ooooooh I'd never even heard of this until last week and I'm happy I tried it because boy was it an enjoyable experience. Sadly it was short-lived a the modern bottle of this is pretty weak but while it did stick around, I loved the feel of this perfume. Is it like many a masculine aromatic of the 80's era? Yes! it is. I think the crucial difference which sets this apart is the progression of the notes and the freshness/transparency. The 80's masc is not renowned for it's subtlety (hence the moniker 'Powerhouse') and many of them are giant, bludgeoning, sledgehammers, this is very smooth and with almost JCE, transparency (bearing in mind this is a modern bottle and might just be a little meek compared to a vintage) I found a fresh opening a, bracing citrus followed by a spicy, woody leather and then the best part a prominent, geranium note with that lovely undertone of mint, captured perfectly by this. A friend of mine (unfortunately I can't take credit for this) said it was like a man shaving and washing at a sink, perhaps applying an old aftershave while brushing his teeth with minty toothpaste at the same time. Perfect imagery. The spices in this have a cooking warmth, a mellow cinnamon/nutmeg, then the base a mossy leathery wood, albeit gone far too soon because that's just as enjoyable as the opening. All in all I get why some of the 'reminds me of' are listed here, I really do.... there's certainly shades of Smalto or Tsar but I would probably add references like Malle's geranium pour monsieur, Halston Z14, and even perhaps the light hearted feel of something like Cacherel pour homme. I loved this perfume and even at it's current version complete with pathetic duration on skin, I'd like a bottle because I ony had a small sample, so if I drench myself/spray clothing and hair, It might just be a goer. A pleasant surprise.

I was initially introduced to this perfume in a blind sniffing scenario, to try to evaluate whether I thought this was an expensive perfume or a cheapie. I plumped for expensive, and I think this speaks to a certain level of quality you can expect for Cuir majeste by Armani. I don't know why but to me this fragrance is the olfactory equivalent of the 'try hard' person. I think it's very opulent and all that, and in truth, I do quite like it. I've worn it the past three days and that simply wouldn't happen if I didn't like it. To me the opening is like a strawberry/raspberry accord coupled with a prominent rose note which grows and seems to be shrouded in this sort of dry wood/oud, leather/patchouli which gives it an earthiness and dirt which keeps all the fruity rose and rounded gourmand sweetness in check. It's later that I recognize this amorphous, opulent leathery accord as tobacco!!! Oh course it's bloody tobacco, and in fairness I felt like a boob for having not clocked that straight away because upon the second wear, (and thereafter) I could smell it right away. It's a good combo actually, fruity notes/accords are often paired with tobacco, especially those red berry types (mainly cherry) but then the rose in cuir majeste kinda bridges the gap for me and makes this whole thing a cohesive and luxurious perfume. So having read the notes at this point I can smell osmanthus... it's a real Oracle from the Matrix moment, and I know what folks will say but I rarely look at notes before writing my thoughts, although sometimes I do and does that influence my thoughts, hard to say but inevitably also YES of course it does! but adding to that fruity accord and somewhat dry, freshness on top of all this heavy heavy stuff like rose and tobacco, you'd think it would clash or get lost but once you smell it...you're like.... hmmmm... in the midst of all this... clever. Very clever. Now this is not an osmanthus fragrance by any stretch but it's probably the strangest and most covert use of osmanthus I've personally come across which is really another tick box in this fragrance's favour. I don't really love it or anything but I get why folks would, it's modern and deep, long lasting, I wouldn't be surprised if others could smell you quite strongly and it would leave an impression because I was conscious of it wearing it. Impressive rose tobacco combo then, the price is up there so brace yourself if you do happen to love it, you'll pay a hefty price.

I'm going to try to be concise as my reviews tend to ramble and this is a complex perfume which I could easily meander and waffle about indefinitley including a detailed preamble about Bisch, and perfume fans completely unfounded aversion to akigalawood. Okay all that to one side.... Purpose 50 is FANTASTIC!!! I don't recall the original and that's not due to the fact it wasn't good, Amaouge's output has been pretty steady even under Salmon who I think has taken them in a slightly more commercial direction, but fair do's they still make great smelling perfumes. The material on showcase here for me is olibanum, I'm assuming some very fine Omani stuff (better fucking had be for the prices they're asking for) it has both bite, lemony sweet and almost camphorous, even a touch minty, smells very bright and just great, so focal, so well used yet is part of pallate and style of perfume with other materials which serve to complement and cradle this precious, heart material. However this is not a standard frankincense based perfume a la Avignon or Mark Birley or even Amouages Epic Man or Woman...this is a modern powdery, amber, patchouli, fruity, strangely classical but with that sparkly Bisch magic (which even I concede can be annoying) this is very varied and has lots to enjoy. I was blown away at first by it's power and variety but then less so after the 3rd or 4th wear. Not sure why? Perhaps the familiarity made it a little less special and brought things into perspective... but hey, I still think Purpose is amazing. Too expensive for me unfortunately but if you have the money I think it's as decent as anything being released at the moment, and it is ATOMICALLY powerful, without being too much, but still go easy on the sprays because less is more.

It's striking to me how few reviews there are for this perfume, perhaps I imagined this, conjured up a massive (if cultish) following in my head for this perfume but I honestly thought this was a best seller from the brand...hmmmm... anyway... Mxxx is the ultimate nuzzling in, comfort blanket of a perfume I've ever smelled. I first sampled it a few years ago and got around to popping it on again the otherday and while a massively enjoyable experience as it is...I'm not sure I can tell you why? such is the unknowable nature of this perfume. It smells like the refined essence of why we're into this damn stuff in the first place. I can't really smell a pethora of notes or clever transitions or collections of accords but does that make this one dimensional? No. I don't believe it does. Linear? well maybe but also,.no. It feels deliberately constructed in one sense but with the seeming absence of the hand of a creator in the other, a beautiful mistake, yet nature doesn't make mistakes right? I can smell, sandalwood, musks and that aloof yet familiar animal fixative, 'skin' warmth of ambergris, which has the strange quality of going on and then going in, seemingly deep into your skin, if I was a twat I might say 'permeating your soul' or some hokey, corny BS like that.... but actually it kinda does. A contradictory and defiant perfume then, one which has to be smelled. I feel it's a base heavy perfume I can only percieve a little scratch of top notes and then everything mid and base just seemlessly flows into one another. I feel this is a love letter to enthuiasts, something which has this inate appeal to any human nose but I think typically your average Muggle might struggle to 'get' this as a perfume but will be as drawn to it's loveliness as anyone else. It doesn't smell like Guerlain's iconic Jicky but in spirit & style I believe it to be a fairly good comparison. I love Mxxx, but it lacks a focal point for me, something I can really get behind. If it was a bit more animalic in an outragous sense like another perfume to which this could be compared Affinessence... something...name escapes me...errrrr... the Ambergris one... ??? But then again it might lose some of it's mystique and refinement. It's such an enigma I can't even make up my mind. Try it though, you won't regret it.

There’s something cheap, thrifty and throwaway about this fruited musk perfume but it’s somehow elevated to minimalist, elegant, and deliberate by the fact I love this brand. So I’m disclaiming there with a bit of admission to confirmation bias Truly santa and truly Italian Angeli has a very clean æsthetic, soapy, white musks driving the mid. The top consists of a very understated melon note blending into a suitably clean and tidy floral accord, can’t really get the exotic edge of jasmine or ylang from this, smells quite the moist, yet aerated ‘white’ floral. I like this balance I think the melon works with the floral works with the musks, it’s a holy trinity, a fragrant SOP which just works and flows perfectly. I like it. Great for spring and summer, fresh and unlikely to offend anyone, they’ll probably just think you smell like you’ve had a wash, which not a bad thing at all.

Okay. There’s a pattern to Tom Ford’s releases and it was actually quite a positive thing for a while there. They’d bring something out in the prive line then when it didn’t really do very well because it was quite simply too expensive, they’d knock out a signature line version. Which like I said, was quite a good trend until the prices of everything just went into the silly stratosphere. The more established TF has become as an in demand designer brand, the more they feel they can get away with price wise for their perfumes, which is a shame because despite always being high end they were still somewhat attainable, whereas now they’re not. Anyway… bois pacifique is a prime example of the rehash of some old ideas, namely the Gucci PH1 spicy, incense/woody accord, with some minor modern, sparkle tweak not dissimilar to Ebene fume which I somewhat enjoyed and is the prive version of this basically but I recall more licorice/myrrh tinge to that..no? (I might be misremembering? Hmm) Despite many efforts (even by the same perfumer) nothing seems to recapture that rough, spicy magic of PH1 not suggesting that is what this is trying to do. I feel reductive spouting all this wehhrr it smells like this, and we are bored of it weeehhhrrrr! Moany crap because the tiny tweak in perfumery can lead to magic but in this case, coupled with the price it just doesn’t do it for me. Price is such a big determining factor now that I say if this was 40% cheaper it would be a solid release and a decent modern example of the genre. It’s alright I guess, I don’t hate it.

#etro #mahogany is an absolute revelation!!! It smells of something I can’t place, it’s familiar but not like anything remotely in fashion these days. Very vintage, like uncool 80’s perhaps early 90’s dawn of the aquatic, outlying flanker. Does it remind me a touch of Guy Laroche Horizon? That’s a pretty hideous ‘Manimal’ of a fragrance so I might be being a bit mean/inaccurate because this is very pleasurably musky, certainly later on and Horizon is an openly stinky, B.O and melon lolly, seaside mashup! The opening is a spicy, herbal thing, has a boozy, fresh transparency, it’s zingy with citrus but it’s one of those low lying scents which build overtime, their angularities gradually smoothed over. The name Mahogany suggests wood no? I’m not a moron for thinking that right? But although I’d loosely describe this as a woody musk, it’s not really all that woody, certainly not a positive wood note, except perhaps sandalwood adding to the creamy, pink hue of the musks in the drydown.

Pretty opening a sort of high intensity, high contrast, fruity floral, Inle turns up the colour balance on the world for a moment there. Primarily a bergamot and very peachy and thick osmanthus, it's tropicality is giving it more of a 'from concentrate' vibe than the cooler, breezier and dryer feeling. I often think of osmanthus as almost the fruity more exotic version of geranium, carrying the same airy feel captured in many Osmanthus themed perfumes, this is much denser and almost clumsy for it, seems a little immature in that sense. Reminds me of the original Herbal Essences shampoo, maybe the green one? from the 90's? Not sure they still make that shit, haven't had hair since then pretty much so I wouldn't know! haha! That's not really a diss! I'm not saying it's awful and in actual fact as it dries down it becomes more of a rounded perfume and out of the realms of the laundry or scented bath product and smells much more fitting to the 'luxury' perfume it is. Still It's expensive this and doesn't have the subtlety of an Hermes or Crivelli Osmanthus (just some ones I can recall) not bad though. I like the smell, it's feminine, summery, happy clappy stuff.

Anyone familiar with Cecile's output in recent years will feel a warm hug of familiarity in the form of her MASSIVE, fiesty amber accord driven, opulence-fest of a style. This is no different Gigantic, Amber-patchouli accord, loads of incense, Chewy gingerbread and licorice facets, almost too much to talk about, and you get different things popping out here and there. I say the drydown is reminiscent of your favourite oud/rose/patchouli perfumes, then never ending woody, amber, musk. It's really good. Not an awe inspiring wear or anything but I have to say that Zarokian is one of the best perfumers working today, she seemingly found a style groove. Amouage: Stop pricing your perfumes to appeal only to people with more money than sense.

Now despite my moaning about how beige the branding of Amouage has seeming become in recent years, this is the jewel in the crown of what is an impressive trio of perfumes. To say Outlands felt like Zarokian doing her signature thing and Reasons was creative and interesting but I didn't connect with it, Lustre is magic right off the bat! For me it opens with a powdery rose/iris, outrageous pastel pink and fluffy but with masses of substance and character, quintessential Amouage character too, because you can smell the twinkle of resins which underlie this perfume before turning into a sensual warm woody, balsamic affair. There's a classiness to this perfume, befitting it's price. No actually scratch that, someone told me they're £750 or something? Fuck off Amouage!!!! Where there's a heavy use of resins to create rich, deep perfumes with a stratifying heft, less can be more, and can make for diffuse, delicate and powdery smells which for me is when resin is actually utilised to open up a composition rather than weight it down or to use a cooking term 'thicken' it. This application smells like resins which do just this, such as benzoin, styrax, tolu balm etc... which have sweet, spiced facets and show the real deft hand of the perfumer (or in this case perfumers) to create something so robust yet fragile. The most heady of the lot is labdanum and it's use in here is prominent, certainly in the heart with the Ambrarome material really coming to the forefront as it dries down. I usually don't like Ambraome but I can actually smell it in here and it stops short of that awful off note I get from it, again another display of the perfumers getting it right. I adore this, really good perfume. My pick of what I've already conceded to be a strong trio from the brand. Update 19/12/24 Okay so wearing this was a little different of an experience to spraying on a card and my arm. I still love it, but it's worth noting that it immediately became a big labdamic, cuddly, base heavy perfume and much of the top note detail (that sort of powdery, lightly floral aspect) which had been so dominanant in the opening 30min to an hour on a card and initially on my wrist, seems to be far less prominent on my neck and clothes etc... perhaps my perception changed having smelled it a couple of times? dunno? it's still a delight though and still probably just edging first place out of this collection but it's seemingly more simplistic now than the other two.