Deodorants and more precisely AXE range! Everybody wears them but we do not think that even behind so inexpensive products there is a perfumer that unconsciously will shape what we smell in our daily routine.
Axe temptation - a light oriental woody perfume built with cocoa-chocolate notes, sensual but not very sweet on a rather smoky base that reminds me Black Bulgari. The cocoa is very particular because almost the same can be found in feminine shower gels that bear the word cocoa or exotic. The sweet drydown has elements from Givenchy Play Intense and Armani Code.
Axe Vice - an aromatic fougère with a strong contrast between the green-fruity-pineapple top and the dry mossy-metallic base note with a soft lavender and some aldehydes, marine + roses in between. It has that particular testosterone note based on evernyl and made popular with Hugo (Hugo Boss) and later found in some very elegant colognes. With time, the drydown becomes very sensual, woody and almost feminine and a similar note is in Burberry Beat Man.
Axe Click - a green fruity fougère based on a pear ester combined with aromatic elements (and a very green grass top), some rose-metallic violet, a dry jasmine (jasmonal) note and reminding me the very special perfume Higher Dior.
Axe Musk - this is a very classic (old) sweet fougère note, popular decades ago, with aromatic notes à la Azzaro pour homme, geranium, powdery musks and very sweet vanilla elements (like in Mousse de Saxe base). Its ancestor is Canoe.
Axe Hot Fever was in its early life a chypre fruity spicy feminine perfume (the MDCI type) with a soft peach and a velvety ambery note. The very hot spices unveil a delicate suede-rose note.
Axe Essence is a leather note like a beast, a fur note that 50 years ago might have been a sensual feminine creation. It's very dirty, with all those notes around civet, horses and musk but this effect is less obvious on blotter. On the skin is like a stallion that was scented with Narciso Rodriguez for men or Calvin Klein for Men.
Axe anti hangover is a burst of aldehydes in a citrus green grapefruit cocktail over a very soft woody and floral (lily of the valley, green jasmine) drydown plus a ginger note.
Smelling those deodorants on blotter and not on T-shirts is a very useful exercise to understand what is The Male today. In many cases it is a former female shape, without bra, and with aromatic herbs on top plus a lot of aldehydes.
I did not finish with the Axe range but from these I think that the best are: Axe Vice, Axe Essence, Axe Hot fever.
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7 commentaires:
Ça tombe bien, ce post, Octavian, je suis personnellement très fan de Axe dark temptation, il paraît qu'il existe en parfum, est-il réussi? Sinon, à part Bulgari Black(que je trouve génial), quel autre parfum s'en approcherait s'il-vous-plaît?
Muguette
Je connais pas le parfum. en note de fond boisé, sucré il y a aussi le Play Intense Givenchy, Dior Homme Intense, La Nuit de l'Homme, Arpège pour Homme. Mais ce n'est que le sillage qui a des similarités, ce qui veut dire qu'on peut les associer pour renforcer la note du parfum dans le cas où l'on n'utilise pas un produit corps de la même ligne.
Assuredly there is some intense labouring behind drugstore brands and I don't know why people would believe otherwise. That said, lots of males overdose on the Axe in the expectations of "use more, get more" (their advertising campaign is ingenious, I had devoted some posts on them while critiquing the visual aspects of fragrance promotion) with the dire result of stinking up an elevator like there's no tomorrow.
The most interesting facet however is the one you point out: there are lots of sub-ideas from other fragrances/concepts in the Axe body sprays, which tells me that they are utilizing the new materials and the new ideas; and if something is trickling down to that level it means that it is a very strong tendency and a very successful (commercially, foremost) idea. Don't you agree?
They use modern ideas and very modern ingredients because Axe must sell and people buy because they like the scent. Unlike the fragrance brands, people do not buy because of dreams/bottle/message (or less).
I think that when a perfume is not "copied" (trickle down) anymore that's a bad sign.
You do not see anymore products inspired by Trésor, the peach creamy sensual rose was "replaced" by all Coco Mademoiselle like. :)
About AXE, what is surprising about their "formula" is that it's more based on middle and top notes. That's why you have the feeling that it smells HUGE. But on the blotter, it's easy to notice that they have poor tenacity and small concentration
Hello, Octavian. Thanks for these reviews of the Axes fragrances, I'm amused and fascinated by the gender-bending implications what you describe - this "former female shape, without bra." In fact, so fascinated that I may have to go down to the local drugstore and sniff these.
But try them on a blotter!!!
You'll see what's under the "testosterone T-shirt". The top notes might seem very masculine but after the Tiger left, there is a very delicate cat :)
It would be interesting to mix the blotters with some masculine fragrances and test your friends.
octavian, i just sniffed the nozzles and solid deodorants of several of these, and wound up buying fever based solely on your review! just sprayed it on paper, and must say i like it.
may have to go back and get essence based on your comments (sounds like something i would like a lot) - though now i can't recall if they had it. vice struck me as a very standard "guy" smell, the overuse of which would make me gag, and something i seem to smell everywhere in town.
i totally got the bulgari black nod in dark temptation (as they call it here).
thanks for pausing to take a look at these. it's fun to "slum" sometimes. even though it's not really slumming. - cheers, minette
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