What's with all the his-and-hers fragrance duos this fall? Kevin and I have already teamed up on a few. This week, we're tackling 001 Man and 001 Woman from Spanish luxury brand Loewe: "Two unique fragrances, Man and Woman, created at the same time. Two accomplice fragrances, non-existent one without the other, in constant conversation ... Perfectly complementary, when they are combined together, the two fragrances create a third scent."

Although I do think of Kevin and myself as "accomplices," we won't be able to "combine" our fragrances for these joint reviews, since we live on opposite ends of the country (not to mention that we'd never be the conventional man-and-woman couple, for various reasons). At my end, in any case, 001 Woman is a composition of bergamot, pink pepper, tangerine, sandalwood, Egyptian jasmine, linen, musk, vanilla and amber that "reinterprets the scent of a skin caress."

Although the visuals and packaging for 001 Woman remind me of the 1990s, with lots of clean lines and well-groomed minimalism and black-and-white photography (remember Calvin Klein Eternity or Banana Republic's "M" and "W" fragrances?), the scent itself feels like a contemporary niche fragrance. It greets the wearer with the bergamot and a dash of pepper, as promised; flirts with the idea of a soapy jasmine; and then turns decisively into a linear synthetic sandalwood with spare hints of resins and musk. Like the visuals for 001 Woman, it's pared-down and cleaned-up. Basically, it's a citrus-woody blend that doesn't come across as particularly "womanly." (It reminds me a bit of Raw Spirit Wild Fire, with the volume turned down and the edges sanded away.)

Unlike Kevin, I don't have any "history" with Loewe — although I'm now annoyed that they've used Cocteau Twins' "Carolyn's Fingers" in the commercial for this fragrance. (Keep your hands off "my" music!) I like Loewe 001 Woman well enough, although it's not particularly complex or evocative, and I'll use up my sample in the coming autumn days. Ironically, the first time I wore it out of the house, a male friend asked me what it was — because he liked it and wanted to try it for himself. 

Loewe 001 Woman as available as 30, 50 ($90) and 100 ($123) ml Eau de Parfum. The 50 and 100 ml sizes are now available at Barneys in the US.

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