Diesel
Diesel
97 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A sharp burst of aniseed and nutmeg hits with an almost medicinal sweetness, quickly brightened by zesty bergamot and a peppery cardamom snap. The effect is simultaneously warm and cool, spiced but not particularly gourmand—more like walking past a perfume counter than actually entering a oriental fragrance.
The spice settles into a powdery, distinctly softer floral base where jasmine and rose emerge beneath the cinnamon warmth, creating an odd tonal shift toward something almost feminine. Heliotrope adds a cosmetic sweetness that compounds the synthetic character, making the composition feel increasingly like a scented body lotion than a proper fragrance.
Vanilla and musk take centre stage, supported by patchouli that adds earthiness without depth, leaving a soapy, amber-tinged powdery trail. By this stage, the fragrance has largely dissipated into skin scent territory, offering minimal projection and ultimately little reason to have worn it in the first place.
Zero Plus Masculine is a fragrance caught between two worlds—neither fully spiced cologne nor proper amber oriental, but rather a synthetic compromise that occasionally strikes gold. The opening salvo of aniseed and nutmeg creates an almost licorice-tinged warmth, immediately complicated by bright bergamot and cardamom that suggest someone's raided a spice rack rather than a perfumer's organ. What makes this interesting, though, is how the composition doesn't apologise for its artificiality; that 64% synthetic accord reads as deliberate rather than budget-conscious, lending the whole affair a slightly plasticky, almost soapy quality that some will find refreshing and others frankly off-putting.
The heart reveals where Diesel's ambitions genuinely lie: beneath the spice lies a powdery floral arrangement of jasmine, rose, and lily of the valley that feels distinctly feminine. This is the fragrance's most curious aspect—masculine labelling notwithstanding, there's something unmistakably soft and vanillic brewing beneath those top notes, almost as though the spicy opening exists to mask what's essentially a powdery amber fragrance. The cinnamon does its best to maintain masculine credibility, but it's fighting a losing battle against heliotrope and vanilla in the base.
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4.3/5 (133)