Fleur de Maté

This is absolutely beautiful!! It kinda reminds me of eros for some reason, but only as a more mature and elegant way. Smells green, floral, somehow very soft and musky, and the patchouli is very well rounded. There's an underlying woody floral note on the dry down that i absolutely love!! This is what i would expect from Versace, and the presentation is beautiful, the bottle is center piece worthy! Its not a monster when it comes to longevity, but definitely solid 6 hours!! Love it

This is nothing like A*Men Pure Wood. Amazing oriental frag. Loved it.

Okay so... all things considered this is my favourite of this line and it’s a lukewarm ‘like’ rather than anything else which I suppose speaks volumes about the line. For a start... You’re a little late to the party no Versace? By having a ‘Prive’ line I mean. Well never too late to make money I guess huh? But among the cookie cutter, well executed but talk about paint by numbers, soulless line up... ya know? an amber one, a fresh one, an oud rose one blaaaahhh!! This stands out for use of mate (in the name) but I don’t really smell what I’d expected, nor is it particularly easy to ‘get’ for most I suspect, unlike many of the others which just seem dialled up to 11 for luxurious purposes, which is okay I guess I’m just bored of how formulaic these high end lines are. Anyway I found this an odd, wooly, woody amber, musky combo which sits low on the skin and feels ‘balmy’ to me. Fleur du mate, has something of a ambergris quality to me, not quite the mate I’d thought in my head but this could be characteristic of this particular material used (I don’t claim to know all the mate out there) and the way Oliver Cresp has put this unsweetened, creative perfume amongst this list of usual suspects is commendable. In fact I’ve recently revisited his Akro brand and I feel as though I was a little hasty to dismiss them (well I don’t recall giving glowing appraisals) because they are in fact quite a lot more interesting than much of the other ‘new’ stuff around. Yeah I enjoyed this, it’s a little slight perhaps for an expensive, opulent perfume you might want a bit more volume but that’s not what this is about.

The "maté" is just bc people will pronounce it māte and be confused. It does remind me of a Cresp creation, kind of ethereal not heavy. Not my cup of tea.

Heapfuls of dark, thick patchouli, minimal maté anywhere to be smelled. One might not know that there was any at all, if it weren't the name that makes one go digging for it.