By Andrew
Daringly for a men’s scent, Iquitos opens with a big, blowsy rose note on a raft of powdery, “perfumey” aldehydes. The rose is sweetened with orange rind and spiked with cardamom and crispy ginger, but the blatantly floral top notes are still surprising in the context of a mainstream 1980s masculine. The aldehydes eventually disperse as vetiver, patchouli, and a sweet amber lead Iquitos into more conventionally masculine territory, and the heart reads more like a sweet, mild spicy oriental than the floral scent adumbrated by the entry.
The drydown is mostly powdery sweet amber with a suggestion of fruity leather, amounting to a mild-mannered and genteel exercise in Victorian nostalgia. In this respect as much as in its top notes, Iquitos swims against the prevailing tide of 1980s masculines. No heavy aromatics, oakmoss, or tobacco here. Instead, Iquitos’s late stages presage the soft, fruity leather/oriental hybrid style expressed in niche fragrances like Serge Lutens’s Daim Blond and Parfum d’Empire’s Cuir Ottoman. Any wonder it got lost among all those massive leather chypres and ball-busting aromatic fougères?
Once past its aldehyde and rose outburst, Iquitos is restrained in sillage and projection. It’s not terribly long lasting on my skin, either, and I find it hard to detect after about four hours’ wear. I’m left thinking that Iquitos is pleasant and interesting, but not particularly moving. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to sample it, but I’m not mourning its passing.
Year: 1987
Notes: ginger, mandarin, cardamom, Rose, cedar, vetiver, patchouli, sandalwood, musk, amber, leather
I love the fact that you are all about aldehydes in your (masculine) scents! I'm no scent historian, so I type from total ignorance, but it seems to me that the smell of baby powder has been pretty much owned by scents considered feminine for most of the last century.
ReplyDeleteIs there any note that you think belongs *only* to the feminine or to the masculine? Love to know what you think...
"Is there any note that you think belongs *only* to the feminine or to the masculine? Love to know what you think..."
ReplyDeleteYou're talking to a guy who wears tuberose here (Carnal Flower, Tubéreuse Criminelle), so take note of that when I say "No." At least not in an absolute sense. I do think the treatment of certain notes in an accord influences how comfortable I am wearing them. Take that tuberose, for example. I have no problem with the green-tinted tuberose note in Carnal Flower or Tubéreuse Criminelle, but I can't deal with Fracas or Amarige.
Keep in mind also that many floral notes you might think of as "feminine," especially rose, jasmine, and orange blossom, are staples in male perfumery as well. They're just not always mentioned in the advertising copy...