So.... Parfooooms D. Ziggy Marley Seee? I'm over them. I actively don't like the brand, and haven't for a few years now. I thought the racehorse ones when they first came out had some interesting themes but, desperately trying to capture this luxury aesthetic, and I plain fell for Oajan (the only one I own) as a kind of cruder and more ballsy Ambre Narguille, and the fact it was a new brand in Fortnum and Mason & the flacons could be used as a serviceable club to batter a would-be assailant or burglar or something? Always a bonus. The reality is though, I grown to hate the brand, the more I try of the insipid and the 'borrowed' I just can't hack them! I just don't like the ubiquitous Yani popping up everywhere, the airdrop of 'care packages' onto any Youtube channel with a pulse and few thousand subs. Sorry to be the tedious naysayer but all this adds up to make an icky brand that I don't want to touch with a ten foot pole to be fair. I was in a shop last week and the SA asked me if I'd tried this and after I spewed a bit of a diatribe about the brand, she looked shocked when I said I still wanted to try the newest release, Greenley. I'll save you sometime, It's rubbish. Sorry to disappoint, I usually create that build up of hate tension to then say "dya know what? It's not bad." or "it's great!! who'd have thunk it?" and don't get me wrong they are capable of making some fragrances I like and have. However, when they are not cloning on jumping on the bandwagon of trends (the fairest I can be) they show us their true heart & soul, with stuff like this and Layton which have this signature apple thing. I struggled with Layton for a good few wears I swear I wanted to like it, but there's few perfumes that I cannot abide, and that stuff is horrendous, both in smell and spirit. This is basically a completely stripped back, fruity musk, with a pleasant apple accord, but it's not doing anything for me. It doesn't move me or even attempt to shift the heavy weight of bias I have against this brand. (Come on at least I'm admitting it) As fair as I can be and believe me or not, I always at least try to go in with an open mind but it's not easy with these guys. Seriously though I don't expect the most intellectual, soulful, genius artpiece from this brand, but those last few releases say to me... we've found our banal, sub designer (but way more expensive) groove and we are going to stay in it. To which part of me thinks....good that's where you belong PdM, people might see the lack of passion and if they don't well more fool them and that's the kind of customer they want. Is this really all that bad? No, probably not as always NEVER listen to me or be discouraged from trying something because you don't like a brand or whatever, but perfume is about more than smell, for me anyway, I wish I could detach and just appreciate a smell for what it is, but its the context of the smell, all the peripheral shit that is also important and Greenley could be a twinkling gem but it would still be a twinkling gem in a septic tank. ya' get me?

This is a lovely amber. I don't really see the point in this line, but this is a lovely amber.

While I get where you are coming from Dorjee (comment/review below) the general critique of musk perfumes (which really could be extended to other forms of non creative perfume) another part of me thinks....you don't know what the hell you're talking about LOL. Minimal and musky perfumes like this are actually really hard to get right, because there's nowhere to hide, it's hard to stamp your mark on a 'musk blend' this is why the good ones are sublime and the okay ones are just okay and the bad ones don't really exist as such because you'd have to really fuck it up to make a 'bad' one. This falls into the okay set so I guess ya man Dorjee has a point here? (from 6 years ago, jesus maybe I should've just let Boss musk lie without review?) Anywho, this is not your warm ambrette, angelica musk, at least not at first. It's quite a clean, laundered smell which I don't find very interesting, it doesn't really have the twinkling facets that should appear out of the musk to dazzle and make you go....ahhh this is a bit of a composition. If I had to compare to another musk I do like I'd say Essential parfums The Musc, but that is many orders of magnitude better and more interesting. This is not a bad perfume, in fact it's very nice and gets better as it dries down (as expected) because the musks warm up and it's cozy with your skin, and stylistically it's right in the midst of my taste, but it's a BOSS. It's from a line that just doesn't need to exist, I don't mean that in a harsh way and these actually came out around the time many other well known designers thought, I know we'll have an 'EXCLUSIVE/PRIVATE' line too! No they didn't.

Cresp should be praised for this creation. I have only tried this once, but I can’t say I got rhubarb straight away, and I’m a rhubarb fanatic both making my own rhubarb accords and vetiver rhubarb compositions (like this is meant to be) I’m pretty obsessed to be fair. But I do really like this fragrance, so it probably makes sense that it’s in there. I can see how this has the bitter and tart energy in the opening but I wouldn’t say it’s overly fruity, it’s a very, very green opening which I got from it and that’s what is missing from the mainstream in my opinion, unabashed green perfumes for men. It smells a little like the greener tones of Dior Fahrenheit and really good citrus notes from good bergamot oils and herbs. It’s complex, wonderful, I had a feeling it might’ve turned a little violety, or something because it does have an aloof, floral quality. The drydown though to me is herbaceous, with a lasting citrus freshness and some earthy, mossy tones. It’s kinda a Chypre sort of, but it’s so herbal I’d say it’s an ‘aromatic’ maybe an aromatic chypre, I suppose what to call it matters not, but it’s distinctly a men’s designer release, so there’s enough of the usual, fixative agents to make it broadly familiar to some, look at the details though and it’s a fine perfume. I will be trawling TK MAXX and the like for a reduced bottle at some point. So decent! Mercedes Benz hey??? Who knew??? I’ve not tried any of these yet.

So I actually quite like VIW and immediately if you (meaning me) must do that tedious thing of comparing everything to something else, then yeah this is similar to the Creed. Like I said my mind went there immediately. It's supposed to be modelled on a daiquiri and if I'm being entirely fair, it does resemble one more than the coconut, sun lotion of VIW, but this still has a mild coconut aspect to it. The rum, sugar, and lime citrus is a pleasant combo and it's tenacious base and woozier, boozier feel overall, give it more life and probably longevity. (can't say I noticed) I mean it is what it is, I think it's pleasant enough, but didn't move me or interest me all that much I have to say.

So musk fragrances like this are often overlooked or dismissed as being 'nice' code for boring or at the least uninteresting, but I love them! So my review is skewed through the filter of this bias for subtle musky scents...bear that in mind. I really enjoyed musk therapy, I did it's beautiful but it has off steps which don't allow it into the upper echelons of my personal musk elite, for two reasons mainly. 1) The opening. The top notes are 'blackcurrant' which always excites me when I hear that, but rarely does it deliver, this has a smell of the classic cassis base used in lots of perfumes but whereas it's usually support to citrus and other materials (which probably are here too) it's very much out in the open, sort of exposed in such a minimal fragrance, and that's why musks of this type are so hard, because there really is nowhere to hide. It's funny because I like the smell of cassis base but I don't like it's effects when it's too noticeable, just a personal preference. 2) The musks do have that clean, touch of aldehdydic soap to them, and a floral, muguet touch that's also fine really, it's a minor gripe and one of a kind of neo-musk, purist. By that I mean the likes of Mugler's Over the musk somehow has the ability not to have to worry about entertaining you with a floral heart or anything, it's just a relentless pillow of musk, with occasional twinkles of notes popping out and playing peekaboo, like blissed out figures staggering out of the mist a rave or something? Stupefied and wanting to hug you and tell you how much they 'Love you man!' The drydown of this is a milky, creamy, beautiful sandalwood, vanilla, musk and yeah I really like it a lot, but I can't help thinking musk therapy is cheating really. Even the name makes it almost a cynical nod to the fact it's doing this. It is therapeutic. To clarify when I say cheating that's not me contradicting what I said, a musk like this is not as easy as people think it is to achieve. Real heads will enjoy this perfume I'm sure and I have too, any fault is nitpicking really but it simple doesn't make me feel how Malle, Serge, Mugler, Les Indemodable, Essential etc... It didn't move me emotionally and I think the top notes threw me. Other than that a lovely prefume, certainly worth checking out.

I had high expectations for Rose trombone, the few I tried prior from this brand are excellent and there's been some seriously good rose perfumes of late from brands like Les indemodable, Matiere premiere, and even Moschino's Toy Boy which is bloody fantastic!!! I was hoping to be treated to something of real beauty and don't get me wrong this is a good fragrance, but it's got tough competition from the ones I mentioned. The depth of this really comes in the drydown, somehow becoming more rosy however I'll start from the beginning. So my first impressions on the strip were of an aldehydic, sharp, soapy, rose perfume which I'm not apposed to from those descriptors, in fact that's quite appealing, but something just didn't gel for me. However, smelling it much later on the strip and wearing it today, my impressions of the opening on my skin is of a much more rounded affair, frankly I don't know where the fizzy aldehyde thing has retreated to? It's still sorta there? Rose trombone is comprising those fruity, jammy elements of rose almost with a kind of plastic, dolls head, playfulness, and the mild bubblegum, soapy aspects, but still not really that rosy. Although my sister commented that my car 'smelled like rosewater' I'd say this is more creamy and waxy than a transparent rose watery perfume but clearly it fills the air with rose vibes even if you're not that aware yourself. To be honest I don't really know where this sits in terms of a rose, it's very accomplished and as I mentioned earlier gets rosier somehow, and vanillic with a good mixture of emotions, it's a subtle rose but present on skin all day and creamy it's pretty lovely and feels modern, and as I say if some rose fans are crazy about this and for the price etc...I'd say fair enough.

So composition wise, I could be harsh and say that this is a mess, and I do kinda think that but what I have to accept is that this kind of perfume simple is not my aesthetic. (I've borrowed this term from my pal Clayton to describe natural perfume I really want to be bitchy about in a diplomatic and measured way.) So bare that in mind. Also bear in mind that I've read the notes because I blind sniffed it a couple of times and didn't really have much of a clue what the perfume is trying to do, my guesses were patchouli and tonnes of ambery resins and that it much of the opening to be fair. The wierdest thing I'd say is that the opening does have a herbal, spicy nature to it (I wish it was overtly fennel) but I'd say dominated by smoky patchouli and thick, amber it reminds me of Slumberhouse (dunno which one?) just the whole thing, it's that classic, natural perfumery, onslaught. The florals really start to kick and you get that brushy, dry, amalgam of pot pouri or a hippy shop, jos sticks and whittled shit all fighting for attention. The opening is EVERYTHING, and I don't mean that in the popular, positive way people say (women & gays mainly, so all my IG perfume pals basically haha) like they might say 'Britney is EVERYTHING' or whatever? I quite literally mean this is a chaotic, primordial brew, jutting out whatever you want it to! Which is kinda good perfume I suppose? It's a tough one for me. I'm confused. However, then something seismic occurs and as someone who irritatingly prides themselves on predicting the plot of movies or TV series, and to be fair with a pretty reasonable degree of accuracy (not that it's anything to be particularly proud of) I'd have never guessed who Kashi was going to evolve. The temperature gets a touch more chilly and then a chalky, powdery, peach infused, smell of osmanthus really begins to dominate. I'D NEVER HAVE PREDICTED THAT TWIST!!!! NO WAY!!!! It's not all fun and games though, smells like decayed roses and dry Geraniol from some natural absolutes and breathe deep of the drydown and you get the nuttiness probably of the sandalwood in the base. I mean this is clearly a really good fragrance and I'm not, not enjoying it. Kashi just ain't my bag. I see this variety of natural perfumery as too reliant on great, raw materials (not a bad thing necessarily) but not enough about composition and finesse.Perhaps I'm being unfair and snobby but there you are. Kashi is rescued from being a total soup by that prominent Osmanthus, which made it much more palatable, interesting and added a kind of freshness to what would've other wise been a bit of a witchy, and stuffy affair.

Avant garde is a very pleasant floral leather. The actual leather accord in here is a very nice one, accurate to the smell of real leather but with a strange and fleeting banana note in the top, which I'm assuming is perhaps from a heady floral like jasmine or ylang which often evoke this banana sensation. It mellows to a dry, iris on my clothes and occasional wafts of violets but not in any sense overt, this is a floral leather with the emphasis on the leather. Having tried lots of leathers and Irises recently it doesn't take me a lot to get 'up for' one and I'm immediately down with this, loved it on the strip and it's a pleasurable wear. It's got a synth, future, plastic and wood vibe, with some sweetness it's very in keeping with the brand's carefully nurtured aesthetics. I like it, I just wish I loved it, but it needs to make more of a statement to stand out for me. Good but it's a bit like my report card at school, has potential but needs to apply itself. :)

Oh dear. This is a bit of a funny one. I've been across 110th street at night and it don't smell like this, believe you me. I think this is a bit muddled in the pursuit of making something unique, which is an admirable motive for getting in a bit of a mess in the first place. The opening gives me warm to hot spices, I'll go along with nutmeg, clove, perhaps a little cinnamon and even saffron, but the sweetness is an unusual cheap cherryade/maraschino cherries, benzaldehyde and coumarin, which is dying out as soon as it hits your skin because it's offset by hollow, papery woods and faintly floral ionone, driness and that bready, milky, tepid cup of half english breakfast, half chai tea, feel from something like Dries van Noten by Frederic Malle but frankly not as complex or interesting. This effect will forever remind me of the scent that pioneered this vibe which for me was Jeux de Peau by Serge Lutens. To be fair it's not quite as relentlessly, foodie and odd as the Malle, When I sprayed this on a test strip I really liked the late drydown of musks and whatever left in the base of this fragrance, it really does smell beautiful but that happens all the time with fragrances I don't really like and is the classic addage, too little, too late, to the point where that lovely smell on the strip might not going to be detectable on my skin. (it isn't) Not a good start for the brand then for me but I have high hopes about a few of the others.