This has the consistency of that chewy, not quite biscuit stuff you get from poland or eastern europe. This has a ginger twang to it which I like and what I percieved as resinous, a bit like myrrh but NOT myrrh. Then it dries down to a very deep hay absolute type smell and seeing the tobacco in the notes here I'm like yeah okay sure. This has a sepia hue, a chewy, tacky (texturally) brownness. I'm conflicted by it. I think I quite like it but, there's not enough breathing space in natural perfume, it hits you like a big block and you have to unpack it yourself. There's complexity there but it's strange, and this is FAR from the worst culprit of this collection.

First of all before we get into what this perfume is about I am alienated by the price point. This degree of 'luxury' is beyond my means. This perfume retails for £500 for 50ml. While that is very expensive some might try to defend it's honor by saying that it's not the most expensive perfume in the world, some are thousands, yeah and I can't afford them either. My own personal financial limits aside, and this is a very, very good perfume and much what I'd been expecting from QB in recent times. He has this cosmic, spangle of complexity in the opening, bejewelled with fruits and 'incense' (about the most nebulous accord you could describe) woody, resinous, modern, and multi faceted. That happens but it's immediately different in that it's softer, deeper and less aggressive than some of his recent efforts for Pehaligon's, Essential parfums and Marc Antoine Barrois to name a few, this is smoother and more wearble, and those are some great perfumes let me tell you. So this doesn't smell similar to those but stylistically it's in the same wheelhouse for certain. Then all of a sudden it reveals a much more settled nature after a few hours, almost like it says, 'right enough twinkling top notes, I'm gonna show you my true colours now, a pastel, powdery iris leather and woody, like sandalwood type accord. It was mildly reminiscent of DK Fuel for men, a lovely little banger from the noughties. This Iris/leather talk makes it sound atypical, but it isn't, It's pretty masculine leaning somehow and makes this perfume completely charming and if anything should be worth top money for transitioning this way and taking you on a 'journey' (puke) it's this perfume. I've actually just started a fragrance podcast (Les Odorants) which will be available to download soon in all the usual places you get your podcasts from,(PLLLLLUGGGGG!!!!!) and this was a topic of discussion along with a load of other heftily priced, smelly stuffs. Quentin Bisch has a masterful command over materials and is a superb modern perfumer, and this is a prime example, same it's so damn expensive, but if you can afford it, comes highly recommended by me.

Aldehydic, transparent, leather fragrance, feels 'dated' in that oh so brilliant way, like I want to date it/want to wear it on a date. It's soapy, snappy opening is wierdly floral, fresh but masculine, I suppose it's a sort of green leather. I actually love it. I don't get classic fougere warmth from it but it but there's a certain pine/fuel quality and it's twangy too like a saffron leather but nothing like it at the same time. haha. Yeah it's a classic, I'm sure there's other fragrances which smell this way, there's a familiarity about it but I can't say I'd ever tried this before the last year or so. I'd seek out a bottle but I know it will be outrageously expensive, for like a pretty good, discontinued fragrance, It's no Kouros or anything but it's satisfying.

Pomelo?....yes. Poivre? ....Not so much. (Actually, I just re-spritzed and there's a really brief peppery spice wave at the beginning of this fragrance, blink with your nose and you might miss it) The opening is a delight of citrus from grapefruit sharp to even a mandarin/melon nuance, so pomelo is pretty much spot on territory. There's pencil shavings and creamy sandalwood cedar underneath. Initially I really liked this but subsequent sprays on my arm and such, that excitement waned some, the citrus becoming less fresh on skin after a while. However, I'm coming full circle to say this is a very nicely done citrus/fruity perfume with the signature, musky, wood bases which are safe and agreeable to most tastes. This is superior to many fruity/citrus fragrances it's very good, (I've given it an okay here because it's not massively to my tastes) and I'd expect nothing less from a line which has been very good across the board.

I found this a likable sandalwood, a happy middleground piece between all out, Santal 33 trendy fuckery and sweet, creamy, musky, synth sandalwood goodness. It's basically a very pleasant, lightly spiced sandalwood open, reminiscent of the niche game becoming what the designer was 25 years ago. There's even some masculine trope from that period about it in the opening, bergamot and cardamom and such? It must be a thing with sandalwood accords and bases where they invoke that papyrus or nutty quality, this just about gets away with it. I like the brand, this is ok, I'm not overly keen, but it's okay. I put 'like' because I kinda do. Update 01/12/23 I wore this yesterday and feel my original apprasial still holds water, I sort of like the fact it has that offness of modern hipster Sandalwood (minus the horrors) because otherwise it might be giving me a bit too much of what I want. However, it's still oddly cloying and the sandalwood accord has lashings of what I perceieve as Javanol, a material I often praise but in reality is very tenacious and fatigues me massively. Still not a bad wear though and inkeeping with what is all in all a quality brand, not exactly setting the world alight creatively but still decent.

Gorgeous, musky, iris and gentle leather perfume. To some uneventful, and unspectacular but I think in the context of the brand, it's really fitting. Many brands are making these quality, fleshy iris perfumes and that should make them more hackneyed and even less appealing to a gnarled old cynic like me right? well no actually. The devil is in the details here and there's some nice details. Oh this perfume is now called Iris Ebene (they've made a couple of name changes in this line) it has a fresh note in the top which I swore i did discern as mandarin but when smelling again, I can't really detect but there's a general, fleeting sweet freshness which works well with the developing sweet, vegetal notes. The iris is powdery but musky and woody, not too anything for any palate, great balance is displayed in three perfumes from this line santal one, musk one and this one. I love it. But it's quite standard stuff and although I'd happily wear this I think in comparison to Crivelli's Iris that has much more strange points of interest, re:galbanum and chocolate, and if I wasn't so enamored I might consider picking this up. I liked it. I like the brand generally, I'm in love but I'm sold on the concept of them.

The stiff bristles of a manface. A jawline you could chop fire wood with. The curly mat of chest wig, poking up atop a polo collar. The chisel of a protruding Adam's apple. I am Man. Smell my Bogart. This is a classic men's fragrance in all the ways I could possibly describe leather, wood, spice etc... mildly derivative of 80's (and early) men's power juices, this one in the woody aspect of Paco...sure...Quorum...yep...but I swear I can tell the subtle difference in this hyper complex animals, which ultimately come together to be vastly similar. If you have experience wearing fragrances you will be able to distinguish between them by two crucial factors, 1) their development over time, how the signature of different notes and accords pop out of a seemingly similar soup, at different times during the wearing and 2) The way it makes to feel. Largely it's differing versions of the same feeling....like bloody, great big, hairy MAN!!!!! Loved wearing Jacques Bogart for the first time, this is one classic I've never tried, blind bought for next to nothing, the new formula is COMPLETELY fine, and I'm really satisfied with it. great addition to my wardrobe.

So I got the new bottle of Obsession and I have to say it's less feisty than I recall it being years ago. Perhaps lacking that strangely animal muskiness, it's still there but a little subdued. I'm only focusing on this as I've bought some new formulations of classics recently because I refuse to pay exorbitant prices on eBay and the like. I think vintage snobs might have a point on this one, but crucially, did they 'RUIN' this perfume? No! Obsession is still excellent in it's current formulation and the sign of a great idea in the first place that even paler representations of it are great. It smells strange in that way that A heavy, amber, chypre I'd say, with a apricot yoghurt creaminess, light floral powder, and otherworldly tone similar to a Dior perfume of a similar era in Dune. They don't even smell remotely alike but the association is there as a perfume which side steps the feminine tropes and tries to do something different, and achieved it. Some say that this is much more of a masculine perfume (possibly compared to the Men's one) but I wouldn't say that this evokes any binary gender divide at all. It's just 'there', a perfume for perfumes sake, a piece of art, and not very CK for what CK became in the 90's, aside from the androgyny or unisex appeal of it of course. Style wise it's an outlier and something they've not really returned to favouring more of a minimal 'fresh' aesthetic. I really like this and such an enjoyable wear for me.

Adore it. Beautiful, lovely, musky piece of perfumery. Opens like some forgotten 90's masculine fougereish thing with sandalwood and bergamot or something? Does that classic thing of sort of sucking in, it's a kind of gentle implosion that these fragrances do, then you know it's going to mushroom out into a real cracker and it does, mutates slowly into a silky smooth, embrace of musk with that gorgeous ambrette character. Very well made, considering I have similar perfumes and I love this genre Peau d'ambrette (now Bois d'ambrette) is still giving me enough originality to want to buy it. Yes it's 195 quid I think, and yes it's a fairly minimal perfume from a brand which clearly blows it's load on packaging and such, but that's all part of the reason the aesthetic appeal is so strong. But I don't care. I love it. Brilliant.

Wow! What an opening statement. A fruity cacao accord bursts out of this bottle, it's huge. Powdery but also kinda gooey, reminiscent of some dessert with cacao powder and like raspberry coulie or something? (not that this fruity note is raspberry) it's strangely Muglerish, I get a fig (more like dried) sort of feel but also something more berry tart. It's kinda a big, fruity floral, despite not being very floral on the strip now, it was more so on my skin. Smells like those big brash patchouli, chocolate gourmands that I associate with louder than life women, who are always very well put together but perhaps wear too much make up? (is that sexist? who am I to say what's too much make up huh? I basically look like a thumb in an overcoat!) No but you know what I mean? Maybe she (by that I mean He or They) works on the makeup counter and they can't get enough of spritzing themselves as it delivers their chocolate hit as well as their perfume one. I like it. It's bold, it stands out. I couldn't abide wearing it, I don't think.