Rosewood

Dior

The plum and anise hit first with a dark, almost medicinal sweetness, like spiced fruit compote left to macerate overnight.

Givenchy

Amarige announces itself without apology.

Sarah Jessica Parker

Lavender opens the composition with a gentle herbal clarity, softened almost immediately by bergamot's citrus glow.

Versace

A blast of anise and basil announces itself immediately—herbal, slightly medicinal, with the crisp lift of bergamot cutting through.

Dolce & Gabbana

Light Blue pour Homme is built around clarity.

Nina Ricci

Few fragrances carry the weight of L'Air du Temps — a postwar release that became shorthand for romance itself.

Chanel

Allure Homme opens with a brightness that's both citrus-crisp and faintly sweet—bergamot and lemon cut through with a whisper of peach and the warmth of ginger.

Clinique

The opening is a medicinal jolt—bergamot sharpened by bitter clary sage, almost astringent, like crushed stems and citrus pith.

Paco Rabanne

The opening is sharper than you might expect—sage cutting through citrus like crushed herbs on cold stone.

Calvin Klein

Eternity for Men opens with a crisp aromatic wash—lavender softened by citrus, immediately clean but not clinical.

Elizabeth Arden

A melon-drenched opening announces itself immediately—dewy, sweet, and unmistakably early nineties.

Calvin Klein

The opening is a sharp citrus jolt tempered by lavender and a dusting of cinnamon—bracing, almost medicinal, with none of the sweetness you'd expect from a name like Obsession.

Moschino

The opening bursts with a bright citrus collision—yuzu's sharp edge softened by bergamot and petitgrain's green bitterness, with rosewood lending a subtle spice.

Xerjoff

Alexandria II opens with a peculiar contrast: bright apple laced with cinnamon's warmth, softened by lavender's aromatic haze.

Rochas

Femme announces itself with an unexpected contrast: ripe stone fruits and plum dusted with dry cinnamon, a baroque opening that feels both indulgent and restrained.

Agent Provocateur

The pink pepper here sparks quickly but politely—a fizz more than a bite—before ylang-ylang arrives with its creamy, slightly indolic sweetness.

Giorgio Armani

Sensi opens with a bright lime that quickly softens into a warm, honeyed embrace.

Guerlain

The opening is brisk and herbal—lavender and rosemary cut through with citrus—but within minutes, something stranger emerges.

Calvin Klein

Eternity Moment opens with a rush of ripe lychee and raspberry, a fruity sweetness that's more juice-stained silk than candy shop.

Amouage

Ubar opens with a bright citrus spray tempered by the green, almost metallic snap of violet leaf—an unusual choice that keeps the introduction from drifting into conventional cologne territory.

Estée Lauder

The opening suggests rosewood touched with neroli—warm, slightly spiced, and immediately floral without veering into sharpness.

Ralph Lauren

A blast of icy mint and lavender announces itself with the subtlety of a dive into cold water—bracing, athletic, deliberately loud.

Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren's Lauren is one of those 1978 releases that understood exactly what fragrance was for.

Montblanc

With no top notes specified, the composition begins directly in its creamy heart, sandalwood and rosewood weaving together into a warm, slightly milky woody base.

Coty

Emeraude, released in 1921, is one of the founding documents of the oriental fragrance family.

Joop!

Nightflight opens with a surprisingly bright collision of pineapple and lavender, the tropical fruit tempered by aromatic restraint.

Tiziana Terenzi

Maremma opens with a deceptive sweetness—bergamot and blackcurrant mingling with heady white florals that feel almost tropical in their lushness.

Hermès

The opening announces itself with herbal severity—tarragon and clary sage deliver a bitter, almost medicinal brightness that feels more like a tincture than cologne.

Penhaligon'S

A plume of cardamom and cinnamon opens with Victorian apothecary warmth, cut through by eucalyptus's medicinal coolness—an unexpected counterpoint that keeps the spice from becoming cloying.

Cartier

A woody-aromatic chypre from the Déclaration lineage with more structure in the opening than expected.

Dior

Dior Addict Eau Fraîche opens with a sweetened citrus brightness—bergamot and orange cut through by a distinct vanilla that announces itself immediately rather than waiting in the base.

Ramón Monegal

Flamenco opens with characteristically Iberian exuberance: apple and raspberry provide bright fruit sweetness, orange blossom adds citric-floral warmth, and violet begins the transition toward the floral heart.

Carner Barcelona

Tardes opens with a slightly dusty rose, softened by the warmth of rosewood and a faint almond sweetness that feels more like marzipan skin than extract.

Lorenzo Villoresi

Alamut opens with a white floral haze that feels simultaneously bright and shadowed—jasmine and osmanthus lend honeyed sweetness, while something darker already pulses beneath.

Lorenzo Villoresi

Villoresi's Yerbamate opens with a cool rush of mint and tarragon, tempered by ylang-ylang's faint floral sweetness.

Commodity

The opening feels closer to a library than a bookstore—polished wood shelving rather than fresh paperbacks.

Tesori D’Oriente

Tesori d'Oriente's Vaniglia e Zenzero del Madagascar opens with a bright ginger snap softened by bergamot, the spice warm rather than sharp.

Yohji Yamamoto

The opening of Yohji Homme feels like stepping into a minimalist studio—sage and cardamom cut through the air with herbal clarity, bergamot providing a brief citric flash before the composition settles into darker territory.

Lorenzo Villoresi

The opening arrives with a bright, green crack of galbanum and bergamot, immediately grounded by warm cardamom that announces this will not be a clean musk.

Salvador Dalí

Dalia opens with a contradiction: pomegranate and raspberry offer a bright, slightly tart sweetness, while galbanum cuts through with a cold, green sharpness that refuses to let the opening turn into simple fruit punch.

Estée Lauder

Aliage arrived in 1972 as something genuinely new: the first sports fragrance, designed for women who didn't want to stop being themselves when they moved.

Xerjoff

The third chapter in Xerjoff's Alexandria series opens on an inviting accord: cinnamon, rosewood, and lavender — warm, slightly sweet, with the lavender tempering the spice into something rounder than it first appears.

Van Cleef & Arpels

Named for Burma — a nod to the exotic East — Birmane from Van Cleef & Arpels opens with a tropical-citrus accord built around pineapple, lemon, and bergamot.

Giorgio Armani

Sensi White Notes opens with lime, lemon, and black currant — a bright, slightly tart citrus-fruit accord that's fresher than the Armani name might suggest.

Dior

An esprit de parfum concentration means this starts heavy.

Yves Rocher

Rosewood opens things cleanly, a warm woody note with a faint floral edge that eases into the heart without drama.

Van Cleef & Arpels

Murmure opens on freesia — bright, slightly green, faintly soapy — before giving way to a lush, candied floral heart.

Roberto Cavalli

Just Cavalli Pink is a mid-2000s feminine floral built for effortless everyday wear.

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle

Bergamot and orange lift the opening with a champagne sparkle, ylang-ylang's banana-floral creaminess fused with rosewood's pinkish woody warmth.

Frapin

Lemon, grapefruit, and bergamot strike a sharp citrus chord at the opening, with bitter rind and grapefruit's sulfuric tang lending bite.

Penhaligon'S

LP No 9 opens with rosewood and bergamot — a warm, slightly spiced citrus entry that signals the Oriental direction to come.

Molinard

The cologne interpretation of Habanita trades density for airiness without abandoning the original's lineage.

Givenchy

Ange ou Démon opens with an unusual pairing of mandarin brightness against saffron's dense, resinous warmth — a contrast that justifies the angel/demon concept immediately.

Faberlic

Collection Privée Ramyata opens with a dual spice accord — cinnamon and cardamom — that reads less as a kitchen cabinet and more as an Indian incense market.

Estée Lauder

Apple and raspberry open Dazzling Gold with sweet brightness — fig leaf adds a leafy green edge that stops it from reading purely as candy.

V Canto

Tonka bean and cocoa open the composition immediately, paired with a small bergamot lift that vanishes within minutes.

Cacharel

Bergamot opens briefly with a quick citrus snap, fading within a minute or two as the spicy-floral heart takes over.

Guerlain

Aqua Allegoria Forte Rosa Palissandro opens with lemon and coriander against a mild aldehydic brightness — clean and slightly abstract before the floral center takes hold.

MDCI Parfums

The opening throws a lot at once: tropical pineapple and melon over ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg, with lavender and basil cutting in cool.

Lancôme

A lighter, more aquatic interpretation of the Miracle Homme lineage, this 2003 flanker exchanges the original's warm amber foundation for something airier and herbaceous.

Chanel

The opening is icy and clean: lemon and bergamot lifted high, with a sharpness that recalls cut glass more than fruit.

Maître Parfumeur Et Gantier

Orange and lemon split the opening — bright, sun-bleached, with lime arriving fast in the wake of the citrus to add a sharper, cocktail-tinged green edge.

Rochas

Femme (1989 EDT) reissues Edmond Roudnitska's 1944 chypre with the cumin restored — the controversial spice note that gives this composition its skin-warm, almost erotic register.

Anna Sui

The opening is bright and slightly aquatic, melon and lemon giving a juicy, summery rinse that reads more candy-fruit than serious.

Mcm

Peach, galbanum, and bergamot open in a strange and striking trio — galbanum's green sap-bitterness against peach's fuzzy sweetness, bergamot brightening the seam between them.

L'Erbolario

"Queens of the Meadows" — meadowsweet, the soft-creamy hayfield flower — is the unspoken subject.

Xerjoff

A loaded citrus opening — lime and lemon stacked over bergamot, with freesia threading green-white through the brightness.

Etro

Star anise leads, and the licorice-fennel pairing in the heart keeps the anisic theme running for most of the wear — sweet, slightly medicinal, more pastis than dessert.

Pierre Guillaume

Rosewood opens with a dry, pink-hued timber that smells like freshly-planed boards dusted with nutmeg.

Balenciaga

Mint, lavender, and citrus burst through the opening — cool, herbal, and bright simultaneously.

Bella Bellissima

Saffron and pink pepper open with a warm, metallic spice over a bergamot-rosewood brightness, making the first impression both vivid and slightly exotic.

Dana

Lutèce opens on rosewood — warm and slightly resinous — before rosemary and lily of the valley shift the composition toward a softer, herbaceous-floral space.

Bvlgari

Jacques Cavallier's 1999 reworking of the original Pour Homme keeps the tea-fougère DNA but darkens it.

Lancaster

Sage, thyme, basil, and lavender hit together with an immediate herbal intensity that borders on medicinal — neroli and bergamot brighten the edge without softening it much.

Il Profvmo

Peach opens things with a ripe, slightly fuzzy sweetness that quickly reveals a honeyed undertow.

Arabiyat

Desert Oud opens with a clean citrus pairing of lemon and bergamot, brightened by freesia's light green-floral quality.

Nobile 1942

Opens with bergamot brightened by a whisper of incense — citrus and resin in the same breath, the way light falls through a stone window.

Chopard

Lavender and bergamot open together, giving a classic aromatic-citrus combination that lemon reinforces.

Mendittorosa

Omega opens with a dense floral cluster — jasmine and iris anchored by rosewood — giving it a warm, slightly powdery quality from the start.

Dior

An older citrus eau in the French tradition — orange and lemon arrive immediately, dry and slightly bitter rather than sweet, with petitgrain twigs cutting any candy edge.

Profumi del Forte

Cinnamon, neroli, and bergamot open with a warm citrus spice that is bright but slightly sharp, tomato leaf adding a green, almost metallic edge to the brightness.

Karl Lagerfeld

Rosewood, bergamot, and citrus open with a warm, slightly resinous brightness.

Loewe

Rosewood, bergamot, and lemon open with a woody-citrus freshness that fades quickly, revealing a classical floral heart of jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, and lily of the valley.

Ormonde Jayne

Xandria opens with a sharp, boozy hit — rum-soaked apple over a rosewood accord that keeps things from tipping too sweet.

Aether Arts Perfume

Ambergris opens things in an austere, marine-animalic register — there is a density here from the first moment, with little in the way of brightness or lift.

Givenchy

This millesime version builds more structure around mimosa than the harvest flanker.

Joop!

Lemon and bergamot open brightly, softened by rosewood's subtle warmth and a faint herbaceous edge from tarragon.

Karl Lagerfeld

Plum and grapefruit open together — the plum brings dark, slightly fermented sweetness while the grapefruit keeps things from feeling heavy.

Neil Morris Fragrances

Leather dominates the opening, dry and faintly waxy, pressed against a medicinal oud that smells more like smoked wood chips than barnyard.

Nocturne Alchemy

Neroli opens with light floral brightness, quickly complicated by pink pepper's dry heat and cardamom's green spice.

Givenchy

Le De opens cool and herbal — tarragon snipping at bergamot, with lily-of-the-valley already laid underneath like cold linen.

D.S. & Durga

Cowboy Grass opens with rosewood and bergamot — a warm, slightly citrus-edged brightness that feels more meadow than forest.

Montblanc

Pineapple opens juicy and slightly tropical, that distinctive sweet-tart fruit lift that immediately signals a fruity-gourmand direction.

L'Occitane en Provence

Fleurs de Cerisier (the 2007 Cherry Blossom) opens with a fruit-bowl freshness — cherry and black currant lifted by lemon, freesia threading through to keep the sugar in check.

Boadicea The Victorious

Cinnamon and freesia open over a crisp bergamot, then the heart turns delicate — lily of the valley and orange blossom, brief and white.

Estée Lauder

Spellbound opens with rosewood and orange blossom — a warm, slightly spiced floral entry that is immediately rich rather than fresh.

Pierre Guillaume

Rosewood opens the fragrance with a soft, slightly sweet woody quality — neither sharply aromatic nor fully floral.

Dior

Lemon and bergamot open with a clean, slightly tart brightness, sharpened by petitgrain's woody-citrus edge.

10th Avenue Karl Antony

Lemon and bergamot open with a clean, zesty brightness that reads more aquatic than purely citric — a deliberate nod to the sea in the name.

Zoologist

Cedar opens dry and splinter-sharp, immediately sketching a sun-bleached wooden temple.

Molton Brown

Grapefruit and bergamot open with a brisk, slightly bitter citrus snap that quickly folds into rosewood's pink, pencil-shaving character.

Giardini di Toscana

Tuberose dominates from the first spray, its creamy white-petal density amplified by ripe peach and a squeeze of bright orange oil that keeps the bloom from turning syrupy.

L'Erbolario

Yuzu and blood orange spearhead a bright, juicy citrus blast that smells like zest misting off a cutting board.

V Canto

Lemon and bergamot create a bright, effervescent opening that immediately announces its aromatic character, while cardamom adds a cool spice that keeps the citrus from turning sweet.

Calvin Klein

CK One Scene opens with a fizzy ginger-ylang twist that immediately sets it apart from the original CK One — warmer, less austere, more of a mood than a uniform.

Rammstein

Al-Jazeera / الجزيرة

Petitgrain crackles green-citrus brightness against ylang-ylang’s banana-sweet oil, while violet and blackberry lend a cool, jammy tint that keeps the opening from turning syrupy.

Hanae Mori

Blackberry dominates the opening with a tart, jammy sweetness that immediately reads as candied fruit rather than fresh berry.

Ralph Lauren

Rosewood and mint open brisk, the wood lending a dry pink pepper edge while mint strips away sweetness, letting black pepper crackle on top.

Xerjoff

Begum opens classical — lemon and bergamot over freesia, the citrus crisp and well-tailored, the freesia giving a soft floral lift behind it.

Knize

Petitgrain and bergamot open with a brisk citrus burst that quickly settles into aromatic lavender freshness.

Ensar Oud / Oriscent

Pineapple and pear create a bright fruity opening with tropical sweetness, underscored by mandarin’s citrus lift.

Marbert

Rosewood and citrus open with a bright, woody-citric freshness that quickly softens into the heart.

Givenchy

A focused rose flanker that reaches back to a more classical structure than its parent.

Bahoma

Grapefruit and bergamot open with a sharp citrus freshness, immediately energizing.

Lorenzo Villoresi

Petitgrain and bergamot offer a crisp citrus-aromatic opening, while mint and lavender add a cool, herbal freshness from the start.

Sarah Jessica Parker

Apple and bergamot provide a fresh fruity opening, complemented by lavender's aromatic herbality and rosemary's green sharpness.

Sergio Tacchini

Bergamot peach opening is bright, sweet and slightly fuzzy, more tinned fruit than fresh.

Swiss Arabian

Lemon, grapefruit and bergamot fuse into a crystalline citrus blast that feels almost effervescent against skin, each fruit sharpening the others into a single brilliant blade.

Giorgio Armani

Giò pour Femme is a 90s white-floral oriental in full bloom.