Out of the Box, from Orlov Paris was released in 2020. The perfumer behind this creation is Jordi Fernández. It has the top notes of Jasmine, Peony, and Pink Pepper, middle notes of Amber, Caramel, and Rose, and base notes of Incense, Musk, and Vanilla.
Preamble: So allow me to not be very nice about these perfumes, hopefully in a very short and concise way. I had nothing against the brand previous to this, in fact I really enjoyed a couple of their previous back cat. I feel this 'By...' collection has somewhat missed the mark and the names rubbed me up the wrong way, the samples were 'free' from the website but actually postage from France was pretty pricey so....not really but that's just for starters . I gave a huge ranting explanation on IG so I'm not going to put too fine a point on it here, I was just disappointed by the lack of imagination of these. They're competent perfumes and I even liked a couple out the eight released, and I'm not saying every new perfume should be a groundbreaking, art piece, but some collections feel like they've just been cynically jizzed out for the sake of it. Sorry. It's a crowded market and unless you are bringing the ruckus, then kinda don't bother. This was the first one I tired and it's so saccharine sweet and reminiscent of every silly, screeching, jammy sweet, oud rose, evoking Montale or Mancera to me straight away. Rose perfumes, simply don't have to be this. I couldn't wear this, it's toooooooooo much. The vanillic qualities are brutal, the rose is brutal, the metallic musky qualities are brutal, the strength and tenacity are brutal. The nuance.... non existent. It's hard for me not to 'like' it because it's not an unpleasant smell per se and after about 10 hours when mellowed, sure it's kinda alright, but I don't think I could see it through those initial hours without feeling sick as a dog. If you're a fan of this kind of turbo oud rose that's been set fast in sugar syrup, then go ahead, but please don't wear it around me. Finally, There's a few ways the name could be interpretated. 1) Out of the box...The creative cliche. the dated, buzzword/sales speak to mean this is a rose perfume which gains it's inspiration from 'outside the box' , the metaphorical 'box' of conformity. 2) It's an entirely, on the nose, ironically knowing title, because it's clearly not thinking outside the box is it? 3) Totally post modern, hyper honest title about an off the shelf formula with not a bone of creativity or originality in it's body.... 'yeah guys, we just got it out of the box at the lab at IFF or Symerise.' You be the judge!