Brass Dream

A Scent Alloy of Lipstick and Penknife It is barely a few months since ZARA released the Rusty Metal collection, and a brand new metal, or better alloy, is ready to join it, that is Brass Dream. Since there was no tester available and a lot of people waiting on line at the cash, I opted for blindly buy it. In the end, as a collector, I'd have bought it anyway. The package is the same as the other three, both the box and the bottle have a distinctive bright gold-like color. In case you missed it, brass is a metallic alloy that is made of copper and zinc, and this scent is an amalgams, a sub-type of alloy, either. Brass Dream opens up with an explosion of lipstick and penknife accord, an attractive and appealing mix of the floral butteriness of milky vanilla iris and the deep woodiness of freshly cut cedarwood... Whoa! Cedar overloads with the top notes so if you're not a fan of cedar you'd better stay away from this beast. Indeed, if you love cedar then this is a quality fragrance that deserves a try. The initial blast is reminiscent of Dior Homme but this soon morphs into something better and different. It's not as overbearing as Dior Homme, but softer and quieter. Average peoples probably couldn't get or tell a difference anyway. The spicy peppery cardamom gently joins that opening, yet it is not too heavy, spicy, or medicinal to cover the other notes. Beautiful, no question about it. Next, in the heart, everything blends together and it smells much like a light pencil sharpener cedar note. It's not loud. It's not rosy, nor sweet. It's just a very inert all-around crowd-pleasing scent. Again, this time the heart is closely akin to Montana Graphite, I mean they are not alike yet they share the same pencil sharpener vibe, the reason why I strongly chased and blindly bought the latter. After this, it becomes more aromatic, warmer, deeper and a little sweet. Of course, ZARA reports just 3 main notes, but a few more are present and clearly detectable through the scent lifetime. I find the aromatic lavender and sage manage to dissuade the buttery orris and sweet vanilla from becoming too prominent. Despite it has been released these days, in the middle of the summer, and I' wearing it right now for testing it, it is really a great one for the fall and winter in my opinion. I find the longevity and sillage both adequate for a men EDP and suitable for office, yet they could have boosted the projection more and it still would not be offensive. This new release is still very attractive, with a schoolroom scent of pencil shavings that, after an hour or two, settles down into a delightful, if not especially unusual fragrance of the kind that’s often described as ‘classically masculine’, a bit woody and aromatic without being bitter, slightly sweet without being at all cloying. As aforementioned, to me, this reminds me of Dior Homme and Montana Graphite because of the way orris and cedar are blended here. It's not a knockoff of any of those two scents, but I wouldn't doubt if they were its inspiration. -Elysium

It's similar to prada l'homme and valentino uomo intense, but not the same! Wouldn't say it's a clone, but has a very strong iris vibe, more simple than uomo, but less clean than l'homme. Nice fragrance overall, worth the try (and the price is amazing as every zara fragrance.. ).

the lipstick accord in the initial blast is very strong and may be off putting to some. Luckily, this has a very nice, fresh drydown. Agree with Prince64 that the notes are more varied than the three shown. Do not agree with those that say it is similar to Prada L'homme which has a softer iris and more powdery dry down.

Very prominent cedar note fragrance. Iris is semi sweet and plays second role. Overall this is very pleasant clean/dry cedar-iris frag with spicy undertone. Good performance.

Quite ok. Similar to prada intense but I guess only because of the iris note. I can imagine wearing it in winter anyways it's not something I'd die for. Medicore - that should be the name of it.