Davidoff
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Juniper Berry ambushes first with a dry, botanical crispness that evokes gin botanicals and tonic water's quinine bite, immediately sweetened by what reads as a candied citrus glaze. The gin fizz note delivers effervescence—that almost-carbonated sensation—before collapsing into a predominantly sugared framework within moments.
The iris emerges with powdery, slightly soapy restraint, and the precious woods begin their long, understated foundation beneath. The synthetic accords become unavoidable here, creating a polished but hollow elegance that smells distinctly constructed rather than composed.
By the fourth hour, you're left with woody sweetness and little else—a faint iris whisper and the memory of those opening botanicals, now considerably muted. The fragrance essentially evaporates into skin chemistry, leaving barely a trace of its initial character.
The Game Davidoff arrives as a deliberately constructed paradox—a fragrance that announces itself with the botanical snap of juniper and gin fizz, yet immediately betrays an almost apologetic restraint. Bernard Ellena has crafted something that flirts with boldness without committing to it: the juniper's piney sharpness is tempered by an unexpectedly candied sweetness that coats the palate like crystallised citrus. Rather than creating tension, this discord reads as confusion, as though the fragrance can't quite decide whether it's a sophisticated aperitif or a dessert course.
Where it does find clarity is in the iris's arrival. The heart reveals a genteel woodiness—precious woods rather than aggressive timber—that grounds the opening's flightiness. The iris adds a powdery, almost cosmetic quality that sits uneasily with the synthetic undertones (76% of the accord profile, notably), creating an artificial elegance that lands somewhere between freshly pressed linen and a department store tester strip.
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3.1/5 (147)