Cerruti Image (1998)
by Cerruti

Got recently reacquainted with Cerutti IMAGE, a safe office scent for me in the late 1990s. I still love the mildly fruity but fresh minty opening but I don't care much for the sillage-shy middle which I find skirts a little too closely to 'boring' territory. I do however agree with earlier reviewers on the lightly sweet yet musky woods drydown; it's definitely sniff-worthy but just doesn't project well enough for me so I'd probably go heavier with the initial application. The best part of Image has to be its leveraged spray mechanism - a revolutionary cousin to the IPOD's clickwheel.

I just received it today and I put a bit on my wrist (I was wearing another parfume already) and I can smell something sweet (I don't like sweet) and fruity, not what I expected.
I will wear it tomorrow and I come back with a more detailed review...

Apple and mint opening. The drydown is the best part. Sweet and spicy and never gives up but only from far away Very odd. You need a lot of it to fully enjoy it.

This was my signature scent in my late teens.

Here in Belgium Daniel Hechter XXL is a very popular mass-market scent among teenagers (also by Ursula Wandel if I'm not mistaken), and by the time I was sixteen I felt the need to find myself a signature designer scent, get the hell out of the Axe/Brut/XXL crowd.

Image is a nice scent that got me tons of compliments, it's not offending (well unless you count the wearer), and it seemed to have a personality on it's own compared to the popular brands targeting the younger crowd (Aqua di Gio, Cool Water, anything by Calvin Klein or Hugo Boss et cetera).

I'm about to retire my last bottle, and I've grown so tired of it wearing it has because a bit of a chore.
It is a really complex fragrance, with a fruity fresh opening that evolves into a sweet aromatic base, and maybe it's because I recently read the complete note pyramid that I could put my finger on what is wrong with this fragrance.

Though it has a myriad of sweet notes that can be considered cloying, the only real problem with the composition is the pear-mint accord.

Pear is in my opinion a risqué note in any fragrance, but when that note appears in it's synthetic form paired with an equally synthetic mint, you can turn what could easily be a thumbs up into a neutral.

I agree on the spring association though, because quite frankly, the only way to make this frangrance work as intended would be in the (very specific) case of a medium warm day with fresh wind.

Spring is the first thing that comes to mind when I spritz Image out of it's whistle. Everything good that you associate with Spring. And it is not like every other scent from it's time, go into it with an open mind and you will see for yourself. Very clean, very sweet, very light, and with a surprisingly noticeable root beer note in the heart. Perfect for casual use and for someone who doesn't have to use a cologne to make them stand out. Use it generously, it wont offend,

Image is a very nice clean out of the shower type scent! It is crisp & beautiful for spring /summer days right after a shower! However the longevivty is poor! last about 3-4 hours. This would b perfect if it last @ least 8 hours! & yes spray on alot! U wont overdue it!