NicheOnly

Initial impressions without looking at notes/pyramid/accords: Definitely smells like Amouage. I'm getting aromatic-woody with fresh spices, not really noticing any incense. Not thinking of Interlude, but I am thinking of one of the other ones - might've been Memoir. Up-close I get some camphorous vibes - a lot of fougère-like qualities. And it smells like there's blood orange or a grapefruit-style note in the middle or base also, offering some resemblance to "Burlington 1819 | Roja Parfums". Dries pretty neat (good blend quality), deeply masculine & smells sophisticated.

After notes/pyramid/accords: Hmm. A lot of fougère notes actually. Separating the cypress-pine-fir isn't exactly the most doable, but they all combine to bring about this fairly standard scent profile. Leaves a slightly fresh spicy fougère scent.

This is nothing mind-blowing, and performance is pretty average and value is just okay. Does it smell like Interlude? I don't think so - this has ZERO incense/smokiness to it, and there are no ambers here either. Definitely doesn't pop as much as Interlude either. The only upsides of RedColorado are the slightly improved wearability and price - I'm just not sure if that's enough.

As always, I try the scents without looking at the pyramid to both get a sense for the profile, and in a way train my nose to recognize accords. I had to revise this review like 5 times just to accurately describe the wear process.

Putting on Astaral, in the air I get what I think is a fruity-floral and feminine opening, instantly reminding me of something like "Pink Me Up | Atelier des Ors" and perhaps a little bit also of "Super Moon | Carner". I tried smelling the scent from up-close, but on the open it's a little bit harsh - getting hedione vibes, giving it this slight bitterness. As it dries, I notice soapy & fresh accords in addition to the fruity-floral ones, reminding me a little bit of "Join The Club - Comandante! | Xerjoff". Definitely doesn't smell like the most original creation. The sillage is pretty loud on this, great spring-fall scent. At first I thought it was feminine, but it definitely dries more unisex. I'm not sure I'd wear this in summer or winter.

After pyramid/accords, after it has settled for ~5 minutes: The rose does start to pop a bit more in the drydown, but I don't get this pyramid AT ALL. I don't get moss, I don't get amber. As it is drying, what I am getting the most is a very jammy rose, and not much else. I wouldn't say it's oriental - it smells a lot like the rose you get in scents from Fragrance du Bois or Roja Parfums - sweet, dewy, jammy rose with not much else going on. The main ones that I'm thinking of are "Parisian / Parisian Oud | Fragrance Du Bois" and "Amber Aoud (parfum) | Roja Parfums".

After the scent has truly settled (2-3 hours): The rose was always flanked by notes that are comparable to the feel of cypriol oil / nagarmotha. Those notes were weak until this part of the drydown - the rose has given up all that ground to woody-mossy tones as the scent now has an eastern vibe to it. We basically went from up-lifting fruity-floral to pure rose to mossy oriental.

The value here is great at €290 for 100ml, think it's definitely worth a look to anybody considering scents like Parisian or Taif Aoud or any other oud-rose fragrances where the oud is basically invisible and the price is 2x the Xerjoff. Wouldn't compare to something like "Favonius | Nishane" though - that one does not lean as heavily into the rose as Astaral. Given all these evolutions, I'm not sure there is a single comparable.

I wanted to try these 4 new releases so bad I ended up ordering them from Jovoy because Xerjoff didn't have the samples up fast enough. Xerjoff now has these up if anyone wants to try them.

Initial impressions without looking at the scent pyramid: A pretty smooth, fresh-caramelly gourmand. Getting some comparison to "Intoxicated | Kilian". A lot of those comparisons if I'm honest. It's a masculine-leaning gourmand fragrance in the air. Blend is high quality.

Smelling up-close: the caramel is flanked by vanilla, making for a pretty strong gourmand tonality. This is like the top of the crop blend quality for scents like "Minuit et Demi | Fragrance du Bois" and "Portraits - Changing Constance | Penhaligon's". Some very mild powdery facets. It starts to get mildly more interesting at around 10 minutes in as the vanilla-caramel are flanked by some darker tones & the profile slightly separates itself from the previous comparables. I'm also noticing some bitterness in the base (is that you, hedione?).

After looking at the scent pyramid: I think this was a lay-up in terms of assessing the profile as it's a pretty evident scent profile. I will say the oud here has an eastern lean, offering mild animalic hints. The gourmand facets start to fade off the top within the hour, and that makes for a very neat drydown with mild sweet tones on animalic-leaning oud (!). Profile at this point is masculine without a doubt to my nose.

It starts off pretty loud, but it's not going to be more than that - longevity and sillage get 8/10. Value at €360 for 50ml is a bit high, but the quality is in-line with Xerjoff's best releases. Can still be worth, but I'm not sure it's worth it for me. I look forward to the other 3 scents as this wasn't a disappointing output at all. Yet as a whole, it is not the most unique output by Xerjoff and that is a criticism that I find myself giving too often as it relates to their newer stuff.

I didn't actually think that I'd end up liking something this much when I ordered the Coffret Extraits from Maison Crivelli's website (that's the 4x2ml discovery set which includes the three 2022 releases and the 2021 release "Hibiscus MahaJád | Maison Crivelli" ).

My only experience with Maison Crivelli before this set actually was with Hibiscus Mahajad. I got a sample of it when I bought a bottle of "Oud for Greatness | Initio" in September 2021, that was when I was fairly new to the game, had probably sampled 20 fragrances up to that point. I remember that experience vividly because to this day, Hibiscus Mahajad ranks in my top 5 for scents in terms of longevity (across 500+ scents), lasting a full week on the jacket that I was wearing to the office on a daily basis.

Regardless of whether you're experienced or not, when you first spray on Ingredients 072012, I suspect you won't find an exact comparable, but the accords tell a lot of the story. In the initial drydown, the main accords I get are green, woody, and synthetic. It didn't take long for me to think of this as a feminine play on the "Ganymede (Eau de Parfum) | Marc-Antoine Barrois" profile. Subsequent to this release, Ex Nihilo has also tried to dabble in the "women's Ganymede" genre with a fruity-floral take, that being "Blue Talisman | Ex Nihilo".

Since we don't have the official notes, I am guessing that the main note here is akigalawood. That is balanced with either fig leaf or fig wood, to the point where this scent is very much a combo play on "Ganymede (Eau de Parfum) | Marc-Antoine Barrois" & "Philosykos (Eau de Parfum) | Diptyque" (take your pick of fig fragrances, whether it be Philosykos, "Parisian Musc (Eau de Parfum) | Matière Première", "Gris Charnel (Eau de Parfum) | bdk Parfums" etc). The green edge might also be coming from a note like papyrus which M. Crivelli has previously utilized in scents like "Bois Datchaï | Maison Crivelli" and "Papyrus Moléculaire | Maison Crivelli". In the deeper drydown, say from hour 2 onward, a certain smokiness appears, but this is strictly testing in-doors. Profile remains in-tact from beginning to end on my skin, suggesting little evolution overall.

Overall, this is a spring-fall daily for women. Due to the outgoingness of the profile, this has both conversation-starter and compliment-getter potential. On Crivelli's website, this scent is dubbed "surprising, audacious and provocative". Performance is a potential selling point - the scent is absurdly loud for the first 3-4 hours, remains strong for up to 6 and moderate even 8 hours in. The driver of the sillage is the longevity - it is still strong and noticeable on skin 12 hours in, I'd suspect ~16 hour longevity.

Edit: I originally wrote this review in mid-October 2022, around 2 weeks after Paragon was first revealed by Initio. What I have since found is that the experience previously described in this review did not align whatsoever with my full bottle experience. As such, I revised this review in March 2023.

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As somebody that's fairly deep in the hobby now, I typically start off thinking about the accords, notes, and comparables. "Paragon" opens feminine-aromatic and sweet, most resembling women's hair products or something among those lines as it has that known (well-recognizable) musky-type sweetness. But the opening and top notes don't tell the story of Paragon. In the instant drydown, you get a lot of aromatic-woody tones with a considerable amount of smokiness from the palo santo in the base. It's definitely not Amouage type smoky, but it is noticeable.

For scent comparables, objectively speaking I don't think there are any. The opening has resemblance to the musky tones found in "Musk Therapy | Initio", a different scent in the Hedonist collection. The opening has vibes resembling scents like "Dear Polly (Eau de Parfum) | Vilhelm Parfumerie" and "Gris Charnel (Eau de Parfum) | bdk Parfums", but that is more-so to describe the accords of Paragon and not the scent. In the deep drydown, I find some resemblance to "Imperator | Royal Crown" which is a creamy sandalwood fragrance.

My experience differed between the sample and the bottle as the sample had a lot more of the fruity-musky opening tones relative to the aromatic-woody-smoky tones that are in majority with my full bottle. As such, the scent that I previously found to open feminine and dry leaning feminine is now a leaning feminine open into a leaning masculine drydown. However, the other 2 Hedonist collection scents are more clear as Musk Therapy has a clear feminine lean and Rehab has a clear masculine lean.

Initio has subsequently to the release raised the price of the 90ml from €245 to €250, with US customers getting hit even harder. To me, Paragon is a spring aromatic and gets moderate sillage for up to 3-4 hours, with longevity between 8-10 hours. The scent is worth a look for somebody looking for a fairly unique smelling spring-fall fragrance. Scent does not perform well in winter weather and isn't the most fitting for summer.