Navegar (1998)
by L'Artisan Parfumeur

Wait... what?!

In the end, I'm left with a vague peppery feeling, not so much a smell as the prickly feeling that warns you that the grass you're lying on has recently been sprayed with insecticide.

19th January, 2012.

As much as I love pepper, I couldn't really see into this one. There's no doubt that the pepper is the star player here, with the woodsy notes behind it. The pepper in this was more of pepper oil, very concentrated, which didn't play out well for me. Right off the bat it reminded me of Oscar for Men, by Oscar de la Renta.

Does it smell good? Sure does, I love the smell of pepper though. But like Oscar for Men, I find this one virtually unwearable. Check this one out, and you will understand what I mean.

--

Keeping my old review up for reference.

I have decided to revisit Navegar. If I were a more biased reviewer, this would get a thumbs down for me, just for personal reasons. I really don't get many of the notes listed.. but here's what I do get. Basically this is Polo Modern Reserve in a niche. It's green, spicy, and a deep patchouli in the background.. although not listed in notes.

Not my type of fragrance at all, but it does not smell bad.

12nd May, 2011. (Last Edited: 7th November, 2011.)

It sets off peppery: red, black, and green. The green pepper is most prominent and strikes me as ivy (smell: Diptyque's Eau de Lierre), despite not appearing in the notes. Navegar quickly mellows into a vegetal aquatic – fresh, not salt, water – with a knob of ginger and a smidgen of lime en passant. The captivating stuff occurs within the first five minutes; after a few twirls of the salad spinner it evaporates. What persists is the impression of melon layered over cedar.

30th January, 2011.

I guess my mind just refuses to believe that there could be something so fleeting and close to non-existence, so I get back to Navegar again and again, thinking:
"There should be something there! I'm just fatally missing something. What's worse, I'm probably never going to see it, I know."
And in the moments when I actually manage to smell it, all I get is a lonely leaf from a lemon tree hanging somehow unbalanced in thin air, ready to fall and vanish in the next moment. It's like a construction made of a couple of tiny elements that don't fit, so the whole thing is really unstable and without any base.
I share the "green, grassy" impression half of the reviewers had. Lemongrass comes to mind, although rubbing yourself with a fresh lemongrass leaf would give ten times stronger projection. These are high quality traces of lemon cologne with a modern touch, ginger added, and that's all.
And when I shove my nose as close as possible, I smell additional cedar just a bit darker than that citrusy surface, more like complementing it in the same key, doing almost nothing to improve the weakness. Incense? Not if you know other L'Artisan frags that contain incense. Here there's just some kind of weak tea infusion with some spices boiled to death in there. In fact, it's all about traces of somethings, traces of this and that. Here transparency, so often discussed as a new direction in perfumery, is set to the level where you don't see the picture anymore. You just see some pale green-yellow, almost merged with the air. Why that name? Why the blue label?

12nd January, 2011.

This has a nice but fleeting citrus opening. Although galbanum is not listed, I’m sure I catch whiffs of it – there is a lovely green note here. Essentially this is an attractive woody spice scent. It is not sweet and not too dry. The spices are well blended and hard to pick out, though with time the ginger does become distinct. There is nothing especially innovative here, or unique. It is a lovely gentle scent.

15th June, 2010.

I get lime, melon, pepper, and a cedar base. Did I say typical? Well, for a light, breezy citrus scent, I can't fault it for being extremely pleasant and easy-going. There is so much more out there that is worth more attention than Navegar.

5th May, 2010.