Acier Aluminium (1973)
by Creed

Acier Aluminium is an interesting fragrance, and I wish I had ordered more than a 1 millilitre decant.

I often find it easy to write what notes I can smell in a fragrance, but with Acier Aluminium I can’t put my finger on specific notes. Rather than writing what I can smell, I only feel able to jot down my impressions, which feel like a representation (or resemblance) rather than any sort of clear guide.

Acier Aluminium opens with a metallic note that lasts for about thirty seconds on my skin. As this note fades out it is replaced by a sharp, intense aromatic accord, which reminds me of the opening accord in Caron’s Third Man less the lavender. This accord lasts for a few minutes and then begins to break down into three notes: bay, cinnamon, and olibanum. The bay and cinnamon remind me of the opening of Tauer’s Une Rose Chypree, and the olibanum is similar to the ball of resin in Montale’s Louban.

Just as I am wondering if this is really what I am smelling, a fruit note swells up and swallows these three notes. The cinnamon gives the fruit some warmth, and the olibanum gives the fruit a sharper focused base. After a few more minutes of fruit a peppery carnation note arrives, which along with the remains of the bay, keeps the fruit interesting. This combination lasts for about two hours on my skin, and is really nice to sniff.

The dry down begins with something like amber and vanilla, which draw the fruit toward a deeper and darker pitch. An animalic note stops the sweetness from becoming too sweet, and the olibanum settles as a resinous note at the very bottom of the base.

Acier Aluminium is all over within six hours on my skin, but oh what an interesting journey it is.

What some have identified as "metallic" in this scent's top notes seems to me a piercingly tart, even acidic note with a distinct "chemical" edge. There is also a sweet, fruity leather accord in the opening, and this sticks around after the sharp note’s quick fade. The heart is fruit, musk, quiet leather, and spices – ever so slightly reminiscent of Serge Lutens’s Daim Blond, but with more sweet spice and a somewhat animalic background. I have no idea what the actual notes are, but I get plenty of amber nutmeg and at least a trace of cinnamon.

The Creed millésime house accord emerges and moves toward the foreground as the scent evolves, but its character is greatly altered in the absence of the fresh green or marine notes that so often accompany it in other Creed scents like Green Irish Tweed, Silver Mountain Water, or Millésime Imperial. Acier Aluminium is much darker and “dirtier” than any of these other Creeds and hence, to my nose, more interesting.

Acier Aluminium's sweet amber eventually replaces the soft leather in the drydown, which this scent enters very quickly. That’s “quickly” as in 30 minutes. The drydown is the most conventional part of the development, and it is very pleasant. Happily, the base is enlivened by some of the spice notes that re-emerge in an olfactory game of hide-and-seek.

Acier Aluminium is ultimately distinguished enough to merit attention, but still safe enough to wear in almost any situation. It's originality is a tremendous advantage over most of the other Creeds I’ve tried. in. While some have commented that it's a winter scent, I find that it takes on a more challenging and gratifying animal aspect with a little heat and exertion. In the final analysis, it stands for me with Erolfa as one of the better modern Creed scents.

I do notice the metallic note in Acier Aluminium, and I actually quite like it. I get a tropical fruit vibe from this, with a slightly smoky sweet, incense-y dry down.

First I thought it was too early to write my review for Acier Aluminium, this is my first time trying it. I should give it a few chances, right? Wrong! I don't think I will ever want to smell it again. Too powerful, too powdery, like a kind of smell you get when you're on a overcrowded public bus, the air is stuffy, everybody is sweating and the person closest to you is reeking the smell of cheap-perfumed body talcum, yuck! Sickly sweet and cloying smell lingers in my nose forever after I washed it off. And I don't surprise to learned that many people associate AA with clean toilet smell. Oh, another thing came to my mind was the towelette you get after finished a meal in the Chinese restaurant, heavily perfumed, enough to mask the food odor.

Acier is certainly an interesting scent of whose likes I have not smelled before nor will likely smell again. It opens with a subdued blast of civet, citrus, and creamy florals such as lavender. After the rather unbearable opening, Acier dries down to a sweet musk and vanilla base. Certainly by no means a bad choice, but you could do better.

A girlie scent that's quite manly.

Say what?

This one opens up with amber and vanilla notes that are quite sweet--but then the musk and civet come forth like gangbusters.

( Is it real civet? Not unless Oliver's bribed the ASPCA--but let's let Creed's ' I'm so natural' hype slide and get back to the scent )

The male and female notes do a tango back and forth all the way to drydown.

What is this anyway? Jaipur crossed with MKK ??

Weird? Yes.
Decadent? Affirmative.
Sophisticated? Roger that.

Bottom line is that this is an evening scent for when you're too lazy to be dashing and bold, and so you leave Antaeus on the shelf, while you recline on the couch like a patrician Roman as nubile harem girls feed you grapes.
Not bad, huh?