He Wood: Rocky Mountain Wood.
Perfumer: Daphne Bugey (Firmenich)
Family: Woods
Key notes: Fir, lily, violet, pepper, vetiver, musk, incense, mineral amber
Price: $135 for 100ml
Rating: 3/5
Dsquared2's Dan and Dean Caten are proud Canadians with a lumberjack wit and sexy tailoring in their hip clothing line. Their second men's fragrance is a woody perfume for people who don't like wearing wood (no jokes, please).
For a start, there is no sandal, cedar or guaiac woods listed. Instead, you have an artistic vision of a soaring, romantic landscape sketched by a talented perfumer. Daphne Bugey creates abstract notions of clear mountain air and scented breezes over snow and wildflowers. I also get big whiffs of the distinctive, light synthetic musk currently permeating loads of new men's and women's perfumes.
Speaking of which, I'd be hard-pressed to identify this as a masculine scent, despite the hints of spiciness as the fragrance dries down. For women who like men's perfumes, this is a good thing.
Less attractive, however, is that the androgyny is ambivalent and comes at the cost of a fragrance with a forceful character. This is Rocky Mountain high, John Denver style, more lowing like a cow than wolf-howling like Gene Pitney. Nothing avant-garde, nothing arresting, nothing Monty Python here. Yet anyone can wear Rocky Mountain Wood and smell quite clean-cut, civilised, calm and confident.
