Why the cold reception for Davidoff Hot Water?

[BradW]

Hey guys:

Finally got to sample this one today. I was actually quite happy with the way this one smelled. It not only smelled good, it didn't smell like a lot of other things that I've been sampling lately. I actually thought it was spicy enough to deserve a hot water namesake. Maybe not jalopena pepper hot, but more of a hot cinnamon hot.

So anyway, I've smelled a lot of things, and I don't know if hot water really reminds me of anything else. I see a lot of reviewers drawing comparisons to Joop! products. Maybe they have a point, since my exposure to Joop! frags is quite limited. So anyway, is this stuff really deserving of its horrendous basenoter score, or is this maybe one of the better recent designer releases?

[subhuman85]

Clever title.

It's not a terrible scent, but to my nose there's simply nothing about Hot Water that's interesting. It smells like every other generic sweet woody "oriental" for men riding the wave of Armani Code (which is better). If you like it, great, but I'd be hard-pressed to find anything unique, or particularly well-done, about it.

[OlfactoryExperience]

I'm in total agreement with subhuman85. Its not so much that it's terrible. Its just that it provides no motivation for its creation or existence. I don't find any reason to buy it or even want to smell it again.

[Captcrunch]

The scent is OK, it's the name that's terrible

[petruccijc]

Clever title.

It's not a terrible scent, but to my nose there's simply nothing about Hot Water that's interesting. It smells like every other generic sweet woody "oriental" for men riding the wave of Armani Code (which is better). If you like it, great, but I'd be hard-pressed to find anything unique, or particularly well-done, about it.

I'm in total agreement with subhuman85. Its not so much that it's terrible. Its just that it provides no motivation for its creation or existence. I don't find any reason to buy it or even want to smell it again.

Ditto.

[Riverwide]

Very generic, uninteresting and weak scent. It looks and smells cheap to me.

[hednic]

It's a fine scent but nothing out of the ordinary.

[G.303]

Davidoff hasn't really done anything in a long time.....This is not easy to find either and that doesn't help.....Gary

[Basteri]

It pissed me off that Davidoff totally blew away their chance to capitalize on the "cold water" saga bringing something good to the market, with a successful predecessor such as Cool Water a little more "work" could have been in good place.

I mean, I was excited when I read Hot Water was being created and finally released but when I tried it ...I simply could not understand how in the world they came up with something so boring and generic. It is quite insulting how little effort designers houses are putting into their fragrance creations and Hot Water is a good example so is Bleu, Aramis cold blend and a gazillion other 2010 new releases.

[Zgb]

The scent itself is really not bad, it is appealing but not inspiring at all.

[rickbr]

Didn`t saw anything wrong with Hot Water, but didn`t saw anything good either. When I tried it, this one reminded me of a scent from the brazilian brand called O Boticario. It is Quasar Fire, which was launched years before Hot Water. The irony is that the original Quasar is a copy of Cool Water, and now the Hot Water is very close to the flanker of Quasar that came before.

[scentsitivity]

I stumbled on this Friday evening and tried it.

What struck me is that there is some accord that I find in the drydown that I find in other inexpensive scents. Or rather, only in expensive scents. I am not sure what it is.

I did not like it much, but I wouldn't say I hated it.

[Diamondflame]

For lack of better description, it comes across like a 'hollowed out' version of Xeryus Rouge. Quite a synthetic mess imo.

[discovolante]

I liked the comparison to Xeryus Rouge.

Being Cool Water's cousin,did not help at all.The bar was set too high...

[Zgb]

Ah Xeryus Rouge...my love, so unique, so not worn by everyone

[DULLAH]

it's kind of like a classier, quiter, less obnoxious version of Paco Rabanne's 1 million. And somewhat similar to Armani Code stylistically as others noted. These scents have a certain synthetic abrasive quality too high in concentration for my taste, as well as a type of "gummy" fruitiness I'm not all that keen on either. I would recommend it to those who found 1 million too sweet, but otherwise liked it.

[The_Cologneist]

Indeed very synthetic smelling.. a chemical catastrophe. This to me, is even too chemical for Davidoff, this is something that a house like Claiborne or Hugo would produce.

[Tony T]

no longevity. very lame. in the same class as rsvp by kenneth cole

[xoxoMyke]

I was excited for my blind buy of Hot Water.

Something about the notes and marketing campaign struck a chord with me. I truly was expecting a candy-sweet yet pepper-spicy fragrance suitable for men 25+.

Hot Water doesn't smell like Azzaro Elixir.

Hot Water doesn't smell like Xeryus Rouge (what an insult!).

What I got with Hot Water was a very non-descript/generic fragrance that smells like grooming/personal hygiene products aggressively labeled "For Men". It opens with green and herbal notes before turns into a heavy pepper fragrance. The benzoin is not detectable. There is nothing sweet in Hot Water and I feel like if there was a vanilla accord from the benzoin, this could have been a great fragrance. Or they could have gone the Xeryus Rouge route and completely added an accord not mention (think the red berry of the original Xeryus Rouge or the tart strawberry note in Black XS).

As it stands, I can't tell you why something equally generic and bland like Bleu de Chanel is a big seller but Hot Water was a flop. They both are so bland and obviously generic that it's bothersome.

[Kaern]

I'm surprised you blind bought this one - especially based on the majority of reviews and comments on Basenotes.

Just goes to show how 'marketing' works