eo01
by Biehl Parfumkunstwerke

EO 01 is an amazing spicy oriental fragrance. Quite complex and elegant but easy to wear and discreet. Don't let the word "discreet" mislead you, as with the proper amount of EO 01 spryed on ypur body you can fill a room, but you fill it with a gentle and soave (almost candid) sweet allure generated by a strong sandalwood base together with vanilla, nutmeg, tonka beans, amber, patchouli, cinnamon and other sweet-spicy juxtapositions.

The secret behind EO 01's unique character is the mastery with which Mr Oelkers perfectly balanced all this elements to create an incredible harmony between them. A comfortable, almost familiar smell, but a really good one. EO 01 can be considered as a great example of a classic fragrance revised with a (very) modern twist.

While I think EO 01 is more on the feminine side, I guess it could do pretty well also on the right man.

16th April, 2011.

eo01 is a soft, lovely comfort scent that smells a lot like nutmeg and rice pudding. It is very pretty while it lasts, which isn't long.

Update: Many months later I've revisited this and appreciate the delicate beauty of the fragrance. I did before think it smelled like a pretty standard, but nice, vanilla comfort fragrance. That is before I began to realize that most pretty vanilla fragrances mostly smell like very nice candles or cake batter, even the well done Organza Indecence. eo01 actually has many more nuances to it, and to my nose, maintains a nice dry powdery aspect that keeps it from being too cloying or foody. After falling hard these last few months for fragrances like AT L'Air du Desert Marocain and Mauboussin, even PdN Sacrebleue (without the florals), I can see that I totally underestimated eo01. It even reminds me very subltly of the discontinued L'Artisan Orchide Blanche, but not so rich or sweet, as eo01 has a bit of that very sophisticated and lovely "vanilla orchid" powderiness of OB, without the cold and heavy "cream". Lovers of OB should sample eo01 as it may satisfy that lovely sophisticated vanilla scent. I highly recommend this to vanilla lovers (even those like me who are generally bored by vanillas) who want something with a bit of subtle complexity, but something that wears more like gossamer than thick wool or cake batter.

I would have given this 5 stars, but for lasting power, so I just give 4 stars.

13rd May, 2009. (Last Edited: 14th October, 2009.)

Smells like any ol' sweet and floral womens perfume to me. A little resinous and slightly powdery. The styrax note is prominent. Meh.

17th January, 2009.

E0 01 is a very pretty perfume from the biehl parfumkunstwerke line that starts off quite sweet, much sweeter than the notes below would suggest. After a couple of minutes a warm spicy cardamom note starts to develop and I am slightly reminded of Aftelier’s Tango. From there, a pretty symphonic floral fragrance emerges along with unexpected but very charming hints of chocolate. The cocoa note is delicate but hangs around and that is the scent which keeps wafting towards my nose as EO 01 settles in for the long haul. The middle/base of EO 01 has a marked hint of powdery luxuriousness that I associate with aldehydes, a good example of which is Le Labo’s Aldehyde 44, and a bad example is Etat Libre d’Orange’s Rien. EO01’s final phase is comprised of warm, slightly spicy woods that are so well blended that it is hard to isolate a particular note.

In short, EO 01 is an elegant, gracious fragrance and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre of perfumery (which I do!). Well done, Egon Oelkers!

Here are the notes, courtesy of The Perfumed Court: Top: tangerine, blood orange, cardamom, muscat, apricot, cocoa, Middle: rosewood, pimento, iris, orchid, lily of the valley, Base: styrax, vanilla, cinnamon, tonka beans, cedarwood, vetiver, patchouli.

19th August, 2008.

eo01 starts off reminding me of a Lutens Bois fragrance; not any particular Lutens but just the general woody profile of these Lutens scents. There is a note that strikes me as waxy, like candle wax, that lasts maybe 10-20 minutes. At this point as the top notes give way to the heart, the woodiness is complimented by amber, which sweetens the fragrance and a touch of powder (iris and tonka?) that softens it nicely. The drydown, which to me is the best feature of this perfume, retains the woody notes of the top and heart with something animalic underneath that adds a degree of complexity. These animalic notes get more pronounced as the woods disappear, leaving behind a skin scent not unlike Escentual's Molecule 02.

This is a nice fragrance that is more on the masculine side of unisex. It lasts about 6 hours and while the opening notes do project fairly well after the first 20 minutes eo01 stays pretty close to the skin through out the rest of its development. Because it does stay close to the skin it wears well in warmer weather, but I think it smells more like a fall scent.

6th August, 2008.