A Bonafide classic

Devin is an Aramis, and Aramis is an Estee Lauder, and he's American. In fact, you wouldn't believe everything that belongs to Estee Lauder, about thirty brands. Among them are: Tom Ford (yahaaaa!), Michael Kors (really?), Le Labo (no, now, they're so independent and all...), Jo Malone (but they're British, aren't they?), Ermengildo Zegna, Frédéric Malle, Clinique and just Aramis. Aramis, by the way, is not an acquired brand, withnephews and -nones! 1960 Lauder has simply said: We make now times ne chic men's line, and we call all "Aramis something", sounds more masculine than Estee Lauder something. So Devin is American, ergo 'Devin' as in Kevin and not Devin nasally 'Diwääh'? Bernard Chant, on the other hand, although you could pronounce it in perfectly fine English, was French. So what the heck does Devin mean? What the Lauder Company was thinking when they named it, probably only the vulture knows, maybe it just sounded good. But since I was annoyed by the lack of knowledge, I looked into it: Devin is actually a masculine given name in English-speaking countries, deriving from an Irish word meaning bard or poet. In French, devin means soothsayer or clairvoyant. That the meanings all play in the same direction is no wonder, as they both derive from the Indo-European root DV: divine. As in Sanskrit deva, in Latin deus and divus, or in French divin (I'd be interested to know if any Frenchman intuitively knows that divin and devin are actually the same word). Divine I find the fragrance now not garade, but really very good. The subtitle says cologne, strictly speaking country eau de cologne, but I still hesitated to include it in my cologne range. It's actually more of an eau de toilette in terms of longevity, six, seven hours is about it. Especially in America, "cologne" is often used for men's fragrances in general. And according to its characteristics, it's not exactly a light, sparkling citrus scent. But if I let the slightly crazy aldehyde rose geranium tank cracker G-Man pass as a cologne, I have to do that here *****-nilly also. And indeed, it goes off not so uncolognig: I feel in the prelude a nice, strong, round, predominantly organgigen citrus accord and also something lavender is to be guessed somewhere. If that's not a cologne! Already at this point, and then later intensified, but also quite different impressions occur. There is a well noticeable slightly animalic-dirty aspect, an Antaeus quote perhaps, but not so fine-nerved and provocative. Plainer and more grounded, country cologne in fact. Antaeus in a lumberjack check while fishing. And something core woody and warmly spicy. Again, I can think of a reference scent (which, like Antaeus, I also love): Bel Ami by Hermès, but without the gruff and cigar-like. A well-aired Bel Ami, I'm telling you: country cologne. The tart-sweet (here rather tart) moss patch of the base note one has similarly already smelled in 100 men's fragrances, but even at the 101st time one still purrs with comfort. Devin is just like its bottle and label. Unadorned, very classic, very masculine, a bit conservative. A country cologne-style spicy fougère, not screaming green despite the galbanum writ large, but nicely balanced woody-orangy-tart-spicy-mossy-earthy. A cologne with slightly graying temples and small wrinkles around the eyes, but therefore no less sexy and perhaps just for that reason particularly full of character and balanced.