L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme Summer Edition by Kevin Lucbert

This one is hard to review. I was torn between giving this a 'like' or an 'ok' but eventually I relented and gave it a 'like' because it is an Issey Miyake product if nothing else (yes, I'm biased.) The scent, as has been suggested by many reviewers before me, is indeed beautiful. It evokes the image of a forest by the sea in the summer Mediterranean. Kudos to the three perfumers who nailed the concept excellently. The result is something green, aromatic, sensuous, and refreshing. I normally strongly dislike any perfume with salt or marine notes in it, but this one is an exception. It is salty and marine, yes, but it just works with cypress, pine, fir, and eucalyptus. I never expected to be able to tolerate 'salty' fragrances but apparently this one is nice enough to convince me otherwise. So far, so good, right? As for why I was inclined to rate this fragrance lower than I do, there are two reasons: first, sillage on me is almost nonexistent. I sprayed so much and yet I could barely detect the scent coming off of me. Others don't seem to experience this, I guess, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt here. Second, this smells much better on paper strip, clothes, or as an air freshener. On my skin, it develops into something rather too marine for my taste, like Bvlgari Aqva pour homme (another beautiful scent that sadly seems to work better on clothes than on my skin). That said, this is still a good scent and I don't really regret getting it (but won't be stocking it up either). The exact image that this reminds me of is the scene from the first book of Clive Barker's Abarat, when Candy (the protagonist) literally summoned the sea to her hometown for the first time. I'm getting off topic here. But do give it a try if you're into summery or aromatic green fragrances. I also did try the women's version and whilst I personally prefer that one, this is also very decent.

L'eau D'Issey Pour Homme has more satellites orbiting around it than earth, and, according to the house's critics, some of it might be "space junk." It is a pity that Issey Miyake adopted the flank-a-thon model as a marketing strategy. So many of their greatest fragrances are easily overlooked or lost in an admittedly confusing constellation of similarly named and similar-looking objects. One needs a star-chart to keep track of them all. This new version takes the proverbial cake in an awkward and confusing name: L'eau D'Issey Pour Homme (hundreds of them by now) Summer Edition (dozens of them) by Kevin Lucbert...who? What? WHY? You have to read the ad copy to understand what that all means. Issey Miyake, your marketing team needs an enema. But this fragrances doesn't. It is a perfect example of a great scent that will get overlooked and few will ever try precisely because of the confusing marketing. What a pity! This is superb summer release- atop the traditional citrus/aquatic Miyake DNA sits a lovely green, piney, aromatic tapestry woven of the silkiest thread- no harshness, no overbearing pine/citrus cleaner smell. Cypress, pine, and basil are born on the wind, mixing with a hint of saltiness from the sea. Eucalyptus is present but somehow avoids that medicinal quality if overused. Everything here is done with the lightest touch, blended so well. The performance is naturally toned down as so delicate a composition would suggest, so adjust expectations. For a fresh summer scent, it is just fine. Are you a Miyake fan? This is a must-try! Are you critical of this house's galaxy of releases? Well, I certainly understand that line of thinking. Still, this is a unique fresh non-bleu offering, and that is something to get excited about.

This is a superb release, I tried it in the mall with some other stuff and tried it on my skin because I didn't put enough juice on the blotter to test it correctly. Coming out of the shop and smelling it on the back of my hand, I fell in love instantly. It's a beautiful and uplifting citrus with some green-herbal elements, the water notes and bergamot are obvious in the opening, the smell is juicy, mellow and slightly tart, very natural. Gets a bit herbal in the middle, I was sure there was basil in this, without checking the note list, it's there, but accompanies the bergamot and the water notes efficiently, and blends so well with the 2 other notes. The base is woodier, I can smell the pine/cypress elements, but the basil from the mid and the aquatic notes/ bergamot from the opening are still there. It even gets a bit sweet, with a slight lemon sherbet vibe in the far drydown. This is a perfectly balanced citrus scent, where each note plays its role superbly without shadowing the other elements. It's never too citric, sharp, aquatic or woody. More importantly, the drydown is as good and interesting as the opening, it's not often that you can get such a feature from a summer designer scent. I can easily say this is my favourite Issey Miyake and already one of my favourite freshie I've ever tried.

I was able to buy this for about 27 euros, so for the money I paid this fragrance offers a fair value. To describe the scent of this you take the original L'Eau D'Issey tone down the citrus by half and replace it with some conifers. The fragrance opens very sharp and in the start I only smell the conifers, which makes the top to woody and sharp for my taste. It takes about 15 minutes for the citruses to start to kick in, but only slightly in the first half hour. The fragrance is woody aromatic and after my two first wearings it seems to resemble two other fragrances I have in my collection Encre Noir Sport and Rasasi Oudh al Misk. The main difference is the opening as I said L'Eau d'Issey pour Homme by Kevin Lucbert does not have any citruses in the opening compared to the other two I mentioned. Also for the current moment I was not able to test them side by side as of yet, since the two later mentioned are not available at my current location. Regarding the longevity I get about 4 hours of longevity with about 1 hour of good projection. Based on future testing and side by side comparison I might come back to add more details to this review.

An absolute stunner and such a pity that this is a limited summer release. This scent straddles the line between fragility and masculinity to create a sublime juxtaposition. One can definitely small the same inspiration as Issey Miyake Eau & Cedre as it shares one perfumer but the floral twist to it is just so beautiful. It is like a stroll through a wooded garden. I have literally stocked up on 4 bottles of it. This fragrance should be permanent and by far surpasses Wood & Wood and Eau & Cedre while drawing on some similar elements. Sillage and longevity being moderately low is compensated for easily by just applying more of it than one generally would. Nowadays, just like in music, the more bombastic and loud perfumes seem to have a larger following but this is a reminder that one can be sophisticated and enchanting without having to shout it from the rooftops. This is lovely and I can't get enough of it.