Spice bomb (Viktor and Rolf) - new perfume review

SEVER ♥ Spices

One of the best masculine introductions of this spring, even if the term masculine is not really appropriate, Spice Bomb, the last opus of the dutch designers duo Viktor & Rolf is a pure delight of colonial spices set in an oriental woody creamy context. Two decades after Egoïste (Chanel), one of the inspirations behind Féminité du Bois (Serge Lutens), we are back again inside the coveted caravan of spices who once made the fortune of Venice and started the modern world. Columbus sought not only an El Dorado but also El Picante. Cinnamon, pimento, ginger, saffron are at the heart of the new perfume who keeps an honorable distance to the sandalwood spicy overdose of Egoïste (Chanel, at its turn inspired by Bois des Iles). Spice Bomb is an original modern work with a strong personality. The "pain d'épice" trend which was floating around for several months, has now its best interpretation set in a vetiver-bitter grapefruit context. Spice bomb is honeyed, milky lactonic, very sweet and highly addictive, and of course with a cinnamon-pimento confiture effect. It is also a concentrated version of the modern masculine oriental vibe - the highly "sugary" content floating in the air since the worldwide success of One Million (Paco Rabanne). Not shy, but sensual, with green fig and coconut falling from the cedar tree with a sandalwood heart and vetiver roots, Spicebomb reflects the long sought after mythology of spices. Modern by the use of trendy molecules, Spicebomb is also very ancestral - its dominant heart notes could have been proposed 500 years ago. No surprise if you will find common aspects with perfumes from Tom Ford or Hermès, the spices are the same since the day a man thought to reach India the other way around. 

I'm reading a collection of books on spices and the human endless quest for rare notes and special ingredients who shaped the history of humanity leaving behind many less known stories, all of them full of inspiration for the perfumers because they are filled with olfactory references and plants that are no more used on an industrial scale. With a sharp green note sitting near the soft woody ambery sweetness, this perfume has a Narguille effect, the Arabian way to enjoy the tobacco smoke via a Hermessence, but the comparison stops there. The accord was not invented by any perfumer, it belongs to cultural heritage, like the mixture of 4 or 5 spices you can buy in any shop or like the spicy heart of Eau d'Hermès who is not really the invention of Roudnitska, but existed before in an Italian perfume, 300 years earlier.
Highly addictive like DiorAddict or Tobacco Vanille (Tom Ford) and opposing to the bling bling sweetness of One Million a bitter freshness, Spicebomb (Viktor&Rolf) has everything to catch the nose and surprise the senses with a pure colonial delight. 

After all, people use the term cologne or Eau de Cologne not because they would pay respect to the original perfume from the German city Köln, but because of their colonial nostalgia, the empires who made the fortunes of the western world and where the perfume manufacturers sold inexpensive compositions "Eau de Cologne Farina" type, their major export article and the first global scent. No surprise French adore this perfume today, it's their former glory inside.
A true colonial spice, SpiceBomb is a bomb of sensual delight from dutch duo Viktor & Rolf. 
La Spezia, par excellence, if you'd ever loved Old Spice and that blue turquoise body-spray from Denim.

           

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art