FRAGRANCE | Nivea EDT: A comfort scent rooted in nostalgia

When I was a kid, tin cans of Nivea Cream have always been staples among the things my dad used to bring home from abroad. There's something nostalgic about it, that distinct, blue tin can and that all too familiar scent forever etched in my memory. I was never a fan of its thick consistency but eventually I found a compromise with their lotion. It's still quite dense and hard to apply but it's tolerable at least. Moisturizing, after all, is a must, more so when you're getting older. But how about a Nivea Eau de Toilette? Wait, what? 

I never knew such a product existed until a couple of years ago when a fellow fraghead posted about a bottle he was letting go. It got me excited of course, curious as to how it would smell, so I snagged it in a heartbeat. The presentation is interesting, with a cute 30ml bottle. It's all-white and circular in shape but with a flat base that allows it to stand upright. It's encased in a tin that mimics the shape of the Nivea Cream packaging except that this one's all white. I don't know why the choice of color because if it were in that distinct Nivea blue hue, the nostalgia factor would have been amped up even more. Meanwhile, a carved plastic covered in blue felt allows the bottle to rest snugly inside. And oh, all this comes in a see-through box. 

Right upon first spray, Nivea EDT smells exactly like the classic thick cream. There's a brief alcohol sting and some faint citruses that accompany the opening. It's creamy but is also decidedly fresh for some reason. Some indistinct, sweet florals follow, probably an attempt at differentiating the scent of the EDT from the cream—but only to minimal success. You can smell the difference only up close, as it's still the same old Nivea cream smell wafting in the air.

A powdery accord slowly enters, adding another dimension to the scent. The effect, however, is subtle because the creaminess never lets up. Close to an hour later, a plasticky accord appears while the overall scent becomes a little less sweet and less creamy. It's still very much Nivea, though. In terms of performance, don't expect much because it starts to mellow after only an hour until it becomes a sweetish, vanillic skin scent. 

Honestly, Nivea EDT is nothing more than a comfort scent rooted in nostalgia. It's literally Nivea Cream that you can spray on. While I'm happy to have a bottle and summon childhood memories whenever I please, this isn't a must-have fragrance. For whatever reason, however, perhaps out of curiosity or just for the heck of it, it's definitely a fun one to try.