Elite Vague Rouge
Saffron decides whether you will like Saphir Elite Vague Rouge Eau de Parfum 100ml, because it is the first thing you smell and it does not retreat quietly.
Saffron is leathery, slightly bitter and faintly metallic, nothing like the sweet spices it sits near in other bottles, and here it is paired with jasmine, which rounds off the bite with a white floral fullness without ever making the opening pretty. Those two are the whole of the first ten minutes. Beneath them, amber and amberwood supply the warmth, one resinous and sweet, the other drier and more mineral, a modern material that lends a scent a sort of smooth transparency. Cedarwood and fir resin close it, dry and faintly sticky, the fir bringing a cool sap like greenness that is the single unexpected turn in the composition.
Six materials in total, and it behaves accordingly. There is no long story to follow here: what arrives in the first few minutes is broadly what you have for the rest of the wear, with the saffron receding and the resins coming forward. Some people want precisely that directness and others will find it flat, so it is worth knowing which of the two you are before you buy.
It runs five or six hours at this concentration and sits moderately close after the first of them. It reads as unisex, leans towards the colder months, and suits an evening better than a desk. The 100ml bottle is priced to be used rather than rationed.
Everything sold under the Saphir name is made in Spain, at the company's own plant in Zaragoza, which has a research centre attached to it. The business has been in perfume since 1940, when it opened as a warehouse called Almacenes Corinto in that same city, and it has stayed in Spanish hands ever since. Perfume at a price ordinary people can repeat is the stated purpose, and licensed designer fragrance is bottled there alongside the company's own lines.
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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