Bentley Infinite Intense
Bentley (2015)

I'm not a fan of the opening but it mellows out in the drydown. It shares some qualities to Terre d'Hermes but I don't think it's attempting to be a clone. Perhaps it is a clone but it feels more like an inspiration or adaptation. There's no orange note but has a faintly similar musk base. I'd save my money up for something else but you can do worse.

Bentley Infinite Intense opens with a huge blast of black pepper with hints of underlying aromatic lavender and green geranium before moving to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the pepper only slightly softens but remains the focus, as the earlier supporting aromatics are replaced by warm, dry nutmeg spice, piney, peppery elemi with just a hint of salty faux ambergris, and significant sharp, woody vetiver and dry cedarwood rising from the base. During the late dry-down the actual black pepper mainly vacates, as the peppery elemi remains now in support, melding with the focal remnants of the sharp vetiver and dry cedar through the finish. Projection is excellent and longevity outstanding at over 15 hours on skin.

When Bentley for Men Intense came out in 2013 by the same perfumer (Nathalie Lorson) I lauded that it was one of the best designer releases in recent memory and years later that statement still holds. As such, it was with great anticipation and seemingly little risk that when Bentley Infinite Intense was released a couple years later a blind buy was in order. It has taken me about 5 years to get around to reviewing the result of the buy, and I wish I can say that it was even close to the winner of its earlier relative, but alas I cannot. Bentley Infinite Intense is really a completely different composition than its superb smelling predecessor, with this one more in the Terre d'Hermes and Tzora vein. Anyone who has read my reviews over the years knows that I hold both in very high regard but unfortunately, while showcasing some of the same components like the Iso E Super enhanced cedar, sharp vetiver and pepper that Tzora in particular focuses on, the skillful balance and proportions of that masterpiece seem missing here. In particular the black pepper, enhanced by peppery elemi comes off so strong it had me sneezing at times (something that rarely happens). I suppose that anyone who hasn't sniffed Tzora by Anat Fritz might be at least somewhat impressed by Bentley Infinite Intense but once you have sniffed the best, relatively inferior alternatives just can't cut it and this one, while decent smelling, just doesn't even come close to measuring up. On the positive side, the bottle, like its predecessor, is superb, as are the overall performance metrics. The bottom line is the $27 per 100 ml bottle Bentley Infinite Intense may be a pretty good offering if one didn't sniff others that came earlier and smelled better in the same space, but the "above average" 2.5 to 3 stars out of 5 rated release comes up a bit short, earning a neutral recommendation.

A dark-ish peppery-floral opening blast, with the floral side mainly represented by a violet impression; with a slight coating with a soft jasmine and touches of a gentle smokiness added in at times.

The drydown adds a touch of crispness, courtesy of a combination of benzoin and some nutmeg.

The base is developing a nonspecific woodsiness, which, together with a somewhat bland patchouli combines with the heart notes.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection and nine hours of longevity on my skin.

A pleasant scent for warmer winter days, it is not without original touches, but the generic nature of its ingredients does drags it down a level or two. Still, quite pleasant overall - in an unexciting way, but it is blended well. 3/5.

Quite pleasant opening and even better drydown. Not the most unique scent but certainly office wear worthy.

A Virginia Woolf's ideal "To the lighthouse's fragrance". Meditative, silent, nostalgic. At the beginning it seems to deal with the umpteenth Mont Blanc Emblem's clone but fastly along the way Infinite Intense activates a sort of more opaque and mysterious vibe really hard to be described, ozonic and semi-oriental at same time. Over the first sharply tart blast the juice turns soon out floral and silky, quite warm and velvety, something (salty-suedish) really melancholic (ambery-suedish violet?) as a winter afternoon spent admiring the oceanic waves from the lighthouse's hill. There is an aereal salty/suedish freshness combined with an opaque darker warmth which is musky-benzoinic, spicy-ambery (an almost yummy/edible violet-centered blanket) and silky-suedish, overall with a violet's general musky vibe. Violet is not properly damp or angular but prevalently musky and soapy. Dry down is quite romantic and surely virile and "confident". Really not bad.

Today, Bentley Infinite Intense is giving me a similarity to the original Colors de Benetton Man in the black bottle. Anyone else getting this similarity?