Norrland

I still sustain my opinion from 3 months ago, stating that it opens like Dunhill Icon and dries down like Terre d'Hermes, although I do not consider it to be a clone of either, unless... ... unless you layer it with Zara Orange Zest (2 sprays of Norrland and then 1 spray of Orange Zest). Then yes... you do get a 100% scent like Terre d'Hermes.

This fragrance opens like Dunhill Icon and devellops and dries down like Terre d'Hermés. It's a calm cologne although with EDP concentration. It's the best of the trio with Scandinavian names (personal opinion). The notes published by Zara are: Grapefruit - Pepper - Vetiver I paid 10.00 € for the 100 ml flask.

Straight up. Smelled this a while ago when it first came out, but only pulled the trigger about a week ago. It's already been discounted (red tagged) which means that it's probably going to disappear soon to make room for something else - as per Zara usual. Either way, the scent is simple enough to describe - it's 85-95% TdH EDP. The EDP is key, because the EDT smells quite different. Take out some of the complexity, water it down and you've basically got it. Projection is about the same, and perhaps even a tad better. Personally, I've always found that synthetic notes tend to have better performance than the real stuff, and this is probably just another example. The opening is pretty harsh and the grapefruit note is very sour and synthetic on my skin. Not so pleasing. But wait for it - the magic starts to appear about 10 minutes in. The sourness moves WAYYY back and the clean and powdery vetiver comes out to shine. And where's the pepper? I don't get any pepper. It's basically a straight up vetiver made up of a mish-mash of pleasing compounds. It's not dirty, it's not orangy, and it's not gingery like Orange Zest. It's not even soapy. It's just a SIMPLE vetiver scent that's incredibly close to TdH EDP, but without that characteristic orange. In fact, for any beginner out there who's just getting into vetivers, this is easily the PERFECT frag IMO. It's dirt cheap, it's simple and it gets the job done. And speaking of...what a great one for the workplace! Scent - 8/10 Longevity - 7/10 Projection - 7.5/10 Overall - 7.5/10 - ZARA - the acme of value.

Out of Zara's Tiveden and Norrland I choose Norrland. It is woodier without having freshly-cut trees smell, like in Tiveden. I Am always sad, seeing old trees been chopped down, so this sensation ruined Tivenden for me. Also Tivenden is like Stash SJP with no teeth, Stash removed from its best features and with lots of cucumbers. Norrland from other hand keeps this foresty-woody magic, it is more aromatic due to vetiver and pepper, more earthy, more viking-land like, it reminds me of Jatamansi L'Artisan, (other reviewer have mentioned traces of Timbuktu, I would agree as well) that I find meditative and healing. It is more synthetic than Jatamansi, still very enjoyable and clean, would imagine it is great to wear both for office and for outdoors. Not sure it reminds me of Terre d'Hermes though, rather no, than yes.

Don't think this is a Terre d'Hermes clone. Do think you can say it smells as it was inspired by it. they both share that dirty orange vibe, but, as noted by others, TDH is brighter and more mineral. If you like TDH, you should like this, but don't expect it to be a replacement. Like Dunhill Icon you get an initial blast of citrus that dries down to pepper, but, once again, not a clone. All the above being said, this is a great scent on it's own. The ingredients are nicely blended and it performs way above it's price point. Interestingly, I feel it shares the same musty undertones as Tivedin, but not as pronounced. Longevity not bad, goes down to a skin scent sooner than what I would expect from an EDP.