Diesel Only The Brave Review

Only The Brave is Diesel’s newest offering, and is their second main Masculine release. The fragrance was developed by 3 perfumers at IFF – Aliénor Massenet, Pierre Wargnye, and Olivier Polge. Polge is adept at making scents that smell better on skin than they do on card – Only The Brave needs to be tested on the skin.

The opening is fresh: Lemon, sea breeze and Calone. Lasts for roughly 20 seconds and instantly forgettable. Which is good, because it isn’t remotely related to the rest of the fragrance. On a card, the top note remains for an age – and smells like any generic aquatic. On skin, it comes to life.
The heart is the most impressive part of the fragrance. The “freshness” recedes into a sweet and powdery Chocolate and Praline, with hints of Ambrette. It reminds me of Dior Homme Intense, from the Chocolate, and Paco Rabanne Ultrared, with it’s Icing Sugar and Orange notes, all underneath a light ozone-like note. Almost like a combination of Allure Homme Sport and Ultrared. A slightly smoky note hangs around, at the ‘edges’ of the fragrance, and eventually decides that it won’t come onto the stage, so that the momentary hairspray Violet note from Kenzo Power can appear.
The ‘drydown’, if you can call it that, is the combination of sweetness, Vanilla, Icing Sugar coated Amber notes with a hint of Patchouli, and feels somewhat similar to Guerlain’s L’Instant pour Homme.
Even though it’s a case of “smelled it all before”, it’s still quite a novel combination and is easily wearable for summer.

Top: Lemon, Mandarin
Middle: Cedar, Coriander, Violet
Base: Amber, Styrax, Labdanum

The Offenders of ‘08 – Mini Reviews (Ladies)

Several feminines have been released this past year and only a few were sufficiently interesting to me. The flankers of flankers, the Poison Elixirs, are fantastic variations on the theme. The following (among many) I did not enjoy at all.

Marc Jacobs Daisy EdP – The original, EdT, annoyed me. I loved the cutesy lid, with it’s rubbery Daisies. I wanted to like the perfume. I wanted it to smell like Daisy perfumes we used to make as kids, mashing up the daisies in water with petals from other flowers (also known as ‘not terribly successful experiments’). Unfortunately, liking the packaging isn’t a good enough reason to like this generic fragrance. Could the EdP improve on the letdown that was the EdT? No. Banana Milkshake and the cheap soaps that were sold in the chemist by our house when we were kids. Should evoke good memories, but instead grates on me.

Diesel Fuel for Life Unlimited – Fruity Musk. Not as good or original as Fuel for Life.

Christina Aguilera Inspire – Perhaps it could do with some inspiration. A dull fruity floral for dull girls.

Kelly Brook Vivacious – Like opening a bag of Haribo starmix, there could be some promise here. Kelly said she wanted a glamorous and sophisticated perfume. That should make a change, I thought. Maybe this time there’ll be more than 3 “fried eggs” in the bag. But I always seem to feel let down by celebuscents. The fragrance smells so sweet and sickly that your teeth would probably rot if you wore it. And the starmix didn’t have any fried eggs for me.

Kate Moss Velvet Hour – Steals it’s marketing from Armani Code, and it’s name from L’Heure Bleue. Bland Floral Musk. It has no taste or much of an interesting smell.

Givenchy Ange ou Demon EdT – Powdery Cough syrup. At least the EdP has a slightly enjoyable bubblegum note.