I’m not particularly excited by Fuel For Life. The bottle doesn’t strike me as exciting, the notes don’t strike me as exciting and, as brands go, Diesel isn’t the most revolutionary perfumer around. So, when I first approach the fragrance department of Boots, my lips are pursed and I hold an air of supreme condescension.
They say pride comes before a fall, and they ain’t lying. When I take my first sniff of Fuel For Life, I am fully expecting a classic, tiresome, alcoholic blend of dead fruit (the mandarin top note and blackcurrant heart), dry spice (the pink pepper), weak florals (jasmine and patchouli) and a sad little musk whimper trailing behind like a slightly brain-dead sidekick in a children’s cartoon. What I get defies expectation. Put in words as simple as I can muster, Fuel For Life Her is beautiful.
The scent’s opening is a spicy fruit concoction with an underlying sweet heat, it feels very ripe, very complete and the mandarin top note comes across perfectly. I have encountered, and become jaded because of, countless scents that practically hurl a swathe of sugary fruit up your nose (think of pretty much any celebrity fragrance marketed to tweens), so I’m grateful to Diesel for their interestingly different way of translating the fruit into perfumery. The pepper, like the mandarin, is in excellent shape. FFL doesn’t apologise for it’s heat, nor does it overexert itself with spice, it strikes an angelic balance that I have yet to see improved upon in any other fragrance.
The blackcurrant, which I was expecting to make an appearance in the heart notes as specified, materializes much earlier. I perceive a faint background of this dark, vaguely sharp scent within the first few minutes of applying the fragrance. The blend at this point still smells wonderful, if a little crowded and indeterminable, and although not listed as a note at any level, I can detect a hazy dark chocolate, bitter truffle smell which gives the composition gravity. On the occasional sniff I can sense the fragrance veering into a slightl chemical artificiality, which is a little disappointing, but the expert crafting always manages to re-centre the perfume around it’s olfactory notes before this becomes anything more than a minor niggle therefore no-one but the most ruthless critic will even perceive it.
Rather than ever actually stepping into spotlight, the jasmine tends to remain backstage. I actually approve of this decision on the part of FFL’s creators Annick Menardo and Thierry Wasser, as a heady jasmine sucker punch (such as can be found in the delectable Alien) would likely just kill the fragrance dead, smothering every other note in it’s repertoire. What we are presented with is a ghost of jasmine scent that is neither timid nor boastful about it’s existence. It feels well placed, subtle and, best of all, seductive (a word I rarely have the privilege the use when describing perfumes). I imagine the fragrance would function perfectly well without the jasmine, but it’s inclusion is still just fine with me.
With the drydown comes a little smokiness from the patchouli which works very well given the notes that have come before it. Combined with the musk, the base is warm and earthy. There is a little saltiness from the savoury patchouli which keeps things from becoming at all syrupy sweet, and the delectable blackcurrant from the heart still holds up, adding tangible succulence to a very shadowy finale.
Fuel For Life Her is a one of those rare instances where a perfumer manages to construct a fragrance in which every single note holds it’s corner. Like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with her three-course-dinner chewing gum, I am transfixed at every stage of this perfume’s lifespan. This dark, satisfying juice, I would wager, is a great evening fragrance and is perfectly represented by it’s ad campaign in which various French lovelies get up to all manner of naughtiness in dimly lit surroundings. A round of applause to it’s brainy developers for creating a scent that is both inventive and different yet suitable for the mass market. Nice work.
No comments:
Post a Comment