I recently had a birthday, my 30th to be exact. It was properly celebrated between my wife and me, escaping the uncomfortably chilly and wet air of this New Jersey winter and opting for the sunny warmth of the Caribbean. I spent my January birthday swimming with fishes in the ocean, partying, and consuming an absurd amount of food and alcohol with my wife. It was a day I will never forget.
As a fragrance enthusiast, I have gotten into the habit of wearing certain scents on special occasions to create and enhance the memories of the day. When my enthusiast journey began upon receipt of a Versace Eros gift set from my wife (then fiancée) during Christmas of 2020, Eros immediately became my go-to special occasion fragrance. After wearing it for my 28th birthday dinner just a couple of weeks after Christmas, it became cemented as the fragrance I would wear for each birthday going forward.
Versace Eros (Eau de Toilette), with its incredible balancing act of minty freshness and warm, vanillic sweetness can be both boisterous and alluring. It is linear and does not change much in terms of its scent profile in the hours after application, but it does not need to. It is a fragrance that knows what it is and has no desire to be anything more. If you like it, great. If you do not, too bad. It is this quality that makes it a perfect scent for a celebration of the self. I typically describe myself as reserved in persona, but a bit more expressive in my physical appearance. The one day a year that is, in my mind, all about me is the perfect occasion to tap into even more expression.
Fragrance influencers will cry that Versace Eros is both common and immature. To them I say: if you are that concerned about other people in a population of billions owning the same scent as you, you are strange. Also, few things are as subjective as “maturity.” The point is to wear the fragrance, not be worn by it, and it is as mature as the wearer wants it to be. My 29th birthday was celebrated in Philadelphia with a museum trip and dinner. That morning I completed my outfit of the day with a few sprays of Eros. I felt confident and unwavering as I strolled through the city observing the art and architecture. I knew that no matter how old I got, Eros would be with me to celebrate.
As 30 approached, I knew it had to be different from local dinners, or day trips to neighboring cities. As a milestone year, I didn’t want it to be spent in the United States. For my wife’s 30th birthday in May of 2022, we celebrated in Mexico. She decided to return the favor by taking me to the Dominican Republic (her birth country) for my January 2023 birthday.
Every birthday before this one was spent in the cold. Being born and raised in the midwest, and choosing to move to the east coast just a few years ago, I did not think a warm, tropical birthday was even possible. A major question came about internally at the prospect: what fragrance should I wear?
Despite the fresh top notes of mint, green apple, and lemon, the added prominent sweetness from notes like ambroxan, vanilla, and tonka bean make Versace Eros entirely too cloying for me to enjoy in warm temperatures. There are sweeter fragrances that do work in warm weather such as Rasasi Hawas, Invictus Aqua, or 1 Million Lucky, but these all have aquatic or ozonic elements central to their composition, things you will not find in Eros. Would I have to break my commitment to wearing Eros each birthday, or sacrifice my comfort and nostrils for the sake of tradition? Thankfully, I found the loophole.
On the day of my wedding, my groomsmen gifted me a bottle of Versace Eros Flame, the first flanker in the Eros line. Admittedly, I was curious about it but unwilling to purchase a full bottle as many people had warned that it was quite redundant to the original. Upon the first sniff, I realized that those people were correct.
The makeup of Eros Flame appeared to be an almost exact recreation of the original formula with a few different top notes and a shift in the oil concentration (Eros Flame is an Eau de Parfum whereas the original Eros is an Eau de Toilette). Flame replaces the notes of apple and mint with mandarin orange, black pepper, and rosemary, creating something I described in a previous Fragrantica review as “more versatile, but less interesting.” I have not changed my mind about this assessment, not entirely, but I can not deny the benefit of added versatility.
Eros Flame is still very sweet and great to wear in the colder months, but the added orange top note with the sweet vanillic base creates a sense of freshness that reminds me of an orange creamsicle. With the right application, it can be worn comfortably across seasons and occasions.
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| Photo by Shayna Douglas |
Yet, it still possesses many of the same personality quirks of the original Eros, whilst being slightly more calm and flexible in its identity. The braggadocious quality is still there, but its claims are more grounded, and it always cites its sources. It is the larger-than-life quality of the original Eros that makes it the more interesting to my nose, but more interesting does not mean better.
It is the closeness between the two fragrances with those key points of divergence that made it the perfect choice for my 30th birthday in the Caribbean. Winter in the Dominican Republic is noticeably chillier than the summer months, and by that, I mean the average temperature drops from the high 90s to an average of 85 on a sunny day. We experienced scattered rain during the evenings and cool breezes to offset the intensity of the daytime sun.
After a day of snorkeling, drinking, and partying, I showered and dressed for the evening, finishing my ensemble with a few sprays of Eros Flame before my wife and I went out for our scheduled dinner. The magic I felt during my previous birthdays wearing the Eros DNA with my favorite person in the world was present once again, but slightly evolved. I was in a different place both physically and emotionally. I was a newly married man, and beginning the third decade of my life. Because of this, Eros Flame would act as a conduit for major memories going forward.
Do I still think the original Eros and Eros Flame are redundant to one another? Potentially, it depends on your needs and desires. They are perhaps too close for comfort, and I doubt I would have ever pulled the trigger on a bottle of Flame myself after sampling it, but I’m thankful to my friends for making that decision for me. The original will still take precedence for my future birthdays in the cold weather, but when it reaches its limits, Flame will be there to continue the journey.
-The Fragrance Maven
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