All Wet: Escada Sunset Heat for Men

For the last seven or eight years, Escada has been launching a limited-edition summertime fragrance for women. Virtually all of them have been fruity florals, as they're meant to appeal to the young, and that seems to be all they're wearing nowadays. It wouldn't be fair to say that they're all identical, but they really are more or less interchangeable. This year is no exception: the offering this time is called Sunset Heat, and it smells of, according to the official list of notes, "Papaya, Lemon, Mango Sherbet, Pineapple Mousse, Icy Watermelon, Peach Lotus Flower, Hibiscus, Sandalwood, Musk, Amber Crystals.". Doesn't sound like anything I'll be wearing anytime soon.

There is something new, however: this year they've also launched a men's version, Sunset Heat for Men, and naturally enough I did have to try it, and if they wanted to make a flowerless version of a fruity floral, they succeed. Whether they should have is something else altogether.

The Sephora notes are "Kaffir Lime, Pomelo, Lemon California, Star Fruit, Sea Breeze, Lavender Wave, Surfer Flower, Crushed Leaves, Pacific Amber, Costa Rican Driftwood, Musk", to which Osmoz adds "combava, driftwood, willywood". The top note is a brazen shot of extremely synthetic fruit; it's beyond a doubt the most fruit-laden men's scent I've ever smelled, with the starfruit giving it the smell of a perfumed Japanese eraser. This, according to Osmoz, is the "party drink" accord.

That doesn't last forever, of course and fortunately, but at least it was strange and riveting, even if it isn't any good. What's underneath is a standard men's ozonic scent, with all the boringness that that implies. (That would be the "surf" accord, followed, eventually, by the "cabana" accord, which is to say the wood notes.) There's nothing to be said about it that hasn't been said about any of a hundred other scents aimed at the young-man market, except possibly "What the hell is a surfer flower? And what the hell is willywood?"

The bottle is a variation of the house bottle (as seen in Escada pour Homme and Casual Friday): the cap is the same, but the bottle has been attenuated and sharpened.