Cherche l'homme: Azzaro Decibel and Jean-Paul Gaultier Kokorico

By Marina Interestingly, among the recently smelled new releases, the standouts for me turned out to be two masculine scents. The most thrilling fragrance came from an unlikely source, Azzaro. Their incensey Decibel with its "burning prunes" quality took me off guard. There is something simultaneously severe and sensual in the main, incense, accord, with licorice adding a slight fruity effect and vanilla softening the jagged angles of the central accord. Rather then darkening and intesifying, it thins and freshenes as it dries down, and at no point during the development would I call it uber masculine. Definitely unisex. Gorgeous on a woman who likes this kind of smoldering, husky sweetness. Jean-Paul Gaultier put his new scent into a bottle that is both his profile and the outline of his back and butt. It's a nice butt, and the composition of Kokorico is unexpectedly good too. The patchouli is chocolatty, a transparent mimosa note in the top lifts the blend, iris in the middle fluffies it up, licorice enhances the edible aspect...It's all quite intricate and fun. By the end, patchouly shakes off the gourmandness and becomes green and earthy, and it's not a bad turn, in my book.  Licorice-lovers, also look for Diesel's Loverdose, which I found myself enjoying a whole surprising lot.