Nouveau Monde

Assam aged oud, turns soft almost edible, but the leather gives it an elegant dimension, wonderful and well crafted, the oud is juice and not dry or pungent,.

This opens up with a powdery cacao accord. You get the smell of pure unrefined cacao. It settles down and becomes slightly animalic on account of the oud. In the drydown, you get some leather and some hints of saffron. Overall, you have a spicy balsamic fragrance with some light gourmand notes. This is one of the few Louis Vuitton fragrances that stand out. Jacques Cavallier outdid himself with this creation. This one would be a perfect fit in the oriental collection. Projection, sillage, and longevity all 10. More appropriate at night times and for a mature audience.

Musky leather with a smokey oud/amber background. Saffron and rose are subtle, and the scent is smooth and refined in the characteristic designer fashion. Very elegant, sultry and mature, but also work safe and unisex. I love this spicy wood genre, but am not too keen on a FB as the leather is quite dominating to me. It feels like sitting in a vintage luxury car, or maybe LV is trying to hypnotize people into buying their bags. If you enjoy leather though this is a good suede note, subdued and not tannery-like.

Weird and astonishingly ordinary, one of those "I've had smelled this one before" kind of fragrance. it's linear, boring and very accessible at any corner of a shopping center. It was to evoque that vibe of "premium", "luxurious" and expensive… just like the iphone… which, doesn't matter where you go, there will always be at least 3 other folks from other walks of life who have the very same smartphone as you do. Millennials seem that they didin't get that something is valuable when it is exclusive, personal and unique. There's no distinction when the goal is to blend in. They apparently can only accept value through validation. No wonder everybody wears the same clothing, uses the same devices, drinks the same seltzers and smells the same mix of oud, vanilla, ambroxam and leatherwood LMR. Their fragrances may have different names and different (said) formulations, but they all share the same Dior Sauvage DNA. Not all fragrances are that loud, invasive and obnoxious, but all have in varying levels that rancid synthetic gourmand/ wood-like scent that triggers headaches, boredom and severe erectile dysfunction. Who dare to be different? who dare to take risks? This attitude may not receive as many "likes" as those validated by your peers and you'll not be on track to the "trending" lists, but you will find true satisfaction being yourself away from the colective cognitive dissonance.

This Mancera Saharian Wind in fancy bottle.