Hideous ambroxan-bomb opening, but after an hour or so (too long?) the magic unfolds. I get the synthetic marine smells, but also something warm, spicy and sweet. It ebbs and flows and changes with the skin temperature. Very interesting and beguiling. It bears more than a passing resemblance to Uncut Gem. My main issue with this is the monstrous performance and the noseblindness. Remember how bad it smells when you first smell it, then remember that everyone who comes across you will not be noseblind to the nuclear amount of ambroxan, then remember how fucking awful Sauvage smells when people are wearing it on public transport... I can't help feeling that's what I'm doing to people when I wear this, even though my noseblindness is conning me into liking it. Don't get it on your clothes though, it'll never come off.

It just shouldn't work, should it? But it does. As it develops, I'm getting geranium, or at least some hint of minty geranium, and quite a lot of geosmin. The candy sweetness has been replaced with a sort of sweet soily richness. I'm impressed with how much of a journey this fragrance is taking me on... It certainly is unrelenting. After two hours, it's reminding me of the drydown of Geranium Pour Monsieur. Which is fine by me, but I wasn't expecting it.

It smells like an experiment where some sort of bionic lifeform has been created, the intersection of electronics, plastic and biology.... synthetic biology. Love it. (perhaps the amorous robots from All Is Full of Love would smell like this)

Oh yes! It's as weird as I hoped and provides a delicious, shifting, roller-coaster ride of genre-bending perfumery. I can't put my finger on any one thing. What seems to be metallic one minute suddenly seems sexy-skanky the next (I get the same vibe from Ganymede) sort of like hot sweaty muscle dude, although that's not to say it's masculine, I reckon anyone can rock this if they're feeling it. The turmeric is very apparent, but it's such a complicated chorus of accompanying notes it doesn't seem at all culinary. I can totally understand those who say they appreciate this but couldn't imagine wearing it, and I probably won't wear it often, but I'm looking forward to trying it in different seasons. Wearing this again today, and OH the drydown... So creamy, ambery, spicy and wonderful, but in a unique way. It really doesn't resemble anything else.

Very polite and safe, but somehow very unique too, I really love how the nuttiness balances out the vegetable greenery. I feel it's also very versatile, any situation goes. This is a good addition to my wardrobe, as I can't always wear exquisite beast-mode screamers.

70% woody amber, 10% pepper, 20% something missing. It doesn't smell bad exactly, but it seems lazy, especially for such a prestigious brand. There are hundreds of similar basic synthetic-smelling perfumes like this, it's just boring.

I used to wear it in my youth, like 25 years ago. It smells the same, but something is missing, and the magic dissappears after 5 minutes leaving a Mugler-es que, sweet aroma-chemical soup. Maybe it was always thus, but I remember it being special.

Take Le Lion de Chanel, add spices and a musk overdose and you have this. It's magnificent, but Le Lion pips it for me, as this is almost unwearable for most occasions, whereas Le Lion sits just on the other side of the line. Update: the musk keeps getting stronger and more cloying, and after a few hours, when it was nothing but wave after wave of cloying, sweet, synthetic musk, it was really pissing me off. So glad I only bought 10ml of this, thank god for Le Lion.

Not horrible, but it's like Lipstick Rose with the amber warmth taken away and using cheaper ingredients, with a sprinkle of ginger. It's quite in line with other ELDO scents. For me, it just immediately makes me wish it was Lipstick Rose, a far superior fragrance, although PdP is way cheaper.