Aztek by Yves Rocher

My dad had this in the nineties; I remember the bottle and a smaller one, perhaps 50ml, very different and simple, with a finish like Aqua di Gio. Aztek had something special, I loved the scent, I hope it still exists.

No fail: every time Espartaco mentions a fragrance, I note it down and it turns up. So I have an Aztek by Yves Rocher in hand. It’s not the lovely kitsch from the start, but the 2008 reissue with a simpler bottle. But what’s inside doesn’t matter. I think he already gave the clues before. Aztek seems like a crazy idea, but well executed. Until now, I knew nothing about Yves Rocher perfumes; it sounds strange. I’m glad my first encounter is this one. It’s a luminous oriental, strong and spicy opening, with predominant caraway, like cumin, giving it a dirty tone that suits the brightness well. Caraway, lavender, and cinnamon swirl, leading to tonka and vanilla. Here, it smells like current mass-market orientals. It’s an advanced idea for its time. In 1993 there were rare perfumes between the old ferns and sinuous aromas, without losing freshness. Davidoff Relax is another example, with roots in the past, while Le Male by Gaultier won the prize in its update of those torrents that resisted aquatic trends. This Yves Rocher shows its decade-change schizophrenia in name and design; the exotic theme smells like 1984. In short, Aztek is glorious, one of the best of the era. It’s still current; it could be a new designer launch, more refined for lacking the soapy distortion that now accompanies every perfume like a national ID. Perhaps it was too bold and looked like it was “for women”. I’ve been understanding it for several days; at first, you don’t know how to fit it in. It reminds me of Pavarotti, but Aztek is more relaxed, full of sparkle and vim, with that eternal youth of Harrington jackets. In its living rarity, it brings echoes of Uomo by Moschino. It has acceptable longevity, suitable for the scruffy mid-life seduction in a bar. A review I end with: bravo!

I’ve started reminiscing about perfumes from another era; it’s sad to see them thrown away here without a bad review, poor things. This Yves Rocher Aztek was madness. Imagine a One Million from the early nineties, the same sweet and flashy spark but in an aromatic fougere… that was Aztek. An oriental gum of resins and camphorated spices with touches of balsamic green and a smell of classic barbershop. An impossible hybrid. As if mixing aromatic sports from the nineties with orientals to show off, in the style of Uomo by Didier Calvo, something between formal, medicinal, childishly sweet, and erotic. When drying, it had notes of Magno gel. It’s hard to understand it outside its era if you’re not a fan of that moment. You can’t smell it without thinking of high-waisted jeans, the Alcasser crime, and figures like Pedro Gómez and Felipe González in decline. They gave it to me and I was upset, but I don’t doubt it had followers; Aztek had lots of personality and would have delighted any teenager at the time for being different, quirky, and modern, very distinct from what was sold then… Bofifa, this bears your name written on it.