Clearly a fragrance which is in the mould of Andrier's works in the Iris family and frankly this signature accord will be her and Prada's lasting legacy. I don't know if I'd forgotten what The Infusion range smelled like but I found this to be a little more sparkling than I remember Iris or Homme. Could be wrong though. Now as far as I'm aware The Infusions are no longer in production and I kinda understand the outrage at paying twice the price for what is in essence, the same thing. I'd have more of an issue perhaps if they were still making them, but if they're not then I'm afraid this is the alternative. As for the name, I'm a Prince fan so naturally that name can do no wrong. My thought process was...Wow! Loving that fresh bergamot opening, into a hinted neroli, with iris and vetiver heart and a cedar base. Classic and time tested as it comes, but at £280 a little much for me. The 'Night' ones in this line offer more perceived value as big, thick, concentrated beasts.

An interesting scent. Bogart PH has that mixture of fresh almost green notes in the opening but soon recedes becoming a kind of synthetic, milky & musky and with a hint of white florals. I think this is a prime example of how to do tonka bean, it’s not cloying or annoying, has good balance and is very wearable. The drydown to me has a tobacco feel, very warm and cozy with shades of A*Men Pure Havanne. The lavender/vanilla, (Tonka whatever) combo reminds me of the usual le male or Invasion barbare, reflection man crowds but dirtier than those and a little more what you’d expect from a fragrance as affordable as this stuff is. A blind by for me as I’d oddly never seen it in stores in the UK, it’s a happy addition to the collection.

Lovely opening you get a opulent but mild saffron and settling to a great, if not familiar leather accord. Now to say this is similar to TF TL and it’s many smellalikes is clearly obvious but this has much less of the fruity, raspberry note of TL. It’s far less sharp and dense, perhaps a little more laid back and mellow, while simultaneously being less sweet and not exactly smokey but somehow more woody. The truth is I have the best there is to offer in this department, the first Clive Christian C which I think does this accord in the most complex way possible, but that’s just an opinion. I found this to be more on those lines or maybe Godolphin, a little scaled back from TL’s full on aroma. I enjoyed it of course.

Clearly Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille will aways be the crest of the wave and the high water mark to which other fragrances similar to this, will be judged. The opening is dried fruits and honey with a deep cherry tobacco and vanilla...yeah...I told ya! The accord is clearly of comparable quality but I guarantee I could tell the difference between this and TF TV as something seems smoother, less brash, could be the oud and saffron Lux’ing it up a bit but it doesn’t have the heft either in the Tobacco or the vanilla. However, make no mistake this is not like a ‘weaker’ One I could think of Phaedon Tabac rouge prehaps it’s more like that Parfums de Marly one? (Name escapes me) a reimagining, progressing subtley differently. I have TV so ultimately this is redundant to me but it’s long lasting and cheaper per ml than TF so worth checking out for fans who want to save a little.

Stunning. Absolutely stunning. As much as I adore Lubin Idole this stuff might just be even better. A boozy, incense and slightly leathered, sweet smell with a hint of creamy sandalwood smoothness in a long and drawn out drydown. Like some stumptuious cocktail expertly crafted by a fine mixologist to have the perfect balance of elements. I love it and I want a bottle. I wasn’t expecting that, but way to hit a home run from the first of this brand I sampled. Also, expensive stuff but actually pretty reasonable considering the quality and volume of perfume you get. It’s a low lying scent but that’s it’s nature, still lasts and projects well. Update: 10/07/24 So I’ve owned this perfume for a few years now and although it still enjoy it, I was somewhat fooled by the intensity of its composition as being ‘better’ than Idole, sentiments uttered in the review above. It’s really not. Idole is a much more nuanced version of this for two main reasons, lighter, less syrupy, boozy and fruity top notes. The sandalwood accord and dry, woody AC’s in the base are exposed for what they are in this and as such leave it lacking that extra bit of finesse.

Now I’m going to have to update this when I’ve had more experience of this fragrance but from initial sampling I absolutely adored this. My love of Prada and Andrier is well documented but I have to say the quality and creativity of this day/night line is very impressive. Now they are all pigeonholed, quite literally into catagories Leather, patchouli, Amber, oud/rose etc.... The smell of the top notes of this fragrance remind me of a friends house when I was a kid, taking me right back there, it’s not the first time I’ve had this olfactory total recall either but it’s not one note that does it, more of an accord. I don’t know whether it was my friends mum’s perfume or they used to burn incense or a combination of other things, I’ve no idea? The main thing I can attribute it to is my favourite catalyst ingrient in all perfumery Labdaum, forming a complex and luxurious opening. It then dies way back when settled to be honest, coming more into a subte sandalwood in the perfumers signature understated style. Also considering the night line are some of the more opulent feeling scents, makes me think Andrier was told to leave nothing in the lab, likely relishing using materials outside of her usual comfort zone. I loved it. I will update when I’ve worn it more comprehensively but imagine high quality sandalwood and resin with a minimalist feel of something like a Santal 33...but smells nothing like it. If you get me? Anyway...I’m encouraging fans to try this line because I liked them all.

I'm no expert in florals and nor do I have vast experience with perfumes marketed towards women. However, upon first smelling this I thought it was very uninspiring and like many floral musk fragrances I've smelled before. However, as it settled down, more of the base was revealed and it's a little more sophisticated than I'd first thought. Green, fresh citrus/floral opening which settles back to kinda generic white flowers and white musk you've smelled a million times before and crucially not only too feminine but too boring for me to wear. This is pretty much how it remains throughout until after a few hours I get a really soft almost caramelised, sweet base which I can only interpret as sandalwood. Also after several hours the white florals do actually resemble jasmine but only very subtly. For such a big popular fragrance like this, is it enough to win people over? I think the same can be for Joy, it will sell regardless, and to me at least is less innovative than Sauvage. It's a perfectly nice gift for that special someone but nothing mindblowing. So I've given my opinion on Joy and critiqued it from a originality stand point but I don't really understand the criticism on performance or quality. I've smelled cheaper versions of the floral musk that are awful and Joy lasted and projected on me, almost too much so.

oh dear. This fragrance is a real chameleon, cool bottle, unusual name, herbal/woody opening but sadly dries down to the same old Solo accord. This is why I've put all the Solo's in 'reminds me of'...because it does. I'm not a hater when it somes to this line, I own Solo platinum and I'm an admirer of the brand, but redundant flankers annoy me slightly. Most of the time I couldn't care less about them, or let them bother me but when they promise a different experience and deliver much the same, it irks me slightly. I suppose the opening being a fresh, fir like pine and woods/clean cardamom/vetiver smell sets you up for something else to what you eventually get. It's so odd then that it transmutes from that after about 10 mins into an even more annoying version of the original Solo. Like I said I have platinum which does have a similar smell but is much more resinous and amber like which completely negates the cheap, orangey/lemon haze of the original...and with a minor tweak becomes palatable.

This fragrance is all about balance. Era somehow conveys a misty, hazy, frosted glass, translucent vibe to me. Both creamy and warmly exotic, sweet but also sour and with a slightly funky edge. The opening is quite discrete but the overwhelming smell in here is oud. The combination in the opening is mainly a iris/leather/saffron but it's not that extremely earthy, sharp saffron, just to stress again it appears in a very complementary dose. As this kinda satin, gourmand leather settles and the iris dies quickly, I get the oud and it's almost that cheesy (I quite literally mean cheese) smell of 70's flat-pack furniture, seriously! Slightly barnyard but not all the way and perfectly fitting for this perfume giving it some animalic edge. The drydown is a very familiar accord to me but I can't place what perfumes it reminds me of. I get a sugared, sweetness of a powdery amber, almost ambergris meets synthetic (maybe even ambroxan) then with the oud coming on strong in a kind of heady, Arabic sort of way. This is a very luxurious composition, which at first you might think could be a shrinking violet, not lasting or projecting but you'd be very wrong, this thing is a real silent killer, just speaking even more to the quality of the ingredients. I've sampled the whole line but this is my first experience actually wearing one and I've got to say they are very Impressive brand, and era is a great example. I've got a sneaking suspicion that Era will be a polarising/marmite type affair. I love so Marmite so it's all good.

Opens up with a fir resin and musky sharpness, this doesn't mess around in letting you know it's a indie bomb of a fragrance but crucially not a patchouli one...at least not for the first few minutes. Then the patchouli comes on stronger and stronger as it settles to a very earthy, soil tincture that would satisfy any patchouli lover. For me though I like patch when offset or tempered by other elements, this however uses darkly resinous tones and other stuff which makes it slightly too rich and peaty for my blood. Don't get me wrong it's really good and in fact turns on it's head again in the 3rd act because the drydown gets really cozy and resinous again almost to the point of an oriental amber. Great quality and thanks to Memoize for the sample, I enjoyed it.