Note Pyramid
212 VIP Men
Chilled vodka is not a note most houses would print on a box, but it is central to Carolina Herrera 212 VIP Men Eau de Toilette and it tells you exactly what the fragrance is doing.
The opening is cold. Caviar lime, the small finger lime with the beaded flesh, gives a sharp and slightly saline citrus, and frozen mint turns the temperature down further, a clean peppermint coolness with no toothpaste sweetness to it. Then the vodka accord, which smells less of alcohol than of the chill on a glass straight from the freezer, with ginger behind it adding a dry heat that rubs against the cold and makes the contrast obvious. The last part is where it warms up properly. Kingwood is a dense, slightly sweet timber, dry and smooth, and tonka bean brings a soft powdery sweetness closer to the inside of a biscuit tin than to icing sugar.
Six materials, and the whole idea is the temperature change from cold to warm. Emilie Coppermann and Lucas Sieuzac are credited with it, and the fragrance dates from 2011. At eau de toilette strength expect five hours or so before it becomes a skin scent, with a confident first half hour. It is built for nights out and for parties, and it will also carry a summer evening, since the cold opening handles heat better than most sweet men's fragrances do. It is aimed at men in their twenties and thirties, and it remains one of the more distinctive things on a shelf full of similar bottles.
This is the fragrance side of a New York fashion label whose founder was Venezuelan and whose clothes were first presented in 1981. The fragrance licence went to Puig in Spain in 1988, the fashion company followed in 1995, and 212 has anchored the range since 1997.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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