Hey there ULGers, On our recent European journey our last stop was Vienna. Ostensibly to catch up with Birgit from Olfactoria’s Travels and Val the Cookie Queen from APJ. Sadly Birgit and family got the dreaded C19 so that was out but Val, her daughter Hannah, Jin and I spent a wonderful day and night wandering, eating, shopping and catching up. It was heaven. All the Christmas Markets and lights were out, it was lightly snowing and we basked in the joy of just being together. Vienna has been my favourite city since the 1990s and it was so fabulous to be back. We even stayed in my most loved Vienna hotel, the Royal. HEAVEN! Here’s the pic with us in front of Cafe Mozart, the place we first met face to face in 2013! So much has changed. Our love? Nope, fire’s burning bright.

Jin and I also went into Knize (Ker Neez Ya). The main reason was to buy a couple of Thank You and We Love You gifts. We grabbed the Gold Edition of Knize Ten for leather lover Anna Maria and Knize Forest for Scotty who never met a deep green he didn’t love. While there  I grabbed a bottle of Knize Sec. Long on the To Buy List and changed some since I first fell in love with it, still it gave me a shiver of thrill and purchase was made.

Knize Sec 1985

Knize gives these featured accords:
Top: Citrus fruits, orange, amalfi lemon, coriander
Heart: Lavender, jasmine, sage, bitter orange
Base: Leather, incense, amber, musk

Straight out of the gate I get a slightly screechy aldehydic soapy citrus with herbal greenery. A sparkling masculine aromatic, still soapy and lightly sweaty, comes through. Refreshing! Now that I’ve worn it a few times I’m noticing it smells like Paco by Paco Rabanne. Not quite as metallic but definitely in a similar olfactory ballpark.

As we move into the heart I notice the white floral aspect. It’s not very jasmine off the tree though. Much more perfumery and working in beautifully with the lavender.

My memory of Sec in the past was that it ended up with a mossy leather amber base, a little like Van Cleef & Arpels Pour Homme. It’s much less sophisticated and deep now. Actually, it smells a little of pine and juniper.

It’s funny, until I sat down to really parse and write about Sec I was thinking that it’s a heady aldehydic aromatic with a light base. It’s kind of that but I also think that Knize has cheapened the mix and that Sec really hasn’t recovered properly after being made to fit current guidelines. It’s still wearable but not what I remember.

Looking for something new for a guy who wants to smell nice all day in a traditional way? He probably only has one or two fragrances going at any time and scent is not really an important part of his regime. He knows that the spritz is expected though and does it dutifully. He will smell nice to leave the house and then softly masculine all day.

Portia x