Overall Scent 5/5: Love the fresh, citrus smell. It's clean, it's iconic. Downside is every dude and their brother wears it, you won't stand out. This was the first expensive fragrance I've ever purchased and still get tons of compliments.
A screeching, macho nightmare for seedy young city "alphas" who take loads of coke and cheat on their girlfriends. Headache-inducingly sweet, with tobacco, but the kind of tobacco smell you'd get by holding an unlit Marlboro light to your nose. It reminds me of 90s scents, although I can't put my finger on which. It's just a screaming, bravado stench that slaps you in the face and pinches your arse, and definitely without consent. It's the guy who wears Sauvage after he's won a couple of thousand on the lottery.
Wow! People are STILL questioning whether this is legit. The mythical Creed jus that no one's sure exists, yet we still vote to HATE! To the comment below If I had a pound for every time I had known of a new release before a SA....I'd be a rich man. Just because you work at a concession in a store doesn't mean you are aware of everything going on with the company in fact in my experience it makes them even less likely to know, despite their sense of importance.
So I often favour the more long and rambling review, but on this occasion I have very little to say about Creed Aventus Cologne, One word in fact.... Redundant. If you have the original Aventus or any semblance of affection or what could be considered nostalgia for the original then this doesn't really do it any justice, or support it's legacy whatsoever. A counter to this could be.... well what did you expect from a 'Cologne' version? It's either a literal interpretation a fleeting, lower EDC concentration or a 'EDC' in style (Citrus/white floral or 4711 effect) piece which in that case was never going to be anything like the bro staple, 'beastmode' frag-fam king, that it's older brother was, and all the dissenting voices are just 'haters'. My opinion of Aventus cologne falls into a category of people called 'Are we still talking about Aventus after a decade?/I don't fucking care!!!' type category. This fragrance has clear Aventus makers in the opening the bergamot/cassis/pineapple effect but then has a much more austere base with non of the smoky attack of birch tar. Instead it's base is modern aroma chemical cedar, maybe ambermax, ISO, Ambroxan, cashmere....frankly I've no idea but it's there to keep the pleasant much less overtly pineapple top notes in check. What is at first an Aventus lite slowly becomes something much less like it and very much it's own entity. This doesn't mean it's especially original. I don't get the Allure Homme sport comparisons, nor the Sauvage (style wise perhaps I can see it?) it's more like Roja Dove's Elysium for my money, perhaps with slightly less polish? Doesn't last directly all that well on skin but it did remain on my jacket for a long time, and it's pleasant. What else can I say? If this was a designer or even a slightly elevated CdG type semi-niche brand, around the 80 pounds mark for 100ml I probably still wouldn't be all that convinced but I might think it was a superior, fresh fragrance. However, to charge the inflated Creed prices for a fragrance which doesn't have the soul or intrigue of the original or the perceived value in bro loudness or sick projection, longevity and COMPLIMENTS! just seems unfair. Creed are clearly trading off the back of the Aventus phenomenon but a less cynical side of me wants to think that they truly believe this is as barnstorming and innovative as the 2010 release...but they can't surely? More likely that they are wheeling out some crowd pleasing dreck that will be bought by name association and well meaning but deluded Creed fans. Sorry this didn't do it for me.
