So I think it's a brilliantly written review below by rbalkris and I echo the sentiments not being a fan of gimmicky for the sake of it stuff. However, I can tell it's said with affection and I have such a soft spot for Prin that I kinda allow him this indulgence and experimentation, even though it's silly and a very hamfisted attempt and being daring or humorous...or whatever it was he was trying to capture? Interesting also to note that the man himself can't stand the smell of it and when he appeared on Wafts from the loft's Youtube video he almost ran away when they were spraying it. In truth this IS the instantly nightmarish and ghoulishly obvious, obscene fragrance that people often said secretion magnifique was, which should highlight a real appreciation for what ELDO and Antoine Lie were doing with that fragrance. Sombre is full splatter gore and torture porn as apposed to Secretions creeping sense of dread. Secretions was fantastic because it opens and you think 'what's all the fuss about this is actually quite interesting and not that bad to be honest' but then it makes you those words, never quite allowing the queasiness to subside and leaving you in a kind of uncertain limbo, perpetually wondering and trying to take away the positives, before a wave of fish or dried spunk would make you recoil. I mean the opening of Sombre is disgusting, and makes no such ELDO pretence. It smells like all the things he mentions, but is reminiscent to me of real civet which has a cheesy smell, and as potent as real civet is, it has a certain sick pleasure and complex nature to it and obviously works in context at low levels with florals for example. Sombre is deliberately paired with other horrors and smells like sick, and the slight smearing of shit that often smells worse than the big pile of shit for some strange reason? So I'm thinking to myself...this has to have some redeeming quality or recognisable note or something that makes it vaguely pleasurable, or you might as well go to a joke shop and smear yourself in stink bombs or even better go on a massive bender then, eat loads of 3 day old shrimp cocktails and ride a roller coaster, puking and defecating on yourself and you'll achieve the same effect. And bless Prin, because it does. A little like Secretions it has some distant redemption in the form of a lightly veiled jasmine and more sweet base notes which soothe after the turbulent start. You can still smell a mild indolic background as if the puke, putrid cheese and rotting meat has been cleared up, just not very well. This is an almost night and day change which gradually comes on and before you know it you might even be enjoying this perfume. Well not 'enjoying' but compared to the start you'd welcome pretty much anything else at that point. It's horrible, but even if you just wear it on Halloween or use it as a party piece like those jellybean Russian roulette games it might have some merit. The good thing about is that people don't make stuff like this very often and there's not exactly an epidemic of people 'ruining' perfumery with gross-out fair like this. Also, I'd say Prin's positive contributions out weight dalliances like Sombre, so I'm cutting him some slack. A final point to make is that...I can't really identify what materials he has used to create some of these awful smells and that in itself is interesting.

Just to note that I've only tested this on my arm a couple of times and that was a few months ago. It could be a completely different story when I wear it properly...an I suspect it will be. I will be sure to update this review. So....So Fetch. Immediately smiled when I saw the name knowing Prin's penchant for referencing movies/characters etc. I surprisingly enjoyed Mean Girls when it came out, my friend used to make me a monthly torrent dump, a kind of movie zeitgeist, condensing all the good stuff and I was like 'Mean Girls? isn't than some girly teen movie?' but then watching it I was like, this is quite charming. A real guilty pleasure though and our little secret so as not to shatter the illusion of my butch persona. Anyway.... This perfume is exactly what you'd expect from Regina George and crew (although she hated 'Fetch') it's pink and girly and all that shit. I like the way he's listed a protein bar accord, that's a detailed nod to fans. but generally it's a huge cherry note and not even dark but reminiscent of glacier cherries, maraschino cherries, complete with the syrupy, almost boozy, almond amaretto kick. This has a biscuit like gourmand quality when dried down more like amaretti buscuits and cherry bakewells complete with icing and a growing vanilla silkiness which eventually envelops the whole thing in the drydown. I mean this fragrance is ridiculous from start to finish, listen to how sweet and awful that sounds... a tacky syrupy cherry note, creamy almonds and vanilla with booze? That sounds like a perfume that might appeal momentarily but would cloy after a few seconds rather than minutes or hours....but it doesn't. I've no idea what Prin does or how he does it but his approach renders nightmarish, olfactory combinations like this a success and somehow with a naturalism that speaks to his talent as a perfumer. You clearly have to like sweetness and cherries etc... and allow me to reiterate I'VE NOT WORN IT PROPER YET, but I thought this was a winner.

So I'm wearing Cigar rum intense today and I have to say that I'm not as impressed as I was when I first smelled it a few months back. My history with the original was that I liked it but I didn't see what the big fuss was about? people comparing it to Turkish leather and other triumphant Prin Lomros creations. It's aiiiight. I always felt it was a little thin and transparent for what was supposed to be a rich tobacco and rum fragrance. Cigar Rum intense sees to have rectified those concerns in the opening with a gorgeous cinnamon warmth and a hint of coffee, which completes the Havana effect. The dried fruit and raisin smell in this perfume is lovely, I'm not going to lie. It's like raisins seeped in rum and not in a rum n raisin Ice cream, tacky, essence sort of way, this smells authentic and natural. There's a smooth perfume element to it, naturally boozy and leathery but crucially I don't get the bitterness and girth of tobacco, that aspect is very tame and subdued for me. I really like this perfume, don't get me wrong, there's much to enjoy and it has a certain creative flair and uniqueness but I just feel it's not quite what I want, not lacking in anyway, but I'm not going to buy a bottle, despite being wowed by the opening. It's lasting really well so far and projecting a small cloud but it's not a big clout of a thing.

Well, I didn't write a review of Sam when it came out, but I was given a couple of samples which I wore one and then the other leaked. Probably because of Penhaligon's policy of having their staff fill the sample vials, which is both good and bad. Anyhow, my first memories of this are as a fruity, sweet but long lasting top note which merges into a synthetic woody amber heart, which again opens very nice, like a plum infused, spicebomb type of slightly kitsch oriental. Then it starts to get on my nerves, and that's not a good sign seeming to cling and project with irritatingly, clingy tenacity. However, if it was on par with the decisive projection and longevity of Halfeti, This would be a scrubber for me. However it peters out to a pootling, splutter of mildly pleasant woody aroma chemicals, without any of that purple plummy attitude of the first hour or two. I don't hate it and I actually did a direct comparison with Halfeti, smell wise they are chalk and cheese to me but approach and the fact they are variants on the same theme, I can absolutely see why many people would perceive similarities...architecturally speaking.

A masterstroke by Tom Ford to release this into the signature line, and they waited what seems like no time at all (but was probably like two years or something?) to do it. Following in the footsteps of the brilliant Ombre Leather is a positive step, effectively giving back to the fans if you like so you'll hear no complaints from me. It does make you wonder why they didn't just release it in this format straight away? Anyway, glad they have. I liked Beau de Jour in the Private blend, but it got slightly lost being last in a trio of fougere's released in a row. Don't me wrong it was the best of those but still. I recall the PB being a stark, diffusive, powdery exchange between bergamot, lavender and geranium akin to a Rive Gauche (although I didn't think it smelled that much of it) or YSL Jazz or something but with warm fougere traits in the base. This iteration however seems (I might be remembering wrong) to have much more gusto and a heavy patchouli note from the start, immediately evoking Houbigant's Fougere Royale. It's a strange rubberiness, permeating the fresh, powdered barbershop vibes that give it a bit more oomph and a sort of dirtier quality to what is a soapy clean affair for the most part. Having said that I could instantly tell it apart from Fougere Royale because Beau de Jour has a much more modern leaning disposition generally. Sure it has the classic warmth and coumarin and as we've established the patchouli note so prominent in both these releases, but develops and behaves differently on my skin. The issue I have with this is that the opening is great and I can enjoy the beginings of many fragrances but sadly they start to take a nosedive...pun intended. :) This wains heavy on me, I'm still interested by it but even my missus said it was too strong and was irritating to her...and I have to agree, it was getting on my nerves for a period. It reaches a sweet spot though after about two hours when everything rounds out (not that it isn't fantastically well put together from the off) the warmth of that base starts to chime sweetly and all those manly, but sophisticated, shaving vibes come to the fore. I think Tom Ford and his perfumer/s have really put a lot into this fragrance, I just have a hunch from the name and the fact that masculine aromatic fougere's suddenly became a base they wanted to cover comprehensively all culminating in the king of Fougere's if you like? This is the result and I have to say it's a supreme effort and despite comparisions to loads of other stuff that inevitably comes with the territory...I would still buy Beau de Jour and I own Fougere Royale, Zino Davidoff, Rive Gauche...etc etc... If that's not enough of a sign that they've brought something fresh to the genre,I don't know what is?

Wow Shocking! Not the fragrance the fact that I haven't ever written a review of Halfeti. For those that don't know Halfeti outsells every other Penhaligon's release combined by some margin too, people go F'in mad for the stuff! There's something magnetic and addictive about the stuff. I agree with my pal Cortland in a sense too that this is quite a synthetic (well he said cheap) smelling fragrance and certainly not the authentic Oud experience. However it has the same feeling I get from another futuristic and hyper clean, airy neo-oud oriental in the shape of Geza Schoen's Niwab of Oud. I'm in no way suggesting they smell similar BTW I prefer the OJ to this but I actually love this as well. It has an opulent, musky lightness touches of rose and saffron but not in huge amounts, and although light, does have a heft in terms of lasting power and a powdery, leathery opulence and some sting in the tail too. It's a bomb of woody amber aroma chemicals, I can smell them and I don't care. There's a smooth transition in how they are presented. I revisited Mr Sam on the same day and sprayed on the other hand and they do indeed share this modern, synthetic woody, amber sharpness however I find the plummy top of Mr Sam to be irritating after the first few seconds of 'mmmm...that's nice.' Halfeti is much more beguiling and harder to reach, I'm not sure why I love it so? Many people have clearly been hooked by this scent too, returning to I, I feel a certain way about it. I have Levantium which to me is much more authentic and naturalistic smelling to me, clearly more rosey too but I get why I had this as a love and a 'want it' when returning to this page after not trying this since probably it's release...whenever that was now?

Not perfume this really. A mashup of fruit cocktail nonsense, floating in a cassis base syrup. It's insufferably fruity, I mean really. Then actually does become perfume, drying down much more like a hyper generic floral amalgam of gingham dress clad little girl complete with pigtails. This is not a grown up perfume for a sophisticated woman it's a throwaway piece of fruity musk fluff. I'm no connoisseur of women's designer fragrances so take what I said or leave it.

Strange that sniffing the sprayer of this I was instantly reminded of the fantastic (and ONLY good Lacoste fragrance) Eau de Lacoste Blanc which I thought this was merely a repackaged version of...but it isn't. This is generic and boring, lacklustre and all the mediocre, mundane labels you could slap on it. For all that I think it's okay, at best it's a slightly less inventive version of Davidoff Horizon or something? Has this ginger twang to the citrus which works very well over a plethora of dry modern woody amber. It's meh, but not unpleasant meh.

Stunning opening, quickly becomes a little too much. Don't get me wrong I'm a BIG incense fan but context is everything and this fragrance smells of heavy olibanum (not much of the fresh, lemony uplift and fizz it can have.) Myrrh which smells divine but starts to cloy on me like caramel or toffee or something after a short time. Then drying down more to the fantastic labdanum, which is my favourite material but too much of a good thing is definitely the phenomena going on here. I love the smell of these resins, don't get it twisted I'd just rather see this incense accord in a perfume composition but I also know who difficult it is to balance. I'm conflicted about such a potent resinous attar and whether I'd wear it.

This mainly smells of a stunning rose absolute or otto, but working with these materials as I have I can say how difficult it is to make a rounded scent when you put such a prominent focus on a wonderful rose material. There's a hint of more powdery sweet florals, like gernaium with a dialled minty element and touches of violets. I get some sweetness there and I know there's a great base holding this rose down but I can't really smell what's in it, perhaps that speaks to the smoothness of the blend.