It's not often I venture into the women specific, designer scent world but something compelled me to pick this bottle up. Now it isn't due to a lack of interest more that there isn't enough hours in a day to sample everything out there. My Burberry Black was actually a quality piece of work but the overall vibe is very Femme (rightly so) and as such not something I'd wear. I don't even feel it's that original in approach but for one crucial thing, It doesn't smell cheap. The base of amber and woods anchors what is not strictly an oriental perfume, perhaps more of a fruity Chypre hybrid but with that classically peachy, jasmine then a pleasing, warmer drydown. Nice.

A beautiful, fresh citrus aquatic that dries down to a kind of sea breeze and vaguely feminine, soft fuzzy peach. If you like your aquatics very salty this isn’t for you has a kind of light fruity nature, don’t get me wrong the sea is certainly evoked but it’s very much in the background. You can tell the ingredients are quality and the blend of notes is good, just not the most inspiring piece in the world for me. Enjoy the smell though, lots to like.

This is an amazing scent no doubt, one of the main reasons is the top notes are positively fruity and exotic, unmistakably guava crucially not listed in the notes here. The development then takes a turn for the familiar in the shape of a gorgeous vanilla then it became obvious what this smelled like...and it’s one of my favourite perfumes ever...Bella Bellissima’s White Leather. However, as quickly as you can make the association you realise that, firstly it not nearly as lush or intense but it actually changes becoming much more floral. It’s a lovely mixture of iris, soft powdery leather and overtly fresh orange blossom/neroli and maybe some freesia or something. The main basis of star of the season is a soft sandalwood accord which again is similar to White Leather. You can still smell the exotic fruit and vanilla way in the background too but it’s such a different scent as much as it’s familar maybe even more complex but certainly not backed with the strength of oud or the rich, long lasting power of BB. It’s more feminine too and I’d definitely recommend it to those who like the tropical/fruity/floral with an oriental type base.

I have a love hate relationship with this perfume and clearly it's taken me a long time to bother to review it, something I don't usual afford many perfumes specifically marketing towards women. It's not discrimination on my part, more that I have enough men's and unisex to review. My love hate relationship is basically that I used to hate this and now I don't...well not entirely at least. Always had a problem with aldehydes and floral musks and this starts out very bracing, even this modern version. One thing that has struck me about this fragrance is that it's the perfect counterpart for the Men's version, or sorry...more correctly the men's version is a great counterpoint for this, being as this one predates it by several decades. The green, sharpness in the opening actually has slightly the ammonia smell to me and reminding me a bit of being choked by hairspray, perm kits and hair dye by my mum, sisters when I was a kid and nowadays by my missus! Allow that effect to subside though and you are treated to what is essentially a feminine 'Barbershop' scent. Do women have a genre called 'hairdresser' scents? Anyway the musky, oakmoss clean white florals, slightly minty geranium, vetiver and woods could easily be worn by a man and on my skin actually smells really good. A fragrance I've been aware of for a long time but has come into clear focus for me now, which says as much about my changable tastes as it does about the quality or suitability of various perfumes I may have dismissed in the past.

This is an exemplary fragrance and despite the price tag....I want it. Creed Royal oud...I get that comparison but this is far superior for several reasons not least of which being it actually smells of Oud. Jubilation XXV....??? Uh uh...nope I don't get that from Oud Rouge. A more accurate comparison would be to Versace Oud Noir or Versace Man, or even CdG Wonderoud, because it has this Blackcurrent/liquorice opening which absolutely bangs with pink pepper's sharp sweetness, it's divine, and again although I've compared them, this is superior in every way. When Oud Rouge is settled it totally changes, I mean it could be a different fragrance the cedar, pink pepper and oud loom large with an almost labadnum sharpness too. This is luxurious stuff. I love this fragrance, it's an absolute delight, projecting hard at first but then sitting low on the skin and lasting very well indeed.

I love Roge's reviews and I can see where he's coming from with this one but I'm going to be entirely more lenient with this praiseworthy fragrance. I will start by saying it's not really my scene, bleu being essentially, an aquatic oud fragrance but I found it quite light and charming. The opening is fresh and yesty, the orange note is not typical to my nose but it's clear that it's not a sharper citrus either, so yeah, it's unusual. Then there's the smooth cardamom and sea breeze vibes which are not that salty, ambergris but more of the 90's men's designer aquatic nature. The base of resins is clearly there both rich and ambery to fresher olibanum type vibes and just feels quality along with the subtle oud backdrop. I really enjoyed it as another direction for this oud line to go and people who are into aquatics or fresh fragrances this could be your king. I'm also somebody who doesn't care all that much about pricing and have grown tired of the whinging I hear about brands like this and Clive Christian etc... If you don't see the value I get that and you have a right to express it and in many cases I might actually agree to some extent. What I don't like it vendettas and to deny a whole line (most of which they probably haven't tried) any merit or say that 'They are all garbage' or 'there's no oud in here' to deny the quality is crazy because I've sampled several of these now and they're all pretty fantastic. This all being said there's not many I'd part with the money to acquire. They are in more of the French/european tradition than they are Arabic (another critique I hear but FdB never made any such claims) and frankly the ones I've tried so far are very understated and some not big lasters or projectors, which again is fine because many other ones are. In reality to me Oud Bleu is just 'nice'

I thought I'd revisit these revamped releases of the les exclusifs, not that I paid them enough notice in the first place to get any discernible difference but hey. Now something about Iris and Ylang Ylang (individually) is really working for me recently, Iris isn't a shock but ylang is, as it wasn't usually something I'd say I enjoy. The opening is green, slightly musky, floral but not overtly and has the smooth exoticism you'd expect. The drydown is pretty woody and with a delicate hint of earthiness from patchouli showing yet another example of just what a great perfumer Polge is...although was it his son who did this? Anyway...Do not be fooled by the notes because this is not a typical experience nor is Rue Cambon a typical Chypre in the sense that it's very unisex, and quite woodsy in the drydown. It sits quite low but you can smell it and lasts pretty well, I really liked it.

I'd been looking to try this for a while and finally now I have. Boy treated me to the usual...'Chanelness' that kind of chic understatement and this perfume is definitely understated. It's a subtle, silky, milky, musky texture which to me smells quite simple with easily definable notes despite the overall 'blending' for want of a better word. Some reviews I'm aware of the notes beforehand and this informs what I say about a perfume and others like Boy...I've no idea...reassuring to see everything I got listed here. The fragrance has a lemony, citrus which is sharp but then 'poofs' into a powdery, clean almost soapy geranium, lavender then the smooth base of vanilla/sandalwood. It's classic meets new in that it's actually quite modern as if something from Juliette has a Gun or Geza Schoen and I like that sort of minimalism but with a respect for it's fougere heritage. It reminds me a little of Allure Homme or more accurately edition blanche the crucial difference being the geranium and lavender in this. I thought it was quite weak to begin with settling back to a very low lying skin scent, however it was actually more persistant than I first thought and I suspect other people would be able to smell it better than the wearer...one of those weird effects. I really liked it. Boy is a little pricey for me and there's better offerings in this line but I thought it was very nice.

Wow! People are STILL questioning whether this is legit. The mythical Creed jus that no one's sure exists, yet we still vote to HATE! To the comment below If I had a pound for every time I had known of a new release before a SA....I'd be a rich man. Just because you work at a concession in a store doesn't mean you are aware of everything going on with the company in fact in my experience it makes them even less likely to know, despite their sense of importance.

So I often favour the more long and rambling review, but on this occasion I have very little to say about Creed Aventus Cologne, One word in fact.... Redundant. If you have the original Aventus or any semblance of affection or what could be considered nostalgia for the original then this doesn't really do it any justice, or support it's legacy whatsoever. A counter to this could be.... well what did you expect from a 'Cologne' version? It's either a literal interpretation a fleeting, lower EDC concentration or a 'EDC' in style (Citrus/white floral or 4711 effect) piece which in that case was never going to be anything like the bro staple, 'beastmode' frag-fam king, that it's older brother was, and all the dissenting voices are just 'haters'. My opinion of Aventus cologne falls into a category of people called 'Are we still talking about Aventus after a decade?/I don't fucking care!!!' type category. This fragrance has clear Aventus makers in the opening the bergamot/cassis/pineapple effect but then has a much more austere base with non of the smoky attack of birch tar. Instead it's base is modern aroma chemical cedar, maybe ambermax, ISO, Ambroxan, cashmere....frankly I've no idea but it's there to keep the pleasant much less overtly pineapple top notes in check. What is at first an Aventus lite slowly becomes something much less like it and very much it's own entity. This doesn't mean it's especially original. I don't get the Allure Homme sport comparisons, nor the Sauvage (style wise perhaps I can see it?) it's more like Roja Dove's Elysium for my money, perhaps with slightly less polish? Doesn't last directly all that well on skin but it did remain on my jacket for a long time, and it's pleasant. What else can I say? If this was a designer or even a slightly elevated CdG type semi-niche brand, around the 80 pounds mark for 100ml I probably still wouldn't be all that convinced but I might think it was a superior, fresh fragrance. However, to charge the inflated Creed prices for a fragrance which doesn't have the soul or intrigue of the original or the perceived value in bro loudness or sick projection, longevity and COMPLIMENTS! just seems unfair. Creed are clearly trading off the back of the Aventus phenomenon but a less cynical side of me wants to think that they truly believe this is as barnstorming and innovative as the 2010 release...but they can't surely? More likely that they are wheeling out some crowd pleasing dreck that will be bought by name association and well meaning but deluded Creed fans. Sorry this didn't do it for me.

A very interesting fragrance and somewhat of a tale of two halves....or maybe more? I like that about fragrances when they have transitions or odd quirks and Tokyo from Gallivant is certainly one of those. It smells different in the opening to the drydown which is true of many perfumes but this has the more rare extra dimension of smelling different when vaguely wafted (silage trail) to what it does when sniffed close to the skin. The opening is what I would describe as an aquatic modern citrus, with the characteristic style of Yuzu and heavy spicy, peppery notes and vetiver. There's a zing to it and a Comme des Garcons modernity about the whole thing, but at the same time has that designery feel, for want of a better term. It's clearly a cerebral, niche incense fragrance but has an accessible Bleu de Chanel thing to it by the same token. However, that's just the fresh opening. The main focus at the heart of Tokyo is that hinoki wood. It's an intoxicating, spicy, wood which has it's own unique smell, but If I had to describe those facets I'd compare it to cyrpess/cedar/vetiver/olibanum/pine, it's kind oily, has a slight smoke smell but is uplifting. So from a distance Tokyo is catching in my nostrils and reminding me of a fragrance that I own, but have always been on the fence about. Issey Miyake Bleue d'Issey. Now I'm not saying they smell the same, Tokyo is clearly far superior in quality and when smelled close up is much more complex. However, something of the effect is the same and it renders Tokyo a maybe in terms of wear ability for me. It's such a challenge because when I first tried it I was like "Wow!" Who cares if I'm unsure though, The point is I think Tokyo is a fantastic fragrance which does meet it's brief in terms of evoking Tokyo. I've never been mind you and despite not getting a horseradish note (pretty glad actually) I get the implied wasabi heat, the fresh yuzu, the old world, temple incense and remote Forrest retreat meeting the frenetic pace and neon lights of the downtown. I get all that in this fragrance and that's the point of this line, to be transported.