Daimo

My second sampling from the Lubin Aristia Collection (via Perfumology) is Daimo, a dry, spicy, woody/leather that’s a great mix of smooth and sharp, well-executed, from a sharp citrus/violet top to a dry down of leather, clove, patchouli, sandalwood, and amber. The top is sharp enough and remains well into the dry down. It doesn’t evolve so much from sharp to smooth, but more or less remains a balance of sharp and smooth throughout. It offers a feeling of sophistication, dry and sober, and, as mentioned by another reviewer, medicinal, but not distractingly so, in my onion. It similarly walks the line between safe and daring, and feels very appropriate as a cool-weather signature-type scent for men. Overall, it’s a nice fragrance and performs well (at parfum concentration), a bit more my speed than Condottiere, though both are very nice and I look forward to trying the rest of the collection. It performs very well and, like the rest of the Aristia Collection, is priced at $290 for 100ml and is sold in the US only via Perfumology, to my knowledge, where the entire collection is sold out. 7 out of 10

I tested this in Lubin's shop in Paris and took a sample home with me. Wearing it now I feel disappointed. It is a very pleasing composition and it smells very elegant and sophisticated, but the performance for a extrait of parfum is really poor. It vanishes to a whisper after less then 2 hours on my skin. Scent wise it is not unlike many things I have smelled before. A staunch, waxy leather and crisp ozonic violet leaf, sweetened with peach, lemon and spiced with a searing clove. It wears like this for an hour before drying down to a dusty sandalwood. There's a fatty aldehyde in there too, which gives a clean soapy impression. In some ways it is similar to Chanel 'Sycamore', but with violet leaf substituting vetiver. Atelier's 'Vetiver Fatale could be another similarity' if it had leather. It has the same sharp, ozonic bitterness and a hint of something sweet. It's nice, but I expected more. This could be a men's designer fragrance for less than half the price. The performance just isn't good enough to warrant a bottle.

I got a complimentary sample of this in an order, so I didn’t know what to expect. I’m sure this makes no sense, but on me, this smells slightly medicinal with whiffs of hot cross bun. It settles down quickly, and doesn't seem to have much longevity. It is interesting but personally, I didn’t enjoy it. My partner has been using the sample a lot though!