Lovely, bright citrus and clean vetiver...this does have some character created by other notes but my nose can't really detect what they are? Not much else to say. It's in the vein of Jo Malone for me which is only a good thing, As I've mentioned in other Diptyque reviews I really like everything from this house and vetyverio is no exception... it's just not exceptional.
Okay so...If you've read any of my reviews you maybe aware that I'm not a huge fan of overly boozy scents. However, this effort from By Kilian is amazing and was instantly a favourite among the ones I've tried. (which is the vast majority now) Straight to Heaven has all the suave, sophistication of a fine brandy/cognac hardly surprising given Kilian's pedigree. I instantly liked it and bought it there and then...a rash decision perhaps?...but I can definitely see myself wearing this quite regularly. It's bold but it doesn't announce itself and make the big statement that incense or amber Oud do. It has that gorgeous quality of dry fruit and wood with warm amber and quite a pronounced patchouli which ordinarily I wouldn't like but it works in this. What I mean is if I read the notes before trying I'd have wagered a bet on me not liking this. I think this is a case of everything being pretty 'full on' and as such creates a kind of harmony...not so much a delicate touch with a dash here n there but a overflowing, bubbling cauldron of indulgent juice. I can understand the comparisons with Amouage jubilation 25 as this has a very fruity feel throughout and a tiny bit of smoke too. The sweet, dried fruit vibe also reminds me of Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille a little. This juice is unisex and could definitely be worn by many women but for me this leans slightly more toward the masculine in comparison with some of the other unisex offerings from By Kilian. Bare this in mind if you don't want to shell out the full amount... I bought the 50ml refill version for £70 as the full bottled price was too much for me. The little funnel and atomiser you get are real quality.
This sample is due to arrive with me shortly so I will add a more detailed analysis later. I've tried it a couple of times in the shop and once on my skin. I'm a little torn about it already, frankly this was love at first sniff. Gorgeous mandarin oranges in the top, with a hint of rosemary. I'll be honest, I've no idea what amyris is but the florals in this juice only enhance the overall experience and don't put me off in the slightest. The base is creamy with tonka bean and yet again it's a superbly well blended scent from MFK. Just don't know whether I can justify the price tag for what is an exotic fresh summery fragrance for me. However, the same could be argued maybe about the likes of Creed Aventus, or Milesime Imperial(This fragrance is actually better value) but if you like them...you like them. I'll make my mind up when I get a sample...The only sure buy for me is the sublime MFK OUD Absolutely stunning!
Well this is a big hitter from Serge Lutens and I'm yet to review it but as we come into the colder months this juice is essential. I remember being stuck between this and five o'clock au gingembre for my warming winter fragrance from Serge Lutens and this lost out...just. However, going back for another sniff I've realized (and I'm trying to tell my wallet) there's room for both of them in my life. I believe this one to be a better seller and more popular than FO'CAG and at the time I favoured the underdog. In hindsight they're both amazing!!! Sweet, creamy, tobacco and sandalwood with the warmth of amber & honey plus sweet spice of incense. All this creating a boozy warming feel...it's adorable and nothing over powering anything else. Expertly blended genius from Serge Lutens a house that produce consistently outstanding fragrances.
Well I'll start my review by stating the obvious...this fragrance is not very imaginative. I was given a sample of this as usual I wear it for bed after showering and it was a pleasant experience. I read the notes on the sample card and thought hmmmm...I'll keep an open mind. I hate mindless comparisons because they are often not very helpful to the reader of the review but straight away the mint and vanilla put me in mind of La Male. There's a freshness in the top from the citrus though which is nice but the vanilla and tonka bean are always there...maybe it's this combo that draws comparison to Allure homme sport eau extreme which to me is far nicer an less lightweight than this. What I do get is a modern marine accord which once this dries down a little is all too evident...could be from the Ambroxan/ambergris??? This will be a comparison people won't like...but once you smell past the vanilla and citrus even the mildly woody base...Do you know what I get a touch of? PACO RABANNE INVICTUS albeit a much milder, dried down, close to the skin version. Who's with me on that? Not that it's a bad thing this fragrance has a lot going for it and as unpopular as it might be to say...I quite like Invictus. Don't get me wrong they are very different too but yet again for fleeting moment they're similar.
Surprised that this is a unisex, I find it very manly but in a understated way and so much so that I bought it right off the bat. I'm fascinated by this scent it's a wonderful mixture of the familiar and the unknown for me. The top notes are peppery and you definitely get the papyrus. The vetiver is perfect, earthy and woody but clean with great spicing that is just low in the compositional mix. There's gentle myrrh there too this fragrance is quite a complex treat but one that you don't have to become fixated on notes and just sit back and enjoy the big picture. What I like is the way it has an animistic quality, I don't mean in the sense of an animal... I mean the human animal. It's the way it mixes with my body/skin chemistry to create something seriously primal...No wonder this is the Wolverines (Hugh Jackman's) signature scent! I've yet to sniff out a bad or boring L'Artisan Parfumeur fragrance. Love this and will be wearing it regularly although I do think it will be more suited to the heat with the african vibe.
Oh wowie wow!!! My oh my this is the complete perfect balance of Incense, Oud, patchouli and a touch of Rose. This scent is perfection for the incense lover, to me it's not smokey more of a fresh incense, the oud is really gentle, the rose is sweet its truly intoxicating. Ridiculously expensive...I mean really is a crazy price for 50ml of juice but despite being similar to many fragrances I like in terms of ingredients I found this one to have struck the finest balance. Incense Oud is absolutely spectacular no doubt about it.
I love this fragrance and enjoy wearing it every time it's very very good. I've noticed a few things having worn it extensively now. I can totally sympathize with @Prodigy's review below this is one of those scents that is Oud in name alone. However, Oud is strange in here and I always pick up on it for literally a split second after the opening then it's gone! It might be because of the boozy qualities of this and the incense and rose which are more apparent. Anyway...despite that this scent is absolutely off the charts good and the best By Killian by far!
I do happen to have an amber fetish myself and this fragrance scratches my itch BIG TIME! This is an amazing juice, totally bonkers I've never smelled anything like it...truly! A hugely complex spiced amber fragrance that somehow reminds me (strangely) of how my sinuses feel after I come out of the swimming pool at the gym and inhaling the crisp, green, evening air. I don't why that is...this is a rich fragrance not fresh or green at all, neither does it smell like chlorine but this post swimming analogy remains. I have no experience with this house but what a fantastic start to my discovery. Ambre fetiché is a rare smelling fragrance that combines some of my favourite things, masses of amber and incense. I'm totally sold on this!
Instantly this smell provoked an emotional response...A rare moment in perfumery that genuinely moved me. Not only is this an amazing fragrance that is very masculine and hugely complex and interesting but somehow reminds me of the smell of my late father. Strange really as he only used to wear dated classics in the vein of faberge brut or Fendi uomo...to name a couple and towards the end of his life he didn't wear anything but smelled exactly like this. I got pine, moss wormwood and aniseed from the star anise. What a great herbal tonic this is almost menthol, medicated but soft at the same time. Needless to say I love it and it smells like my pa so I can't help but love it.
Well here goes another MFK fragrance and I kinda know what to expect from these... unfortunately that something is disappointment. Well that's not fair at all because it's just that my expectations were so high...I want something from this house to come and smack me in the face and make me love it! (I think I'm close with Amyris Homme actually...oh and of course OUD...but I'm greedy and want more!!!) Each fragrance is expertly crafted and the subtlety is remarkable. Somehow Kurkdjian uses ingredients and concepts that don't appeal to me and manages to make them likable, APOM pour Homme is a prime example. Orange Blossom which to me is quite a complex note in and of itself, has a similar quality to neroli for me but with a hint of fruitiness and also something slightly rubbery and off putting. Having said that the unpleasantness takes a few minutes to develop to be fair the opening of this fragrance is stunning as was the last one I tried. The mixture of cedar perhaps gives this effect I don't know? The amber is a great match for the floral top notes of this fragrance and works very well in the composition. On paper again this seems a little simple and feminine but somehow isn't and manages to make great use of few notes to create something slightly more complex than the note breakdown suggests, again this is Kurkdjian squeezing every bit of character out of the different elements. The question is... would I wear this fragrance? No. Not to my taste... I think the price tag is high but if I liked it enough I wouldn't be perturbed. This has quality and if you like white floral and specifically orange blossom this is probably the most finessed fragrance you can get.
To be fair I look back at my review of this posted 2013 (but likely written sometime before that) and I'm amazed by how my tastes have changed but my appraisal of this scent even then, was pretty positive, despite really not liking orange blossom all that much. I was 'stunned' by the opening apparently and now I'm just stunned by the entire fragrance. Yet still something about orange blossom is slightly cloying and here clinging onto the warmth of the resinous base beneath it works perfectly. Kurkdjian is a master of this white floral stuff and APOM evokes the classic French and North African influences pretty perfectly. This is a summery, fresh fragrance but has a cosy warm heart, and as a convert to orange blossom I have a new found appreciation for the stuff and this fragrance.
So I asked for some samples of any of the MFK fragrances today and I received this as one of them...I was quite happy as I've reserved my judgement on many of them as I need to sample properly on my skin. When I read the accompanying card had you been there you'd have seen my slightly pained expression and my disappointment would've been palpable. Rose & patchouli? Really? Not that I dislike either note but having no prior knowledge I'd kinda hoped for something different. Well...to my dismay I absolutely love lumiere noire!!! At last a male rose scent that is better than Cartier or serge Lutens to give two examples and you know why? Because this isn't all that rosy!!! A very gentle composition that has a magnificent opening for me, the rose is used perfectly the patchouli is minimal but evident straight away and gives an almost chocolate quality which works so well with the rose. I genuinely don't like Rose based fragrances (unless very very dark) for men as a rule but the rose in this is so subtle and refined it's totally acceptable to my nose. Lightly spiced, and with a very vague almost bitter, animal quality to it...everything about this says quality, balance and harmony this is not just another bad rose scent for men this one is very very good and I would probably wear it as could most women. The problem here is the price...unless I was crying out for a very lightweight rose scent in my collection(which I'm not) I just wouldn't bother.
Put quite simply...this has to be one of the greenest fragrances I've ever smelled! The moment I tries it in the store I exclaimed "woah!!! GREEN!" Immediately, to which I got a few odd looks for talking to myself such was the impact of this juice. Not in a freshly mowed grass way, or an astringent floral way or even a boring linear chlorophyl kind of way. This has a depth and wonderful character to it which really impressed me it really is more reminiscent of wandering through a fragrant garden in the height of spring. I like rose when used sparingly as it is here and you get the freshness of berries. I'm not sure what cassis smells like to be perfectly honest but you get a pleasant leafy vibe throughout. So there you are then another great fragrance from Diptyque. I'm really enjoying their stuff, the brand image and scents have a natural vibe to them similar to Jo Malone.
This is a great fragrance, light on it's feet citrus & pepper combining to create a lovely freshness. Everything Lalique do oozes class, not overly pretentious and very reasonably priced. I often wonder why they're not more mainstream and in more stores. I kind of glad in a way because I think that would take some of the magic and exclusivity away. Okay so @freddiefingers is going to kick my ass again over this...and dude I don't just think everything smells like GIT! But... Just for a fleeting moment in the opening this reminds me of Creed Green Irish Tweed... anyone with me? I like to think my nose is not completely shot and I'm not going totally mad! I'm not saying they smell the same either it's only the opening and it's no where near as herby or prominent as GIT and the drydown is totally different, any vague resemblance is gone totally. Is it the ceder, oakmoss, lemon leaf?? something in there is creating this effect and I swear I'm not imagining it!
As soon as I smelled this I was bowled over! Fig scents to me are almost always aimed at women and where I'm not a huge lover of the note anyway I keep coming across fragrances which contain fig. I'm drawn to them without prior knowledge that they are going to be there, so now I just go with it. This one is the most outragously figgy scent you could imagine. It explodes out of the bottle with the most lush, ripe, gorgeous smell. I have the Acqua di Parma Blu Med Fico and that is very mellow and understated in comparison. Originality is the key to all the scents in the Diptyque line although the ingredients are similar to others used across the perfumery industry they are able to set themselves apart from the crowd with some wonderful smelling fragrances. Everything I've smelled so far (only about 6 of them) is stunningly good at a fairly reasonable price. The best fig scent I've smelled hands down and it drys down beautifully giving a little coconut...magic! Update: I still love this but my girlfriend really doesn't she said "If you get it... don't wear it when I'm around." Knowing I have juice to pick from but still that's not the point I thought this (although figgy) had a wider appeal and was pretty inoffensive to most tastes.
Revisited this after a few months and I still love it. Very fresh and invigorating as all Jo Malone scents but this is special in vetiver fragrance terms. Never realised how fruity the top notes were until I retried it yesterday the citrus zings and works perfectly with the very gentle spice and woody character. This might just be my favourite citrus/vetiver combo and I've sniffed out quite a few. It's a perfect composition.
I'm a big fan of Jo Malone despite most of the fragrances being fresh and for women. I'm a huge fan of the vetiver and this is along the same lines even woodier infact. I really enjoy it an actual composition without an obvious name of the ingredients which are inside the bottle. Easily unisex but the lady at Jo Malone said this was more aimed at men and I can see why. Smells great.
Okay Burberry London has legendary status among fragrance heads, very rarely do I see a top winter line up that this one isn't a part of. How fitting we are entering wintertime and I'm posting a review due to the fact I too turn to this fragrance in the colder months. I'm not going to spout cliches like "...Christmas in a bottle" or anything but that's truly not a bad description. I'm surprised to see that Fir or pine is not a note listed here because that's the first thing I get from London, a very green, sappy note. That disperses quickly and your instantly into the warm heart of this juice and it is warm and super welcoming. Sweet, mulled wine, cinnamon spice, woods...it truly is as good as everyone describes, maybe even better? Even the bottle is wrapped up warm for the cold weather what more could you ask for?
Okay so I went to my local perfume counter and said to some of the women there..."You know me by now...what else do you have that I will like?" I always use certain fragrances as a reference to (hopefully) help them alert me to new ones...In this case it was Robert Piguet 'Bois Noir' and Amouage Interlude Man. She came up with this one from DSquared. It was a new one to me, the He Woods are a mixed bag and I'm not overly keen really...but I figured hey I'll try it! A pale comparison with Bois Noir which is in another league(not even gonna mention Interlude) was my conclusion. It smelled cheaper, I'd figured they were the same price but when I discovered this one was half the price it changed my perspective slightly. Really not a bad effort at the high end opulence that I crave from a spicy, Oudy, smokey, Incense scent at a designer price. Also the rose strikes a pretty good balance in Potion Royal Black, all in all not bad. For me though, I like designer fragrances for being a composition that you wouldn't see in the niche realm and this attempt is slightly redundant for me. It just highlights that If I want this sort of smell I will have to be prepared to pay for it and in truth will get something much much better than this. Update: My original point above was not very objective. I'm speaking as somebody who loves dark, eastern, incense fragrances and is prepared to pay top dollar so this doesn't really appeal to me...but more broadly speaking this might be the finest designer fragrance you can get and not to be sniffed at! (If you pardon the pun...this most definitely should be sniffed at! in a really good way.) Tried this again the otherday as I was really quite impressed the by this the first time, considering it's price point. It starts out as a really smokey mess quite frankly and is very pungent with spices and I'm not sure what it's supposed to be? You can actually sniff through the layers of resinous, smoke and reveal what struck me as an almost feminine rose scent underneath. However, as it dries down it seems to get deeper and darker and in the very deep drydown 8+ hours it becomes my favorite a gorgeous leather (Think almost Tuscan leather or Clive Christian 'C' PRAISE INDEED!) but by then it's so faint it's just barely in the realms of existence. Quite a journey this fragrance takes you on...layered and really a bold outing for a designer house with awesome longevity, so well done to DSquared.
As a big fan of masculine woody fragrances I am naturally going to love this right? Well I do and I don't there's a symphony of different characters of woody notes in here but it's just not very bold...maybe that's a good thing? It's a great gentle fragrance and I'd wear it in a heartbeat so maybe I'm just managing my expectations because they were so high with it being called 'Wonderwoods' and all. Update: having tried this numerous times now I'm starting to come around to the fact that this one is actually pretty spectacular and a much better example of a masculine woody fragrance than the DSquared HeWood line for example. It has grown and grown on me, Wonderwood is definitely one of if not THE best in the standard CDG range.
I completely echo @Maddyrain's review I was expecting something uber green from this and instead the generic fresh, aquatic I've smelled before. However, It's a very nice smelling scent and an inoffensive alternative to the mainstays of Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and the like for roughly the same price so why not get this? It's not bad.
Spices, Amber, incense? On paper this was stacking up to be a olfactory wet dream for me and as such I couldn't wait to sample it's goodness. Now that I have, the best word to describe it is... Weird! I'm really not a fan at all...I never let it drydown properly due to an erge to get it off my skin as quickly as possible. I wanted to like it so bad too, it's brave and very different it strikes me as be very excentric, extroverted. I can just imagine some hip young fashion conscious french gentleman the kind who would wear a CDG jacket with lots of ruffled fabric on the lapels and arms smelling like this...needless to say not my scene AT ALL! I like saffron but all I get in the opening is awful booziness and spice attack, turmeric galore!!! Maybe I'm not being fair and the drydown is nice but yet again I can't get past the opening, a real shame because CDG do some great fragrances.
Tried this a while back and found it enjoyable but wasn't sure if it was a keeper or one I wanted to add to my collection. Thankfully now I have a small decant just in time for the cold weather and I have to say it's an absolute knockout!!! I thought it was quite linear and first a beautifully dense, warm, endulgent, boozy plumy scent that hits you straight away and doesn't let up right into the drydown. That would be enough to sell me but just as it gets a little sweet you get deep, wet, woody oud and all this within seconds of stiffing. Step outside into the cold winter air, you can smell yourself and it's divine. The main change for me is that the fruit and wood suddenly seem dry this makes for an interesting twist. As this dries down you get more of the exotic florals coming through and a touch of vanilla which is the true heart of this fragrance although the plum note remains throughout and the oud is an ever present base. Frankly, I'm stunned by this fragrance, mainly by the way it develops. Although there's much more to it than fruitiness and sweetness if you don't like that you would probably dismiss this fragrance. If you find Tobacco vanille too sweet you probably won't enjoy this either. More fruits and Oud please in fragrances because this is another triumph from Tom Ford.
Have to say I agree with @merekkalinowski very little difference between this an the original. The sales assistant (a very pleasant French lady) was so eager to tell me the story about the whiskey casks and how exclusive this juice was, which was nice actually as most I talk to don't have a clue about fragrances or show any real enthusiasm. I have to look at the process with some scepticism because as a man of science I believe it's pure chemistry and I'm not sure how much perfume can be infused with character in this manner. As a romantic I would love these processes to be possible (oak barrel aging, smoking etc...) because it makes the artistry of perfumery even more magical but I think in this case it maybe a bit of a gimmick. That being Said...trying them side by side as I am at the moment, I get a slight(and I do mean very slight) difference between them. It's not enough really for me to warrant any change from my position on the original A*Men, it's a wonderful complex, oriental, spicy fragrance. I'm glad the whiskey, maltiness is not maximised because I was always reluctant to try because of this but it's subtle...very subtle! If you're somebody who really picks up on the difference between these and love it then good for you because this is a great smelling fragrance and it's £20 cheaper than the original so I'd chose this version even if just from a financial point of view.
Okay so this is day two of straight up comparison and contrary to what I have said below there's a definite...definite difference between these two. Absolutely no doubt about it pure malt creation is smoother and sweeter. To be more accurate actually it removes the slightly unpleasant, tinge A*Men has (which makes it sort of interesting actually) and without that barrier you can access the sweetness more easily. Why I never??? The barrel thing actually works!!! It is actually malty, as you spray it right out if the bottle there's a malty, whiskey note that I never really got yesterday. Strikingly similar but honestly I prefer this to the original for sure...what a difference a day makes! I hope they've not sold out.
Naji great review below says it all really. I'm not adverse to violets in fact I have quite a few fragrances where violet is at the forefront but non more so than this...distinctly feminine there's no way this could ever be considered unisex. I only tried it because I was given a tester and it looked interesting, smells very good indeed and settles down quickly which I like. Also the violet note is a blend of leaf & flower and as such has a rounded and accurate smell to it, not overly sweet or synthetic but very subtle and grown up. This is the dictionary definition of 'powdery'. Naturally this is far too feminine for me, too linear and very little woods in the base...but that's okay. I can still appreciate it as a fine fragrance and will be recommending and passing the sample onto my friend as she loves violets.
