Knize Ten Golden Edition

Strongly animalic leather smoothed out with powdery iris and vaguely clove-smelling carnation. There is a fresh citrus opening and a vanilla tinged, musky drydown. But the leather is ever present throughout. This scent is a bit perplexing as it is simultaneously more animalic and smoother than the original. The longevity and projection here are also both stronger than the original. I have both and enjoy them both. The original has suffered as the castoreum has disappeared from it. Once utterly harmonious in its Germanic precision blending of floral, spicy and animalic notes Knize Ten original today strikes me as a bit all over the place because the aromachemicals substituted for the IFRA-proscribed ingredients have adversely impacted the way the disparate elements of the fragrance work with each other. Golden Edition, by contrast, has come through reformulation in far better condition and forms a more harmonious whole. If you are not a mature guy who enjoys rougher leather, the original might, barely, work for you. Golden Edition won't. I love old school, hard core, rough leather scents like this one and Santa Maria Novella's Peau d'Espagne, vintage English Leather and Aramis. Accordingly, I love Knize Ten Golden Edition (& my vintage bottle of the original K10 as well). If you are a lover of leather scents this fragrance is well worth testing. But unless you are a confirmed old school leather scent lover, don't blind buy this. (Lucky Scent sells Knize products and sells inexpensive samples in addition to offering you the chance to request samples in which you're interested with any order.) I love this stuff, you might just love it too.

The Golden Edition is a condensed, amped-up version of the original Knize Ten that's a bit more apt for colder weather, specifically, but at the same time lacks of some of the freshness both in the opening and heart of the original, and in that respect, distances me from what I love about the original. I definitely get oakmoss in the Golden Edition whereas I didn't detect it all in the original, and combined with the leather, it creates a certain masculine spicy heaviness that didn't weigh down the original. Beyond that, it's a similar note list on paper--citruses, petitgrain, rosemary, etc.--but it's just less open and floral from beginning to dry down than the original. I still like Golden Edition a lot, but it's less fresh, versatile, and classic-smelling than the original, overall, though it does still remind me of some of the 80s/90s powerhouse fragrances. It feels near-impossible to judge Golden Edition outside of the context of the original, but on its own, it's a good, strong, spicy men's fragrance that's likable and worth trying, for sure. 7 out of 10

Opens full citrusy, but with upended with the petitgrain here. Soon after, the floral and wood assortments come out, geranium pushing to be the most prominent here followed by carnation, rose, jasmine, and iris, in that order of intensity. Arguably, the woodsy notes are even less prominent than any florals...but these middle notes aren’t what particularly stand out (with a caveat). There is some sort of mechanical-esque leather portrayed here, almost identical of what you’d find in MV Agusta - Xerjoff/Start Your Engines – The Dua Brand, but here IMO is slightly less intense, and less nuanced in regards to this genre. You can make out the oak moss just barely, but the vanilla, amber and musk really just become lost as supportive elements of what’s already being strongly portrayed here—an unapologetically bright leather. Since I have no need for another clone of the same frag, albeit differently nuanced that foregoes any florals, a FB isn’t necessitated here but I still like this very much regardless.

Mellow, dense, and beautifully blended, this is just what I would want a retro leather fragrance to be. One of my biggest disappointments this year was sampling the original Knize Ten, which seemed to me to be too harsh and sharp-edged--I've later heard that this most current incarnation doesn't hold a candle to the way the original fragrance was concocted before IFRA regulations. This special flanker is much more what I had been hoping for: a rich leather which balanced by elegant flowers (particularly a nice iris note) and a little citrus. (It is missing the raspberry note of the original Knize Ten, but I did not miss it.) There are no rough edges here--everything comes together so perfectly. While this is certainly not the kind of thing perfume houses put out today for their newest fragrances, this smells timeless to me rather than old-fashioned. An odd detail: while wearing this, I kept thinking how beautifully it would blend with tobacco if I were a smoker.

This is the fragrance that i can't travel without as i was introduced to it in 2014 only! it just changed my mind in the direction that the Cuoio Nobile by Pineider was nothing but a kid towards his sensei! specially with this version as it is more masculine, more long lasting, and quite offensively seduction. the kind of leather this fragrance presents is the heavy rain, dry rice, and the extreme masculine olfactive. you can't get used to it easily unless you are very open to try new things that might collapses your believes and principles if they weren't built on a robust powerful base... sounds harsh eh ;) it's neither harsh nor skunk, neither safe nor husky, it is quite the leather that only the man with extreme confidence would wear IF he liked it ;) and it's quite similar to Cuir Mauresque by Serge Lutens but with more masculinity and more toughness. NEVER buy it without trying it even if it's quite cheap to you.