Reviews of Anice (2004)
by Etro

A clever scent that manages to carry you on a relatively straight line across a range of anise scents. So you get a bit longevity of the anise theme through a clever use of ingredients. The opening is, unsurprisingly, reminiscent of ouzo or sambuca (what do you expect when anise smells are being carried by a lot of alcohol?).

The problem is that it's not clear who would want to smell like this.

Unlike the Yohji Yamomoto smell where licorice is used to bring together other scents, this is just licorice.

Pretty much what it says on the bottle. The opening is anise and salty black licorice, which cycle slowly toward a more herbaceous, bittersweet, yet still recognizably anisic accord in the heart. From there it’s pretty linear and uncomplicated, if not terribly potent or long-lasting.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this stuff. I think it does a better job than either Caron’s Eau de Réglisse or Hermès’s Brin de Réglisse, but I don’t find it all that wearable. In the end, it’s not merely a gourmand – it’s a food flavor. More of a curiosity than a perfume, if you ask me.

An explosion of anise opens the fragrance and I’m immediately tempted to wash it off – too much like ouzo. But the excesses of the opening immediately dissipate into a rather straightforward but now nonthreatening anise note. And that’s the whole story. This is not a very complex scent: It is simply…anise. It’s a gourmand that smells like licorice. It moves very quickly from the opening explosion to a discreet skin scent, spending very little time as a sillage producer. Etro’s Anice is an ok scent. Personally, I neither like nor dislike the smell of anise or licorice, and that’s pretty much my feeling about this scent. I must say, though, that I don’t get the usual Etro synthetic sub-vibrations from this one.

Opens with a blast of "whoah, I drenched myself with ouzo (or sambuca, if you like)!" Then it's a soft, subdued refreshing/powdery/sweetish anise cologne.

The inital sambuca blast is welcoming for anise lovers. Unfortunately this fragrance is fleeting and fades quickly.