Okay, new brand for me and one I've been chasing down the discovery set of for sometime but they've been sold out for the last 18 months or so. Anyway, finally got my hands on them and of the six offerings this was the first impression and I'm glad to say it left a really good one. I think it opens quite green, you definitely get the salty, waxy, wierdness of tuberose, this is undoubtedly a floral perfume but wasn't screaming narcisus on my first application on skin. However, as I sit here with it on the strip it smells SOOO much more like tuberose and narcissus, in a very fresh almost light, eculyptus/camphor way. The overarching element is of mown hay, and it's perfect for those who don't like florals to be too floral and heady, it grounds them, much it the way that Pisara of Dusita perfumes uses it. It's not that hay note you get with coumarin or tonka accords it's much more summery and the fact that bran is listed in the notes here is no surprise, I'm sure bran absolute is adding much of this hay flavour. It's clever, well crafted, feminine leaning for my sensibilities but a firm like and a really good opener, I'd happily wear it because it was even nicer on my skin last night when I tried it out but I ain't gonna be buying it, doesn't speak to me in that way.

Absolutely beautiful. This is a wonderful perfume, that's about it. I'm not breaking it down it's a kind of gentile, lightly spiced, powdery musk, sandalwood accord perhaps rose and iris? Certainly vanilla but not too sweet and brought together in such a way where it doesn't matter, it's more than the some of it's parts. Is it distinctive? Not really. Is it worth the money? Sort of...I mean you're not going to get much better but sure it's expensive. In fact this entire line are really good from YSL and sort fly quite stealthily under the radar as apposed to Dior or Chanel exclusive lines. I enjoyed this anyway.

Okay so superficially this has Aventus vibes as everyone and his or her dog has mentioned. However, that's for people with no imagination or fragrance vocabulary to speak of. I'm actually surprised that it's not in the smells like, because every other (post Aventus derivative) fragrance seems to be. Instantly though this is different to me, it's softer, rounder and with a much fresher sparkle, of citrus and resin and little to no modern patchouli/woody accord scratch, therefore NOT Aventus. Where this does let itself down is the similarity and conjuring of the WORST FRAGRANCE EVER, Mancera's Cedrat boisee. The infamous and awful, Cedrat boisee I should say but thanks to a miracle of Zarokian's perfumery skills she seems to steer the vanilla drydown into a wearable territory, to the point that the association is fleeting. However, I'm just not bothered about Ani. I have no desire to wear it, whereas I do get the urge to breakout Aventus due to it's inherent bro tones, and gung ho formula, yes I crave that from time to time. I'm not saying this is redundant, it's just not my scene and Ani might just be the finest Cedrat boisee, sparkly bergamot and vanilla soft collision ever formulated. If you see the value and quality, I'm not gonna say you're wrong.

So.... I've not had a chance to sample Turkish niche brand Nishane despite them being EVERYWHERE at one point and having been on the landscape. Now I don't usually review stuff I haven't worn properly and if I tell you I tried all their perfumes at once in a shop, mainly on strips, you'd probably say I can't really make fair comment on them...and you'd have a point. In my defense, I have worn and smelled a billion perfumes at this point and some degree of extrapolation I can get the gist of a perfume quite quickly (never fall into the trap of thinking you can do that with every perfume because they still surprise me to this day!) However, this one I strayed on a strip and sniffed throughout the day also my coat pocket still smells of it DAYS later, so I think I somewhat, get it. Disclaimers over. Opening wise Nefs is a complex but gentle, leathery type oud, with a pronounced whisky note, but it's quite delicate round and somewhat floral. After a while it settles to something which feels like an opulent, expensive perfume you might find in a luxury department store from any of those refined brands like a Roja Dove, (I'm not being sarcastic) Then the remnant, or deep, deep, base, drydown is one of a modern amber, creamy but spiked with complexity. The smell is rose tinted and has got a vague similarity to Dior's ambre nuit, but minus the subtle brilliance. What's impressive about this fragrance is that it has three distinct phases, all of them clever and complex and I have to give credit where it's due. The shop owners said that Nefs has been wildly popular and I can see why, not sure I'm quite convinced myself, I'd have to wear it, but I get why this may attract some hype, it was a standout in the collection for me.

Through a fugg of pointless releases this perfume appears to have some clarity and focus of vision to it. At first it's an all too familiar citrus and peppery wood opener, which also leans toward and sparkling G'n'T vibe, which is fine but doesn't exactly scream original or quality and had it continued with IES and vetiver tropes, I might've been much less favorable in my comments, not because it's bad, just kinda old hat. As it stands when this dries down it transforms, pushing way more in a floral direction. For those guys not man enough to rock a massive tuberose or lash fanning jasmine, don't despair. This stuff is the perfect level of floral or men, it's tone is that of a underplayed violet leaf type thing, but doesn't smell like Violet. All I can think is that it must be this Monoi oil. Now I only say that because the accord is not a recognizable one and I just clocked it in the notes here, I'm not familiar with the material but if this is accurately what it's like, then I like it a great deal. Pleasantly surprised by this then, kudos to BV for not kowtowing to popular fragrance cliches and fashion of the moment and making something which smells original (at least to me) if not perhaps the most dynamic perfume in the world.. It's certainly in keeping with the brand aesthetic, it smells like a BV, style wise at least and that's not a bad thing because they are an excellent fragrance brand.

Another travesty!!!! Not this perfume, I love this perfume, but the fact I haven't written a Fragrantica review for it!!! I mean WTF is going on? Are my reviews disappearing or am I getting old an forgetting to post them? Anyway.... If you don't like the original Le Male, have no fear because this is nothing like it, but nods enough in it's direction to make you go 'ahhhh I see the thread.' A bigger more obvious nod though would be to the perfumers previous works of sparkly, cosmic, nebulae, fruity incense accords like Ganymede and Teddy, Bois Imperiale etc....etc.... but essence parfum seems to be squarely in the 'designer' realm, reining that sparkliness in somewhat and rounding off the edges with smooth, warm, spiced, lavender fougere type feel. Which as much as I love Bisch's signature style, I find it hard to wear those Barrois perfumes and such after a few hours because they are just too much, not in a bad way, they are brilliant just sort of.... emotionally draining. This however is spectacularly good, soft, wearable and was a huge suprise to me upon it's release, I mean I bought it immediately, I thought it was that good and just look at that reworked Flacon. Bravo to JPG for giving us something really meaningful in a sea of drab men's designer releases.

I know!!! Let's get loads of otherwise masterful (if not commercially minded) perfumers together and stifle their relative creativity so they can come together to make something far less than the sum of it's parts. JPG Scandal is yet another massive, camel shaped horse, designed by committee. That's what Scandal is. I thought it was terrible that women had to suffer the abysmal original incarnation, without the marketing execs at Puig going... I know!!! Let's make scandal for him!!!! Are we going to make it good this time? ahahahah! oh course not! The packaging is going to be even (Jean Paul....) gaudier (LOL thankyou, thankyou) and the best part??? It's gonna be really expensive too!!! Like 90 quid!!!! OK enough of the drama, I wore this and Phantom by Paco Rabanne side by side as two new releases I'd not tried, and they are similarly, drab, modern, overly complicated (but ultimately shallow and hollow) rubbish. Which don't resemble what men's perfumery should be about, but rather what sells which is bubblegummy, over sweet, nonsense. However, I vastly prefer this to Phantom. It has a fig (not really but watery, fruit ish) like top note which I actually liked about the perfume and it's more aerated and less dense than the Paco, but that's me being very nice to it. I still don't like it at all. Quentin Bisch incidentally is a top, top guy at the height of his career and making his mark with a signature, fruity incense style which he has dragged into about the 24th Century, with how spangly and futurist it is. He also takes the time to read critique and reach out to naysaying, scumbags, like me, which is really appreciated. What I also appreciate is to be a working perfumer you have to give the people and consumers more of what they want, affording you go off and do more meaningful projects in between. I get it.

Okay so I only tried this briefly, in store, on a blotter, so perhaps I'm not the best equipped to review it, but let's face it....when did I ever let a little thing like that stop me hey? So this is compared here to a bewildering array of completely different perfumes, which sometimes makes me feel there's some element of trolling going on or something? It's actually far more likely that the accords contained within this perfume are derivative of all of these perfumes, due to the uniqueness of our individual sniffers and perhaps you could say, the lack of the same uniqueness in perfume itself. First comparison is to Layton by PdM and again, although I haven't given this an extensive sniff I'd like to think that if this smelled like the abominable Layton, I would be able to sniff it out in an instant. It's rare that I say I hate a perfume but I can categorically state, for the record that I hate Layton, but my first impression of Impact Intense was pretty positive, more on that in a minute. Coming back to Layton I hate it's stupid Fratboy face, it's place in the 'community', it's insipid, fruity, creaminess. The fact that those top notes can lure you in to thinking, actually this is quite a fancy reimagining of Boss bottled and is kinda those things, but when you wear it, it's just awful. It's perfume for people who hate perfume, I stick to my guns on that and should be jettisoned into the sun with Cedrat Boise! Impact Intense to me at least smelled of that kinda fresh, preppy TH I remember from the 90's a kind of aqua throwback, and sure I'll go with a pear or apple note in the top to lure you in. Then I thought it was quite a peppery affair of the transparent, cedar, vetiver variety, not going overboard here but that sort of JCE vibes, simple uncomplicated, fruity/citrus and woody cologne, punctuated by spice. In this case I thought it owes more to the likes of a Marc Jacobs BANG! or Carbone de Balmain than to Layton and Stronger with you, but hey what the hell do I know? This is an interesting bottle design, if a bit....well....fuck ugly. It looks like a plunger and who knows maybe this will detonate the men's designer game? I doubt it though, but what I do respect is that Impact intense is not treading the awful line of Phantom or Scandal or other absolute SHITE released for men recently, which I guess is something. I think it's not bold enough to be anything other than an outlier but on paper (quite literally) I really quite liked it. Watch this space for the update, it might be terrible on skin and god forbid it actually does smell like Layton.

I wrote an IG review where I just said quite a lot about this, usually it's on here I let loose, I hope that's not a trend though because I've been letting my Fragrantica duties slip of late. Anyway... This is an instantly incense infused amber vanilla perfume. I think it's nicely made and there's a fizzy, olibanum in that amber accord in the foreground which smolders (smoke included) briefly in the spicy opening. The vanilla is apparent straight away and could become something I wouldn't enjoy very easily but stays the right side of saccharine. Oh and however put Z&V This is Him down below as a comparator, yes....well done, when it's dried all the way down it does in fact conjure that musky/vanilla/sandalwood/incense of that stellar designer release. Crucially I'll just say that the rest of the time it's not that similar. It's also reminiscent of Antoine Lie works to me, stylistically speaking, but I've learned that it's Luca Maffei who nosed this one, and actually a recent Gallivant I thought was interesting. Do I love this, No. Do I think it's well made/smoothly blended? Certainly. Do I like this brand? I actually do!!! Would I buy this or be excited to wear it again? Not really. If you like that juxtaposition of fizzy and bright resins, warm amber tones, ambroxan and hollow woodiness, sweet but smooth vanillin backdrop, then sure you'd probably love this perfume and you could do much worse that investing in this one. Just not quite for me.

I’ve tried a few of these now. Imprezzabile can basically do no wrong in my eyes. He has the mysterious, inscrutable, air to both the man and the work he produces. It’s funny because there’s nothing mind blowing here, nothing I’ve absolutely adored, but just a steady stream of creative, and original perfume with his signature something all over them. It’s not an easy thing to do, creating a movement or a style or perfumery. Its like perfumes I adore like ‘Muscs’ (perfumes with musk in the name) based around a kind of creamy, ethereal, base heavy, warm vibes. I love them, they are brilliant and some perceive them as lazy or not challenging enough and too conventional. However they are not easy to get right. This is the same. Nothing special, and yet they are special. The opening of this is knocking me for six. It’s smells of musks and warm ambergris like qualities, with vanillic pastry and almonds in the background. It’s almost fougere warm and sweet but with textbook Meo herbal tones. It’s quite an emotional work to me. I’m quite taken with it.