In American Professional Football, ever since the advent of instant replay to assist referees to make the right call, when the ref returns to the field he begins by saying “Upon further review….” and then renders his decision. As a perfume reviewer who is inundated by samples of new fragrances I always worry that I might inadvertently make a bad call on a fragrance because I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to experience it fully.
This theory came to mind because of my experience at the recent Sniffapalooza Fall Ball. Back in July I had received my samples of both of the new Clive Christian fragrances, C for Men and C for Women. For whatever reason I just didn’t find them compelling and after waiting for 10 years for a new fragrance from Clive Christian I darn well wanted compelling. So I didn’t think to write about either fragrance and I thought that was that. Then on a Saturday morning at the Bergdorf-Goodman breakfast at the 2010 Fall Ball, Victoria Christian stepped to the front of the room to present both of these new fragrances. With her white gloved assistants spritzing the fragrances into the air and using antique wooden fans to waft them throughout the room I closed my eyes and waited for the scent to hit my nose. Like my metaphorical ref I thought I knew what I would encounter when I had my olfactive “instant replay”. As C for Men met my synapses I realized I might have missed something special as a mix of leather and woods wrapped around saffron sent me a classic masculine oriental that did all of a sudden feel compelling. After breakfast was over I went up and found the tester and sprayed some on my skin and it was even better there. I would return to that arm to sniff again and again wondering what I could’ve been thinking the first time around.
Once I got under the hood and experienced C for Men this second time around the saffron and cardamom really popped on my skin and in particular the saffron added an exotic flair to the early stages. The heart is all leather joined by tobacco to give the feeling of sitting in a fine leather chair in a tobacconist’s shop. The spices from the top are still lingering on the edges and they add some piquant contrast to the richness of the leather and tobacco. The base is rich creamy sandalwood cut with a warm deep iris. The quality of all of the ingredients is obvious as they all just linger and develop throughout the entire time C for Men is on my skin.
C for Men has outstanding longevity and above average sillage.
Just like those referees I am using as examples I am not perfect and thankfully circumstances allowed for me to give C for Men a second chance. Upon further review…….wonderful!
Disclosure: This review was based on samples from Bergdorf-Goodman New York and samples received from Clive Christian.
-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor