Parfums MDCI Invasion Barbare

This is a classic masculine fragrance from top to bottom, with broad shoulders, big biceps and the legs of a running back. Lucky Scent describes it as "soft-spoken" and "delicately spiced" but this stuff has been pounding at the gates since I put it on over three hours ago (and after my disastrous first impression of L'air du Desert Marocain, I've learned to tread lightly with new fragrances).

I'm sure it transforms into something much more civilized as the day wears on (and on), but once the brute has broken down your door, who cares if he's willing to share the remote?

Then again, I have to give it props for staying power.

Luca Turin stated in his guide that Invasion Barbare is "one of the top two or three fragrances in this genre on the face of the earth" -- and if by "this genre" he means "chiseled locomotives that charge straight on while happily flattening anything in their paths" then yes, I'd say Mr. Turin is absolutely correct.

Suitable for WWE champions, NFL players and Hedge Fund managers. If you weigh in at less than two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle (physically and/or psychologically), you might want to try something else.

UPDATE (05/18/09):

I've given Invasion Barbare a couple of test-drives since this review was written, and I like it a lot better than I did initially -- probably because I learned to go easy on it and give it plenty of room to breathe (which it needs).

It's dry, herbal and exceptionally well-crafted, with that serious hang-time I mentioned above. It smells like a billionaire's after-shave, if billionaires wear after-shave. They probably wear the blood of their defeated rivals for all I know, with a gallon of Essence du Cash mixed in.

I'm sure it smells terrific on them, too, but for all the rest of us, Invasion Barbare will have to do.