FRAGRANCE | Vial trial: Gentle Fluidity Silver EDP by Maison Francis Kurkdjian

The concept was intriguing: creating two different scent profiles using the same set of notes. Sure enough Gentle Fluidity Gold and Gentle Fluidity Silver turned out to be two very distinct fragrances. And while we ended up getting the Gold edition shortly after the duo hit our shores several months ago, I was happy to be given a 5ml sample of its Silver sibling to try further.

Although labeled as unisex, Silver appears to be the more masculine of the two. It's light and fresh, its opening filled with an alcoholic sharpness, a tad too sharp in fact for my liking. But like I said, it's light, so the alcohol accord is not the warm and boozy kind like in Bentley for Men Intense or Margiela's Replica All That Jazz. The sharpness, on the other hand, is also probably due to the spices, and it doesn't really go away.

There's something in the blend that reminds me a bit of Carven L'Eau Intense, which happens to be also created by Kurkdjian. It smells a little something like fish to me, I don't know. I couldn't quite put a finger on it but it could be the interplay among the spices. There's also an underlying sweetness, just enough to round the scent out and still keep it light and spicy-fresh overall.

Silver is practically a linear fragrance, a little piercing to the nostrils when first sprayed but it soon relaxes and projects moderately for the most part. It's also fairly long-lasting. I bet some people will take a liking to such a scent profile but personally I'm not wowed at all. Besides, I find the sharpness quite unpleasant, so a full bottle is definitely out of the question here—for me. It could be a different experience for you, though, so sample it first.