Spanish designer house Loewe is far more popular for their fashion than for their fragrances. But don’t sleep on Loewe’s perfumes – they pack a punch in terms of quality, price, and performance.
7 Anónimo, a 2016 flanker in the popular 7 line, is just one example of that fact.
Loewe 7 Anónimo is a variation on 7’s theme of incense and pepper, adding leather, labdanum, sandalwood, and pink pepper for a rich, high quality scent. With solid performance, unique presentation, and good value for money, 7 Anónimo is a great choice for lovers of incense, leather, and spice.
Want to know more? Let’s take a closer look at Loewe 7 Anónimo.
Fragrance Notes
Top Notes: incense, pink pepper
Middle Notes: leather, benzoin, vetiver
Base Notes: labdanum, sandalwood
Scent Description
7 Anónimo is an instantly likable masculine scent.
There is an alcohol blast (and not necessarily the good kind, mind you) in the opening, but it quickly settles down so that the dominant accord of the fragrance can emerge: fruity, coniferous incense undergirded with leather, labdanum, and vetiver.
Yes, I said fruity. The pink pepper here smells simultaneously like pink pepper (which is fruitier by nature than other varieties of pepper), juniper berries (the key ingredient of gin), and like dark forest berries such as blackberries or blueberries. Looking at the notes list, you might not expect this fragrance to smell as fruity as it does; it is not an altogether unwelcome surprise, though.
More surprising than the berry-like pink pepper, though, is the phantom conifer note here.
I could swear that this contains pine or fir, but I haven’t seen them listed on any note breakdown available on the Internet.
Maybe it’s just the way that the notes are combined together…In any case, the combination of berries and conifer immediately gives 7 Anónimo a lovely Christmassy vibe.
Adding to the Christmas association is the note of incense, which smells really darn good here. The incense is not the smoky kind, as in something like Lalique’s Ombre Noire, but rather is similar to an unburnt stick of incense, if you’ve ever smelled that.
All of that combines together to lend 7 Anónimo a somewhat festive air, despite the dark and heavy notes. But this isn’t really a playful fragrance; the base grounds it firmly and solidly in the manly man camp, with a chord of rough and tumble leather, almost dusty labdanum, sandalwood, and vetiver.
Beyond that, the fragrance doesn’t evolve all that much, keeping on playing its dusty tune leather with a bright, almost juicy layer hanging over it. The scent smells a bit more synthetic than I’d like, but it’s fantastically well blended and smells extremely pleasant, so I can’t fault it too much.
If I were to describe 7 Anónimo in a few words, they’d be: fruity, peppery, spicy, dusty, woody, dark, and smoky.
Presentation
The presentation of 7 Anónimo is pretty standard as far as designer fragrances go.
Packaging
The old presentation, which I have, came with a simple black box with the name of the brand and the fragrance in silver lettering and pretty much nothing else.
Since I purchased 7 Anónimo, however, the bottle and box have been redesigned. The new box shares a design with the rest of the 7 line, being cream-colored with a black-and-white sketch of two opposing curled fern branches.
Bottle
As I mentioned, the presentation of 7 Anónimo has been changed since I purchased the fragrance a while back.
My bottle is interesting to say the least. It features a black matte glass base with the name of the house and fragrance done up in silver letters.
The cap, however, is quite elaborate, and…weird.
It’s an abstract, silvery plastic thingamabob (a picture here is really worth a thousand words). The sprayer itself is built into the cap; you spray by depressing the top of the bottle, which is emblazoned with the Loewe logo.
It was a royal pain in the butt to spray the fragrance for the first time, and the mechanism can easily get jammed if you’re not careful. The actual spray comes out of the side of the cap, emitted from the blue (yes, blue) atomizer. Overall, it’s a bizarre, albeit unique bottle; I can’t say that I’m upset by the new design, though.
The updated bottle looks like all of the Loewe masculine fragrances do now, a standard rectangular bottle with a wooden cap and a simple white label with the name of the brand and the fragrance. In the case of 7 Anónimo, the glass is tinted a smoky grey, while for the original 7 and 7 Cobalt it’s tinted a dark blue.
Personally, I prefer the new bottle design, but it is somewhat sad that some of the personality of the 7 line (and of all of the Loewe fragrances) has been sacrificed in favor of a standardized design. Guerlain pulled a similar stunt with their fragrances, and I can’t say I was all that pleased with the change.
Still, whether you have the original bottle or the updated version, the presentation of 7 Anónimo is certainly up to snuff and gets the job done.
Performance
The performance of 7 Anónimo is well above average.
Longevity
7 Anónimo is a very long lasting fragrance on my skin.
Three to four sprays on my perfume-eating skin gives me eight to ten hours of solid longevity, and more on fabric.
This is a fragrance which easily lasts all day and then some; no complaints about longevity here. Of course, if you want more longevity you could always spray more on, but I warn you that this is a strong fragrance, precisely because of the…
Projection & Sillage
…projection and sillage. 7 Anónimo is excellent on both counts.
Three to four sprays on my perfume-eating skin gives me two to three hours of radiant projection and arm’s length sillage.
Want to know more about projection and sillage in fragrances? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered – check out this article for more on projection, and this one for more about sillage.
This is a fragrance that I easily get whiffs of all day long, even through a mask or on my motorcycle. After a day at the office, I can still smell 7 Anónimo loud and clear. In fact, three or four sprays is probably too much for work; I’d recommend one to two sprays instead if you’re going to be in an enclosed space, as incense isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Overall, the performance of 7 Anónimo is excellent.
Value For Money
The value for money of 7 Anónimo is likewise quite good.
A 3.4 oz (100ml) bottle of Loewe 7 Anónimo retails for $137 USD. That’s $1.37/ml.
For a designer fragrance, that’s a little bit of an ask, and I would recommend that you don’t purchase 7 Anónimo at full retail if you can help it. Instead, look into legitimate discount fragrance websites like FragranceX or FragranceNet, where you can find it for a whole lot cheaper.
I myself picked up my 3.4 oz bottle for around $50 USD, which I think is a more than reasonable price for this fragrance. Usually, you’ll see it in the $50-70 range. If you can find it for this price, I’d say that 7 Anónimo offers excellent value for money, taking its quality, presentation, and performance into account.
For full retail, though, I’d classify 7 Anónimo as a little bit overpriced, as is the case with most Loewe fragrances.
Who Would Like It
7 Anónimo is a manly man kind of fragrance which will be appreciated by lovers of incense, leather, and spice. If you like perfumes with somewhat of an old school masculine leather flare, there’s definitely a touch of that here, too.
For that reason, I would classify 7 Anónimo as a fragrance that is going to appeal to older folks (25+, though 30+ is probably more ideal). It has a calm, mature, somewhat serious air about it which calls to mind a well-groomed, dark haired businessman in his early to mid thirties enjoying a post-work cocktail or preparing himself for a high-class date.
I’d also say this is pretty strictly a masculine fragrance. Although the fruitiness of the pink pepper softens it a good deal, the piney, coniferous note and the leather floating around in the base instantly reminds me of vintage men’s fragrances from the moss-laden heyday of 80s powerhouses like Quorum, Polo Green, or even Loewe’s own Esencia. A woman could totally rock it if they wanted to, of course, but I certainly don’t think it would be their first choice. Who’s to say, though?
When To Wear It
For me personally, this is pretty much solely a winter fragrance. Incense already has a wintry association for me, but the Christmassy vibe cements 7 Anónimo in wintertime. I prefer to wear drier, spicier scents in the autumn, and bust out scents like 7 Anónimo in winter. Whichever season you decide to wear it, though, you at the very least need cold weather to pull this off.
As for occasions, 7 Anónimo seems pretty versatile to me. I’ve worn to work a number of times, to casual hangouts, to date nights, and just around the house. However, the mature nature of the fragrance makes me think that this would be a solid choice for formal or semi-formal occasions as well, paired with a nice dark suit.
Similar Fragrances
7 Anónimo instantly reminds me of a few different fragrances, though it doesn’t smell exactly the same as any of them.
First among them would be Serge Lutens’ cult classic Fille en Aiguilles. Fille en Aiguilles is a lovely fragrance: incense, dried fruits, spice, pine, and balsam fir. It is, however, extremely expensive (at least nowadays; previously it was a lot cheaper).
Fille en Aiguilles is also quite a bit sweeter than 7 Anónimo, but nevertheless there is a strong resemblance between the two.
Another fragrance that 7 Anónimo reminds me of is another expensive niche fragrance, Amouage Jubilation XXV Man. Jubilation XXV is an incredible fragrance, a complex and truly regal blend of woods, spices, resins, incense, and a prominent blackberry note.
The juxtaposition of the blackberry with the woods, spices, and incense is why my mind is instantly taken to Jubilation upon smelling 7 Anónimo, but Jubilation is much richer, more complex, and frankly better than 7 Anónimo. It is also, unfortunately, a whole hell of a lot more expensive.
Finally, to bring things back to the designer realm, 7 Anónimo reminds me of two fragrances from Italian designer brand Bottega Veneta: Bottega Veneta Pour Homme and Bottle Veneta Pour Homme Extreme (which I previously owned).
These are fantastic scents which also recall 80s powerhouse fragrances, combining pine and fir with leather and spice. However, they lack the incense of 7 Anónimo as well as its berry-like sweetness. Nevertheless, they’re in the same wheelhouse.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unique blend with an appealing, masculine Christmassy vibe
- Very strong performance
- Great value for money and wide availability on discounters
Cons
- Wonky presentation, at least for the older bottles
- Scent is linear and somewhat synthetic
- Incense and leather are not going to be to everyone’s tastes
The Final Word
Overall, Loewe 7 Anónimo is a solid designer incense fragrance laden with leather, spice, and with a throwback to the classics to boot. It also offers great performance and value for money.
However, it doesn’t really excite me or keep me wanting to pull for it. Sometimes, I kind of have to remind myself to wear it. Whenever I do, I do enjoy the experience. But I feel like there’s something missing here that could really elevate it into something amazing. Still, 7 Anónimo is a solid designer release from Loewe which is well worth the price of admission at discounted rates.
★★★ 3 stars out of 5
