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.
Lattafa have brought out their clone to this called ana Abiyedh poudree👌🏿
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.
BR540 clone
Santal 33 clone
Creed Clone
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.
Beast mode. Nothing like BR540. Dry down is exactly like Sauvage Elixir.
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.
Okay, new brand for me and one I've been chasing down the discovery set of for sometime but they've been sold out for the last 18 months or so. Anyway, finally got my hands on them and of the six offerings this was the first impression and I'm glad to say it left a really good one. I think it opens quite green, you definitely get the salty, waxy, wierdness of tuberose, this is undoubtedly a floral perfume but wasn't screaming narcisus on my first application on skin. However, as I sit here with it on the strip it smells SOOO much more like tuberose and narcissus, in a very fresh almost light, eculyptus/camphor way. The overarching element is of mown hay, and it's perfect for those who don't like florals to be too floral and heady, it grounds them, much it the way that Pisara of Dusita perfumes uses it. It's not that hay note you get with coumarin or tonka accords it's much more summery and the fact that bran is listed in the notes here is no surprise, I'm sure bran absolute is adding much of this hay flavour. It's clever, well crafted, feminine leaning for my sensibilities but a firm like and a really good opener, I'd happily wear it because it was even nicer on my skin last night when I tried it out but I ain't gonna be buying it, doesn't speak to me in that way.
If you are familiar with the BBW CocoShea Honey line, this is basically the EDP version of that.
Absolutely beautiful. This is a wonderful perfume, that's about it. I'm not breaking it down it's a kind of gentile, lightly spiced, powdery musk, sandalwood accord perhaps rose and iris? Certainly vanilla but not too sweet and brought together in such a way where it doesn't matter, it's more than the some of it's parts. Is it distinctive? Not really. Is it worth the money? Sort of...I mean you're not going to get much better but sure it's expensive. In fact this entire line are really good from YSL and sort fly quite stealthily under the radar as apposed to Dior or Chanel exclusive lines. I enjoyed this anyway.
Okay so superficially this has Aventus vibes as everyone and his or her dog has mentioned. However, that's for people with no imagination or fragrance vocabulary to speak of. I'm actually surprised that it's not in the smells like, because every other (post Aventus derivative) fragrance seems to be. Instantly though this is different to me, it's softer, rounder and with a much fresher sparkle, of citrus and resin and little to no modern patchouli/woody accord scratch, therefore NOT Aventus. Where this does let itself down is the similarity and conjuring of the WORST FRAGRANCE EVER, Mancera's Cedrat boisee. The infamous and awful, Cedrat boisee I should say but thanks to a miracle of Zarokian's perfumery skills she seems to steer the vanilla drydown into a wearable territory, to the point that the association is fleeting. However, I'm just not bothered about Ani. I have no desire to wear it, whereas I do get the urge to breakout Aventus due to it's inherent bro tones, and gung ho formula, yes I crave that from time to time. I'm not saying this is redundant, it's just not my scene and Ani might just be the finest Cedrat boisee, sparkly bergamot and vanilla soft collision ever formulated. If you see the value and quality, I'm not gonna say you're wrong.
So.... I've not had a chance to sample Turkish niche brand Nishane despite them being EVERYWHERE at one point and having been on the landscape. Now I don't usually review stuff I haven't worn properly and if I tell you I tried all their perfumes at once in a shop, mainly on strips, you'd probably say I can't really make fair comment on them...and you'd have a point. In my defense, I have worn and smelled a billion perfumes at this point and some degree of extrapolation I can get the gist of a perfume quite quickly (never fall into the trap of thinking you can do that with every perfume because they still surprise me to this day!) However, this one I strayed on a strip and sniffed throughout the day also my coat pocket still smells of it DAYS later, so I think I somewhat, get it. Disclaimers over. Opening wise Nefs is a complex but gentle, leathery type oud, with a pronounced whisky note, but it's quite delicate round and somewhat floral. After a while it settles to something which feels like an opulent, expensive perfume you might find in a luxury department store from any of those refined brands like a Roja Dove, (I'm not being sarcastic) Then the remnant, or deep, deep, base, drydown is one of a modern amber, creamy but spiked with complexity. The smell is rose tinted and has got a vague similarity to Dior's ambre nuit, but minus the subtle brilliance. What's impressive about this fragrance is that it has three distinct phases, all of them clever and complex and I have to give credit where it's due. The shop owners said that Nefs has been wildly popular and I can see why, not sure I'm quite convinced myself, I'd have to wear it, but I get why this may attract some hype, it was a standout in the collection for me.
Super sharp orange zest in the opening, but give it time. The vanilla comes out to play then u get the true essence of a cake😍
Through a fugg of pointless releases this perfume appears to have some clarity and focus of vision to it. At first it's an all too familiar citrus and peppery wood opener, which also leans toward and sparkling G'n'T vibe, which is fine but doesn't exactly scream original or quality and had it continued with IES and vetiver tropes, I might've been much less favorable in my comments, not because it's bad, just kinda old hat. As it stands when this dries down it transforms, pushing way more in a floral direction. For those guys not man enough to rock a massive tuberose or lash fanning jasmine, don't despair. This stuff is the perfect level of floral or men, it's tone is that of a underplayed violet leaf type thing, but doesn't smell like Violet. All I can think is that it must be this Monoi oil. Now I only say that because the accord is not a recognizable one and I just clocked it in the notes here, I'm not familiar with the material but if this is accurately what it's like, then I like it a great deal. Pleasantly surprised by this then, kudos to BV for not kowtowing to popular fragrance cliches and fashion of the moment and making something which smells original (at least to me) if not perhaps the most dynamic perfume in the world.. It's certainly in keeping with the brand aesthetic, it smells like a BV, style wise at least and that's not a bad thing because they are an excellent fragrance brand.
Citrus/rhubarb/tea are most notable off the top. Lemon reads more grapefruit to me (I'm good with this). Rhubarb is CRISP and tart, but not sharp. Tea is fresh/green and NOT ozonic. The rose is so faint to me. More of a backdrop to the three notes above. Very sheer. Slightly more sweet than floral (L'Occitane type rose). Opening notes fade quickly and tea is the major remnant. Absolutely gorgeous, but it's got EDC longevity and an EDP price tag. I'd want to spray this as hard as I would a 4711 offering. If I could get the opening to last more than mere minutes, I would seriously contemplate throwing down cashmonies for this, but the things that make it so special are so sadly fleeting that I can't justify the purchase.
Bright green spring floral with tart rhubarb (love this addition!) However, as with nearly every other Byredo offering I've tried, it has a soapy drydown that I can't stand. Aldehydes must be part of the Byredo DNA. What could have been the perfect tulip scent was ruined by it. The fast fade doesn't help, either.
Santal clone with a very green opening.
Another travesty!!!! Not this perfume, I love this perfume, but the fact I haven't written a Fragrantica review for it!!! I mean WTF is going on? Are my reviews disappearing or am I getting old an forgetting to post them? Anyway.... If you don't like the original Le Male, have no fear because this is nothing like it, but nods enough in it's direction to make you go 'ahhhh I see the thread.' A bigger more obvious nod though would be to the perfumers previous works of sparkly, cosmic, nebulae, fruity incense accords like Ganymede and Teddy, Bois Imperiale etc....etc.... but essence parfum seems to be squarely in the 'designer' realm, reining that sparkliness in somewhat and rounding off the edges with smooth, warm, spiced, lavender fougere type feel. Which as much as I love Bisch's signature style, I find it hard to wear those Barrois perfumes and such after a few hours because they are just too much, not in a bad way, they are brilliant just sort of.... emotionally draining. This however is spectacularly good, soft, wearable and was a huge suprise to me upon it's release, I mean I bought it immediately, I thought it was that good and just look at that reworked Flacon. Bravo to JPG for giving us something really meaningful in a sea of drab men's designer releases.
Just get prada luna rossa black and save yourself the extra cost🤷♂️
I do like this a lot. Might even be my next signature scent after club black lol. However it does give me a vanilla air freshener vibe, i wonder if anyone else is picking up on that👀. Regardless very nice and cozy scent especially to wear to bed haha. Performance is moderate but for £26 bruh i can't complain🤷♂️👌🏿