Caractere Sport

Caractere Sport surprised me - it really wasn't what I was expecting from the notes but that didn't turn out to be a bad thing. It's a moderate projector for a couple of hours before settling down to a skin scent. The initial opening for the first ten minutes is mostly the citruses but it isn't terribly pleasant. Maybe it's the bottle but the citruses were somewhat acrid. Fortunately they were pretty much gone within the hour and they were turned down considerably after about ten minutes. By an hour after application I found the mint and vanilla were the dominant notes. There was some tonka bean and lavender as well as hints of vetiver and something green in the background (more sage than basil). Two hours in and the dominant notes are the mint, vanilla and tonka bean. There is a hint of basil and sage and possibly a small hint of sandalwood. This continues for a while in that the remainder of the green and woody notes gently waft in and out of the background but the scent remains fairly linear. About four hours in and the fading begins. Six hours in the vanilla and tonka bean have all but gone: there's a tiny whiff of vanilla on one of my arms, and there's some dry wood and green notes left. It seems to be a combination of vetiver, wood, mint and sage. Another half an hour later and I'm left with vanilla and mild sweetness still on the left arm. It sticks around until somewhere between eight and eight and a half hours after the initial spray and then it's gone. I wasn't expecting a "sport" scent to be a vanilla and gently sweet dominated one. I know you can point to the likes of Chanel's Allure Sport Eau Extreme and others that do that but I just don't expect perfumes under the sport banner to go that way - I expect them to be fresh and either citrus or aquatic in their overall feel. Caractere is a pleasant enough fragrance but it's not quite enough to tempt me to explore the rest of the Daniel Hechter range. If you can get it cheaply as I did then it's worth a blind buy if you like a gently sweet vanilla perfume. It seems more suited to day wear than evenings and I think it is best avoided in winter and the cold weather.

Right from the start it's a winner for me. And with every hour it becomes more interesting. It reminds me of Lanvin's Eclat d'Arpège, they have the same feel (at this point I'd even say they smell alike but the notes are so different; so I must be wrong there (will run a side by side though). I'm not sure why it says "masculine", this could very well be a women's scent. It's mild sweet after a fresh opening and the lavender and sage are coming and going as they please. One minute I just get the lavender, the next it's sage or both. On me there's nothing sporty about it, nothing seductive although I can't stop sniffing because it smells so good (!), nothing offensive but it absolutely is more than just another scent. For just € 3.- 50ml I feel very lucky and happy with this blind buy. If you're running into it (or need to buy 1 more item to get free shipping like me) and you like Eclat d'Arpège then this is your match for springtime! ----------- I've run a side by side test;. the opening is very different but they have the same feel and about 30 minutes they are the same scent for a brief moment but then Caracter turns into a more sweeter and softer scent where EdA stays crips and a bit sharp.