Let me put my mark in the sand and say...”Toot...toot! HYpe train starts here!!!” If I cared about being one of the first to declare that shit!!! In fact I actively don’t want people to like it therefore making it more exclusive and just for those in the know, and being part of the Opus line that’s where I suspect it will remain, in relative semi obscurity. I could be wrong though, because it’s so excellent it deserves high praise. Opus XI Opens up with a wet flint/stone almost dewy sensation of lush greens but you can instantly tell that is the calm before the storm and there is an awesome, dense base lurking underneath. Already it’s sharp and cutting yet somehow smooth and meditative. Basically the combination of a huge styrax note which is INCREDIBLE serves as a The darker more enchanted side of resins, which can usually run the gamete between cerebral or uplifting incense or leathery and sharp or dry amber to warm cuddliness. Styrax and oud In Opus XI are the perfect marriage for each other creating a highly medicinal and cutting fragrance but one which has a ton of depth even with the relative simplicity. I absolutely loved this stuff! Bold and in your face but balanced and refined too the best way to describe its vibes if you’re not familiar with this sort medicinal/resinous/oud smell is that of Gucci guilty absolute pour homme. Not just the almost antiseptic feel (Opus is way smoother and better BTW) but a natural sense, true resinous power delivered in a unique package. There’s something raw yet refined about it and it lasts and develops for many hours. I’ve always been a fan of the Opus series, they are kinda deliberately overlooked and more obscure than the main (his/hers) releases. The first six books if you like, were nice enough but the additional volumes have just got better and better, I remember describing Opus VII as like something Al Pacino would wear in that movie ‘Devils advocate’ (although I may have stolen that from someone who said it about a different fragrance & will still not be credited

I’ve only really tried the ‘main’ FM’s but I’m steadily working my way through the ones that have been out years but I didn’t get to yet. My main objection to this is the name...because it’s not outrageous is it? I mean notes like cellophane, pebble, dew drop, or squid...now that would be outrageous, this is just meh. It’s a synthetic, musky citrus accord with that classical edc element of white florals which are non typical but still not outrageous, on a cedar type base. I didn’t think much of it after the okay opening, then when it settled I actively wasn’t much of a fan but then (and this is usually the case with many perfumes) when dried right down to faint basenotes, I thought mmmm...that’s really nice actually. Outrageous averages out to be OK that is all.

Outragous! then. Well, on a personal level, I love technical elegance in perfumery and it would be hard to deny that Sophia Grosjman doesn't epitomise that. Her commonly used collection of woody, floral, musk and ionone materials creating a signature accord is akin to taking a well established three chord progression and crafting a hit song out of it. What's Outrageous about this perfume is perhaps that it takes some of that approach and applies to a high end art brand, rather than a more modest and affordable high street one. So...The price is Outrageous basically. I'm joking of course, value in perfume is certainly not judged that way in this camp, and for a moment there I honestly thought I'd fallen in love with this perfume, but on reflection, I can't quite justify the expenditure, even at a reduced price. Outrageous smells bright and such in the opening, it's not very analog as expected, it's a fruity powder for the digital age. What I do like is just how minimal and uncluttered it is. The apple note is not annoying, the orange blossom is so squeaky clean it barely has any of the naturalism which makes orange blossom so interesting, the wax and animalic indole or even the pairing with spices like caraway or cumin from perfumes like Serge Lutens, Fleur d'oranger for example. Yet this sanitised version of orange blossom (that's what dominates to me) is somehow satisfying and not lacking, because it's providing me with something else I crave, a perfume which allows me to wear and enjoy and almost switch off any kind of critical thought or deep emotion, usually something I'd say a perfume needs to have, but the lack thereof is what makes Outrageous (ALMOST) special. hmmmm...I think I need to continue this at some point.....

I can’t help but feel this fragrance is for the most flamboyant, brash, peacock feathered, show off imaginable...but I absolutely love it! There’s something dark and brooding, even a bit dangerous about it despite the seemingly playful, sweetness, it somehow evokes crushed purple velvet. I can’t help myself, and reading the concept behind it, (I did not realise the psychoactive component!) I like it even more and the addictive, narcotic nature, this perfume clearly possesses. I loved the opening clearly very floral and sweetly resinous but genuinely unlike anything v I’ve tried before. The heliotrope becomes more eveident as it settles lending a gourmand vanilla/almond backdrop to the whole composition, it’s very creamy and with the exotic, heady florals from jammy rose and ylang ...and with the resounding Myrrh and sandalwood adding to proceedings, this stuff sings. Now it’s pretty feminine and I do say that with a clear unbiased, ‘wear what you want’ attitude...but I’d only feel comfortable wearing this in certain situations. Sad as it sounds, watching the boxing in a packed boozer full of proper blokes and I’d feel self conscious as if I might as well just have walked in with my full Rupaul get up on! For real. Only tried two from this brand, the other one was nice but performed poorly but they made up for it with this...I think I want a bottle.

Well I put a big fat 'Dislike' on this without even posting a review which is not unusual for me as I'm super forgetful. I actually think Akaster is a good answer to those who say that PdM is a 'jumped up clone house' full of it's own importance, exclusivity and high prices but actually just ripping off well known perfumes with no originality. A claim which might have a touch of merit but is also slightly unfair, because like most things, it's more complicated than that. I say that Akaster is different from many perfumes because it's pretty stark and actually quite awful! However, I'd love to have the bottle to wear something like this, so off the wall and animal. Akaster has a cheese and barnyard stink to the the oud note which I just can't get passed. There's a rose in here too but that doesn't do any good just adds to the unpleasantness, like a toilet sprayed with air freshener to mask a particularly foul smelling dump! Now, I like some skanky perfumes, animal, civet, powerful middle eastern attars, genuine oud accords etc.. even the manure tones of tobacco or tanning leather...basically I'm no shrinking violet or olfactory prude but this stuff really didn't agree with me at all. What I think makes it worse is the seeming attempt to cling to the 'Marly line' the continuing preppy, Creed like narrative which might not even be deliberately fostered by the brands creator but is still evoked for me. Examples like Pegasus, Carlyle and of course Layton are 'designerish' if that's even a thing? And Akaster has clean elements and something accessible but a heart of absolute crazy, unpleasantness. Like the sterile, cleanliness of a hospital but with the smell of illness and various bodily secretions vague, but ever present. For all it's oud gurth there's something light about akaster. An example of something with dirt and skankiness but that owns it and see's it through from concept to effect on the user, is Imaginary authors Bull's blood. Another perfume I'd say I don't like but for different reasons. This stuff was certainly a talking point for me.

While I agree to some extent with the two reviews below and the appraisal of the brand as a whole, I can't help but be slightly more optimistic about Supernova. Honestly I don't know what's up with me lately, where has that gnarled, cynical me gone? If Supernovas are distant events we can observe but don't have a great deal of impact on us then, it's quite a fitting name. Sure this perfume is of little consequence and laughably so if you look at the original retail price, but if you get it for a steal in TK MAXX (£20 which I did) then in context it's a very bright, citrus fragrance and something my collection lacks. The opening to me is a very green affair, shades of Goutal's Ninfeo mio, a galbanum like almost fig leaf vibe, obviously with a ton of bitter lemon and grapefruit. When this settles though there is a clean slightly soapy note of cardamom & thicker touch of woods at the back and more of the kaffir lime/petitgrain that is promised in the notes which is actually very pleasant indeed. Now before that happens It does smell a bit like some cheap lemony, cleaning product but genuinely that association goes quite quickly. Which brings me to performance because it all goes quite quickly if I'm honest, still not without merit and when some comes around I will happily cake myself in it.

Tom Ford ain’t half bangin’ out the Fougere fragrances of late. I remain optimistic in the light of the other two not exactly spellbinding me, this stuff has very promising notes and no one is rooting for Beau de jour more than me. However, I want something with depth, with something new about it or if it can’t manage that... just be classically good. Main thing I’m looking for is for it to be STRONG!

Oh well...I'm so often surprised by the fact I haven't reviewed certain perfumes, when I'm sure I appraised them long ago, this is one of them. I've been a proud owner of this for years now and despite not trying the original DK, I think Fuel is a magical perfume. To me it has all the beauty and subtleties of the very best sandalwoods, because afterall that is the dominant note in Fuel for men. It is joined by the warmth and depth of amber and what can only be described as powdery notes, with a floral touch evocative of the feel (but crucially not the smell) of iris or orris root and a satin, buttery, suede. This reminds me of soft pencil shavings, and crayons but with a sweeter nature, and a refinement and quality that is pretty staggering. Other softies like this which have subsequently been released have caught my heart like Atelier Cologne's Santal Carmin or Xejoff's Ivory route. 'Santal Secree' I've coined them, things that are strong but barely in the realms of existence to some noses, certainly in terms of announcing themselves. However, when you them breathe deeply and imbibe, have masses of depth. Not strictly for men, soft and feminine enough for women to love too. I'm using my bottle sparringly as it's rare stuff now.

Something about Man in Red is redeeming it and pulling it back from falling into the gaping precipice that is my wrath. It escapes it's fate in the yawning chasm for one reason...it goes straight for my inner child and more specifically that child's sweet tooth. I can't believe that vanilla isn't listed because it dries down very soft and creamy. (Just noticed Tonka is listed) The opening however made me really dislike it with that mundane fruity apple vibe and fruity woods. The accord does grow on me after a while as I said and it's pretty in explicable because I really shouldn't like it but I do. I get the comparision to the red Dunhill one but this is even sweeter and softer.

I think it was a good thing for Tom Ford to make a 'designer' mainstream, leather fragrance, something which was usually only afforded for the niche fragrance elite. What a shame then that it seemed to take an age to come out in the UK. I was nagging TF reps for months trying to get my hands on it, and they didn't even know what I was talking about. Same old story... Well now it's even in Boots the chemist so everyone can and should get at it, because it's really nice. The opening is luxurious, kinda sweet and slightly resinous, nodding towards Tuscan leather but with a definite jasmine floral leaning edge making the leather buttery and even a bit iris or orris like. It perpetually sways back n forth between a sweeter TL leather and a more feminine, powdered leather. I really like it. Hang on a second though because I'm getting deja vu here. I remember the release of the private blend version of this Ombre leather 17 a few years ago and as nice as it was, was met with a bit of sigh from me. Well I must not have been the only one and maybe the redundancy of that fragrance as a private blend addition, allowed Ombre leather in it's most recent incarnation, to be born...who knows? And now it is here and is good...makes Ombre leather 17 even more redundant. I mean it's still not exactly cheap or anything but it's excellent value compared to the private line 50ml being about £75 and the 100ml is about £110 Tom Ford needs to keep things reassuringly expensive after all. I can't argue with the performance, although dying to a skin scent after a couple of hours I found the longevity very satisfactory.

This fragrance does its best to replicate the wonderful Gucci PHII and in the opening it doesn’t do a bad job but almost as immediately you can tell it doesn’t process anywhere near the depth. I get the zing of bergamot, the spicy clove even the floral musk and woody base of cedar all popping, maybe even slightly replicating the darkly metallic tea notes of GHII but it’s such a poor and weak imitation and sweeter too and I genuinely hate to be so reductive and bring it all down to a comparison because I like Ted Baker as a brand and desperatly want to see good perfumes from them. I even like the precious metallic concept and branding/packaging, the shiny flacons which look a bit like hip flasks, and the very wallet friendly prices but the truth is Au is weak, doesn’t last long and despite glimpsing the spirit of GPHII it’s no where near as musky, spicy or aloof.