Victorinox Swiss Army House Review

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Hello ladies and gentleman! I hope today is finding you in good spirits! Today I am reviewing a house that is normally associated with a multi-tool style knife like you see in the above picture, but they have tried their hands at making fragrances. I have two fragrances from them which I will briefly cover in my review. Let's get into it!


The Fragrances

Victorinox Swiss Army(VSA for short from here on out) has come out with a line of fragrances for both men and women.  Their first fragrance was released in 1997 and goes by the name of Swiss Army. The fragrance house seeks to encapsulate the smells of the outdoors to recall you back to those times of wonders and triumph.


Swiss Army Forest

Presentation

The bottle is pretty cool. I like the whole wood(although it's not real wood) cap and base theme and the pine colored bottle. The atomizer works very well also. No complaints as far as that goes.

Notes

Top
Lemon, Juniper, Nutmeg

Mid
Clary Sage, Violet, Cedar

Base
Cypress, Siberian Pine, Wood Moss

The Scent

The official VSA website describes this fragrance as such, " Inspired by the forest and suffused with a sense of adventure, the Swiss Army Forest Collection combines the fresh, uncompromising air with the unrelenting strength of the trees. So you can enjoy nature, wherever the journey takes you."

Going off those notes...this sounds like a nice foresty fragrance. I mean how can you mess this up? Well, sadly they did. The opening isn't bad. It's actually decent with a blast of woods and lemon. However, the dry down smells like a cheap knock-off of Irish Spring shower gel. Granted, Irish Spring is very budget friendly already. I do like Irish Spring, but this one just smells worse. I mentioned some of my distaste for this one in my "5 Least Favorite Fragrances in My Collection" post, so I won't go into massive detail here. You can read that article here if you'd like.

It's just overall a messy fragrance to my nose that doesn't resemble anything in the natural world. Some people seem to like it and it does have good longevity and projection. It's just not something I am going to wear. I tried to love it, as you can see by the juice level, but I just couldn't. Maybe if I go back to it in the warmer months it will be better.

Swiss Army Rock

Presentation

The bottle looks nice. However, the VSA shield at the bottom is supposed to look like a rock. It's cheap plastic and it was glued on. So, the glue gave out and now there is a sticky residue on the bottle and around where the emblem was placed. The atomizer also sticks in the down position after you spray it. I get that sometimes a fragrance company might have an issue and bad bottles do get out, but 2 problems with one bottle? That is poor quality control to me. The atomizer does spray well for the first spray, until you have to pull it back up to spray it again.


Notes

Top

Artemisia, Lavender, Cumin

Mid
Nutmeg, Cedar, Incense

Base
Leather, Benzoin, Patchouli


The Scent

The VSA website describes this one as such, "Elegant, strong, authentic – ROCK brilliantly combines all of these virtues. The fragrance impresses by its vibrant, spicy note with a mineral accent that gives it a distinct elegance."

This fragrance isn't as disliked as the Forest one. However, it's still not good. To me, it smells like stale bubble gum that has been sitting on a rock in the sun. There is nothing elegant about it to me. It does have a mineral accord and I am not sure which note is making that happen. It has a sweetness to it, but not a good kind. It's a subdued kind that hides behind the mineral accord. Some people might enjoy this one. It is somewhat different, but it's just not for me.


Overall House Impression

As you can tell from my reviews, I am not a fan of this house. I have only tried two of their fragrances though, but these two did leave a bad taste in my mouth based on fragrance quality and the quality control of their bottles. Such a shame that a company that is known for revolutionizing the knife industry did this in the fragrance industry. These bottles retail for $56 for 100ml. You can get them on Fragrancenet for much cheaper. Around $20 each. I would advise against it, but maybe you will like them and have a better experience.

I will say this though, I have Cuba Prestige Black, which is supposedly a clone of Swiss Army(the original fragrance that they made). It's okay. It's a pretty safe and generic scent, but it smells good. So, if Swiss Army smells like that then maybe I just bought the worst ones from the house. I will have to pick up Swiss Army and test for myself at some point.


Sorry folks, I normally don't do negative reviews, but I thought people should be made aware of my issues with this house. I hope you enjoyed it as always. If you want to support my blog you can hit the blue follow button on the right-hand side of the page. have a great evening everyone! Until next time, keep smelling fantastic!