Armaf
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Seawater crashes across the skin with startling immediacy—a bright, salty mineral burst cut through with tarragon's green, slightly peppery herbaceousness. The ambergris gleams faintly beneath like sunlight on wet rock, but the syntheticness is already apparent, lending an almost aquarium-like quality to the experience.
As the aquatic edge softens incrementally, violet leaf emerges with a green, slightly earthy character that blends rather than contrasts with the tarragon. Musk appears as a subtle skin-scent warmth, creating a curious androgynous phase where the fragrance sits closer to the body, less projecting but more intimate. The woody notes begin their slow ascent.
Cedarwood, vetiver, and patchouli finally establish themselves, creating a dry, woody foundation tinged with tonka's subtle sweetness. The result feels like sitting on damp wood after the sea has receded—mineral, green-tinged, and somewhat austere, though the longevity proves frustratingly brief.
Excellus Men arrives as a bracing contradiction—a fragrance that mistakes aquatic freshness for depth and finds itself caught between two identities. The seawater accord dominates with an almost aggressively synthetic salinity, evoking the sharp mineral bite of sea spray rather than the soft, ozonic quality one might hope for. What saves this from being purely linear is the tarragon's herbal insistence, a green, slightly aniseic whisper that wrestles against the aquatic base, creating an unexpected tension that feels almost tense rather than harmonious.
The violet leaf and musk heart should provide sensuality, yet they arrive somewhat muted—the violet leaf's green-edged character becomes absorbed into the general verdancy rather than carving out its own space. Ambergris, that noble base note, struggles to anchor anything substantial; it reads more as a faint, salty undertone than the warm, creamy foundation one expects. There's a peculiar synthetic quality threading through everything—an almost metallic greenness that prevents the composition from settling into genuine comfort.
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3.6/5 (115)