When you’re an independent perfume company, perhaps the smartest thing you could do would be to NOT name your fragrance something unpronounceable to the average (oh hell, *any*) consumer. Narziß? Really? That’s the best you could come up with? Because when I look at the name on the bottle, my brain immediately thinks, “Oh, yeah, that’s Dorissima Narzizi . . . something.”
But that mind-boggling bit of botched marketing aside, Dorissima Narzizisomething (“oh, goshdarnit — Narziss! It’s Narziss!”) is a fine piece of men’s perfumery. It’s not going to solve world hunger or unravel the mysteries of quantum mechanics, but it’ll sit very nicely on your skin and cause you to smell devastatingly handsome to every man, woman, child and beast within a ten foot radius.
What you do with such power is entirely up to you.
Fragrance notes are: tarragon, royal sage, rose, atlas cedar, vetiver, tonka and fig leaves. I’m not sure where I get the brief burst of sweet citrus at the opening, but I swear it’s there, followed by an expertly blended mix of subtle, balsamic rose and dry herbs that finishes with a smooth, woodsy sigh.
The fragrance itself wears very closely to the skin — this isn’t the ‘momma said knock you out‘ potency you get from, say, Parfums MDCI Invasion Barbare — which makes Narziss an excellent choice for office wear, daily wear and/or social events where you’ll be crammed up against a lot of other people who didn’t volunteer to inhale your perfume fumes all evening. Longevity is also good — about eight hours after application and Narziss is still quietly glowing, slightly dusty and slightly sweet.
Right now, the only place that carries the Dorissima line in the United States is Lucky Scent out of Los Angeles, but they just recently dropped the other half of the fragrance twin set (Goldmund) so I can’t vouch for how much longer Narziss will still be on the menu. If you like the idea of a men’s aromatic fougère that’s been tweaked with a mellow, dark rose substituting for the high pitch of lavender, then get yours while you can.
From Now Smell This: “Rarely have I ever been so smitten with a fragrance so quickly, and considering the number of fragrances I test on a weekly basis, that’s saying a lot . . . Though my current fragrance wardrobe boasts well over 400 scents, I recently find myself guiltily wishing to wear Narziss more often than not. Bewitching. Period.”
So . . . yeah. There you go.
Photos below:
***All right, already, the name Narziß actually refers to a character from the Hermann Hesse novel, Narziss und Goldmund (or, Narcissus and Goldmund). I guess they couldn’t really have named it “Narcissus” because then everyone would expect it to smell like, well, narcissus. So they named it Narzizisomething instead . . . *sigh*
