I had a pretty great WIN today. A fragrance order arrived from my SA (Sales Associate), and when I opened the package I found an absolutely ridiculous assortment of samples, discovery sets and gifts from houses throughout the fragrance department. 😂 And then came the biggest surprise: A full 50ml tester bottle of Golden Wood from The Harmonist. 😳 That one stopped me. My SA is actually with Armani. He’s also the person who first introduced me to The Harmonist, and I’ve since become a fan of the house and added several of their fragrances to my collection. But I don’t have a relationship with The Harmonist SA. I’ve never even met them. When I asked my guy about the bottle, he told me he’d gone over to The Harmonist and their SA offered the 50ml Golden Wood for me, explaining that these bottles were generally being reserved for their top clients. Apparently they know me through him. And THAT is where this became about much more than a free bottle of fragrance. I’ve spent my entire professional life in sales and building a business, and one lesson has followed me through all of it: Relationships matter. Building them matters. Maintaining them matters. Taking care of people matters. And loyalty has to work in both directions. We live in a world where it’s incredibly easy to go online, type in the name of something we want, sort by price and buy from whoever happens to be cheapest that day. And sometimes that’s perfectly fine. But I’ve never believed that the lowest price automatically means you got the best deal. My SA knows I’m a fragrance enthusiast. He knows what I own and is learning what I like. He’s willing to walk me away from his own Armani counter and introduce me to other houses and other SAs simply because he thinks there’s something I should experience. That’s actually how I discovered The Harmonist in the first place. And I try to reciprocate. Whenever possible, I make sure my business goes through him. He also knows my wife is every bit as interested in fragrance as I am. So while putting together this frankly absurd assortment of things for me to explore 😂, he made sure there were things specifically for her as well. That may sound like a small detail. It isn’t.

Picked this one up about a year ago. A lot of hype was created, as at the time it was a Dubai release. Eventually it trickled down to the rest of us and I jumped on a bottle at full retail. An interesting detail the name “Najim” comes from the Arabic word for “star”, and the fragrance is crafted to capture that warm, golden-amber glow of the Middle Eastern desert at sunset. Or is this Versace trying to take a leaf out of certain Niche world playbooks? Back then It was a struggle for me, Which I mistook for a case of nose blindness. But this just doesn't work well for me. Top notes include mandarin, saffron & cardamon. At its heart, caramel, cedarwood & oud. At the base Indonesian Patchouli Orpur™, Vetiver Orpur™, incense accord, and tonka bean. By all accounts this juice should be rocking. But for me it falls flat. Even with heavy spraying this is a disappointment. It fades off my skin so fast. And yet throughout the day I pick up faint whispers of it in the air around me. This was the one that put me off this house, aside from the old-school l'homme I've lost interest with Versace. Now that Prada have bought over Versace, I don't have much hope for the brand either. My Rating 3/10 Scent 1 Longevity 1 Sillage 1 Would I rebuy?