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Boy oh boy I loved this perfume. Now anyone who says 'just get some lavender essential oil' clearly doesn't get this perfume. It's Lavender dominant sure enough (at least at first) but comparing it to the raw material lavender (which depending on origin/extraction etc...can be very changeable) is just not fair. Neither is it fair to say it's remotely like a Caron Homme or Dior Eau Noire or any other lavender based fragrance. Now how can something with such lavender bias be so different...well for the reasons I mentioned above but more pertinently a great perfumer at the helm and complimentary surrounding notes. The opening is fresh, sweet and strange but anchored by a growing herbal lavender note which blooms quickly and does give a musician like feel (whatever that means?) I suppose a kind of creative, calmness. The main thing Music for a while does is transport me back to youth reminding me very vividly of some kind of gummy, jelly sweets, tropical fruits and the listed pineapple here makes absolute sense although I didn't immediately get that myself. I can understand why some folks would hate this, cloyingly sweet and pungent lavender and even I will admit it became a touch that way with the candied, fruit juice sweetness and generally artiness, but it accessed something within me and lovingly tickled it. Carlos Benaim is an interesting perfumer but this was a touch unexpected but then in hindsight, absolutely his style. I want it, but not at FM retail price.
This one and Talent serve as the functional freshies but Wisdom is even more classic in the Eau de Cologne sense comprising as it does mainly citruses and then a strong white floral neroli. Very nice and I have a new appreaciarion for just how much neroli can differ in smell as a raw material, and how it’s actually pretty expensive. However my overriding perception is that I shouldn’t be paying £195 for a nice citrus/white floral, but money talk is vulgar and it’s not that much of a big deal if you love it.
Talent is decent. You definitely get the tea and pepper elements just accenting what is a very accomplished bergamot/citrus. Quality no doubt but considering some of the others in the line, not something I would fork out for.
I put a like for this a while back when I first tried this line. This was always one that I expected to be good and was but moved passed it without to much of an event or fanfare. However, upon trying today I think it deserves more praise. If you love a sweet, warm oriental which in truth is more tobacco heavy than leather despite the name. It is leathery in the opening, sweetly edged, opulent and with an almost gourmand cinnamon spice of a tolu balsam, it really appeals but I like something to surprise me and it feels a little bit stock. However, as it dries down the tobacco is more dominant giving a different dimension even hints of tea and dry smoke from the tobacco accord but somehow cleaning everything up at the same time. The feel is more Miller Harris feuilles de tabac, Bertrand for L’Artisan or other blonde tobacco fragrances you might care to mention. It’s really great. Lacking the unusual edginess of my favourite of this bunch, which is Vinyl.
I've become too much of an IG head in recent times and neglected my duties as a proud Fragrantica member, in not reviewing this perfume immediately. I was so jaded by the fragrance community, hype trains etc that this might well have been dismissed for the name alone. Tom Ford has become a bit too knowing with the innuendo of late and this offering tips over into parody. I hate to be this embittered and cynical but I really hoped I hated this just so I could rage back at the seemingly relentless noise it was getting online. Before people had even tried it and some jumping on it just to be first. The 'Influencer' set were biggin' it up, probably without even receiving free bottles such is the genius and momentum of the TF brand. All this misanthropy and negativity aside...I loved Lost Cherry. I only tried it once on my wrist so I perhaps haven't had the full experience and no one wanted it to be awful more than me...but it just plugged straight into some happy centre in my brain. I love Cherry and should've known it would be well handled by the private blend and not end up like some pound shop air freshener. The vibe is a deep, cherry and almonds but not cloying, not even too gourmand almost in the same sense as Plum Japonais but not as woody. It has the boozy, peru balm, cinnamon backing everything, it's basically a wet dream of stuff I like, but never thought would want in a perfume. Just goes to show you can't dismiss something on marketing, a silly name or the fact loads of people are hyping it because sometimes it's with good reason. I defy anyone to present a better cherry fragrance than this, I certainly can't think of any? I have a list of Olfactory priorities as long as a big willy (sorry some of Tom's crudeness is rubbing off on me....ooooh 'rubbing off'...I'll STOP now) so I probably won't be getting this anytime soon, but not because it doesn't smell good. This is coming from a person who bought Fucking Fabulous BTW. Yeah I know.
I can’t find my original review after a quick scroll but it went something like...this smells of cherries. (Or what our mind approximates the intensified, syrupy sweet, hyper cherry) It accesses the immature child in me and I go oooh lovely but is it perfume? Well to be fair it’s feels better more rounded and less cloying than a Demeter cherry or some cheap thing. However you’d expect richness for this price and even if it’s a one trick pony, you’d expect one hell of a trick and it largely pulls it off. A friend of mine mentioned how poor the longevity was, I hadn’t noticed to be honest but I put it to the test again today and by golly she’s right. The performance on this fragrance is so abysmal it’s not even funny. I’m not one to bang on about ‘performance’ I’ll leave that for moronic Youtubers and the like, but when you’re paying top dollar and after 3 hours this becomes NOTHING! Not a skin scent, not vanillin or aroma chemicals...NOTHING at all, (it’s pretty remarkable) then I have issues.
Opens well and on a day I tried Eros Flame and Spicebomb Nightvision this was like a creative lightening bolt in comparison. Only in comparison mind you, this is still a Joop fragrance and as such about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I found the opening to be a dry, spicy resinous feel with a nearly rubbery texture, getting sweeter hints and more saturated by a ‘sexy’ Tonka accord. I can’t say I liked it really and the drydown got a little worse but in creativity terms so much more imaginative than the current glut of similar smush.
I’ve never tried anything from this brand, I’m put off by the look of the bottles. I know it’s shallow but these have the appearance of something that wouldn’t seem unappropiate, quivering, glistening and plopping out of a satisfied orifice.
Not sure where my review is, perhaps it's just another one that was forgotten about because I tried this when it came out and remember it not living up to my high expectations. However upon wearing again, I'm much more understanding and sympathetic with it's themes. I love a good tea biased accord and it's pretty prominent in here backed up by a leathery woods. The birch tar smokiness and peppery notes are very subtle and chime well with the inherent smokiness of the tea but there's a brightness here too. The drydown is one of leather but there's a sweet fruity note, I'm not entirely convinced but I definitely enjoyed it more this time. Masque are yet to show me something I didn't think was of some creative interest.
Took a couple of tries to see the magic but I have glimpsed it now, and this is quite some fragrance. Opens quite fresh almost green, a little transparent with touches of the sharp pine/eucalyptus about it. It's definitely resinous but has the bright fizzy lemon of olibanum and elemi with some of the greener character of galbanum. This is all the opening, fleeting top notes and as such shouldn't be obsessed about because there's so much more to this than that. The incense becomes, smokier, oilier and with a touch of the diesel fume about it. High quality Vetiver adds to this dry smokey touch but never dominates the cerebral, and actually quite light feel. the sweet pink pepper note chimes in too. It's a strange one which I kinda dismissed upon first try, then on the the second try remarked on how well it transitioned through different stages, lasting very well on my skin. I really liked it.
I found this to be a truly innovative piece of work, but it's lighthearted, wearable nature is probably doing a good job of masking that fact. I reckon the votes being mainly for 'like', back that theory up, because a violet/rose fragrance with animallic leather and cucumber freshness, sounds like a bit of a train-wreck or at least a polarising Love/Hate thing? London carries off the broadly floral hue of Gallivant perfumes into the opening of violets and roses, powdered and jammy but combined with fresh green notes. Nice enough so far then a subtle, buttery iris/orris accord starts to develop on a delicate woody base. Despite the rose bias, London smells like nothing I've worn before but I suppose it kinda fits into a cleaner, brighter category almost to the point of effervescence. Think Lumiere noire, lyric even. London is a really measured piece of work, I thoroughly enjoyed it.