I remember trying the parfum years ago from a Chanel collector friend, but I don't recall ever having sprayed this EDT. It's fantastic though. Despite the peachy aldehyde, honied, musk fuzz this fragrance is inherently wearable for a man, well this man anyway, perhaps moreso than the parfum? (memory is vague) Base is clean but deep, meaningful, real, chic all that good Polge stuff. UPDATE: I bought it. Coco EDT is amazing. This is not a pretty perfume in the sense that it so easily could/should be. It’s quintessentially Chanel, and certainly feminine, but on me it gives so much from fruity apricot juice, to edible vanilla/tonka and powder, suede leather.

Oh dear Valentino. Uomo and flankers were pretty good. This is not. It’s not terrible, just makes you breathe a humongous sigh of disappointment especially if you’re jaded with a fragrance industry and perfumers who seem to list different and vibrant note combinations, but curiously seem to mix them all together and they come out the same. This has a flavour, not even if now, but a few years ago. Not a fan.

Please, please, please be good. I love Comme des Garcons even at their low points they are innovative and seemingly creating stuff that has been beamed back in time from some dystopian future. A dark echo. A warning that people (or symbiotic cyborgs organisms?) are going to smell like plastic and wet cement.I can't wait frankly! Yeah I love CdG but the last couple have left me cold, Blackpepper and Concrete...I really hope Copper is something I'm compelled to acquire.

This is CdG well and truly back on track for me, Just with this line (in the pebble bottles) you understand. It wasn't that Concrete and Blackpepper weren't alright but they were just that...alright and didn't encapsulate the avant garde, futurism and funky, artistic nature of the brand and certainly other releases. This epitomises Comme des Garcons for me. Copper doesn't have the incense themes but the sharpness and smoky bite is still coming from resins but the transparent, green and metallic, galbanum, slashing through the composition, injecting that edginess. it has a combo of my favourite top notes in cassis, pink pepper and ginger which are prominent and all in all give the main focus and a vibrant, energy to this perfume. The drydown is actually intense, brooding, resinous and with a heavy twang of myrrh which has an inimitable quality to it. Outstanding! Completely and utterly, outstanding. I don't even love it, I'm just glad that it exists and that comme des garcons are still shaking the tree of perceptions.

Dunno why I haven't posted my review of this yet? I could've sworn I saw bile spitting diatribe of a review from a certain active forum member on this the otherday, doesn't appear to be here anymore? Oh well. I was going to say that his repeated remarks about this being '...nothing like Fahrenheit and anyone who says it is has a crap nose or is deliberately misleading you!' (I'm paraphrasing but that was the general gist.) Well, not meaning to pull rank or anything because all our opinions are valid and I love a good, harsh review every now and again...but I'm somewhat of a Fahrenheit devotee and have owned and still do the original and subsequent reformulations. So please when I tell you this has shades of Fahrenheit or bears a resemblance then please believe it does. It might be easy or lazy to compare this to Fahrenheit because of leather and Violet, because Portrayal is a different perfume, but to say that the comparison is ridiculous or reductive (to either perfume) is simply wrong. My review from July 2019.... Right...Amouage Portrayal Man, is the last release under the creative direction of Christopher Chong (It's actually not but it's the first to be released after the announcement he was leaving his position.) and it's a real coup de grace. Going in a floral direction again, I really liked Imitation and this treads a conspicuously similar path in terms of 'feel'. My nose detects a leather accord, some subtle caraway or cumin, a clean green note (maybe galbanum?) beautiful violet accord which isn't overly sweet, or powdery and merges effortlessly into the buttery orris/leather of this fragrances beating heart. Then there's a soft, woody note developing, that is litterally pencil shavings, some people associate with cedar and vetiver (can't say I do) but more predominantly with a sandalwood for me. If it doesn't contain these I will eat my hat. So Portrayal Man reminds me of an outfit I used to wear to sixth form (before I got kicked out :) So indulge me for a moment. So it's mainly based around a full length, sheepskin jacket, which coupled with the rest of the outfit made me feel like John Shaft, when in reality I probably looked more like John Motson. Super thick, corduroy tousers with deep piping. A shirt in a kind of peanut brown, made from an unusual fabric that I used to describe as a mixture between suede and neoprene, wetsuit material, with a kind of rubbery sheen. Then an Authentic 1970's tie of my dad's that starts off about the width of a postage stamp and flares out to that of a Manila envelope, in a kind of silky, satin material (which is likely polyester! haha) in a pecan brown with Fanta orange stripes across it in a diagonal pattern. Completing the 'look' with some supple and well tenderised, suede moccasins. Yeah you can say it...I was one fly cat! haha. This fragrance oozes suede, with a lush greeness in the opening, alluding to the freshness of floral, violet leaf, peaking out their powdery little, purple, heads. It has a vague nod to Amouages history of more heady and robust incense fragrances peppered thoughout the men's and women's lines. That slight, dirt and even petrol like effect but very minimal and barely there, adding to the Fahrenheit associations and for all it's similar theme's, Portrayal is nothing like Fahrenheit in truth. So there you have it Houdini...you actually agree with him...look at the last line!!!! Well in context when you wear the fragrance you realise just how different it is, but initial associations and mentions of Fahrenheit are crucial in understanding and processing this Fragrance. I really liked it BTW but was it a standout or even as good as the last release Imitation...not really but it's not bad either.

I'm shocked that I never put pen to paper about this fragrance at the time I tried it (whenever that was?) Shocked because I actually thought this was a daft, bit of 'meh' that smelled vaguely of a apple, vanillic, musky haze and therefore pretty likable. I've subsequently worn it many times of the last few years (as I keep getting samples of the stuff!) desperately trying to understand the obvious 'bro' appeal and I have to say that Layton ...is the devil. What a load of rubbish, I don't think I've ever had a scent do this, I mean grow worse and worse in my affections. It's initially okay I guess but soon becomes cloying and unfair to compare to Boss Bottled in reality. Actually I have had another do this... Mancera Cedrat Boise another popular but terrible fragrance.

At last!!!! This is finally in the database! I thought I was going mad...I tried it ages ago and even had a sample I think? and I couldn't find it on the CC website or online anywhere...as if I'd imagined it. Well it does exist, and although Clive takes a monumental amount of flack from purists, perfumistas, even fans of this kind of ridiculously opulent, luxury, bullshit are sometimes disparaging but let me tell you this stuff is AWE INSPIRING!!! What a fragrance!!! You get some of the heat and bite in the opening but I can't say this smells all that much of sichuan, perhaps when it settles similarly to pink pepper because this definitely has that character along with that sharpness you get from labdanum or something? It's positivity sweet, yet spicy nuance completely charmed me to the point where I was transfixed by the scent. It dries down to a more floral smell, I just thought it was fantastic. I remember it vividly and this was just a chance encounter in Selfridges probably 2 or 3 years ago now? but I sniffed my arm all night and wore a sample later which confirmed how much of a winner this is. It's a totally unique fragrance for me, and despite my own hangups and ingrained disdain for this brand, I have to say that some of these 'Twist' ones and the 'Noble' collection were very original. I feel the same about the Gourmand, the fougere, the rockrose and papyrus ones, all Fantastic. So why haven't I bought it? Well considering that this is £250 for 50ml it's at the higher end of what is acceptable for me to pay for perfume. However, it's not astronomical compared with other niche brands or the rest of the CC line most seem to be £375 and up. So in some crazy moment I might be tempted to get this but that is a reflection of how good I think it smells because the 'prestige' of owning CC has the reverse effect on me, I'm actually embarrassed to own such decadent stuff, like if I suddenly came into money, I couldn't drive around in a Ferrari, I'd feel like a twat.

Finally it's Rosamonda a perfume which is personally not of interest to me, because I wouldn't wear it. However, it is of interest in a 'clinically fascinating' sense. Philip Kraft described this fragrance recently as smelling like, dew covered roses complete with stem an thorns everything. That's what this is, a visceral, green, herbal take on the rose, not all pretty petals and jam this has some detritus to it. It's not quite dead rose but I detect more of a lean towards a geraniol (which the formula confirms) type of rose a more earthy affair. It's actually got somewhat of the Bulgarian absolute but with an all around more transparent feeling.

Well, well, well. You look at the notes or a basic description or even the formula provided, and you cringe hard and think...okay so Raspberry and leather....hmmmm... what raspberry and leather combo's are out there? Then your mind recoils after whizzing through a universe teeming with them, until you fix upon the largest and arguably brightest star in that crowded galaxy...Tuscan leather. But it's not. As bizarre as that sounds, it's truly not. Yes of course the association is there, but this is much more light and playful and as someone who's not really a fan of raspberry and fruity crap being juxtaposed with leather accords (hmmm...FM recently anyone? errrrr...The MOON, PROMISE, ROSE & CUIR) I've got to say this stuff is pretty nice. The jammy, sweet raspberry note is quite fresh and not cloying, the violet note is subtle and a little powdery and works insanely well with the fruitiness. Then there's the leather accord which is nothing hugely accurate but doesn't have any jarring, edgey bite or recognisable tropes of too much IBQ. This is a lighter, floral cuir base, a leather which is iris feeling and lightly cosmetic in approach. It smells more considered to me like the new Tuscan leather extreme or the Ombre leather if you had to compare it to a TF leather. It's pretty good then, but still not hugely in my taste wheelhouse. I'd just say don't dismiss it before wearing it.

In a line chock full of unabashed synthetic brews, Coffeeze actually looks like it contains lots of naturals but if you thought that makes for a realistic or even nice smelling fragrance...think again. Coffeeze is a hideous, olfactory assault and insult. The opening is like wow...this is interesting but then becomes and sweating, fettered, oud and patchouli abomination. It basically takes all the worst facets, awful rubbery patchouli, the mild skank of Laotian oud doesn't help proceedings, and then creamy tonka in the mix is just the catalyst needed to make something truly horrific. What grinds my gears the most?? NO COFFEE to speak of!!! Maybe there is? and that just adds to the problematic chords stuck by this bizarre perfume. Best forgotten. Who knows though? Some folks might love it?

Elemi and atlas cedar in the opening give a kind of piney, lemony, balmy resin effect. This subsides into a kind of plasticy, saffron leather accord which isn't very pleasurable. Then after hours when it's almost completely gone it smells sweetly of vanilla. (worth noting I was surprised as there's no vanilla noticeable for the first several hours) I don't like this fragrance and I hadn't seen the formula for it, nor had I read any notes. Very intriguing that everything you smell is in here (according to Fragrantica) ...that's rare. So perhaps this is a masterful work showing all those materials and properties off? I didn't particularly enjoy it though.