Frankly, the Men’s Folio Grooming Awards 2022 has not changed much since its inauguration in 2020. Its metrics are still yardsticks that have not shrunk in length — does a product feel and work as they claim to do besides looking good on the table? If we are to play spot the difference, then there are smarter upgrades to the daily staples we use such as serums for the eyes, a greater focus on makeup removal, hydration, and many new solutions to scent oneself.
There are, of course, even more choices this year — roughly 528 nominations were made across 80 brands. We narrowed it down to 286 products from 68 brands, of which were tested by this panel of eight — Managing Editor Asaph Low, Deputy Editor Bryan Goh, Makeup Artists Eric Tan, Larry Yeo, Priscelia Wong, Sha Shamsi, and grooming enthusiasts Smita de Souza and Aiman Haikal — resulting in 68 winners that were deeply vetted, tested, and of course, loved.
Here, the best newcomer fragrance winner: the Cartier Déclaration Eau de Toilette available here.
The argument about such an award title and particularly, when it deals with newness is that there are expectations that a winner needs to be up to the minute. However, Cartier’s Déclaration Eau de Toilette proves that newness is not always necessary. Industry goers and fragrance fanatics call it a flanker, a term for a newly created perfume that shares some attributes with an already existing one and more often than not, contains the original’s existing name albeit with one or two words added to it.
In 1998, Cartier launched Déclaration (its perfumer was Jean-Claude Ellena of Grasse fame) which tied in nicely with the waters that were of popularity. It had a heart of oriental notes (pepper, ginger and cardamom), a base of wood and top notes of zesty fruits percolating at the top. While the Cartier Déclaration has gone through several iterations over the years — 2001’s Essence that was a citrus aromatic, 2012’s d’Un Soir was a woody-musk and 2018’s Fraiche was a zesty-wood — its 2022’s version by Mathilde Laurent brings it back to basics.
A simple blend of three ingredients — a bitter citrus leaf, spicy cardamom, and warm cedar — makes it a beautiful bouquet of green, and gives an airy depth of earthiness.The thing about three-ingredient perfumes is that one often gets the most potent formula of each ingredient in a fragrance. One can think of it in a rudimentary way: when a fragrance comprises multiple ingredients, each often comes in a percentage that varies according to the sum of its bottle. This often leads to the strength of certain ingredients peeking through despite it lying at the top, heart or base and of course, is dependent on one’s skin chemistry.
With Cartier Déclaration however, each of its notes — citrus leaf, cardamom, and cedar — have an equal opportunity to shine in this water. The freshness of citrus versus its tangy bitterness or the warmth of cedarwood versus its heat. Even cardamom, so spicy and fiery can become sweet if one gives it some time to flourish.
Brimming with sap owing to the cedar, unveiling some freshness with the cardamom and the soft delicateness of citrus leaves, if one has appropriate body chemistry, the fragrance provides a “dirty but dressed up” scent if he’s lucky.
Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our June/July 2022 issue!
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