Narciso (2014)
by Narciso Rodriguez

One of the most wonderful things about perfume is its power to evoke completely different reactions in people.

On my skin, Narciso EDP is almost entirely cedar overlaid by musk. I have a box of cedar chip (Virginia red) incense cones, which I compared side by side with Narciso EDP. Yep, there it was in Narciso—that sharp yet surprisingly sweet scent of fragrant wood.

I am aware that most ‘cedar’ notes in contemporary perfumery are not from the true cedar tree. Nevertheless, the image Narciso paints in my mind is linked to the cedars of Lebanon, miles and millennia away from the clean cut marketing image of Narciso and most peoples’ perception of it as a basic office fragrance.

To me this is the scent of the great hall of the ancient Persian palace of Persepolis. Crimson rugs embrace the floor, a plucked instrument accompanies the low hum of conversation, monolithic stone columns rise towards darkness. And, although the majestic cedar planks of the ceiling are concealed in the shadows, their scent mingles with the fragrance of musk-anointed robes of princes and princesses as they tread softly around the room.

The perfect iteration of an upscale mall scent. This and Alaia's new frag smell like tear out magazine samples and/or Sephora encapsulated. Bland, uninspiring, and utterly artificial-smelling. A plastic perfume for people who don't really like perfume or want to know much about perfume.

This is the platonic ideal of a modern office perfume. It is all about the seamless texture of florals, powder and musk. It is very radiant and quite warm, with none of the notes being overly obvious. Very smooth and long lasting.

I had to visit a number of stores in order to test this particular perfume - it has taken a complete backseat to the recent launch of Narciso Rouge, Poudree, and the pink For Her bottles. While I'm not a fan of the For Her perfume, I found Narciso to be very agreeable. Totally inoffensive and can be worn by anyone.

Touted as a 'powdery' perfume, it doesn't have the overwhelming powder notes that I usually detest. I enjoyed the musky wooded dry down the most as it has a most delicious almost candy floss scent after a bit that continually has me mushing my nose onto arm to keep inhaling the scent.

While there is nothing earth shattering about Narciso, this is one of the mainstream perfumes out there that I plan to eventually purchase a full bottle of.

Narciso Eau de Parfum continues the tradition of Narciso Rodriguez's beloved white musk, but this time, contrary to the For Her and Essence lines, the musk in Narciso takes the back seat.

The notes in Narciso seem to be consciously kept undefined and non-realistic. The opening is a dewy, refreshing, even sharp floral that reads more like watery magnolia than gardenia to me, but as a milky, even nutty undertone develops over time, the abstract floral accord gradually shifts towards the direction of gardenia.

Because of its overall nebulous nature, Narciso evolves in an incremental way: the floral sweetness is little by little taken over by an opaque woody amber, further underlined by the prune-like tart-sweetness of rose. While I can understand the aesthetic of deliberately maintaining an artificial, non-natural feeling in a composition and appreciate it in a few innovative fragrances, unfortunately in Narciso, the sharp synthetic cedar, the densely opaque amber, the creamy white musk, and the nebulous sweet floral, all together create an combined effect of plastic doll out of laundry, a smell and an image that I don't particularly enjoy.

The late dry down sees the woody amber fading away, allowing the signature clean patchouli and white musk combination of the For Her series to surface and to stay until it completely disappears after about 10 hours. The sillage is mostly moderate throughout.

Being a fan of the previous For Her and Essence lines, I had high hope for Narciso. But in the end, the Egyptian musk that I find utterly memorable in For Her plays only a minimal role, and the amorphous and intentional artificial interpretation of floral and woody amber, while interesting on paper, eventually rub me the wrong way in execution. Suffice to say that Narciso is not my cup of tea. But I can understand how its opaque, nebulous nature can be seen as a mysterious, enveloping aura. If you enjoy modern clean abstract fragrances in general and are looking for a warm floral ambery musk, you may want to give Narciso a try.