Porsche Design Essence by Porsche, 2008

When I first tried this, I thought it was one of the worst pieces of shit I'd ever smelled. I gave it another chance, though, and it turns out to be not so terrible. First off, it's mostly synthetic - no pine or coniferous woody notes anywhere to be smelled here. It's a super generic, boring woody spicy fragrance, like a million others. It's poorly composed, with a million sharp, loud smells flying all around in a pointless maelstrom of harshness. What saves this from the trash heap is the drydown, which I kind of like. I smell patchouli and incense blended with myrtle, which gives an austere, almost sour smell to the drydown. I actually like the smell, because it's aromatic and warm, and serves as a welcome contrast to the brutal severity of the top and heart stages of the scent. It's not a terrible fragrance, but I can't help but think of Porsche Essence as a confused mess, and boredom in a bottle. MY RATING: 5.5/10

How I like the concept of this fragrance, and the bottle itself, kinda of "radioactive refrigerator" as said a couple of reviews bellow ":¬). But damn notes which feels like some flowers left on the water, feeling that I catch just after put it on skin. I think empathyboy may has written right to the point: "I find that it is best used sparingly as it can become a bit sickly due to a dance (which can feel a bit like a battle) between it's sweet and peppery structure. It also smells a lot better on clothes or 'in the air' as another user has commented." It just had been proven to me today. I didn't have the chance to test in more days, but so far my fiancé didn't complain. It's me who is not patiente enough to fully enjoy this scent in the way I'd like to enjoy, having others with more constancy, specially during the top notes to drydown transition. Maybe with a substitute top note, the history could has a better ending.

Grey  coniferous-aquatic in the same vein of the more shadowy Bvlgari Aqua (which is far better and more natural in perception) with the lightness and the modernity of the synthetic seaweeds and the arctic  ozonics, in this case soared higher and longer by a sort of frozen aromatic-minty wake full of balsamic resins, juniper, coriander, herbs and incense. The smell is a sort of frozen woodsy incense very light, translucent and  modern thankfully poor of floral notes and fruits too often letal if badly combined in the ozonic concoctions. The smell is very masculine because of a clever insertion of pepper, vetiver and patchouli . A cologne in order to feel cool and aromatic in a modern way not so infamous as earlier painted by many. 

Not bad, it grows on you. Sophisticated and slightly understated. Could be an up-to-date Xeryus, maybe. Beautiful packaging as well. Re: the automobile fragrance remark of another reviewer - Porsche Design is nothing to do with cars to my knowledge - it's a design house.

I got a 1 oz travel size of this for a low price, and it's decent stuff. I didn't have very high expectations. It's kind of somewhere between L'eau D'Issey and D&G Masculine. Kind of a fruity teenage kind of scent. One thing I like about it is that I've smelled a ton of other fragrances just like this one that were ruined by an overdose of synthetic cedar wood notes; this scent does have some of that aspect, but in manageable levels, never overwhelming the aromatics. I almost get the hint of fruit punch. A decent sports fragrance that would be nice for after the gym. Maybe it's robin's-egg blue bottle, but I find this to be a tranquil, relaxing fresh scent. Not anything to go gaga over, but far from bad.

I simply loved the fragrance. The first time I saw it, I didn't understand why Porsche would go such a way (with accessories), but after having smelled it, I fell in love. I see, by the thumbs down, that people didn't like Porsche design that much. Well, maybe they will like the new fragrance, Design Sport.

Compared with Eau Savage, my other favourite, this is a fragrance more suited to a special occasion or romantic evening. There is undoubtedly a citrus element to this but that diminishes quite quickly, a think a point that it refered to by other reviewers. But an underlying scent remains and does so on clothes for days. Where as the Eau Savage is 'everyday' the more overtly masculine fragrance is not in my opinion. There is a smokey quality that comes to the fore as the citrus declines. I would think that a day time meeting dominated my men could find the masculinity of this scent too much. But in a more romantic and intimate occasion the very masculinity may well be a plus. So I would recommend this for evenings, with someone special.

This review is a pretty much of a redundancy to what already has been said:

Porsche Design Essence could be the perfect example of the generic, synthetic, uninspired, headache-inducing, absolutely-meaningless automobile fragrance. The only good thing I can say about it is that it has very little projection and longevity.

Got a sample of this when it first was released and thought it smelled very nice. So I got it and I still think it smells nice. It's very fresh, woodsy and citrusy. I'd say it's a spring/summer fragrance and can also be classed as a sports fragrance. It suits guys between 15-50 years old.

The downside with this fragrance is its projection/sillage and longevity - it's very bad. If it would project better and last longer I would give it 8/10 but now I only give it 4/10. Don't buy it, it's not worth the money.

Not horrible like some others I couldnt stand,but not even the lower level of neutral...
reminds me of Paco Rabanne Pour Homme but Paco is great this is not.