
First i avoided this scent due to its agressive marketig, speculating a gay connotation for commercial reasons, even more campy, vulgar and unrestrained like the Calvin Klein adverts full of provocative sexuality and androginous gender. I'm not much into the idea of a sailor or an old fashioned bathing suit as a sexual fetish, especially not when it comes to scents.
Besides, the association with a sailor or a bathing suit made me believe i had to expect an aquatic fragrance, light and refreshing, exahling a watery, ozonic, unpredictable sensuality( changing like the waves and tides of the sea). I couldn't have been more wrong, as this one is so extremely macho and dry,up to the point that it reeks. However there is one thing reminding of the sea, i always had the sensation of being on a ship full of spices, exotic fruits, strange essences, raw materials, all genuine, bot most of them in a very brute, bare staste, that is before the refinement and experience of a skilled hand turs them into exquisite perfumes, meals or objects, even slightly daying, towards a hint of moist wood.
One the down side, this perfume is heavy with vile, synthetic smelling notes, alfway between cheap sandalwood incense sticks frankincense( which make the air in very stuffy and suffocating curch intoxicating) and the swaety tones of many hyper-cheap sythteic sweet surrogates trying to smell like tobacco( just check out Cuba, Cigar etc. and you'll find out)- oddly even this disturbing part seems to be harmonious, as cheap incense and cheap, sweat tobacco imitation are fit for each other.
However as i waited i discovered its good half too, inspite of the initial deterrance, i also identified very equisite, yet quite onedimensional notes of spice, it felt like all of the loads of exotic merchandise were transferred to a very high-end kitchen belonging to a wealthy old-school residence. Raw, powerful notes with an almost edible feel- vanilla, cocoa, even a hint of cappucino, coffee or other hot drink spiced with cinnamon, generic wintery essences used to enhance punch, caramel and toffee. All of these in a very puristic and surprisingly masculine interpretation, the sweetness being counterbalanced by a pungent, dark bitter note of berries, wood and pepper, slightly resembling the overtly Oriental Opium PH launched in the same year. It still got better towrds the end, the notes of Tonka and Amber giving adding to it partly a hint of old cognac like Escada for men, partly an ambery, leathery, very carnal, very smoky-powdery, almost tobacco like gothic ending, reminding me of powerful, excessively, addictively masculine creations like Tabac, Old Spice, Aramis Azzaro,Caractere, Drakkar, Heritage and Rocabar. I defintaely have to try it out again and judge it more carefully, it is not a confortable, nor a predictable scent for me and further analysis might keep lots of pleasant and unsavoury surprises waiting, changing my rating towards significantly higher or lowers values.