I think the ridiculous price is why so many people moan about this perfume. Putting the cost aside, it's amazing... beautiful, and unique. It's a powerful projector but without being screechy or cloying. It's like bathing in high quality black cherry yoghurt, indeed I think Black Cherry would be a more apt name. Yes it's very expensive, and the cherry is indeed lost quite quickly.

A difficult opening with a lot to think about. I'm thinking gourmand, soil, spicey, minty, sour port or heavy wine, liquorice, peach, headache coming on, familiar dirty patchouli, possibly a bit of cherry, oh yeah, there are the aldehydes, headache getting worse, glad I didn't spray this on my skin and I only bought 10ml. Undeniably a quality perfume, but one that belongs in a different era, perhaps even a different world. After half an hour the dry down starts to get delicious and warm, but it's too much for me during those 30 mins. It's like the single, 50s aunt at a wedding who wears a screaming-loud ensemble with an attention-seeking hat, before mellowing out as the day, and the drinking, goes on. I'm glad I have a little bit now it's finished but I can't see myself wearing it.

Smells like a sour patchouli to me, and not in a good way. I guess it must be the vetiver. It's a hard dislike.

The negative comments on here are often focused on something I love about it, such as the way it evokes fresh laundry or soap. It's not any old laundry or soap, it's that breathtakingly fresh waft you get for a split second that you wish could last, and now it can, all day in fact. Or the strong blast of aldehydes in the opening... it's spellbinding, albeit not unique (MFK has several variations on this theme with negligible differences). It's a paradox, as it's the least challenging fragrance in my collection, but manages to be magical to my nose, and is more than the sum of its notes. It is very, very strong, which I itself can be a challenge. I find it charming, effervescent and flirtatious, but with a sharp edge, an ever so subtle metallic sheen that makes all the difference. The drydown is the best part by far and away. Update - wait for super hot weather, then let it thrive ;) Another update - I've worn this hundreds of times now, and it's truly underrated in my opinion. The only difficulty is the strength. It's nuclear and you have to be careful. But in the summer it becomes my signature for days on end whenever the heat and humidity stop me wearing my usual heavy, oudy, ambery cloaks. There is a woody amber scratch underneath, as with most MFK freshies, but it's only perceptible when you shove your nose right in, and it doesn't stop me loving it. The jasmine is just indolic enough to make it smelling, and this with the exquisite bergamot note puts this in a league of its own for the genre.

Once you smell the cat piss, you can never unsmell the cat piss. Specifically it's fresh cat piss on cat litter, plus some old forgotten cat piss behind the sofa. It's like sipping warm Ribena in a childhood friend's home where they have stopped noticing the stench of cat piss... very evocative of my 80s childhood. This is a ghastly mistake, I never want to smell it again. Kudos to the balls of the person who decided to call this "on a date", I've had a good ten minutes laughing at that.

This gives me the same delicious, rich lavender fougère vibes as TF Beau de Jour, and on other days I get more of a Costa Azzurra Parfum vibe without the strong lemon. I'm not getting a lot of oud or grapefruit, and I do think it's misnamed, but so are 99% of the other perfumes I have, in my opinion. I love this, and it's amazingly cheap. Update: this is not oud, it's spicy lavender and sandlewood, in the same vein as Hayat and Papilefiko. It's a banging scent for very very cheap (40 euros from discounters) so save your money and get this instead, it doesn't disappoint!

Stunningly beautiful, powerful yet restrained and elegant, simple notes create an air (pun intended) of intrigue. It's more oudy than Silk Mood, although I suspect it's more benzoin than oud, which is fine by me. I ordered this because the Silk Mood Extrait was unavailable in the smaller formats, but I'm gobsmacked by how much I love this, I'm addicted already!

An obnoxiously strong perfume which screams at everyone "smell how opulent I am, I need you to smell how opulent I am". I've owned it for a while, and although initially I was bowled over by its beauty, I have come to find it unwearable and quite repellant. I'm all for strong, challenging fragrances, but I think what bothers me so much about this is precisely that the scent isn't challenging at all, it's just so frigging strong it's impossible to manage it, and it's not pleasant at all. It's OK like 24 hours later but what good is that? Needless to say there's no oud here, just some vague woody, sweet, slightly resinous base notes. At best it's a saffron rose combo and at worst a cloying, sickly spicy rose vanilla fug. The more perfumes I experience, the more I can't help seeing MFK as an expensive brand for show-offs who know nothing about perfumery, although I feel it remiss not to say that Kurkdjian himself is a great perfumer, but within the umbrella of his own brand there's not a lot to love. The best offerings in my opinion are 724 and Grand Soir, but that's at a push, and they're certainly not worth the extortionate price with so many alternatives available for less.

A noxious, cheesey opening gives way to a beautifully blended saffron-forward oud, lovely (after 5 minutes). Sadly I can't wear saffron-forward fragrances as the association is too food-like for my nose.