A horrible, monstrous, synthetic tuberose nightmare. Screechy and scratchy as I've come to expect from this brand.
Not exactly a huge departure from the original, but worth the price for sure. Like the mature older brother of Encre Noire that drops him off at the punk rock show and goes to the library at his university to read. Beautiful bottle and scent that punch way above their weight when it comes to the price. Warm, masculine, spicy, and refined. Great for formal occasions. Like an old antiquated church in the middle of the woods full of polished mahogany with a lingering smell of incense. More complex and original than anything youāre likely to find at a department store. Donāt wear this because you want compliments, wear it because it is art. It is a vision of a master perfumer. It is modern history. Overall a more socialized version of the original, but the original still blazed some trails in the community and deserves your respect! 10/10
I donāt have a lot of love or respect for the house of Tom Ford, but Fucking Fabulous is the exception. This is definitely a ālove it or hate itā fragrance - as for me, I certainly adore it. I am already a keen enthusiast of leather perfumes and whilst this is completely different from my usual style, there is something about it I canāt resist. The leather is smooth, rich and surprisingly subtle - nothing loud or garish like that of Ombre or Tuscan Leather. There is an aromatic facet of lavender and sage, however I feel this is only fleeting, laying down the stepping stones towards a warmer, sweeter heart. Alongside the leather, a dry and bitter almond note makes itself known which is very reminiscent of ground almonds, softened by the creamy sweetness of vanilla, orris and coumarin. I love it, everything about it. Admittedly, itās not the best fragrance ever made nor is it worth the ridiculous price tag. But, if it can be found at the right price, I would jump on it; this fragrance is incredibly unique and once youāve smelled it, you cannot forget it. The true gem from Tom Ford in my eyes.
Bois DāIris is a lovely fragrance for a sophisticated and self-assured person who does not need to scream for attention. However, the name could be considered rather misleading, as the scent itself is much warmer and richer than you would believe. All in all this is a dry, resinous scent with sweet and creamy nuances. Incense and myrrh are dominant to my nose, balanced by the delicious sweetness of vanilla - sugar is also listed but is obviously just marketing. This marriage of vanilla and incense is smoothed out by the buttery subtlety of an iris accord, making what you would think the primary note, in fact a supporting one. Overall however, I really enjoy this scent - itās perfect for those āin-betweenā days during that period of transition between summer and autumn. If you have smelled Encens Suave, you will notice an obvious similarity between the two. However whilst Encens Suave screams, Bois DāIris whispers, which I greatly appreciate.
Costa Azzurra is a scent which is often overlooked, for I suppose it is technically not that special. I however, love the stuff despite the composition not fitting within my usual style. I feel itās an impressively unique take on a masculine summer scent, and one that I donāt feel I will tire of any time soon. The bulk of the scent is actually built around a central theme of a classical mens āaftershaveā with certain fougere qualities - lavender, citrus, woods and cypress leave the impression of a mature, sophisticated gentleman. Itās from here that the added layer of driftwood and seaweed are placed on top, tying in a beautifully salty and marine nuance, like the rushing waves of the Italian coast splashing against your skin. As I said, most people overlook this. Is it my favourite fragrance ever? No of course not, but as an easy to wear perfume for the summer, I think itās brilliant. Unfortunately the extortionate Tom Ford prices are a downside but in regards to the scent alone I think itās lovely. The parfum is noticeably longer lasting, but overall the same scent profile which I donāt believe justifies a further increase in price.
āCabochardā translates as āstubbornā or āheadstrongā which is aptly named as GrĆØs was a woman who was generally considered as not understanding the concept of compromise, yet was regularly voted the most chic woman in the world. The scent which brought fame to her house was tailor-made for this exact type of person, as it will always provoke a reaction. The scent is based around a central leathery core of isobutyl quinoline which is gloriously thick and robust, tempered by the earthy depth and allure of oakmoss, patchouli and galbanum. Hints of aldehydes and vague florals protect it from being what would be bordering on unwearable, and ties that element of class and āchicā character to the body of the scent. Overall I think this is glorious, generally considered one of the great classics of perfumery, this is a masterpiece through and through. Iāve not tried the original composition, only the current EDP released in 2019, yet still it leaves an immensely powerful impression.
I donāt care about this perfume realy. It smells pleasant but it has zero emotional resonance for me. It means nothing. Itās like the dreary drunken cousin of Egoiste Platinum that you donāt want to get stuck talking to at a dinner party because heāll bore you to tears with increasingly uninteresting anecdotes. Mediocrity in extremis.
eating a laced candy apple at the carnival but still managing to have a great time (even though it's kinda scary)
coming in from rolling around in your grandparents' garden and sitting yourself in front of the tv with a brand new toy
I've tested all of the Ex Nihilo range, and for such an abundance of perfumes, there's basically nothing that pushes the limits. They like to take a tried and tested idea, and make it with a fine precision, no rough edges. All of their perfumes are strong, and this is no exception. They all also have prominent synthetic woody amber bases, which I guess is challenging, but not in a way I find interesting, rather they bum me out and start to grate on me over the long course of the drydown. This here is a competent, polished spin on a very hackneyed men's designer formula. It's fine, but that's it, just fine. I'd probably have thought more highly of it ten to fifteen years ago just before this scent profile became so prolific.
I got a sample of this with an order from Bastille. On card I swear it smells like tuna salad, very nauseating. Not sure I can bring myself to put it on my skin.
Opens like sweet balsamic jelly baby sweets, and the underlying creamy spectre of a vanilla, tonka and custard accord which gets stronger in the heart. If you're expecting bold tobacco be prepared for disappointment the tobacco accord is very much a ill-defined creamy part of the balmy fuzz created by the base. In essence this is a quality perfume and I really love the audacious confection of the opening five minutes or so, then the prominence of sandalwood you can really smell that for a while there too working with the vanillic theme of the whole thing. It's cohesive and well made perfume but it doesn't stir a great deal in me. If you like this sort of thing, particularly classy stuff from Guerlain or similar then I'd recommend giving it a sniff.
Fabulous!!! What a fantastic, classic smelling perfume. Aromatic, citrus opening with a lightly smoky, dry cedar and moss at it's heart. Lovely on paper but even better on skin. I think without being a pointless copy, because it isn't that...I'd say if you like stuff like Dior Eau Sauvage you'll be in safe hands with this. Very much more base, woody, mossy and less diffusive floral mids and a touch more herbal, this smells more full and 'niche' whatever that means? Well I know what it means and I think you do too. Little in the way of invention here but it's a classic three chord banger, jazzed up a bit for a boutique brand, what's not to love? Great perfume really enjoying wearing it today and lasts and projects pretty well for a fragrance of this nature.
Like most of Dusita's perfumes it takes for a while to understand them. I have had this now many weeks but didn't want to hurry with the review since mostly those ones written too quickly are full of misleading opinions. Pelagos opens up in an earthy way with a beautiful aroma of Iris. First it feels more like a flower than Orris butter even if Iris is not listed there. The scent is crispy and fresh as well but it's not that typical salty like breeze from the sea or watery like freshness, it's different and unique take on it. Quickly it starts to develope into herbal and smooth blend and you can find Dusita's calming, meditative signature style to use all ingredients. Iris changes to Orris butter and the whole blend starts to feel warmer. The blend feels as well woody and a little bit creamy but it has a refreshing character throughout the life of the fragrance. Tonka beans here add green feeling to the scent. It's not sweet at all. Patchouli is gentle, it's woody and earthy but it's not that dark, deep and potent note which is known from so many Rose scents. On my skin the leather note is unnoticeable but on my husband's skin I can get tiny whiffs of it when the scent is lingering in the air. Pelagos, like all Dusita's gorgeous perfumes, performs in a clever way. It changes the gender and on my skin it feels astonishingly feminine, like fresh, herbal Iris scent, whereas on my husband's skin it's masculine, woody, herbal scent with a hint of Orris and leather. All the notes are more delicate on my skin. If you love Dusita's dna, you will love this as well. It's not a typical fresh scent so test it especially if you are not familiar with the brand. The projection of Pelagoss is less than average (this is extract) but the longevity is all the day. This review is based on a sample. I really don't know why the notes are so wrong. I only understand if someone gets mossy or Vetiver like smell but even those nuances comes from the notes below. The notes which are mentioned in the brands website: Top: Litsea Cubeba, Sea breeze, Bergamot Middle: White Thyme, Orris Butter, Tonka Bean Base: Patchouli, Sandalwood, Leather Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
If the cigarette-skewing galbanum in Nightclubbing were to lose the cigarette element and instead be a brasher, bolder rendition of galbanum, it would be very similar to this. Very interesting perfume!
Exquisite but so short-lived I can't even begin to consider this a viable purchase. Such a shame. It's up there with the tonka as the best of this line for me.
Roses, Iris, Violet and Patchouli here smell like a watercolour painting looks like. They blend seamlessly with each others like all other notes as well and they are beautifully melancholy and nostalgic. Iris and Violet are easy to detect in the opening but they fades away and show up in a different way. This is not powdery for me, not even that vintage powdery like which feeling comes from the smell of Iris and Violets which both was used in make up powders back in times. This is not dry, it feels wet for me like like still slightly wet painting. If iris and Violet tend to hide Raspberry shows up after the opening. It's not so fruity, it's subtle and it reminds me of lipsticky scent which on the other hand is created by Raspberry and Violet together. This lipstick is not waxy, opulent layer, it's a lipstick which has been tried to wipe away with water and oil. It's not lipsticky like Misia or Lipstick Rose, not at all. Raspberry is not juicy one either. I don't think this as a sweet scent, Vanilla in the base is not clear like it's in many perfumes but I can get a tiny whiffs of sweetness here and there. Vanilla does make this concoction warmer, keeps it away from ice cold side where iris and Violet stays in many perfumes. And for those ones who are not familiar with Les Parfums de Rosine: Rose is the star of the show - pastel coloured, dewy Rose, not "jammy" one nor fresh, utterly pleasant and easy to like. Patchouli is dancing with Rose from the opening until the final part of the dry dow. Ballerina No 2 is nothing which I have smelled before. Actually it performs perfectly and shows up somehow like a whole picture now when it's raining a lot - than yesterday in sunshine. One other scent which I love the most when it's raining is Une Rose / Rose Tonnerre (this is nothing like that one though). On the other hand, one scent which comes in my mind when smelling this one is Opus V - Woods Symphony by Amouage . It's very different as well but with some small similarities, I see the same kind of scene when smelling it than I see now when smelling Ballerina No 2: watercolour painting, here wet roses and iris, roses and Orris in Woods Symphony. Those similarities are more feelings than than realistic similarities and Woods Symphony is "dirty" and animalic because of Oud and Civet, and Ballerina NĀ°2 is very innocent. This scent is feminine but I will test it on my husband's skin. Patchouli maybe does some magics on men's skin making it more masculine on them. My intention wasn't to write this long text now since I just got this scent recently but this is how I feel. I will come back later and I will complete my thoughts about this beauty. Thank you for reading. Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
I found this to be lovely. Really nice. The balance, the subtlety, everything is in it's right place and complementary. Opens like a very delicately flavoured Turkish delight. I don't even like Turkish delight, never have, never will do, the Gelatinous texture, the infusion of rose, the sweetness, all if it! NO!!!! But this smells of it and even evokes it so vividly but I find the fresh light, rosewater effect and hint of sweetness even the implication that it's powdered like they are, everything! There's even a light effervescence, which looking at the notes here, champagne is included and I get that too! Could a certain green cognac material be in here? Okay Mr Alan this is some good work. We haven't even reached the kicker of chocolate. It is a chocolate accord too, not a after thought or a cacao note which leaves me a bit cold sometimes, this smells like a rich coco with the right balance of earth to it. All together then we have a bit of a trope. It's roses and champagne and chocolate, it's valantines day in a bottle, and clearly Alan nods to that in the title. It's a more sophisticated paint by numbers, things like Chocolaty patchouli is often paired with rose as well as the champers or a certain booziness but hey perfumery is sometimes about nailing classic stuff just because you can, but mainly because folks like it, there's a reason why scales and chord progressions exist in music. I actually think this is more interesting than commercially similar efforts like Noir de Noir by Tom Ford and more than likely something by Montale. I'd reach for this though because it shows a nice degree of craft and restraint. Haven't worn it yet so migh update when I do but I've smelled it a few times now and still think it's great!
Darren Alan continues to dazzle with his... Nahhhh he doesn't. Ooooh that was uncalled for. Sorry. He's doing alright you know? Not bad. I love a musk material and even moreso a perfume with musk in the name so let's GO!!!! Totally taken aback by the opening for me it's a little powdery, pastel violet tinged rose-ish accord very soft, velvety but papery with woods and very much indy vibes which is fine. The refinement does come as that musky base starts to chime in and envelope, it's really crowd pleasing and frankly appeals to me, musks belong in perfumes and create a familiar 'pillow' (almost quite literally) to rest your head upon, and go....."aahhhhhhh" This has something of that effect while being a be rough n ready. It's a bit twee, but it's alright by me. Very hard for anyone to innovate in the musky perfume space, so not gonna be too harsh.
This is my starting point with Darren Alan perfumes. I have immense respect for the DIY/Punk artistic attitudes of Indy perfume makers, I really do. It might not always seem that way because I don't even view these perfumes in the same reference frame as 'trained' or 'proper' perfumers work. That seems, snobby, gatekeepery even but it's largely true. There's levels to everything in life and the pro's are pro's for a reason. Anyway, I approach this set with an open mind and the title of this immediately evoked what I thought it would be about, not a bad thing. So it's a petrichor fragrance which usually involves the requisite materials like mushroom alcohols, perhaps patchouli and almost certainly geosmin. So I was expecting something heavy handed and glum, gloomy. Largely you do get that earthy, moist air, a very natural smell and something we can all somewhat relate to, but no perfume I've tried captures it well, it's a perfume after all maybe I have unrealistic expectations? I mean geosmin is an incredible material but is extremely powerful and difficult to incorporate into accords and compositions, but here I think Darren Alan has done a pretty fine job of it. (if indeed that's what he's used, as I mentioned some alternatives can create a similar effect) The main reason being that he has brought this floral accord into the mix which you can smell in the background throughout and I think that gives this perfume more of a story than simply representing AFTER RAIN, it adds to the context and naturalism, it's not just the soil reacting to the rain but everything else. The problem is....I don't want to wear perfumes like this. Okay sometimes maybe but they're just not my bag and it's hard to get excited about post thunderstorm, mineral, wet soil shit yano? Credit where it's due this could've had way less thought put in and a much more hamfisted approach but it was pleasantly surprising.
A perfume that captured my interest immediately with the first spray. An amazing perfumeria was full of awesome brands but I knew that this is not easy to find. I didn't try this in the paper since it never tells enough about the scent and most of the perfumes smells terrible on the paper. With this one, it would have been catastrophic. I had decided to buy this one and I didn't have so much time so I just sprayed a lot into my arms. Wow, such an intoxicating, rich, creamy, opulent aroma of Mango and Coconut. Both made in the classy, not juicy way. Pepper brings some edge to that heavenly combo. So deep since the first sniff, actually smelling this straight away from the skin almost gives me a headache. Jasmine is joining them but it decides to stay few steps behind the fruits, giving them room to shine longer than just in the opening. The scent trail is just magic here. It's very seductive and sensual which is not how I normally describe the scent with these fruits. This has been made in a beautiful way, they are not powdery, but somehow soft, matte and fluffy. Iris is not like it is normally, that powdery like, but it does its job in a unique way. The base is blended well, like all of ingredients here. Thanks to Amber and Patchouli, and of course non edible fruits, this stays unisex. Those are not strong, not at all, and can't be separated but there are no clear masculine details nor anything girly either and this is not shiny bright. The union of Vanilla, Musk and Tonka beans is seamless and it's like a soft blanket gently wrapping musk and patchouli inside of it. It never gets sweet nor cloying and Coconut never changes into sunscreen like. The experience during the scents lifetime is luxurious. This scent is strong - the scent trail is huge and the longevity is great. If I wear it in the evening I can smell it still in the morning and it has changed into cocooning, gentle yet irresistible skin scent. I think most of the people like this scent in cooler weather but it works well in hot and humidity too. Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
So I did a test on this one with multiple of my female colleagues. They ALL preferred this over Magic Hour which really surprised me. This one however just did not sit right with me. There seems to be a harsh note inside (perhaps not disclosed to the public) that irritates my nostrils. Yet, when my female colleagues were walking past me throughout the day, I really liked the waft/sillage it was leaving. In Conclusion, this smells better in the air than up close on skin for me personally, and women seem to love this fragš¤·šæ.
Jasmin lovers go into this one with trepidation. If youāre expecting to be dealt yet another jasmine perfume, whether heady, indolic, waxy, sweet, or just the combination of these you expect to smellā¦ youāre not going to get that. This is a unique prospect, much more herbal and aromatic but still recognisably jasmine if youāre familiar with many different oils and such. This one has a subtlety which gives this enfleurage effect, like itās been botanically, infused with jasmine, itās so delicate and frankly lovely!!! I bloody loved this!!!! Absolutely wowed by it. Minor criticism and this could be big deal breakers for many folks (again mainly for jasmine lovers/niche perfume fans) I assume itās expensive and really is not a powerful perfume at all.
Wellā¦ I was going to be really harsh about this perfume but Iāve tried it a few times now and decided to play nice. However, it smells BAD on my skin, not dull, or ājustā bergamot, or doesnāt last (possibly is ALL those things too) but on a strip/card/blotter the bergamot material smells really nice, and what I would expect from some named and Iām assuming very special bergamot producer Iāve pictured being amalfi coast or southern Italy or whatever? My experience of using bergamot in perfumery is that the relatively affordable bergamot oils not only smell fantastic but blend so well into compositions, retaining their edge and giving top note sparkle to many the composition, happy days. So some grand Cru shit should be mind blowing right?!?! Well as I mentioned above on my skin the bergamot is blunted, and dull as dishwater, recognisably bergamot but fuzzy and lacking definition, or freshness, isnt that what bergamot is prized for??? I donāt blame the support either because thereās not a great deal else there! Perhaps a woody scaffold but nothing more. Iām not a person to buy too heavily into skin chemistry it's much more likely your nose/perception at a point in time than it is your skin, but that could be a factor I guess. So if a perfume is not viable on my skin, then why am I giving it a chance? Wellā¦ againā¦ like mentioned I tried on card and the bergamot was much less flat and more what I would expect, a pleasant, bright aroma of bergamot. So without being rude to G.Franco or the crew behind these perfumes this one is not for me, and just not very good, sorry.
