Klubwasser

One of, if not the best, green fragrance I have ever encountered. I'd like to thank the reviewer Altar Obscura below, whose review convinced me to blind buy this fragrance all the way from Vienna."Photo"realistic (olfactorealistic?) green fragrances are one of the reasons I even got into collecting fragrances in the first place. It's a kind of aromatherapy to replicate the smells of my childhood, growing up in the Philippines, and although fresh green fragrances are quite common, I've found that true forest, bitter leafy-green fragrances are a rarity.Klubwasser is one of those gems. The experience upon first spray is my favorite of any fragrance--wet grass and spicy green, like I just took a fistful of fresh leaves and crushed them in my hands. This is very literal experience; there's no "suggesting" or obvious manipulation of materials to achieve an "effect," this is the real deal. This banana leaf accord is something so unique, and the smell my nose has been craving for living in dry California. Unfortunately for me, this stage doesn't last too long, and the beautiful, bitter ivy and aromatic elemi start to take over. Here, the experience moves from freshly crushed leaves to freshly broken woody stems. The resins here work harmoniously with quality angelica and galbanum to create a fresh sap feel running down your fingers. Guaic wood balances it with a subtle woody sweetness. Beneath all of this is an incense-y balsam and even deeper is a soapy neroli that suggests some type of humanness--like someone living in an old house deep in the forest. It wavers between this photorealistic fresh sap and spicy incense/balsam scent for the majority of its life, before settling on a green, slightly spicy balsam. My only wish is that the opening lasted much longer, because it is, to my nose, the perfect scent. Strangely, the experience of Klubwasser moves you from the tropical jungles to the old growth forests of Northern California or Europe. Regardless, it is one of the most beautiful, complex (yet deceptively simple) fragrances I've had the pleasure of wearing.

The fragrance of a forest nymph: An extremely green, verdant, slightly spicy and resinous scent, reminiscent of the underbrush. Very natural. Great in particular for sunny days. Freudian Wood is my current signature scent, but this one is nice to vary it up with. Not as dry and bracing as Ys Uzac's Sacre de Princeps, but more fleshed out with resins, ivy, and banana leaves, giving it a more full bodied, less stark expression. It is exotic and warm undergrowth. Day 2: The banana leaf gives it a tropical tone, that is friendly and moist smelling. In comparison to a similar scent like Ys Uzac's Sacre de Princeps, it is more moist-tropical. What Klubwasser gains from its more resinous, aromatic qualities, it loses in terms of a bracing, dry tone like Ys Uzac's. The smell is quite grassy, like a tropical, slightly resononous and aromatic undergrowth. Continuing to compare it with Sacre de Princeps, Sacre de Princeps is more sour and less sweet, more bracing and austere, lending itself to a dry purity of olificatory delight. Wienerblut's Klubwasser relies on the same basic notes: galbanum, angelica, guaic wood -- but takes a greener turn. Whereas Ys Uzac uses vetiver for the more woody effect and blackcurrent for a little ammonia, Klubwasser brings on top banana leaf, stinging nettle, and Ivy to present a much bigger green scent. The Ys Uzac is a bit of a classier scent, with its austere, retrained dryness, while the Klubwasser is a bit more casual and exuberant, producing a languid, moist, and more exotic experience. It can be a good scent to create uncanny contrast in a snowy city environment, with the yellow-green banana leaf producing a very attractive smell I obsessively come back to. The angelica root is big and round, accompanied with some pungent ivy. Galbanum is clear, but not at the forefront all the time. The resinous elimi produces a bit of a fun haziness. Altogether, this is a very grassy, subtle, elegant, and charming fragrance.

The scent of angelica is riveting and complex, with its top notes, peppery, herbaceous, even somewhat coniferous due to certain terpenes. This yields to a core that is weedy, phloem, cortex-like, like young wood, sappy, and ever so slightly bitter. However, it is the base of angelica, and particularly from within its roots, that is most fascinating: it's heaving, vegetal muskiness. Cyclopentadecanolide occurs in small quantities in its essential oil, and is responsible for this musk odor. It is synthetically reproduced through what is commercially known as Exaltolide. This muskiness is quite unlike the typical animalic/erotic sensations or the fresh laundry baskets that we associate with various musks. It feels alive and fleshy, but also inherently flora rather than fauna. WienerBlut captures this in their Klubwasser, a feral green, with brambles and briars, unruly and humming. It feels like a darker, whiskery green, reminding me of the leaves and stems that have trichomes: the prolonged epidermal cells that look like peach fuzz hair. It feels like a wet and spicy fistful of ivy leaves or virginia creeper, the flow and gestalt of the garden allowed to be untamed. Sticky, tacky exudates and plumes of smoke from a distant hearth. Elemi, the lemony-peppery-adjacent-to-olibanum resin, fixes the brightness through the development, adhering to another resin I love: mastic, with facets almost resembling mimosa converging with fresh pine. The musk of angelica root moves forward along with green-woody-filtered-sunlight twinkles of the undergrowth that lies in the perimeter of the forest, abutting a meadow. This meadow has a tapestry of wildflowers, drenched in sun rays. Klubwasser is one of the most living, vital, deeply verdant fragrances I've smelled, and is perfect as summer transitions into autumn.

My first thought: Klubwasser is a careful, elaborated effort to mimic underwoods in the late summer. It does so incredibly successfully, and I am especially impressed with the rendering of angelica. I even get the impression of meadowsweet and other late summer bloomers. The base is rather fresh woody, and more evocative than any other “green” I have tried. If you are familiar with Beach Hut Man you will find a galbanum/ivy here that is reminiscent, and I am also led to think of H24 EDP for the banana leaf and something else I cannot quite put my finger on. But I would say Klubwasser is rather a sophisticated unisex perfume, leaning ever so slightly masculine — at least if you think of sap/phloem in perfumery as being more for men. There is no loudness, mint, or barbershop references here. A must try methinks.

This was an immediate love at first sniff. The opening is very daring and unique with a slightly bitter banana leaf accord you don't see very often in fragrances. I can see that the opening potentially put off some people. Personally, i love it; it transports me to a lush banana plantation somewhere in South America, with a lot moisture, shades and wind rustling through the trees. Then the sap of the banana leaf drips and mixes with the resine of the elemy and mantisque harmoniously to a very full-bodied and satisfying dry down, with a hint of incense lurking in the background making the composition a bit more airy. Overall, this is an evolving, very bouyant, sophisticated scent that will make its wearer standout without having to project too loud.