Art of Perfumery No.6
Art of Perfumery (2006)

The heads notes (the opening, really) is off-putting. It truly is. With everything almost happening at once. Cloves, peper, and heavy-handed herbs just go all willy-nilly everywhere. As with any fragrance, the drydown is the true nature of the fragrance but with no. 6 here it's bipolar. Manic at first but then calm and distant later on. Now the drydown I really like. Woodsy moss and I mean woodsy. And it smells like real moss, too. And tea? Forget it, I don't smell it.Sillage is great, longevity is great, the scent is confusing.

As I write this, I'm experiencing the last of my sample of No. 6 and I will most certainly buy a bottle in the near future. To me, this is a "leather" scent in the sense that I love to wear this when I'm wearing leather (and I ain't talkin' about sneakers, boys!). The fragrance itself is spicy, unusual, captivating and powerful...attributes that bring out the dominance in my personality.

I got a sample of this because of a blog review describing it as a dark, naughty leather scent rather than a tea scent. It's true it doesn't have the simple freshness of most tea scents, but I'd call it a rubber scent rather than a tea scent. I have a perfume oil sample with black tea and musk only, and it smells just like rubber and tar too. The perfumer said it was a common reaction to the musk flower, but I'm thinking maybe it's the black tea that sometimes go rubbery.Anyway, I usually like rubber/tar/smoked tea scents, but No 6 has the unfortunate musty, stale sourness of certain herbal vintage perfumes, like Bandit. That unpleasant herbal note reminds me of Aomassais Harmatan Noir too. In short: while I do appreciate the rubbery quality of No 6 I think Andy Tauers Lonestar Memories, CdGs Synthetics or even Bulgari Black are better alternatives.