Escentric 02 Extrait

Minor differences with the OG, I do get less of the gin tonic and citrus accord, it goes into a smoother, a bit woodier and powdery finish. Still has this beautiful, airy, nostalgic vibe throughout. I'm a big fan of the profile, so I really love this. But I don’t think you need both versions, I'd say this lasts longer than the OG, but it doesn't feel like it pushes a lot off my skin

A refined and subtly charming scent. It wears well across many situations thanks to its clean, mineral-ambery character, and it genuinely smells very good. That said, the performance is more intimate than you might expect. Instead of a wide, projecting trail, it stays close and quietly radiates. If you like “invisible but elegant”, it’s a strong pick.

I just bought Molecule 01 + Champaca (lovely!) and received an E02 Extrait. It is heavenly. Works for any occasion, it performs well and it's unisex. I was put off reading the reviews which indicated it was leaning masculine...it absolutely doesn't!

So it was like month and a half ago that the official Escentric Molecules Instagram channel started pushing Escentric 02 like crazy, which left me puzzled after a long time pushing their M+ line and their updated body lotion/body wash lines - making more sense since they were the latest/most updated releases. Now, I own all the EM scents (and have worked through all of their body washes too, mind), and every now and then when I wear them I will go in here on Fragrantica and read the latest user reviews of them etc, and so I happened to wear the E02 some weeks into this newfound interest in it by the Instagram account, and when I was searching for it ANOTHER Escentric 02 suddenly showed up, this one, the Extrait the parfum, of which the Instagram account had said absolutely NOTHING up until this point. Slightly bewildered I went to their official webbshop and lo and behold, there it was, official and possible to order from there (not shipping to Sweden where I live ofc for some reason), so I contacted a friend in Denmark who helped me order it for me and that was done the same day. From a customer service point of cure though, this is a TERRIBLE practice, to first push the E02 like crazy, possibly enticing people into buying it, only to a few weeks into that campaign say that "GUESS WHAT you could have bought this NEW scent instead of the 15+ years old one but now you gotta order AGAIN if you want it HAHAHA gotcha". I would have been FURIOUS. Now, I will say I was VERY disappointed when I realised they were making an especially potent version of ESCENTRIC 02 out of the entire line, because while an avid fan of the entire EM catalogue of scents, and LOVING the M02, the E02 was by and large the scent I like the LEAST out of the 17 bottles available up to that point. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with it AS SUCH, but it just doesn't excite me at all. QUITE a few of the others I can almost get a bit giddy with happiness about knowing it's coming up so I get to wear it, but with this one it's just, "oh it's time for that one again". It could also be that I REALLY dislike Gin&Tonic as a drink, and a lot of people are comparing its scent profile here to that particular drink. Another thing that irked me is that they're now making their second "fancier" perfume, directly after the richie rich exclusive that is H01, and I worry that they're heading in this direction, from being a niche quirk, which is fun and respected, to trying to be more upscale and flashy, which upon delivery was also mirrored in the oversized casing, same size as the H01, while all the other EM bottles come in a much more form-fitting no frills and BS box. On a HIGHLY positive note, however, and this has already almost become a joke in the EM fan community, the most intriguing thing about this bottle is that it finally, FINALLY, 18 scents down the line, comes with a CAP, a beautiful, on-colour scheme quite heavy metal thing that slips satisfyingly snug over the atomiser AND gratifyingly enough also works with ANY other bottle of EM, so no longer any need to being the entire box when travelling. And so for the scent itself? I would say that basically it's what E02 should always have been (including the cap). I'm imagining I'm feeling the ambroxan base a lot more this time around, and also the switch from "Gin&Tonic" to "Almdudler" as the drink to mimic definitely rubs me the right way, and longevity does seem prolonged too. Worth the €70 price increase for a larger box, metal cap and switch of drink base? No. A much better Escentric 02 than the original Escentric 02? Yes. So what does the future now hold for Escentric Molecules? Are they running out of molecular pairing ideas for EM06 or natural pairing ideas for M+ so that we'll now see unnecessary "extrait" iterations of ALL the Escentrics at random time intervals? I'm worried that the answer is yes, but I would love to be wrong. (AND MAKE THINGS IN YOUR WEBSHOP AVAILABLE TO ALL EU COUNTRIES, for God's sake. Absolutely ridiculous that I have to rely on the kindness of international friends to get this shipped or brought to me from a neighbouring country when both countries are in the EU.)

Summer of '08 in a bottle. Something felt deeply nostalgic when I first sprayed a sample of this - like a throwback to a simpler time. It has that fresh, energizing, woodsy, citrusy scent profile everyone seemed to be wearing in those days. It's the kind of fragrance you took for granted back then, but you really come to appreciate its simplicity today. A very slight powderiness in the dry-down keeps it from being linear. But I have to agree with others about the weak performance. On me, it fades to a skin scent after just 30 minutes.