The way Rouge smoking opens is undoubtedly interesting and carries on from themes of Lost Cherry by Tom Ford a scent I actually revisited on the same day I sampled this. It's funny how your mind associates cherry with almond and vice versa and materials like Benzaldehyde and bitter almond oil contain the qualities of both, as does the love/hate relationship I have with Heliotrope. This has some top note presence though and adds a grown up, almost sophisticated flavour to what I often consider quite a childlike smell of cherries, with a mildly spiced edge, and balmy quality of amber. There's floral sense to it as well but it's creamy base of tonka growing all the while until you are left with a perfume which is indulgently and unapologetically coumarin and almond heavy. A kind of creamy soup, I kinda like and if you love that stuff is clearly enjoyable but I couldn't wear it, just not my scene.
To be honest the notes don't ring true to how I experienced this perfume. The peachy opening you expect of powdery Hermes or honied, peach classics or even other Andrier stuff is not what I get, it's a light suggestion of peach wrapped in a very dry accord of woody ionones, perpetually playing peekaboo with amber and vanilla sweetness but in this shifting, minimal but endlessly complex dance. Wierdly it finishes on patchouli, a material I couldn't smell throughout the whole wear until now, nose nuzzled deep into my skin...there it is. It's almost totally classic Andrier, everything in it's right place and just when you think it's boring or derivative of her other stuff, it changes ever so slightly, like a kind of rotating object catching the light but never quite revealing it's true shape. If you like musky, prada, powdery, woody, iris works from this perfumer, you will enjoy this. I did. Not bowled over though by any means I'd say it's the middle ground between that yellow one she did for Bvlgari (Zahina is it?) and her staple musky, Iris minimality of She was an anomaly. I basically love this perfumer and that everything carries her signature but sniff a little deeper and they are all subtly different and it's those subtleties that fascinate me.
Wow! This is hugely interesting, a real eyeopener with so many niche brands I'd seen these bottles around but just sort of glazed over especially a brand with Initials just doesnt really capture my attention no matter how nice the bottles are. (Which they are.) It's the stuff inside that matters and this comes out with a boozy almost gourmand smell but it's not trying too hard to be all sozzled, more smooth and effortless. You don't really get a lot of jasmine initially but a certain exotic and waxy florality, gently throbs at the back of aged, sweet sherry cask of thing that Wood Jasmin is. Clearly resinous and warm too. The drydown definitely reminds me of something else, (I can't place) more dried fruit, lightly vanillic but not all creamy or typical. For a man that doesn't need any more orientals and often states he doesn't like gourmands, this is sort of neither and both and I'm on a no buy thing at the moment, I still want a bottle. I will have to wear it properly but the initial signs are good.
Wow!!! This is a rich composition on the gourmand spectrum eventually evoking a kind of ebony or dark woods and Bounty choclate bars. Yes this combination of cacao, tobacco, amber, coffee has subtle undertones of coconut which is complementary and likely coming from all these materials like fine rum and vanilla etc... I absolutely adore it! I'm not a gourmand fan particularly and would never actively seek out a gourmand attar of all things but this is FANTASTIC!
I'm steadily getting through my Pasha attars and this one when first dabbed on skin smells of light camphor like a gentle eucalyptus, then cypress, greens, olibanum resinoid. Then give it a rub and the spice of cinammon erupts, joining the composition in a very complementary way think Z14 by Halston. This is a dirtier dry down though and goes into a massively woody territory, to dank Forrest woods and peppery bark and resinous incense. A appealing fragrance.
I'm about to gush.... Again! This is divine. I have to own this it's majestic. This is REAL magic come to life, I didn't think I'd be so taken with an amber fragrance but don't forget about the leather element. One of the best leather accords I've ever smelled. If Sultan was going for old leather bound books then he beyond nailed it! Usually when making leather accords there's tropes like castoreum, labdanum, birch tar etc... But also you have synthetics like Isobutylquinoline and Cuir bases like Suederal and Cuir 17500 at your disposal and you can push leather in different directions..because like many smells, you might think in your own mind that 'leather' is one thing but it's a broad, broad church. Sultan redefines it. This fragrance redefined to me what is possible from a leather accord. Maybe the leather on it's own IS more like a castoreum biased leather I've smelled before but brought together with amber, it modifies it to shine in a whole new way? Ambrecuir opens like a boozy, malt whisky smell but so incredibly refined, and smooth. Next comes a wave of leather and it's soft as butter, yet it's lived in, and has a life, cracks and wealth of stories to tell. Then into the sweetness element which is mildly tinged with a sweet, honey, medicinal note. The dryness and ancient, dustiness is there but it's not too much, it doesn't make your face implode from cotton mouth. This is a thick amber colour from the nectar of the honey bee's to the discoloured pages to the patina on the leather binding, this scent is vivid and alive. I think I'm going to cry? Emotive, life affirming perfumery.
I think Pasha is redefining what attars can do with this by recreating a classic chypre feel and evoking memories for me that were long forgotten. This is special. It opens with citrus and a heavy narcotic, boozy smell but booze that's been infused with cask woodiness. It's not a spirit though, it's more gentile, like a fine wine with peach nuances and gloriously floral but doesn't smell of anything predominantly. It's a vague blossom but not neroli, orange flower or petgrain there's no waxiness or fatty effect. Jasmine but with non of the indolics or tropical banana sensation, and none of the volume of tuberose. Basically it's floral but I'm not sure how? The base is deep and animalic to of set the brightness and it's vaguely, almost smokey, like a stale clean bomfire smoke that's been infused into fabric. I can't say I've ever smelled anything like this an yet it's so familiar, setting olfactory synapses firing.
This is off the charts! Absolutely, stratospheric! Life-changingly good! I mean...holy moly! I have used tobacco absolute materials of varying origins and they are all pretty fantastic. However, as surprisingly thick and potent as they appear, they can bit tricky to use and fight for pride of place in a composition. Anyone who thinks it's easy or linear to present tobacco in this way is naive to say the least. The opening for me is like the blend of classic perfumes in that you get a realistic honey note and animalics in the background humming away. Then the tobacco builds and what a fine tobacco material he's using, deeply, deeply faceted you can just fall into it and be enveloped by the dark, seductive goop. Now I smoke cigars and have been known to have a pipe now and again and I can honestly say this tobacco although incredibly authentic, doesn't evoke the saccharine sweet tobacco that I usually go for. Nor does it have the manure or peppery edge of a fine Habana cigar and this shouldn't surprise anyone but it doesn't smell of the smoke of tobacco, but instead the beautiful sensation of sticking your head right into one of those tubs of pipe tobacco they have in the tobacconists. This is a particularly mellow tobacco and probably not one I would choose to smoke, as I mentioned I prefer the almost too sweet smelling stuff because it remains sweet in the smoking, which I like. Something like this would smell DIVINE raw but that's not why I buy tobacco to sit around admiring and not smoking it. It does have a hay like quality (maybe some hay absolute) but likely just from the tobacco, bitter coffee nuance, animalics, natural sweetness, woodiness, booze, it's a complete treat and takes me right back to being a kid and buying tobacco (perhaps when I shouldn't have been?) from Henry Monks which also sold shotguns! This is a revelation and the attar is very thick and very dark and would likely stain your clothes badly but in all likelihood you could spill this and it would take about 3 years to migrate out of the bottle, if it even moved at all?
Oh For fucks sake Mr Eleven cheer up mate! 'Oh these attars are rubbish, oh these attars don't last and NONE of them have any silage' I'm reading your reviews and I can hear this whiny droning in my head. Objectively speaking now (because hopefully you can trust me to speak for EVERYONE when I say) Sultan's attars are absolutely stunning! Anyone that says otherwise is wrong. Simple as that. Do I like them all? No. Would I buy the vast majority of them? No. Are they masterfully curated in a way that you just don't get from other attar makers who don't use half as many materials or show as many 'looks' as this guy? YES! The nature of these rare and stunningly rendered materials is that they might be fleeting, and who cares, I'd rather have loved and lost... and all that. They are all STRONG to begin with and that's the main thing. This is like a dewy morning, all glistening and beaded foilage and suggestions of undergrowth, beautiful clary sage and oakmoss giving herbal, earthy textures then a mild sweetness. Then comes the wet florals of hyacinth but it's completely tamed by a robust woodiness and faint animalic, greenery. I'm surprisingly beguiled by this one because I thought it might be too floral, but it's perfect.
So I think it's a brilliantly written review below by rbalkris and I echo the sentiments not being a fan of gimmicky for the sake of it stuff. However, I can tell it's said with affection and I have such a soft spot for Prin that I kinda allow him this indulgence and experimentation, even though it's silly and a very hamfisted attempt and being daring or humorous...or whatever it was he was trying to capture? Interesting also to note that the man himself can't stand the smell of it and when he appeared on Wafts from the loft's Youtube video he almost ran away when they were spraying it. In truth this IS the instantly nightmarish and ghoulishly obvious, obscene fragrance that people often said secretion magnifique was, which should highlight a real appreciation for what ELDO and Antoine Lie were doing with that fragrance. Sombre is full splatter gore and torture porn as apposed to Secretions creeping sense of dread. Secretions was fantastic because it opens and you think 'what's all the fuss about this is actually quite interesting and not that bad to be honest' but then it makes you those words, never quite allowing the queasiness to subside and leaving you in a kind of uncertain limbo, perpetually wondering and trying to take away the positives, before a wave of fish or dried spunk would make you recoil. I mean the opening of Sombre is disgusting, and makes no such ELDO pretence. It smells like all the things he mentions, but is reminiscent to me of real civet which has a cheesy smell, and as potent as real civet is, it has a certain sick pleasure and complex nature to it and obviously works in context at low levels with florals for example. Sombre is deliberately paired with other horrors and smells like sick, and the slight smearing of shit that often smells worse than the big pile of shit for some strange reason? So I'm thinking to myself...this has to have some redeeming quality or recognisable note or something that makes it vaguely pleasurable, or you might as well go to a joke shop and smear yourself in stink bombs or even better go on a massive bender then, eat loads of 3 day old shrimp cocktails and ride a roller coaster, puking and defecating on yourself and you'll achieve the same effect. And bless Prin, because it does. A little like Secretions it has some distant redemption in the form of a lightly veiled jasmine and more sweet base notes which soothe after the turbulent start. You can still smell a mild indolic background as if the puke, putrid cheese and rotting meat has been cleared up, just not very well. This is an almost night and day change which gradually comes on and before you know it you might even be enjoying this perfume. Well not 'enjoying' but compared to the start you'd welcome pretty much anything else at that point. It's horrible, but even if you just wear it on Halloween or use it as a party piece like those jellybean Russian roulette games it might have some merit. The good thing about is that people don't make stuff like this very often and there's not exactly an epidemic of people 'ruining' perfumery with gross-out fair like this. Also, I'd say Prin's positive contributions out weight dalliances like Sombre, so I'm cutting him some slack. A final point to make is that...I can't really identify what materials he has used to create some of these awful smells and that in itself is interesting.
Just to note that I've only tested this on my arm a couple of times and that was a few months ago. It could be a completely different story when I wear it properly...an I suspect it will be. I will be sure to update this review. So....So Fetch. Immediately smiled when I saw the name knowing Prin's penchant for referencing movies/characters etc. I surprisingly enjoyed Mean Girls when it came out, my friend used to make me a monthly torrent dump, a kind of movie zeitgeist, condensing all the good stuff and I was like 'Mean Girls? isn't than some girly teen movie?' but then watching it I was like, this is quite charming. A real guilty pleasure though and our little secret so as not to shatter the illusion of my butch persona. Anyway.... This perfume is exactly what you'd expect from Regina George and crew (although she hated 'Fetch') it's pink and girly and all that shit. I like the way he's listed a protein bar accord, that's a detailed nod to fans. but generally it's a huge cherry note and not even dark but reminiscent of glacier cherries, maraschino cherries, complete with the syrupy, almost boozy, almond amaretto kick. This has a biscuit like gourmand quality when dried down more like amaretti buscuits and cherry bakewells complete with icing and a growing vanilla silkiness which eventually envelops the whole thing in the drydown. I mean this fragrance is ridiculous from start to finish, listen to how sweet and awful that sounds... a tacky syrupy cherry note, creamy almonds and vanilla with booze? That sounds like a perfume that might appeal momentarily but would cloy after a few seconds rather than minutes or hours....but it doesn't. I've no idea what Prin does or how he does it but his approach renders nightmarish, olfactory combinations like this a success and somehow with a naturalism that speaks to his talent as a perfumer. You clearly have to like sweetness and cherries etc... and allow me to reiterate I'VE NOT WORN IT PROPER YET, but I thought this was a winner.
So I'm wearing Cigar rum intense today and I have to say that I'm not as impressed as I was when I first smelled it a few months back. My history with the original was that I liked it but I didn't see what the big fuss was about? people comparing it to Turkish leather and other triumphant Prin Lomros creations. It's aiiiight. I always felt it was a little thin and transparent for what was supposed to be a rich tobacco and rum fragrance. Cigar Rum intense sees to have rectified those concerns in the opening with a gorgeous cinnamon warmth and a hint of coffee, which completes the Havana effect. The dried fruit and raisin smell in this perfume is lovely, I'm not going to lie. It's like raisins seeped in rum and not in a rum n raisin Ice cream, tacky, essence sort of way, this smells authentic and natural. There's a smooth perfume element to it, naturally boozy and leathery but crucially I don't get the bitterness and girth of tobacco, that aspect is very tame and subdued for me. I really like this perfume, don't get me wrong, there's much to enjoy and it has a certain creative flair and uniqueness but I just feel it's not quite what I want, not lacking in anyway, but I'm not going to buy a bottle, despite being wowed by the opening. It's lasting really well so far and projecting a small cloud but it's not a big clout of a thing.
Well, I didn't write a review of Sam when it came out, but I was given a couple of samples which I wore one and then the other leaked. Probably because of Penhaligon's policy of having their staff fill the sample vials, which is both good and bad. Anyhow, my first memories of this are as a fruity, sweet but long lasting top note which merges into a synthetic woody amber heart, which again opens very nice, like a plum infused, spicebomb type of slightly kitsch oriental. Then it starts to get on my nerves, and that's not a good sign seeming to cling and project with irritatingly, clingy tenacity. However, if it was on par with the decisive projection and longevity of Halfeti, This would be a scrubber for me. However it peters out to a pootling, splutter of mildly pleasant woody aroma chemicals, without any of that purple plummy attitude of the first hour or two. I don't hate it and I actually did a direct comparison with Halfeti, smell wise they are chalk and cheese to me but approach and the fact they are variants on the same theme, I can absolutely see why many people would perceive similarities...architecturally speaking.
A masterstroke by Tom Ford to release this into the signature line, and they waited what seems like no time at all (but was probably like two years or something?) to do it. Following in the footsteps of the brilliant Ombre Leather is a positive step, effectively giving back to the fans if you like so you'll hear no complaints from me. It does make you wonder why they didn't just release it in this format straight away? Anyway, glad they have. I liked Beau de Jour in the Private blend, but it got slightly lost being last in a trio of fougere's released in a row. Don't me wrong it was the best of those but still. I recall the PB being a stark, diffusive, powdery exchange between bergamot, lavender and geranium akin to a Rive Gauche (although I didn't think it smelled that much of it) or YSL Jazz or something but with warm fougere traits in the base. This iteration however seems (I might be remembering wrong) to have much more gusto and a heavy patchouli note from the start, immediately evoking Houbigant's Fougere Royale. It's a strange rubberiness, permeating the fresh, powdered barbershop vibes that give it a bit more oomph and a sort of dirtier quality to what is a soapy clean affair for the most part. Having said that I could instantly tell it apart from Fougere Royale because Beau de Jour has a much more modern leaning disposition generally. Sure it has the classic warmth and coumarin and as we've established the patchouli note so prominent in both these releases, but develops and behaves differently on my skin. The issue I have with this is that the opening is great and I can enjoy the beginings of many fragrances but sadly they start to take a nosedive...pun intended. :) This wains heavy on me, I'm still interested by it but even my missus said it was too strong and was irritating to her...and I have to agree, it was getting on my nerves for a period. It reaches a sweet spot though after about two hours when everything rounds out (not that it isn't fantastically well put together from the off) the warmth of that base starts to chime sweetly and all those manly, but sophisticated, shaving vibes come to the fore. I think Tom Ford and his perfumer/s have really put a lot into this fragrance, I just have a hunch from the name and the fact that masculine aromatic fougere's suddenly became a base they wanted to cover comprehensively all culminating in the king of Fougere's if you like? This is the result and I have to say it's a supreme effort and despite comparisions to loads of other stuff that inevitably comes with the territory...I would still buy Beau de Jour and I own Fougere Royale, Zino Davidoff, Rive Gauche...etc etc... If that's not enough of a sign that they've brought something fresh to the genre,I don't know what is?
Wow Shocking! Not the fragrance the fact that I haven't ever written a review of Halfeti. For those that don't know Halfeti outsells every other Penhaligon's release combined by some margin too, people go F'in mad for the stuff! There's something magnetic and addictive about the stuff. I agree with my pal Cortland in a sense too that this is quite a synthetic (well he said cheap) smelling fragrance and certainly not the authentic Oud experience. However it has the same feeling I get from another futuristic and hyper clean, airy neo-oud oriental in the shape of Geza Schoen's Niwab of Oud. I'm in no way suggesting they smell similar BTW I prefer the OJ to this but I actually love this as well. It has an opulent, musky lightness touches of rose and saffron but not in huge amounts, and although light, does have a heft in terms of lasting power and a powdery, leathery opulence and some sting in the tail too. It's a bomb of woody amber aroma chemicals, I can smell them and I don't care. There's a smooth transition in how they are presented. I revisited Mr Sam on the same day and sprayed on the other hand and they do indeed share this modern, synthetic woody, amber sharpness however I find the plummy top of Mr Sam to be irritating after the first few seconds of 'mmmm...that's nice.' Halfeti is much more beguiling and harder to reach, I'm not sure why I love it so? Many people have clearly been hooked by this scent too, returning to I, I feel a certain way about it. I have Levantium which to me is much more authentic and naturalistic smelling to me, clearly more rosey too but I get why I had this as a love and a 'want it' when returning to this page after not trying this since probably it's release...whenever that was now?
Not perfume this really. A mashup of fruit cocktail nonsense, floating in a cassis base syrup. It's insufferably fruity, I mean really. Then actually does become perfume, drying down much more like a hyper generic floral amalgam of gingham dress clad little girl complete with pigtails. This is not a grown up perfume for a sophisticated woman it's a throwaway piece of fruity musk fluff. I'm no connoisseur of women's designer fragrances so take what I said or leave it.
Strange that sniffing the sprayer of this I was instantly reminded of the fantastic (and ONLY good Lacoste fragrance) Eau de Lacoste Blanc which I thought this was merely a repackaged version of...but it isn't. This is generic and boring, lacklustre and all the mediocre, mundane labels you could slap on it. For all that I think it's okay, at best it's a slightly less inventive version of Davidoff Horizon or something? Has this ginger twang to the citrus which works very well over a plethora of dry modern woody amber. It's meh, but not unpleasant meh.
Stunning opening, quickly becomes a little too much. Don't get me wrong I'm a BIG incense fan but context is everything and this fragrance smells of heavy olibanum (not much of the fresh, lemony uplift and fizz it can have.) Myrrh which smells divine but starts to cloy on me like caramel or toffee or something after a short time. Then drying down more to the fantastic labdanum, which is my favourite material but too much of a good thing is definitely the phenomena going on here. I love the smell of these resins, don't get it twisted I'd just rather see this incense accord in a perfume composition but I also know who difficult it is to balance. I'm conflicted about such a potent resinous attar and whether I'd wear it.
This mainly smells of a stunning rose absolute or otto, but working with these materials as I have I can say how difficult it is to make a rounded scent when you put such a prominent focus on a wonderful rose material. There's a hint of more powdery sweet florals, like gernaium with a dialled minty element and touches of violets. I get some sweetness there and I know there's a great base holding this rose down but I can't really smell what's in it, perhaps that speaks to the smoothness of the blend.
Darker, woody oud, with complexity, spices and an animalic subtlety in the drydown, it's lovely but lacks the brightness and clarity of florals and such in some of the others. I still adore the smell though.
Complete and total KO! Wow! Just Wow! Opens like a bright but herbal, white floral, all the while backed by a heavy woody, animalic breath of ambergris. It smells more like the herbal, cumin, sweaty bite of civet replacement rather than real civet which is more cheesy and oud like, but I could be wrong? Whatever the combination of animalic elements they are exquisitely judged because you can still smell the citrus and aromatic & lactonic creamy florals, perhaps some andalwood materials too long into the drydown. I get that this is totally masculine but not at all heavy handed. Love it!
This is back to what I consider more traditional attar business in the shape of a very acomplished fragrance with nice oud pungency right out of the gate, but it's immediately mellowed and clearly not supposed to dominate the composition. What does is the fizz of frankinsence, a syrupy amber and a beewax/honied, sweet rose and more than a twang of saffron. It's gorgeous let's face it, gets even nicer too as it dries down. I'm not taking nothing away from the composition but it's lots of opulent things, chiming in to give an experience that is satisfying but not highly original. Frankly who cares, all these materials are the finest in the world, coming together to make something special and Pasha's track record for making some of the most innovative and original oils out there, packing in tonnes of complexity, is well documented. This path is more trodden but he still does it with a huge dose of panache. I love it.
FFS Mr Eleven...are you ever happy?? Performance is not everything mate. How you can be soooo disappointed by these attars is a mystery... ??? It's rare that my jaw drops at a fragrance these days, being even more of a wizened, jaded, old curmudgeon than Mr Eleven here lol. But this is a fragrance on the highest rung of the elite. I didn't even know I loved gardenia this much? It's sublime. The earth moved for me smelling it right out of the gate, super complex mixture of divine fruits and leathery florals, giving a touch of the iris from iris soir but a way nicer for my nose. Textured, beautiful nearly edible, but not sweet as such, getting creamier but with a mild earthy, smoke to it, I think it's fantastic, despite opening strong I'd say it's not quite as potent as one might want for the big money and I like the opening more than the drydown but still this is nickpicking. Just revel in it though because it's absolutely stunning and had a profound effect on me.
'Don't think! Feeeeeel.' Bruce Lee My oh my...I adore this perfume. It's magic. This was sent to me by a wonderfully fragrant pal on the other side of the world, and bless her soul because she was so right. I do love it! It fooled me to begin with though, the vial in the package had leaked slightly and when I got it I thought it smelled of, cheap, fresh laundry, the kind of white musk you get given free with a rollerball when I've bought Oud in the past. This...takes a minute to register and comprehend but when it does....sweet jesus, it's majestic. It opens with a very light hint of rose, and then proceeds to take you on a musky journey into one of the smoothest, yet most complex musk accords I can recall, moving through light and clean, cotton like into more javanol and synth sandalwood to the sweetness and warmth of ambrette seeds, it's just a lovely thing to behold and smells different close up to at a distance. Natural, yet like my favourite synthetic musks, so what if it smells of galaxolide? It’s lovely. I can get a very slightly, traditional perfume element of lavender but it's not even a 'note' as such more of an ethereal, spectre. Then there's the warmth and richly resinous feel of the beeswax listed in the notes and again, it doesn't even have a 'note' of beeswax just a faint orgainic honied warmth a delicate vignette so carefully sown into the fabric of the musk accord in this. This is truly a perfume that smells of all things and one and it's a gift that keeps on giving in the drydown. Less is more here, attention to detail is key in fragrances like this. Where I once may have dismissed stuff like this as 'pleasant' and 'pretty' perfumery not really innovating or moving things on creatively, cringing at myself in hindsight for completely missing the point. Like Bruce Lee once said (yes I'm evoking the great Mr Lee to describe a soft musky perfume, what of it?) 'It is like a finger pointing away to the moon, don't concentrate on the finger or you miss all the heavenly glory.' A good lesson for life in many ways. Big thanks to my Kiwi pal Elyse for the sample you're a dimond luv, and also an enabler because I want a bottle of this now!
