Rammstein
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Sichuan pepper detonates immediately, its peppery tingle combating the bright, almost aggressive grapefruit zest in a sparring match that feels deliberately confrontational. The citrus cuts with a sharp, almost astringent quality—there's no sweetness here, only clean mineral acidity.
The cannabis emerges quietly, not as head-shop mustiness but as a green, slightly soapy undertone that softens the pepper's aggression. Vetiver roots the composition, though it's a restless rooting—the herb remains prickly, refusing to settle into traditional masculine groundedness. The elemi resin begins its sticky, pine-tinged work, adding an almost herbal-pharmaceutical quality.
The grapefruit fades to a whisper, leaving behind vetiver's earthy persistence and the resin's slightly synthetic embrace. The composition becomes leaner, more austere—a skin scent that smells faintly green and indefinably strange, settling into something that hovers between fragrance and pure atmosphere.
Engel Pure arrives as a provocation wrapped in fresh citrus—Rammstein's fragrance philosophy distilled into something genuinely unconventional. Alexandre Illan has crafted a scent that refuses the expected trajectory of a celebrity fragrance, instead pivoting toward the genuinely odd and confrontational. The grapefruit zest opener is crisp and assertive, but the real intrigue lies in what happens beneath: cannabis absolute and vetiver create an earthy, almost medicinal green bed, whilst Sichuan pepper tingles with a numbing heat that feels distinctly neurological rather than merely spicy.
This is a fragrance for those who've grown weary of safe, inoffensive compositions. It possesses the fractious personality of its namesake band—beautiful and unsettling in equal measure. The vetiver doesn't ground in the traditional sense; instead, it destabilises, creating a slightly uncomfortable juxtaposition against the bright citrus. That cannabis note, rather than reading as transgressive flirtation, functions as an honest declaration: this smells like something, unabashedly. The elemi resin adds a sticky, almost synthetic-pine quality that prevents the composition from ever becoming too natural or comfortable.
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3.7/5 (109)