Parfums de Nicolai--Nicolai Pour Homme EdT

From the PdN Website
Top notes : very crisp : citrus : lemon, lemon petit grain oil, bergamot. Lightly aromatic : lavender and armoise oils.
Heart : spicy woody : pimento and pepper oils, patchouli oil and cedar.
Bottom notes : vanilla, leather, amber

The citrus opens up nicely with the lavender and armoise oils which make it a little like matte tea. Supporting it is light patchouli and woods with nice spices. The cedar is smooth. It's more earthy than the oft compared Bois du Portugal. I think it's quite possible to own both and find them very different. Sillage and longevity are very good. The lavender gives the impression of late at night or early morning. The basenotes are soft and enjoyable. This could be successfully used year round and at the office. It lasts long and is very masculine. I can see why people like this one a lot. It's like a sophisticated person walking to his nice car on a grey day in New York and then driving to the Hamptons for the weekend. This would be a good alternative to Creed's Erolfa if you want to avoid the marine notes and go with an earthy direction that can still feel coastal.

The review numerical ratings mean little to me when it comes to edts. YMMV. Certainly the quality is there and PdN frags are fairly priced for their quality. I do not much care about any scent bottle. This one looks fine in a classic manner. The atomizer is perfectly fine. The bottom line is this is excellent juice, to me.

The PdN web site has this to say:


To me it has this great mint and green rush at the beginning that settles fairly quickly down into mint and lavender, similar to C&S O&C. The lavender hangs in there and what seems to me like vanilla comes up, but that it apparently some of the other ingredients, which seem fascinating and very complex. So there is a time in there when it seems very close to Caron 3d Homme (or is it the Caron Pour Homme, I forget). But then it keeps evolving and seems more woody, and tobaccoy, mossy--classic masculine edt stuff--to finish, but the mint and lavender never completely disappear. Good tenacity.

All of this makes it sound like it is strong or heavy or aggressive. But most interesting at all, it really keeps a lightness to it. Seems versatile and day timey to me. Fine for the office. Elegant. I do get the references above to complex and serious underneath a deceptively light exterior though. Part of it is, I think, that those opening mint and green notes are so fresh and light, and uplifting, before it goes deeper into darker, more complex stuff.

It does keep a PdN vibe throughout, for sure! How is it that it does that given how different the various PdN scents are? Very different than New York, for instance.