Top Rated Reviews of the last 7 Days

I would like to call this perfume Dior Homme Intense Intense.
I almost don't notice the listed top notes in this perfume. After spraying I get almost immediately a dark iris blended with a very sweet tonka. It's a hell of a scent to start with. The fragrance makes a clear statement with those two notes and for me it's the perfume DNA. The dark satanic iris is amplified by the sweet tonka. You dont get neither this dark iris sweet strenght nor the same amount of projection with Dior Homme Intense. I also don't get the same type of dark woods that I may experience with Dior Homme Parfum.
After a while, the fragrance slowly becomes even darker with a faint animalic and smoky touch - maybe due to the dark leather note. The recurring sweetness is amplified a bit as well but it evolves to a different type of sweetness. I believe that it's only the result of this particular bottom vanilla note, but I scent vibes of coffee and chocolate within the reigning dark sweetness.
It's a fantastic alluring scent that is widely supported by a well above average performance. I don't have any complaints with its longevity - about 8~10 hours with 3 sprays - and its sillage - about 8~10 feet, with more than 2.5 hours of solid projection.
The dry down offers you a disappearing iris and a fainting darkness, but keeps alive the spicy sweetness. This stage is still a bit powdery but in a more creamy way.
I can't help recalling a familial resemblance with what could be an intense and sweeter Dior Homme Intense. Maybe it is just my nose, but I detect a familiar similar vibe in the younger Uomo Signature from Salvatore Ferragamo. This one just misses the iris note.
How can I rate this classy "enfant terrible" from Valentino?
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Scent Opening:..........10,0 (the best iris on the market for me)
Scent Drydown:.........10.0 (marvelous smooth, long and creamy drydown)
Longevity:....................9.0 (up to 10 hours in my skin, with 3 sprays)
Sillage:..........................8.5 (8+ feet sillage with 2.5 hours of solid projection)
Uniqueness:................8.5 (an iris interpretation different from Dior)
Wearability:.................8.0 (avoid hot weather)
Versatility:...................8.5 (quite versatile; exclude the seaside and the gym and you are in business)
Compliments:.............9.5 (a compliment magnet without any doubts)
Quality:......................10.0 (well above average quality ingredients and performance)
Presentation:.............9.0 (Elegant and discrete... and heavy)
Price:...........................7.5 (currently around €65.00 for the 100 ml flask + shipping).
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Overall rating: 8,96/10.00
between 7 and 8 =above average;
between 8 and 9 = recommended;
bigger than 9 = don't miss it;
Opinion: The price rating is the main cause for the overall rating being inferior to 9. This fragrance is a true masterpiece.
Recommended? It depends on your budget or in the way you value perfumes. If your taste is similar to mine, it's a clear yes. The possible iris alternatives - with equivalent quality - have either a similar or a bigger price.
Blind buy worthy? Not really due to the high price, Try it first.

Music: Mark Knopfler - Going Home Wild Theme from "Local Hero" motion picture.

[short review]
This oriental fragrance is a masculine ode to oud. It's seasoned by hot spices, oriental balms, dark amber, animalic leather and sweet warm tobacco. Its seductive wave begins in the bottle itself, strangely designed but visually imposing and pleasant. It is heavy, hard and made of high quality materials.
Its scent backbone, from the first spray until the end of the drydown, is based on a strong but tamed arabic oud note and without any references to barnyard scents or carcass aromas. It's neither a western and medicinal nor a stinky agarwood despite its strength and projection. After this strongly seductive burnt wood opening, there are slight nuances of saffron and cumin seeds, as well strong balsamic vectors of incense swirling around the persistent oud. For the bottom notes, oud is blended with a very alluring amber, acords of strong and piercing animalic leather and with the warm sweetness of a languorous warm tobacco.
This is typically the fragrance we imagine to be used by an adventurous Prince Aladdin or in Princess Scheherazade 1001 seduction nights... lucky Arabian princes!
The long drydown still gives you hints of the alluring oud in an ambery and sweet smooth ambiance.
Its performance is well above average and the perfume accompanies us for an entire day and a long night focusing the surrounding people attention on us. Its blending is exemplary and, as a whole, this perfume becomes quite singular and very desirable. The ingredients used seem to be of superior quality and very natural.
Due to its uniqueness, It's not easy to establish a reference for a similar fragrance. But I assume the risk of referring Kalemat Black by Arabian Oud.
A collection of oriental perfumes becomes poor without this precious Nawaf jewel. I can only recommend this superior oriental fragrance.

Music: Will Smith - "Arabian Nights"

[short review]
Tiramisu is a complex scent and gives you an overall aroma of a mixture of coffee, cocoa and mascarpone cheese. Unquestionably this note marks the DNA of Salvatore Ferragamo Uomo. Depending of your nose it may lean more either to coffee or to cocoa but always with a creamy background. This note is mildly sweet but you can amplify it using spices like pepper, cardamom or tonka beans. Those were the note choices elected by Alberto Morillas for this fragrance. In the background there is a soft metalic ambery woodiness coming from ambroxan. Helas this note also adds a synthetic feeling to the fragrance blending and evolution. Of course I would prefer ambergris, but that would probably double the perfume price in a way that it wouldn't fit Ferragamo's market target for this Uomo line.
The opening is characterized by a bold and nice cardamom note, quickly overpowered by the tiramisu heart accord amplified by the ambroxan note. This phase is easily understood as a cappuccino accord or a coffee and cream accord and it's really the added sweetness and smoothness of the bottom of the tonka and cashmere notes that makes us maybe think about a dessert aroma.
The drydown is a bit more woody but nevertheless sweet as well.
Performance is above average and strong enough for a long night out.
I don't consider it an unique perfume as it present vibes similar to some spicy sweet fragrances like Code Profumo, Stronger With You and Pure Tonka among others. However it has a distinct scent, probably a bit more gourmand than the mentioned examples.
Ladies like it and so do I. I just pity the slight synthetic heart ambroxan vibe that vanished during the drydown.
I do recommend it if you like oriental gourmand fragrances.

Music: George Harrison - "My Sweet Lord"

[short review]
Zara really surprises me sometimes and S4d4lwood, in my opinion, is perhaps one of the best fragrances ever produced by Zara. Even the bottle is beautiful, discrete and elegant. Only the name obeys to puns that Zara likes to do sometimes ... Okay, I can live with that.
It is a linear fragrance, a dark masterpiece composed of notes of leather, smoke, wood ashes and sandalwood. It has just a little bit of iris (as a base note and smelling more of iris root) and ... where is the opening bergamot listed note? It doesn't matter either, because you don't miss it. It has a slightly synthetic connotation but it doesn't bother me.
It is a dry, dark, animalic and woody perfume (yes it has EdP concentration). It is a simple composition and the mixture was designed without appendages of amber, incense or candy to mask its simplicity.
With three sprays, it shows a high longevity - more than 8 hours - and an average sillage up to 1~1.25 meters.
When I tried S4nd4lwood for the first time, I immediately remembered two other very respectable fragrances: Cuir Intense by Guerlain and Santal 33 by Le Labo. Both are more complex and less synthetic, but much more expensive as well. I even like the bottle from Zara more than the bottles from Guerlain and Le Labo.
For the price (€ 12.5), you should go to a Zara store and buy it blindly. I do recommend it!

Music: Magical Forest Enchanted Celtic Woods Album

[short review]
This perfume cannot be considered a sales success and much less to be known for it. However, it has a constant presence in different lists of the "best perfumes ever" in different media and it also has a special position in my preferences.
Undoubtedly, it is a high quality perfume that may be considered "niche" or of "niche like quality". It is perhaps the best offer from S.T.Dupont's private line. I blind bought this flask right after it was released. By then I already had three other perfumes of this colection, and I was delighted with all of them. Vanilla & Leather was launched with a very attractive street price (€ 40) but that value increased continuously since its edition. Its current selling price is around € 60. That fact is also a good indication of the attraction that this perfume has generated among oriental perfume lovers.
If only one note would define this fragrance, it would be vanilla. It is a very sweet perfume, but of moderate performance. Its presentation is exemplary and very attractive. The ingredients quality is well above average.
The perfume reveals a strong accord of vanilla, but also shows a strong presence of tobacco and leather. Vanilla is responsible for its dominant sweetness. It is tempered by the caramelized heat of moist tobacco and the animalic scent of luxury leather (and not of cooper leather). The aroma oscillates between the extreme of the sweet chords and the moderation imposed by the earthy and animalic chords, and all very well tied up by a pleasant balsam oil.
The remaining notes listed act in favor of this polarity also in which a bit of cinnamon, a spicy saffron and a faint floral sweetness is added to the dominant vanilla, while tobacco and leather become a little more bitter due to the action of mate tea. No woody notes whatsoever seem to participate in this potion.
At the risk of "pleasing neither Greeks nor Trojans" due to its polarity, this fragrance proves to be extremely consensual due to the gentle way in which it awakens our olfactory sensors, and the excelence of the global blending. In what ladies are concerned this perfume proved me to be a natural and compulsive head turner, but always in a very educated and elegant way.
This is one of the best "vanilla" fragrances for me, if not the best. I do recommend it.

Music: Norah Jones - "Don't Know Why"

[short review]
This Miller Harris, together with Etui Noir, make a fateful duo.
La Fumée Arabie opens with warm, woody, deep cistus seasoned with a fleshy and deep cumin.
Then smoked incense arrives, unveiling a woody scent with oud, some burnt rubber, ash and all sweetened by a touch of vanilla.
The drydown is long, smooth and very seductive.
Performance is above average. The projection is reasonable. Some caution is needed with the trigger because not everyone enjoys company smelling too much of oud, incense and smoke.
I highlight the aromas of hot dough and smoke with spices, cinnamon, cloves and Christmas dried fruit cake with oriental wood smoke from the fireplace and incense. It is not unlike some of Serge Lutens' spicy and smoked chords. It is also a little sweet, but not much. Perhaps it is even in the right measure.
In short, it is hot, sensual and more masculine than unisex.
It really fills me up :-)

Music: Scorpions - "Wind Of Change"

It is difficult to classify this fragrance in other aspects besides its gourmand facets. In a single word, this perfume is SWEET.
It is not worth trying to distiguish the notes of pink pepper, juniper, violet, sage or lavender, which are listed in the opening and in the heart. They are nowhere to be found. Any freshness they can bring is not translated into any practical results.
After spraying we receive a shock of sweet treats made of toffee caramel and cinnamon. Then we quickly perceive the emergence of vanilla and tonka. Cleverly all this sweetness is becomes creamy and velvety with suede and amber that don't have another function than to make all these candies digestible.
The fragrance is intense as its name indicates. Longevity and sillage are high and their projection attracts the attention of whoever surrounds us within a radius of two meters for approximately three hours. This situation improves even more (or gets worse?) if we apply some of the sprays on clothes. In this case, either the laundry is the obvious choice, or the scent is kept swirling about your clothes for more than forty-eight hours. Don't over apply it and it's not really advisable to wear it in closed spaces like a cinema or an office. The fragrance may be a little intrusive but I never heard any conplaints about it being cloying.
The drydown is a little quieter, but not much. The scent focus here is more on vanilla and tonka softened by the amber and suede creaminess. The perfume, if applied only to the skin, starts to faint after a long 10 hours period with three sprays.
Stronger With You Intensely is a deeply masculine scent but almost exclusively to please the female noses. Men find it funny and interesting but just too sweet for a signature scent or recurring usage. In contrast, most women find it extremely seductive with coments like "the more times the better".
My rates reflect my personal findings about this fragrance and not really the under or the over enthusiastic opinions I may have heard. So how do I rate this toffee-vanilla piece of cake?
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Scent Opening:...........8,0 (very good but too sweet)
Scent Drydown:..........9.0 (very good, not as sweet as the opening and very smooth)
Longevity:....................9.0 (up to 10 hours in my skin, with 3 sprays)
Sillage:..........................8.5 (8+ feet sillage with 3 hours of strong projection)
Uniqueness:................8.5 (not unique with its sweet notes, but unique in its blending and strenght)
Wearability:.................8.0 (Do avoid any type of hot weather)
Versatility:....................8.0 (quite versatile in open air activities and clubbing; exclude the seaside, the gym and events in closed spaces)
Compliments:..............9.0 (the long list of ladies who like it, like it a lot)
Quality:.........................8.0 (slightly above average quality ingredients. A bit synthetic)
Presentation:...............8.0 (Elegant and discrete)
Price:.............................7.0 (currently around €53.00 - or more - for the 100 ml flask + shipping).
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Overall rating: 8,27/10.00
between 7 and 8 =above average;
between 8 and 9 = recommended;
bigger than 9 = don't miss it;
Opinion: Need a gourmand fragrance? This is a good option if you like toffee, besides the usual vanilla, tonka and cinnamon.
Recommended? It depends on your desire to own such a sweet fragrance. Price is still dropping.
Blind buy worthy? Not really if you are not familiar with this intrusive scent, Try it first.

Music: The Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Loving Feeling".

First of all, this is a masterpiece.
I felt in love with this beauty the first day I smelled it. It was in 2015, when I started my fragrance journey. This one utilise Violet leaf in a way that it feels like it is burning on gasoline. This fragrance was created by the genius Jean-Louis Sieuzac (who created 2 years before, one of the best leather scents of all time - BelAmi). There is a rumour that Michel Almairac helped him with this one. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful sexy Violet. I have a 2002 bottle and it is different from the newer bottles, which I had too. It starts off very green and gasoline-like. It turns more woodier as time goes by. Nutmeg is very strong but I smell more nutmeg on the newer versions, actually. There's some florals too, just to harmonize this almost boozy concoction. It's super unique and very masculine but I don't find it mature at all. I could live only with this fragrance and would be fine to me. The newer batches don't have great performance but it's still good and overall it's a relevant fragrance and a must have! A masterpiece with a unique vibe.

5/5

Michael Kors, So Nude Costume National, Tom Ford Soleil Blanc, Gucci Bloom, Elie Saab, CH Good Girl, and La Dame Blanche Le Cercle des Parfumeurs Createurs ... What do all these perfumes have in common? They are not clones of each other, obviously not, but they present a magical note that was unknown to me until I met Dior Hypnotic Poison. Yes, my love for tuberose is a recent thing, because that white flower is not so common in men's perfumes, Bvlgary Man in Black has it, but it is not dominant, indeed it is buried behind other spicier and woodier hints. Now I can detect tuberose at first sight. Wow, there are many female perfumes focused on tuberose. A lot. And Yves Rocher Plein Soleil is one of those, seriously. Undercut by notes of ylang-ylang and sandalwood, it’s simultaneously bright and sultry, floral and earthy-green, like burying your face in a freshly-cut spring bouquet. It’s pervasive and narcotic, but never cloying, a floral scent for people who typically dislike floral scents. Because I love tuberose my review is going to be slanted.

The fragrance opens with obscure and spicy notes of cardamom surrounded by the delicacy of citrus blossom, which is only too creamy. Then, as time past by, the scent did not dissipate of dry down to a more subdued, delectable blend of this unique combination.

Indeed, a floral heart of ylang-ylang and tuberose suddenly appears, enchanting for its elegance and sensuality. It is a carnal, creamy and fleshy floral note which can present mentholated facets, supported by the cardamom. It is sweet, creamy, rich, powerful, fruity, slightly animal. Yes, you get tuberose upfront. It's not loud, at least I don't think so, this is much softer and less of diva tuberose. You get tuberose petals, but not big heavy ones. They've dialed it down quite a bit. Certainly, its sheer as you can make it with still smelling it. It's not every day that you smell a woody tuberose fragrance. Plein Soleil is less focused on the white floral aspects, and more zoned into the creamy and sheer qualities of this popular flower.

A warm base of sandalwood gives depth to the scent. Up close and during the opening hour or so, this is all white florals, pushing Plein Soleil into the feminine for me. However, in the air and the deeper it goes into the drydown it's a very fresh, clean laundry musk with sweet woody notes that I don't mind wearing at all.

Longevity is above average, I can catch it on my hand and sleeve the day after. Projection is just okay throughout but quite persistent even after quite a few hours on my skin. The longevity surprised me. Suited for the middle seasons, more a daily than a nightly scent. It was love at first scent. I adored the intoxicatingly striking notes of intermingled flowered and spice. It is unique and beautiful.

-Elysium

It is difficult to explain the fragrance, it is quite unique and it is much easier to go to a perfume shop and try Amouage Interlude for Men.
Not a easy and wearable fragrance, but very luxurious and complex. You will stand out from the mass fragrances, as this is something unusual.
In short, a great clone of Amouage Interlude, differences:
- a touch more sweetness compared to Interlude after 1 hour;
- slight sense of cannabis like smell in the opening, disappearing after 1 hour - which i cant smell in Interlude;
- drydown is more sweet and not very complex and refined as Amouage.

Performance:
- longevity - my skin 6/8 hrs - clothes 24hr.
- projection - my skin 2/3 hrs - clothes 8 hrs.
After 2/3 hrs the projection is almost gone, still u ve a few cms bubble around you which is kind of sweet.

ps. I have just tried also Swiss Arabian shaghaf oud abyad, differences:
- not as sweet as Midnight Oud, a bit more similar to Interlude with less smoke;
- Midnight oud has slightly better performance, probably due to its sweetness in the drydown.