mat; homme

Beautiful bottle + clearance on Frag-net led me to try this one, despite the few and mostly unenthusiastic reviews below. The concept of the fragrance is pretty appealing, and the fragrance itself: well, it’s okay! There’s something familiar, harkening back to a sweet fresh powdery 90s memory that is maybe a little unremarkable, but also quite pleasant. The lavender-conifer thing here is nice, reminds me ever so slightly of Odin 03 Century, like a minty, green incense (but watery instead of smoky). This is pretty soft, gently masculine, and appropriate for the quiet sage of the office who doesn’t really want to get noticed, but exudes a slight, comfortable aura.

Pine-Infused Onsen (Jerome De Marino, 2020) Scentrack: Ryuichi Sakamoto - Opus As an enthusiast for Japanese aesthetics, I could not miss this peculiar Masaki Matsushima bottle design and its Wabi Sabi coloring. It was hypnotizingly attracted to buy a piece of serenity in this crazy world. I confess, the fragrance itself and notes were not crucial this time. Luckily, I was not let down. Mat; Homme, created by Jerome de Marino, was the peace I was looking for. Like entering a warm Japanese onsen surrounded by pine trees under a clothe of snow. A touch of citrus fruits as an overture to wet pine accompanied by cedar-like fragrant body. There is a pinch of sweetness in the opening as well, probably due to the small dose ethyl maltol, creating a short-lived Baccarat Rouge effect. Elemi by its citrus-resin combo provides a soft transition to the more resinous part of the creation. The resins are soft and accompanied by even softer florals. Lavender and saffron are well hidden, and even cinnamon is pale and soft. The base is polished and almost unidentifiable. I guess an Iso E Super cedar sparkled with a touch of ambroxane and musk. The whole composition is soft and introspected. Taken all together, mat; Homme is a nice soft creation with a distinctive Japanese character. A bottle of serenity in a mad world we are living. Still, I hope this wise quote will not fulfill: “Serenity now, insanity later”. Scentimentalwords

You like it or not .. its rough version of Issey M. and Kenzo without fitness or fluidity...not bad but bit more manly and harsher. I like it Im sucker for All Japanese parfume so I like it but be careful its bitter and harsh one..

#456 in my "Tour de Fragrance" FragranceNet, one of the online retailers I occasionally shop with, sent this sample along. Never heard of the designer or the scents. Looking at the bottle designs I probably would never have ordered something like this for myself. My impression is people buy Matsushima frags more to collect the bottle designs than for the fragrance. Design art is not something I'm into, so anything but a super simple bottle is wasted on me, and I even find it annoying. If you've seen the plain bottle Loewe's frags come in, that my style. As to this scent, if you like Jacques Bogart's "Silver Scent" line or Issey Miyake's "Pour Homme" you'll probably be okay with this, and it's not expensive, $25-30. It's a pretty straight forward woody-spicy. Slight conifer lean. Poor performance by my standards (couple of hours tops). But, carpool. elevator, office safe. Not a club or date scent. You could wear this at a formal event. In hot weather it'll dissipate quickly. But if this were my style and I had limited budget I would probably just spend $12 on Vicky Thiel's "Ulysee", which I think for what it is and how it's priced, getting a 3.97 rating on here is a pretty good showing. Same sort of fragrance and performance but with more interesting floral notes.

Got a sample, very disappointing. Smells citrusy-aquatic-woodsy and has a noticeable similarity with Invictus. They wrote up a nice story to this fragrance and the notes sound promising, but the fragrance smells generic and known (Invictus). The whole marketing write up has no connection with the fragrance. This would have been a good release a decade ago, but now? Totally uninspiring