Hugo Boss
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Pimento strikes like amaretto-soaked fruit, that jammy sweetness cutting through any pretence of spice. There's a brief flash of lavender's green sharpness before it succumbs to the syrupy undertow, already hinting at the gourmand trajectory ahead. The whole opening feels lacquered, deliberately smoothed, with synthetic musks creating an immediate skin-like warmth.
The lavender absolute emerges properly now, though it's draped in something between honey and tonka, herbal facets muffled by creamy sweetness. Sandalwood begins its slow creep upward, adding a milky texture that makes everything feel rounder, softer, less defined at the edges. The spiciness reads more as cinnamon-dusted dessert than anything savoury—comfortable rather than challenging.
What remains is predominantly that New Caledonian sandalwood folded into synthetic musks, creating a second-skin sweetness that's more textural than olfactory. The lavender has vanished entirely, leaving behind a woody-creamy base with faint vanilla echoes and persistent saccharine warmth. It's tenacious without being loud, clinging to pulse points with pleasant, if somewhat monotonous, persistence.
The Scent Elixir for Him arrives drenched in honeyed opulence, a lavish reworking that leans heavily into the synthetic sweetness permeating modern masculines. Pimento opens with a peculiar jammy quality rather than traditional peppery bite—think glacé cherries soaked in brandy syrup, viscous and almost liqueur-like. The Proven Al lavender absolute beneath is no aromatic fougère gesture; it's been submerged in something closer to praline, that herbal camphor buried under layers of caramelised sugar. This is lavender for those who prefer their Cadbury's to their Crabtree & Evelyn. New Caledonian sandalwood provides the expected creamy foundation, though here it reads more like sandalwood essence filtered through a commercial vanilla pod—soft-focus, compliant, thoroughly domesticated. The woody accord never asserts real gravitas; instead it becomes a textural backdrop for that relentless sweetness. This is a fragrance for someone who finds Dior Homme Intense too austere, Spicebomb too boisterous. It's eveningwear with the collar undone, a cashmere jumper soaked in something sticky at an upscale cocktail bar. The synthetic hum beneath everything—likely Iso E Super and various musks working overtime—gives it that modern diffusive quality, a scent that announces itself before you've crossed the threshold. Unisex in theory, though it skews toward those who've made peace with fragrances that prioritise seduction over complexity. Thoroughly wearable, occasionally cloying, but executed with enough technical polish to justify the Elixir moniker.
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3.8/5 (237)