Eternal Return (2007)
by CB I Hate Perfume

I absolutely love the smell of the ocean. I have tried a number of scents that are supposed to smell like the sea: Aqua di Sale, Erolfa, Aqua Bulgari, Sea Wood, Salt Air, etc.

This one comes the closest. The absolute is a bit potent and although I'm not compelled to actually wear it (it seriously smells like the ocean too much to wear) I imagine the water perfume to be great for spraying on clothes.

8/10

A philosophical premise about the infinite recurrence of matter, a religious belief that links the present to the mythical past, and the title of Delannoy’s haunting 1943 film, “Eternal Return” brings a heavy name to a light fragrance. Easy,-to-wear, close-to-the skin, short-lived, soft and aquatic, Eternal Return represents a more gentle recurrence of CB I Hate Perfume’s The Beach 1966.

There are some decent notes that immediately get overwhelmed quickly by a "dish soap" smell. Didn't care for this one at all.

Christopher Brosius, the designer defines eternal return as "the scent of sailing toward the shore. It is a blend of Fresh Ocean Air, Wooden Ship and a faint hint of Cypress Trees growing on the cliff above the water..."
To me it smells like skin of a man who spent all day in the sea or on the sand. He may have worn a sweet woody scent in the morning and may have smoked a few cigarettes but it is so far away now. This fragrance is really impressive because i think the main note is not sea but sea and sun kissed skin of a man.
Can i be mistaken? No, my brother exactly smelled like that with some tobacco cologne in the morning and after a long day at the beach. It is very natural attractive and wearable. (Wearable is an important point of interest when we are talking about cb i hate perfume fragrances.)
One thing disappointing is that the magic which happens on my skin is not so clear on my husbands. I am planning to buy one for my brother and hope it would work for him.

I have to be honest. As soon as I saw the name of this fragrance I knew I had to try it. Not because of it's description, not because of the nose behind the fragrance, but because of my interest in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The Eternal Return is an important aspect of Nietzsche's thought and I wondered whether CB I Hate Perfume's Eternal Return would be an important step in the evolution of Christopher Brosius' company. Sadly I have to say no. It is not that Eternal Return is a bad fragrance; its not. It's a pleasant, light woody scent with aquatic overtones all of which have been recreated very well. Its just that this does not make a good perfume. There is no development in this fragrance, the character remains the same throughout its duration (7-8 hours) and as such it gets boring very quickly. If this were a room fragrance I'd give it a tentative thumbs up, but given that this was intended as a perfume the best I can give it is a neutral rating.