One of the last steps in my review process, once I’ve made up my mind and have achieved conclusions, is to read reviews about the fragrance and investigate some of the history behind it. Hacivat means “Ivan the Pilgrim” in Turkish and was created by the creative directors and founders of Nishane, apparently, HACIVAT is a tribute to elegance, competence and love of art and its a direct tribute to the traditional shadow puppetry for story telling in Istanbul. I’ll admit, I can’t stretch my imagination enough to understand how you portray all of that into a fragrance but I’m not here today to discuss the name Hacivat and instead I’m here to talk about Hacienda, Montagne’s inspired expression of the significantly expensive extrait de perfume by Nishane, I just thought it was an interesting story to share.
OPENING
Pineapple note…., quick question, did I just create a scent memory or profile on your head? If you’ve discovered Creed Aventus or any of its clones or derived inspirations, it will be hard to remove that association from your head, the pineapple note is so unique and identifiable that it creates that memory for you. Perhaps, the hardest part about reviewing Hacienda is exactly that, how to objectively talk about it without a never ending string of comparisons to Aventus, how to switch that scent memory for you and leave it open for a new interpretation…well, let’s start at the beginning, the opening!. Hacienda opens green & grassy….it’s dry, not sweet, it’s not watery and in fact it goes a little bitter, the oakmoss is the main violin here and the pineapple accord plays second violin to keep the oakmoss from going too sour, too earthy, too punchy. The pineapple notes is not the sparkly accord your scent memory is telling you, instead, its darker and less pronounced because Hacienda has a surprise up its sleeve…grapefruit! The distinct aroma of grapefruit stops Hacienda’s pineapple from going too sweet while the bergamot sparkles those notes to the surface, the bed of oakmoss is strong…but you can detect the fruity aspects as well, this is the main differentiator to the Aventus DNA, you could never describe Hacienda as a sweet fragrance but you might stretch to call it sour…it plays a perfect balance there in between and it’s amazing to experience.
DRYDOWN
I expected the oakmoss to take over the composition on the base, oakmoss absolute is a strong fixative after all. I was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t and I could still pick up some of the fruit intricacies now fighting for their position on the scent triangle with a significant wood accord, if I really push myself I can pick up some florals but those are fleeting. Look, there is no way I could tell you what wood aroma is more prevalent but I can tell you this is not a woody fragrance, this is a Chypre from beginning to end. The dry down sits heavy on your skin, this is not a easy-to-wear fragrance unless you’ve initiated yourself on the fragrance world, you won’t put this on and have people ask you what you are wearing because they want to buy it…they’ll ask because it’s unique, they’ll ask because they won’t really get it at first, and that is perhaps my favorite part of this fragrance, how complicated it is for such a simple combination of accords.
PERFORMANCE
Longevity wise, I was able to push this fragrance to 10 hours with 7 to 9 sprays on a well hydrated skin, amazing to say the least. Projection is around 1.5 feet and lasts for a good hour, no significant sillage to detect and Hacienda started becoming a skin scent about 5 hours in. Is this beast mode? Quick answer: Yes, long answer: for this type of fragrance it is, but, it doesn’t sacrifice any of the official notes to achieve it which is sadly what a beast mode fragrance tends to be.
BOTTLE AND SPRAYER
Montagne recently introduced a new sprayer which is more powerful (distance) at the expense of not necessarily being more wide (like a Dior sprayer). I like this sprayer better than the previous generation and allows for a significant amount of liquid per spray.
CONCLUSION
This was a hard conclusion to get to, I tested Hacienda on my skin at least 20 times, I could not get to my conclusion at first, I compared it to Aventus and Aventus Cologne, I compared it to Montblanc Explorer, to Pineapple Royale…I wanted to see which one was better, I was obsessed….and then I realized what I was doing wrong….I was actually comparing them, I was being unfair to Hacienda, I was being unfair to every other fragrance, the second I stopped doing that and just thought of Hacienda as it’s own thing I was able to come to a conclusion, and here it is, you get Hacienda because you are a niche lover, because your love of fragrances goes a little beyond designer releases or crowd-pleasers, you want to stretch, you want to understand oakmoss and how it can play with fruity accords at the top, you want do deep dive into your fragrance and have some florals poke their heads to later disappear, my friends, Hacienda complements you and your hobby…..but, you will get complimented with Aventus faster, at the end, they don’t compare because one is not better than the other, they don’t compare because they don’t reside on the same playing field, and that, my friends, is fine by me.
Thanks for reading, what are your thoughts on Hacienda? share them with me below!
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Notes
Top: Bergamot, apple, grapefruit.
Mid: Jasmine, patchouli, cedarwood.
Base: Oakmoss absolute, clearwood, timberwood.
