Portrait of a Lady is one of Frederic Malle’s most popular scents, and for good reason. It opens bright and fruity with a prominent rose accompanied by raspberry and blackcurrant, with a slight spicy touch coming from the clove. A strong heart of earthy patchouli and smoky incense then begins to develop, blending beautifully with the rose and clove. The base is comprised of an ambiguous musky amber accord, which only provides an added depth to the overall scent profile. Throughout the life of the scent, the patchouli and incense are the most prominent notes, with the rose providing a gentle feminine touch. This fragrance has fantastic quality and smells divine, intensely creative and alluring. One of my favourite patchouli perfumes and a definite must-try from the house.

Absolute Aphrodisiac really takes after it’s name - it’s intensely sexy and alluring with rugged qualities. It opens initially with a soft and sweet vanilla, however this soon fades into the background of an ambery base to allow smooth leather and animalic castoreum to take the lead. There’s a slight musky undertone as it settles on the skin, which blends beautifully with the other dark and animalic notes. A touch of white florals very subtly softens the dirtiness of the castoreum. Overall one of the best releases from Initio - a brilliant take on a sweet and animalic leather scent with a gorgeous sillage. I would say this is very easy to like and a great option for those who are looking for a castoreum scent that is more subdued and wearable, however I find it to be very masculine due to its animalic character.

Atomic Rose is a very sweet and appealing interpretation of rose. It opens with bright white florals of hedoine and jasmine, accompanied by pink pepper and bergamot before a sweet and soft rose takes over as the leading note. There’s a hint of vanilla on top of an ambery base, however the rose remains the main star and doesn’t change all too much throughout the life of the scent. I don’t find the rose to smell very realistic, it comes across more synthetic however I find this with the majority of notes in Initio’s releases. It’s a very pleasant fragrance if you enjoy a sweet overdose of rose however there isn’t too much else going. It’s a simplistic scent that’s easy to wear, however lacks character and doesn’t warrant the high price tag unfortunately.

Unfortunately another disappointing, unimaginative and boring release from Prada. Luna Rossa Ocean EDP opens with the same headache inducing bergamot and pink pepper overload, alongside synthetic sweetness from grapefruit and ‘florals’. It smells generic and similar to 90% of designer releases these days. The base is comprised of a synthetic Amber accord, with vanilla and woods to create a stereotypical ‘masculine’ scent. It’s not an unpleasant fragrance, and I’m sure much of the general public will enjoy it, but personally I find it uninspiring and devoid of any interesting qualities. Prada used to release some fantastic scents with high quality ingredients and creativity, but in recent years seemed to have lost their way and jumped onto the synthetically-sweet Invictus style bandwagon that most designer brands copy. Very disappointing.

Paragon is a very unique scent profile, and not all for the best unfortunately. It opens straight away with a sweet and fruity plum, alongside lavender and pepper. I find the sage to be very intense and aside from the plum, the main note in this fragrance. The sage is very dry, chalky and almost powdery in a bad way. As it settles on the skin, the palo santo and sandalwood begin to emerge, however they are continued to be overpowered by this chalky sage that just doesn’t give up. I don’t detect any oud in this perfume unfortunately. If the sage wasn’t present, I imagine I would really enjoy Paragon - the plum and palo santo combination is lovely but for me the sage ruins it. This was an unsuccessful blind buy for me and I have since moved it on, disappointing.

Sakura is a beautifully soft and clean sweet floral perfume, with a gorgeous dry down. It opens with bright citrus, bergamot, lime and mandarin combine with a blast of pink pepper alongside a hint of dates and saffron. Ambiguous green notes become present on skin, surrounded by a bouquet of airy florals - mainly rose, as well as a gentle incense. The notes listed on fragrantica are very different than the official listed notes. The base takes the sweet rose from the heart, and deepens it with vanilla, cardamom and woods. Oud is an officially listed note, however I don’t find this very apparent. Sakura is a very pretty fragrance, easy on the nose and easily enjoyable. It’s very nice, but quite gentle and from the official notes listed I would have expected a bit more depth and character. Intensifying the oud, dates, rose and frankincense would’ve rendered this a truly great fragrance.

Rose Magnetic is a beautiful summery take on a classic rose. It opens sweet and juicy with grapefruit and litchi at the forefront, before a gentle mint becomes present creating a gorgeously fresh scent bubble. The rose sits gently in the background, light and airy only there to compliment the fresher notes. There’s a sweetness of vanilla and tonka in the base, which is a nice addition - however the cedar remains pretty much undetectable. It dries down very quickly and soon becomes a skin scent unfortunately. While this fragrance smells lovely, it’s only fleeting and to me lacks character and depth. It’s a very pleasant fragrance but that’s where it ends. It’s a good option for the summer and a nice fresh take on rose but it’s not massively special, thankfully the prices from Essential Parfums are reasonable.

Terre D’Hermès Parfum takes the success and originality of the original EDT, and makes it deeper and more mature. It opens with the same bitter orange and juicy grapefruit combination of the original, however lacks the kick of black pepper. As it settles, it retains its signature masculine dry down of vetiver and cedar, but instead of earthy patchouli it introduces a smooth oakmoss which blends beautifully with everything else. This fragrance smells like spring and makes the original EDT smell more summery than you would originally think. Overall the parfum closes off as a much drier and more mature version of the original, and while there are less notes included it smells like it has more depth. It’s an incredible scent but I’d say it’s similar enough to the original that it doesn’t warrant owning both, personally I still prefer the EDT.

Spanish Cedar opens with a sharp and contrasting combination of fruity plum, blackberry and bergamot, with spicy clove and bitter galbanum. The fruity notes are well blended and smell high quality, however the clove note is very overpowering and while not unpleasant, comes off very mature. As it dries down, the fruitiness begins to dissipate while the clove persists and a woody base of cedar, sandalwood and guaiac wood emerges. Ultimately this becomes a cedar and clove dominant fragrance which is quite strong and bitter around the edges. This fragrance isn’t really my sort of scent, although that doesn’t make it bad. It’s very mature and masculine, I imagine this would work well for men over 50 as it smells very classical and old fashioned. I feel like you really have to enjoy clove and bitter woodiness to enjoy this fragrance.