused by this one. Its not fresh, not citrus, not flowery at all. Earthy is the word with maybe some oregano. Like oregano and wet cardboard. While that sounds bad, its not and truly unlike anything I have ever smelled before. At first I was kinda turned off, maybe like I was expecting something different. I first though, “this is something I do not want to smell like”.
Still I kept smelling it on my arm and kept getting something different.
The next morning I could still clearly smell it on me. I am not sure what a person who would happened to walk by me would think of this. I does not smell like a cologne but like an aura.
In short, the verdict is still out on this one. Definitely something for a cologne connoisseur to try on, just for the experience.
JimBeamRu – :
This smells like a cozy cave; moldy and manly, wet and weird. It attracts and repels me simultaneously, but seems to have more pull than push so I keep coming back in for another sniff. Intriguing, to say the least. There is a freshness to it that compliments those brisk and misty spring mornings, and a dark side that reeks of autumnal decay – in a good way. I couldn’t imagine wearing this outside of those two seasons. In a nutshell: creepy and interesting, much like the dank cobweb-infested cellarway of my grandparent’s old house; we used to run down the stairs as kids to see who could stay down there in the dark the longest before freaking out…and it smells eerily similar.
Lis_88 – :
Gentian is a beautiful flower in the high mountains. In nature it has a very rare, albino version too, the white Gentian. Folk belief says that the place where one find a white Gentian there is a treasure under it. I have found this treasure in this unique, fresh, bitter-green cologne. In reality the white (blanche) name refers more to white musk what softens the bitterness of Gentian roots. I think this fragrance will be never a top seller as most like sweet perfumes like “Le Male” or “1 Million”. (…like less prefer the pure, bitter taste of dark chocolate or green tea.)
Longevity: I do not find problem with it as many write here. On on my skin it stays for about 6 hours, on cloth for two days(!) and I can detect it even after several days. So I apply 3 sprays. One on wrist, one on neck and one on my cloth. It stays with me all day long and even next day I can smell it.
Projection: Not many will notice or compliment it. This cologne is private. It gives a good feeling an atmosphere to you. Take care, you can be addicted to this scent! 🙂
It is a Masterpiece!!!
prurirmSweele – :
There are two things going on for me here. One; the damp mossy floral and smokey mix reminds me of being in Bali after a heavy afternoon shower or by a waterfall in a rainforest here in New Zealand. This is very refreshing, calming and unique.
The second; my father had his own business along with a warehouse full of the synthetic fabrics that were for re-use in the medical industry. This cologne reminds me of the fabrics, a strange metallic, musky odour. Not an unpleasant smell, something I always quite liked.
Close to the skin the floral is obvious, the sillage however smells quite sharp, more like my second description.
After a while I find it smells like a building site, where a lot of treated pine is used. I think this puts me off it a bit. Overall I find it a bit strange and synthetic and wondering if such a smell was actually the perfume.
I like it, but I am not over the moon about it. I would probably only wear this on very specific days. Say if it was foggy, misty or rainy.
levinsky rusl – :
i love it- feel wet moss and iris root surrounded by bitter floral note (never smelled gentiane, but must be it)..very unisex- a perfect sultry scent with attitude for me..
grv1983 – :
Smells exactly like Gentiana officinalis roots, that my dad used to collect to put in liquors. The same green, woody earthyness, a bit like liquorice roots but without any sweetness.
If you have ever tasted “Enzian” bitter well, the aroma is very similar…
(I keep trying it in duty frees and similar places, but it is a bit too expensive at the moment for me, pity.)
Update: as it seems to be going out of production I decided to buy one bottle of it…lovely, stays close to the skin and reminds me of my dad and of his stash of dried herbs for liqueurs. A conforting, nostalgic smell
I hope it is not actually being discontinued, it would be sad…
anatol – :
I ordered a sample vial of this cologne a few days ago. It has a interesting scent.This cologne smells so different than any other I tried. It smells sort of like plants or weeds that have a bitter aroma or taste bitter. The aroma also reminds me of a degreaser cleaner