There are no fragrances I'm aware of that are able to replicate the scent profile of Carlisle. This is a wonderfully unique fragrance that mixes the earthiness of patchouli with a blend of oriental spices. Though this claims to be a unisex fragrance, it comes off very masculine in my opinion. A powerful scent, this is one that you can get away with 4-6 sprays, while still getting the longevity out of the fragrance. The only issue I have with Carlisle is the price tag. As a premier blend, it is rarely found on sale through discounters.
So I wrote the bulk of this review a few years back and haven't posted but I'm really glad that folks are generally so happy with Carlisle, because it's a very accessible fragrance. Having used quite a lot of cardamom in perfumes of my own recently I have to say that the spicy, soaped element you get when cooking with it is exactly what the raw material smells like. Now it's either that in the hands of a master perfumer, it becomes less spice and more of a smoothed out 'feeling' a feeling I get from many fragrances purported to have cardamom in. Or they simply don't have that much cardamom in. I've ranted in defence of PdM before so I'm not going to do that again but there's a perception that they are making clones and 'designery niche' fragrances to deliberately target an emerging market, of preppy type Creed Aventus wearers. I'm sure there's an element of that and frankly seeing that Yanni guy everywhere gets on my tits, but I think this house has merit and this fragrance epitomises the style I think they're going for. They almost have a basis in a kind of warm, slightly spicy, oriental centre that's soft and caressing. I only have oajan but a handful of them carry a similar vibe and Carlisle is somewhat a mixture of the big hitters. Aspects of Oajan, Byerly, Herod etc... (and actually the blueprint for Layton which wasn't released when I first penned this review.) but with an unassumingly smooth nature (could be the cardamom?) of almonds or something? A little sweet, woody but well balanced. I really liked it and thought it was highly wearable, but just a little safety first and if you're spending big cash then you want to be wowed.