1760. The year of the great fire in Boston, MA that sadly burned 349 buildings, the Seven Years’ War that continued in Europe and Russia, King George III succeeds to the throne after King George II dies, and, of course, the Creed company was founded when one pair of scented gloves were made and sent to the newly appointed King George III by the founder, James Henry Creed. From then on, the Creed company we know today was born. Scented gloves...who would've thought?
Fast forward 264 years later, and we’re still in awe with the quality of product that Creed produces. No, they don’t work in scented gloves anymore (I think), but their fragrances are hailed as top-notch niche fragrances that are crafted with only the finest ingredients. Fragrances that are so good, they’ve been duped over and over again by wanna-be rivals. Some pretty badly too, I might add.
Up until this point, the only fragrance that could be labeled as a “cold-weather fragrance” was Royal Oud. And, while the fragrance did include fresh notes of lime, galbanum and bergamot, it was mostly dense with oud, frankincense and gaiacwood. Problem with that fragrance is, if you weren’t a fan of oud, you were out of luck and had to stick with the plethora of freshies that donned the rest of Creed’s portfolio. Personally, I think Royal Oud is a fantastic fragrance and is a definite buy, but some just flat out don’t like it. So, what’s Creed to do, but finally release two back-to-back cold weather fragrances. But are they any good?
Delphinus
I’m going to start with the more puzzling one to me, and that’s Delphinus. As the name suggests, Delphinus is the name of a small constellation in the Northern Hemisphere and the Latin name is the Greek version of the word “dolphin”. Out of these two new fragrances from Creed, it’s the most puzzling because the opening smells very, very familiar and I can’t quite put my finger on where I’ve smelled it. For a week I've struggled to figure out where I’ve smelled it before but nothing is working. I have quite the collection of decants from Decant House and none of them satisfied the "that's it!" itch. Some day...
The opening, to me, is very synthetic and vanilla heavy but after it dries down, it’s not bad at all. There’s three notes; iris in the opening, incense in the mid and vanilla in the dry down. That's. It. I feel like this fragrance is way more complex than that, and I’d even say that I get notes of balsamic, spices, amber and other warm tones that just get so much better with time. It’s that opening that has a familiarity that is apparently beyond familiar and one day I’ll smell the same fragrance again where that scent comes from and have that “ah ha” moment. But, for today, Delphinus is a really good fragrance with a long 8+ hour longevity and plenty of good projection. It's warm and spicy but isn't too overbearing or brash. Perfect balance of sweetness from the vanilla and that incense is the cherry on top for me.
Centaurus
Out of these two fragrances I've been testing all week, this one is my favorite. This fragrance is a multi-level roller coaster ride that I’ve jumped on multiple times this week and every time I smell it I like it more and more. If you don't already know, I'm a sucker for fragrances that keep developing over time. Linear fragrances are ok, and they are everywhere, but give me a fragrance that changes scent profiles throughout the wear and I'm hooked. Perfect example is Tom Ford Noir Extreme Parfum. That frag is a chameleon, I swear.
Centaurus is a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere and represents a Centaur; a creature that is half human and half horse. I think it’s cool that Kering decided to name their two new fragrances after opposing constellations. Makes them unique and that much more alluring. Some might just look at the name and think "hmm, weird name", but to actually look into the reasoning for the name just tells you that thought went into making the fragrance, and that makes it more special.
In the opening of this fragrance we have cinnamon, tobacco, cardamom and black pepper. The mid has sandalwood, patchouli, heliotrope, jasmine and geranium. In the dry down we have bourbon vanilla, Ambroxan, benzoin, tonka bean and tolu balsam (amber balsamic note). This fragrance has a LOT going on and you can tell from opening to dry down it’s very complex and multi-facited. It’s warm but smooth, sweet yet spicy. The cinnamon really is apparent in the opening but once that dry down hits it’s all warm tobacco with sweet balsamic and vanilla. Just a fantastic job with this one. Out of the two, this one needs to be in my collection.
Final Thoughts
If I were to rate these on a scale of 1 to 10, I would have to give Delphinus a 7.2/10. The lack of notes and the synthetic opening are just not enough to vault it into a higher rating. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great fragrance and someone out there would undoubtably give this a way higher rating than I did, and on the flip side someone could even give it an even lower rating. Nobody’s right or wrong, we all just have our own opinion and that's what makes buying samples the right way to test new frags.
For Creed to come to the table with freshie after freshie after freshie and never come up with any solid cold-weather fragrance was almost criminal, up until now. They have redeemed themselves to those of us living in the northern regions of this planet and finally provided us with two amazing fragrances, but Centaurus is the overall pick for me. Beautiful craftsmanship and I tip my hat to the perfumer, even if we don’t know exactly who the nose was behind the fragrance. For Centaurus I would give an 8.9/10, well deserved.
These two fragrances are yet to be released so get your pre-orders in today! As soon as our stock is in your samples will be sent out to your front door! I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. Leave me a comment on which is your favorite!
Hope you all have a great day, and I’ll catch you in the next one! Peace!
