Francesca unveiled two new releases at Pitti this year and although I couldn't make it, very kindly sent me a sample of this, so Bless your heart. I love Black Knight. It's fantastic! I can't place the fragrance that it actually does smell like, but here's a few that if you're familiar with might give a flavour of what to expect. Elements of Iris Nazarena, Dior Homme, Lonestar memories Coal or Coven (Andrea Maack) and maybe Carven vetiver. Opens not nearly as vetiver based as the description had me thinking, buttery orris, flecks of vegetal and greens with a chunky, soiled earth and off kilter sweetness of patchouli. It's a soft leathery accord built around a iris/orris and then the oily, grubby rag of vetiver just thrown in to give some roughage to the otherwise silky smoothness of Orris root. There's a lightly cosmetic effect, mineral, stone qualities of a quarry or mine. It's very lightly smokey but not thin or brittle. Broadly masculine leaning for what that's worth, and the balance of elements is perfect.

I think Francesca is very adept at creating that 'skin' smell but with varying degrees of success as to whether it agrees with my tastes. In this case I think it works fairly well, although It's still difficult to say whether I like Angel dust or not. This is crudely a honey sweetened balsamic with a dirty musk undercurrent and it's a classic combo really viewed through the lens of an indy perfumer who likes to turn things upto 11 especially the animal element. Here it's reasonably subdued the amber is light, floral powdery, and probably the most retrained that she gets in her repertoire.

This is the problem when you get to know perfumers (in an internet/social media sense) that it becomes increasingly hard to punch their 'baby' square in the face! In fact, forget punching try taking a flying run up an drop kicking their baby square in the thorax! Sex and the sea is HORRENDOUS. (So sorry Francesca I love you xxxx) But truth be told this is a nightmare of a perfume and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say technically (if you respect my opinion in that regard?) and taste wise this makes me say... why??? Why on earth would this get past the stringent checks and workings a perfumer does when creating a formula? The opening is just crazy in it's sweetness, like I felt my teeth getting cavities but I persevere because all Bianchi's have this concentrated opening, only to blossom into beauties...not this time. That sweet phase lasts for a minute or so then you're hit with a milky, murky, fatty, lactonic, fruity/coconut which believe it or not I actually don't mind as a note in many perfumes but here it's portrayed with a certain wickedness...and not wickedness in a good way! Perhaps it's the context but I smell a heavy and crude dose of civet replacer which coupled with the general vibes in sex and the sea, smells pissy and dirty and not in a thoughtful, indolic way or a sweet animal furry way. It's somewhat salty and ambergris is undoubtedly here perhaps giving that impression and contributing to the problematic animal tones? There's a sweetness of vanilla to it at the same time and through some perverse interest, I'm struggling to find positives in S&tS. It has the texture of some tepid medicine administered as a child... just odd. This is a real stinker and true to form it's monstrous in performance. I hated it. Can Sex & the sea Neroli be good? I'm apprehensive to find out.

This is a gently refined perfume but essentially a kind of sweet, floral, gourmand and doppelganger of Lancome La Vie est Belle. Which is a sort of linear vanilla warmth and gentle rose, perhaps touches of light musk. I'd never wear it personally but I completely see the feminine appeal and it's very nicely put together. I just like Loewe as a brand.

I only had a brief spritz and I do have some samples of this so a further update is on the cards. However, first impressions are very good. This is a solid citrus accord as you'd expect from AdP which conveys the slightly more exotic, lemon/grapefruit aspect you get from Yuzu. It's not spiky though, very smooth. Musk base. First impressions are very good...wasn't a huge performer but I'm going to wear it properly to determine that in more detail. It somehow has that cloudy rather than clear juice sense to it.

Okay let's break this down. Bianchi's fragrances are so loaded and potent that the base notes have top notes if you know what I mean and the clarity in the opening can sometimes be lost. Youmust be patient though because these fragrances shift in tonality as they mature on your skin. The opening of this is sweetly a mixture of sweetly resinous and oriental and huge amounts of animalic notes. Primarily it has that 'cheese' smell you get from real civet (not the non animal replacement) and some oud oils. It's a barnyard connundrum/carcrash...and interesting to me...somewhat of an olfactory psychonaut but is it pleasant perfume...not particularly. However all is revealed and forgiven in the drydown when The lover's tale mutates into the most beautiful, castoreum leather and buttery floral scent (like Cuir de Russie) and just oozes masses of quality. Absolutely sublime. reminscent of a much nicer and smoother experience than Cuir d'Arabie by Montale but somewhat analogous with the harsh opening. It's brilliant though. I want a bottle but I don't want anyone to smell me for the first hour or so?

So this has been a long time coming, I'd heard massively positive things about Francesca's work and was slow to get samples, for some strange reason? Anyway I started with Under my skin as this appeared to be the one with the most reviews and one that people seemed to be feeling earth-moving, epoch shattering connections with. Well I have to say I didn't feel all that connected to Under my skin at first. The quality materials and swathes of heavy, animal tinged spices explode out of the bottle at you. I love cumin and this has that sweaty, animalic, civet replacement dose but frankly it felt a little clumsy and kinda all over the place in the opening. I had the same thoughts as Bengale Rouge recently... Was this really the scent that was compared to vintage Guerlain's and the like? Because at the moment it feels distinctly Indy like. However, similar to Bengale Rouge it's an ugly ducking that becomes the proverbial swan and the drydown soars majestically. It gets progressively, sweeter, muskier and everything tightens up or loosens off? (one of them?) a bit like the skin or epidermal layer this is apparently under? Well, not apparently, it is under, and after two hours all the chaotic 'offness' had gone and it was under mine for sure. The soft, spicy, animalic undertones are just like warm, slightly dirty fur. The spicy cinnamon facets, lending a kind of tolu balm sense of subtly and a sweet musky nature throughout, balances perfectly now, and all is calm and right with the world. I learned the lesson a long time ago that some (especially indy and largely natural) fragrances have to go through some exceptionally potent (to the point of unpleasantness) phases to reach the place they really want to be...which is dried down and working with our skin, which is exactly where this perfume is at home....On skin....or under in? whatever?!?!? I will wear it properly to determine my thoughts further but it's a real heavy hitter and projected strongly as well as being super tenacious.

I enjoyed this very much and without moaning about price once again I think I couldn't get on board enough with this fragrance to justify the pricetag. I found this to be one of the bolder, more standout in the City collection, probably just due to the nature of Tobacco...really? Being all rich, dark and satisfying. Do they bear a resemblance to the city's they are based on? Is Miami Tobacco because of the strong Cuban links? or am I over thinking things? Anyway it has a lovely boozy, opening, lightly smokey feel into a deep tobacco accord, with patchouli, and gentle spices, which smells to me authentic and well judged.

I was excited for this. I'm a huge fan of blushed, chic, little, pretty musk fragrances like this. The warm, clean cotton-like effect of musk mallow is right up my street and I tried this on a day I purchased Mugler Over the musk. Not to mention a great perfumer at the helm this one was set to knock it out of the park. Frankly I feel like one of those Millionaire twats on Dragon's den looking at a potentially attractive business proposition but as the pitch from the nervy entrepreneur wears on the whole thing starts to fall apart! then when we get to the figures??? Wow! It really becomes un-investable. I couldn't smell it on the strip really...at all...like Iso E Super it was barely there but I got a light musky, fruity sweet smell....but I had to strain to get anything! On skin it opens up but isn't quite like the poofy, warmth I'd envisaged, more clinical and modern, synthetic feeling. Now it would be interesting to see if there's real musk mallow in this having made that statement? It's very nice, sits close to the skin and the fact that it doesn't resemble what I expect from an ambrette fragrance or an accord made from ambrettolide, just works in it's favour, making me more likely to add it to the collection. Aside from one fact... The city exclusives are in excess of £360 in the UK. I mean...seriously Le Labo? I know hipsters often have a few quid and will splash for the sake of fashion and trends but even they'd think you were taking the piss a bit with this one.

Have I entered a parallel universe? Is this fragrance going to dramatically transform on contact with my skin and become this gross abomination that pretty much every review here agrees that it is? Now this is hasty and premature of me to offer a proper review without doing so, spraying it on a card as I have done. Let me go massively against the grain here and say that this is reminiscent of Christian Dior Fahrenheit but with drier more overt IES tones and parched ionones which mutate into a modern leather and faint diesel fume accord. This is par for the Durga course for me, uncompromising yet trendy and modern. I get the tartness of rhubarb in the opening and I think that pairs well with violet. I will update this review when I’ve warn this one but I thought it was pretty good, not earth shattering, but not quite derivative either.