GIT vs. Coolwater -- Afraid to see.....

I tried GIT today and I must say Coolwater and GIT are almost identical except that Coolwater has a soapier, more acidic, fruity, synthetic 'layer on top'. It's almost as if they are built on the same base. But GIT is a little grassier and deeper. GIT is like the best parts of Coolwater minus all the irritating synthetic notes. Or should I say, Coolwater is GIT with it's good characteristics toned down and some nasty notes added.

Edit:By the way, I was making a choice between GIT and SMW. I bought GIT but after a while decided go back and exchange it for SMW because I already have Coolwater..a disincentive for me to pay such a high price for it. Maybe if Coolwater never existed I would've gotten GIT straightaway and not have any hesitations after that.

The thing is they might not smells exactly the same, but when one smells Cool Water from someone elses sillage it will instantly remind them of GIT and the same goes when one wears GIT it will remind you of CW.

I completely agree with the above two posts. IMHO, the only difference between Creed and "clones" (if you must use the term) is a slight synthetic "harshness" not to mention longevity issues with Creed. For the difference in the price, this can easily be overlooked. This includes GIT, SMW, MI, OV...
Still, I respect those who insist on wearing Creed and claim the difference is dramatic for them. Just not for me. For those prices, you can get better value elsewhere especially if your thing is understatement and a scent that stays close to the skin.
RM

Your conclusion would be incorrect.
Four or five years ago, at the old site, I came along and posted that GIT was pretty much like Cool Water. I hung on to that view for about a year.

I currently two bottles of Cool Water and three of GIT - which indicates that my view did in fact change.
Renato

I've sprayed some of each on my hands.

It's a conundrum. At first smell they're plainly different with a very superficial similarity. Same with second smell. But just keep on smelling them continuously, and they suddenly seem very similar.

If I want mass confusion, I also spray some Curve on my wrist. It has no resemblence to Cool Water, but many see a resemblence to GIT. Start doing the constant sniffing and both Curve and Cool Water suddenly resemble GIT - and each other!
Renato

I also did a comparison and I must say after about 2 hours on the skin GIT is very different from Cool Water. It has a much warmer and grassier bottom than CW. I prefer GIT because I like the bottom much better and also because CW is one of the most "over-worn" fragrances in memory. I wish CW was never made. Why would I want to wear something 2 billion people in world wear everday.
If everybody wore the same shirt would you wear it also? I don't think so.

For me GIT is completely different from Coolwater

GIT on my skin starts off with a Lemony, Grass Smell. It then dries down to a "white" light fragrance that has a blend between a floral/woody tone thats still quite masculine.

Coolwater on the other hand, starts off as a Spicy, Minty fragrance that then cools down to a woody, musky base,

The big difference is how much ambergris will stand out on your skin. GIT is a simpler fragrance by design. If ambergris (different from Amber which is a resinous secretion from the conifer family) stands out on your skin then they will smell different (GIT will be more earthy, slightly sweet whereas Cool Water becomes Woodsy). If the ambergris doesn't stand out and the sandalwood does, then you are going to detect more similarities.

I'm glad someone brought this up.

I felt like when the topic of creed imitations for the cash conscious is brought up and someone says "oh no, cool water is completely different" they are hardly doing the questioner a favor. I mean come on CW is definteily a knock off of GIT and they definitely did a respectable job knocking it off. And if your "dubious creed" purchases from ebay were filled with CW you'd probably be happier than whatever it is people are getting when they feel ripped off.

I finally received cool water set yesterday and got to try.

****Now the really unexpected surprise on me is that Cool Water totally almost faded away after a couple of hours, whereas the longevity of GIT on me is very very long!!!***

I think that GIT does smell a little richer all around but they are VERY VERY similar. GIT and Musc Ravageur or Iris Poudre or any of a thousand other scents are "completely different". GIT and CW are very similar with some differences. It is completely ridiculous to call them "completely different".

On my skin the base of GIT smells nothing like CW. CW will remind you of GIT the same way Unforgivable will remind you of MI. But Creeds richness and the House notes makes the big difference.

Well first think about this a bit. I will admit that both are similar, but (but). If you wore the two out how many people are actually gonna distinguish between the two. Not very many I dont think. Apart from very different top notes they are almost the same thing in the base. So I guess if I have a choice to pay $15 for a bottle of Cool Water at Wal-Mart, or paying $100 for a bottle of GIT on the net. I'll take the Cool Water any day.

I agree with this post. Also, I have been wearing Unforgivable and Millesime Imperial for the past two week - to me, those two are nothing alike. They are maybe 25% similar - thats about it. Just because Unforgivable has a slight mediterranean accord doesnt mean that its a copy of MI. If that were the case, then Kouros is a big time copy of Orange Spice, because its top notes are EXACTLY the same...rather, people say its "inspired by Orange Spice".

I agree with what some have said that when somebody smells the sillage of both of them they wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It is probably true. So now we just have to find the differences other than the scent itself. Things like longevity, price and ingredients used. All those things are all up to the person.
If have the money why not get the GIT, it will look much better on your fragrance table than a CW bottle. High Price to pay though.

"L. Ron Hubbard" this GIT and CW debate just doesn't go away, does it?

You misunderstood what I had said, the top notes and drydown smell like CW but the base which I mean by the ending of GIT duration smells nothing like CW. GIT lasts 10 hours on my skin and only the first 6 hours smell like CW after that they smell nothing a like. Like I had stated before, ON MY SKIN so some people will have different results.

I'd just like to say that actually it was CW which: quote'Cool Water by Davidoff also spawned a plethora of copycats after it used and ingredient called dihydromicernol for the first time.It was an inspiration for the modern freshness for men trend according to Paris-based fragrance creators Quest International'

You draw the conclusion.

Mine would be that I don't think that CW it's ripoff of GIT because the nose behind it actually tried new concepts and also managed to influence many other fragrances to come....

Very good point.

I cleary think the nose behind CW knew/smelt GIT. Because the first time I had smelt GIT it was clear to me that CW was inspired* by GIT. Also GIT was released to the public in 85 and CW was launched 88. I am sure when GIT was released it was popular among most celebs and the Rich.

LOL !

Not this again!

I own them both and any similarity (which is superficial to begin with) is gone within about 30 minutes! Especially the sillage is different.

After reading about the constant comparisons here on Basenotes, I've done several blind (from atomizers) comparisons with fragrence fans and non fragrence fans, and several people said they smell similar at first, but not after some time.

I will definitely be able to distinguish between the two but because of the price difference, I would rather go with another Creed..which I did with SMW. But if I had spare cash I would get GIT too.

I think we should now be used to the fact that as basenotes attracts more members (which is great!), these questions (ebay, gray market, similar fragrances, etc) will keep popping up because it will be the first time they will be encountering these fragrances, and some basenotes reviews also state the (controversial) similarities explicitly.

I agree that there is some similarity.

However I disagree that I would be happy to go for either of them if they were in the same price range. If Davidoff had released both GIT and CW as CoolWater-Ambergris and CoolWater-1988 respectively, I would buy CoolWater-Ambergris.

what's so hard about embracing the fact that GIT is so much more attractive because it's harder to get, I mean that's a large part of it, it's human nature. it's always going to be more attractive.

the smell of both is so kind of harsh in a way, that I think psychologically I am a lot more comfortable with those smells coming from natural sources than thinking it's a bunch of chemicals that come out like that lol

oh I mentioned this in another post but I find the smell so emphatic that I have smelled it when there was none around just thinking about it sometimes. it hits the brain hard.

or maybe you smelled the easily available Cool Water

I love debates like these coming up over and again. It's like debating religion or other unanswerables; it's the conversation which counts, not the conclusions .

I can prove I wasn't smelling cool water. at 1 am I was walking through this post apocalyptic landscape of this street fair that had closed down for the night tonight and it was completely desolate. I could have helped myself to a bunch of stuffed animals if I'd wanted.

unless someone just threw one of those cheap things (bottle of cool water) into the gutter !

anyway I shoudl have quoted bette davis (Again) re the cool water/GIT controversy "I have very simple tatstes; I'm always satisfied by the best."

oh about that point that since Pierre Bourdon went on to be so important that means CW is not a knockoff, I see it more as though CW was one of those works artists do to demonstrate first off their mastery of what's come before them. usually this is early in the career I suppose. not sure how it fits into his chronology, it's impressive to imitate something so well, if not as impressive as it is to create something new.

Pierre Bourdon .. the nose that created Kouros (inspired by Orange Spice), and Cool Water (inspired by Green Irish Tweed). A big Creed fan, I bet.

Was he not the guy who loved Orange Spice and made his own version for YsL called Kouros? I am sure he must of done the same thing with GIT and CW which looks obvious.

GIT vs Curve
************

I am really struck by how similar Curve smells to Creed's Green Irish Tweed! This has been mentioned before but i was a bit sceptical because i kept thinking, how can a mass marketed scent smell so similar to a legendary Creed! I've gotten into collecting Creed recently and the association just simply refuses to connect for me. My first impression was that GIT and Curve are very similar, definitely in the same family. Upon closer inspection/testing i've found:

Curve lacks the projection ability of GIT. I sprayed 2 spritz of Curve on my chest and 2 on each wrist, put on my clothes and went out to do some shopping. Nothing! I barely got a drift of scent from my wrists but nothing emanated from my clothes. The "Caron 3rd Man" effect just wasn't there! Last night i tried the same thing with GIT. Frankly, i expected a resounding success and i wasn't disappointed. Some Creeds may have longevity issues on some people, but none i've tried have had problems with producing sillage IMO. I went out last night to an all-night cafe wearing just two spritz of GIT on my chest and it was pumping out plumes of GIT notes throughout. My pals noticed it, their girlfriends noticed it even more!

So, the question now is: Is GIT a more potent/concentrated Curve or is Curve the poor man's GIT? While GIT has a citric topnote that turns green rapidly, Curve goes straight to the point of being green with a slightly vanillic base that mimics the sandalwood + ambergris base of GIT. Upon application, Curve immediately expands its notes, like a Chinaman spreading his wares on the sidewalk of Chinatown, while GIT (and most Creeds) prefers to keep things strictly regimented. You get one dominant note, it subsides and you get another and another and so on, like buying jewellery. You could say that GIT does it with style and panache while Curve exudes youthful exuberance and brashful energy. Being exuberant, Curve also tires itself out faster and doesn't last as long as GIT, spritz vs spritz. GIT takes its time, nice and slow, playing out a mellow soulful tune before hitting the basenotes. I think this is the attraction for the opposite sex. GIT promises a prolonged engagement of a pleasurable encounter. Afterall, why does GIT attract men of substance like Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford? Like attracts like IMO.

The problem now is: With the availability of Curve, is GIT worth it? Tough one to answer. I have both and can see situational applications for them but i came by both by accident. I had to try out the legendary Creed in my lifetime (Eastwood and Redford being two of my fav actors of all time) and the Curve is a rare scent in my country, hard to come by plus nothing in the mainstream smells quite like these two. In terms of situational use, yes i believe they have a particular niche area, i'd use Curve for a day outing exclusively, while GIT for evening wear and more serious stuff where i want to feel special and confident and flirt. But what adds fuel to the fire is the price and questions of value that will inevitably cross the minds of discerning buyers with limited budgets for scents. I will go out on the limb here and say go for the GIT over the Curve. Narrow the price gap by buying from Ebay or do what i did, swap with a basenoter of excellent repute. I will not go into the debate of "buying retail for peace of mind&quot" because i think you can spot a fake Creed a mile away, the Creed note being the first thing you look for unless it's a vintage line. But if you already have Curve, and think it's the beez kneez, finish that bottle unless like me, you want to explore the significance of GIT.

Only the opening of Curve smells a BIT like GIT, but the drydown smells like Eternity, Curve is more of a sweeter and more mossy Eternity rippoff than anything close to GIT.

don't forget pierre bourdon's other masterpieces which shall remain nameless but can be easily referenced. . .

anyway still have yet to try either but certainly the resemblance to orange spice of kouros is of a different order than that of GIT to kewl water I meant they don't call it orange eau de mensroom do they?

you have to bow down to genius that audaciously uses the urinal cake note and makes it a big hit that is still sold even if like me you haven't even smelled it yet, outside of a urinal that is...

the name curve is so hideous, what is it supposed to mean? I would sooner have a bottle saying "cumming" any day

interesting too that the debate often mentions curve but never goes into much detail since curve is definitely the 3rd generation knock off and, I think, despised as such, whatever it may smell like

Forget the name, the marketing or the hype. Focus on the juice. That's all that matters. If there's such a thing as a "holy grail" of scent, you're not likely to find it if you let factors other than the juice influence your judgement.

no, I think that's impossible. it's just the nature of fandom. as roland barthes said "the label incites desire" and he's right!

What makes you think Kouros is "inspired by Orange Spice". Of the thousands of frags created since 1950, Bourdon had to be inspired by Orange Spice? You do realise there is a 30 year gap between the creation of Orange Spice and Kouros. In that case, i can say that Kouros is more correctly inspired by Fougere Royale (1882).

Btw, did you know that Orange Spice(1950) was inspired by Old Spice (1937).

I agree, and the "label" of fragrances is its scent. All else are just signifiers to the thing being signified, mere simulacrum. Stick to the real, the thing-in-itself. Break free from the shackles of the mass man mentality (fandom), and become a true afficianado/connoisseur. Respect the art, not the hype.

(People and members here remark on similarities, but I think it goes beyond anyone here's knowledge to state matter-of-factly that any perfumer executed a creation directly inspired by another. I'd have to see where claims like this come from.
--Chris)

One of the members mentioned that he was a fan of Orange Spice, in the reviews or here in the forum. I dont recall exactly where. Still, I like Kouros.

I do feel that they are alike.... and I believe that they are alike for about 30 minutes and then things start to change.
I must agree with you...many people are afraid of the truth...afraid of what is obvious...and that is really sad.
I also have felt that Pleasures for men tries to accomplish the same thing as GIT and Cool Water. Of course they are not the same....but to an untrained nose it would be very difficult to tell the difference.
The obvious is just that...obvious...to say anything else really helps to prove the point.
Gary

The first time I ever smelled GIT I had no idea who Creed was (I had almost no idea there were even "niche" companies, I thought frags started and ended with designers). I was an owner of Drakar Noir, CW, Tuscany, Pasha and that's about it.

I walked into Purfumes Raffy just to get a good deal on some new designer frag and I was offered a sample of GIT. It was like "oh my god, what's this?!" I wasn't swayed by Creed's reputation, their exclusivity, their history or anything else since I had no knowledge of any of that. When Raffy told me how much it cost, I immediately said " I can tell why!" There was no question in my mind that it was something special and it even got better as it developed.

If you get a steak at Sizzler and one from Flemmings, at first they both look very similar and they both may even smell a little similar, but anyone with a reasonable palate can tell the difference in taste, there is a reason why the Flemmings steak is 4-5 times the price! If you're happy with a steak from Sizzler, that fine. Just don't try convince those that think it's worth paying 4 times the price for one from Flemmings are eating something that is "overrated" and that one from Sizzler is too similar to justify the price.

This is a pretty bad example. There is a large objectifiable difference between an $8 steak and a $35 steak. One is clearly better than the other under generally recognized criteria. Now, I really don't think that can apply here -- there is nothing objectively better about GIT over CW. If one is lighter, the other "greener" some may prefer it that way. I firmly beleive that if Creed put out GIT and Davidoff put out CW, the contours of this debate would be identical. My question to you is, when you walked into Raffy, had you ever smelled CW? If not, you may have thought that CW was great (I sure did when I first experienced CW). If you had known of CW, I'd be pretty surprised if you thought GIT was completely different.

CW was my daily scent (it lasted about 2 hours on me)! If you re-read my post that you quoted above, you'll see that I list it as well as Tuscany, Drakar and Pasha.

I guess until I read about the similarities at Basenotes, I never paid much attention to the superficial similarities in the opening of the 2, I'm much more into the drydown and development of a scent, since that's where I spend the most time with it.

Maybe an analogy using wine would have been better since there is no way to know the quality of the grapes used, what kind of barrels it was aged in and for how long, and how creative the wine maker is. All we have to go on is the taste. But to me (and I'm far from a wine expert) I can instantly tell the difference between a good $15 bottle and $45 bottle of wine.

Your post said you were an "owner" of CW. If CW was your daily sent and you didn't realize it's connection with GIT (other than perhaps some superficial similarity), until you read about on BN, ok, I'll accept that as your opinion. I would think that's a pretty atypical reaction. I'm pretty good at the scent game and putting CW on one wrist and GIT on the other, I can tell they're different but man oh man, there's a hell of alot more to the comparison then a superficial similarity -- at least in my book. And to refer back to your wine / steak examples, I don't see that either. I'll agree that GIT lasts longer, but I find nothing about CW that I'd describe as cheap. I seriously doubt that a frag. expert blindly sampling each for the first time would conclude that GIT is the filet and CW the chuck.

I wouldn't go so far as to call CW cheap, but their are differences in quality. First for me the CW doesn't last nearly as long, second the power of the top notes is much much stronger than the drydown. This usually indicates that the seller is designing more to entice an instant sell rather than a day fragrance. Furthermore the notes come off as a little cloying IMO and lacks a subtleness about it. On the other hand GIT had me hooked instantly. It's top notes are great, but the drydown is noticable, smooth and their is nothing cloying about it. You can tell by its design that is meant to be worn on the skin, not to be sampled on paper and bought immediately.

The thing is I sample CW way before I ever had the chance to sample GIT. I heard CW was all the rage, but I couldn't see why. When I first sampled GIT I was smitten instantly.

I'm no expert but these are my opinions.

I've been trying them both side by side and i think that

CW has a harsh sharpness that I don't like when first spraying it on.,GIT is better on the nose and to be honest I prefer it. The creed has less longevity sadly but while it's there it's nicer for sure.

But I take an interest in such things, i look for the subtleties and the nuances, most people don't. I asked a friend which she preferred she said coolwater. shThat was ater i had to tell her i was wearing 2 different perfumes.

Overall it wasn't a big deal at all, she even preferred the cheaper one. SO i guess it comes down to this: if you are wearing it for yourself then get GIT, if you are wearing it for others get CW. others can't tell the difference,

Most women are just surprised a guy wears cologne for heavens sake, many guys don't unless it's a friday night on the town, And if you wear anything even Boss or Joop it'll be appreciated as much as tea for two by a lady because it's jus that you smell nice or interesting. I think we all love our frags so much we forget that people outside our world aren't interested in the nuances. SO if we're spending loads on GIT not CW then we're buying something that no stranger can tell the difference between day by day and so the justification is that we're buying it to look and see the nuances. That's as gooda reason as any i guess.

It's why L'artisab are expensive and low sillage and still adored. Perfumes like that are bought even if no one else but the wearer will smell them , the same is true for GIT. No one else can tell or is bothered to try to tell the difference, so we buy GIT for ourselves to enjoy but they are the same thing on the whole.