Reviews of Bandit (1944)
by Robert Piguet

I tested the edp with high expectations, only to crash and burn! This one lost it's punch on me after the first 5 minutes. It rapidly weakened into a sharp, non-descript eau de cologne...I did'nt hate it, but I didn't enjoy it either.

I was initially going to put a thumbs down but I decided I'm going to keep trying this to see if I ever get the attraction. All I get unfortunately is a horrible gag reaction. To me it is over-the-top green with a touch of stale, used tobacco. So Sad! I wanted to love this more than anything but it hasn't happened so far. Others I've let smell it didn't get the same reaction so I guess I'll keep at it. The next time I put it on could move me to tears of joy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I am so deaply jealous of the other reviewers. I hoped for leather, complexity, incense - and got white pepper instead. Heady, sweet and vaguely floral white pepper. Tons of it. I even sniffed white pepper out of my cupbord and sniffed my wrist again - nearly identical. Oh well.

I am once again struck by how changeable any frangrance can be. Dry? Non-floral? Not on me. The green notes are persistently sticky, the florals don't blend at all and the leather notes vanish leaving only ash. Even after several hours I am left with an impression of a decaying bouquet of pungent white flowers in a vase of greenish water next to an ashtray.

Knowing what I like in a fragrance, I had thought Bandit promising, what a disappointment! Blame it on chemistry, I guess, clearly it works splendidly for some.

If Bandit just doesn't work for you, you might sample Jean Louis Scherrer - I found it gave me what I thought I might find in Bandit. The leather stays high and tight throughout with a silvery green edge lurking below the surface. The green notes fade, of course, leaving a beautiful array of florals that emerge and recede over time. For me the carnation persists the longest, just over the leather and very close to the skin.