Explorer
Boadicea the Victorious (2008)

i'm a big Boadicea fan and i love this one...as soon as i sampled it i sprung for a full bottle...opens for a split second with a juicy/aromatic/bright/fresh blast of bergamot/orange that suddenly morphs into the total opposite " dark side " citrus...wood note quickly make their appearance...i get a sort of cedar/cypress mix...very dry and very dark...it's like a bespoke take on a classic men's cologne made for John Wick...a little dusty ambery resin/leather undertone...a scent that can make you feel like a bad ass...

I'll give this a qualified positive review, the caveats being the price and one's preferences. For example, if a combination of vintage 1-12 (Halston), Yatagan, and Jovan's Intense Oud sounds great to you, this might be "Holy Grail" material. Of course if you only enjoy fresh, sport, and aquatic type fragrances, this one might make you nauseous. What is weird is that I have yet to read a review that mentions lavender, and it's not listed as a note, but it plays a fairly major role here. It's not "Irish Spring" soapy, nor herbal, but rather powdery (I guess in conjunction with the orris). Because of this, it has a retro quality, though it has a kind of industrial quality that one doesn't find in vintage until we get to Fahrenheit (not that it's the same type of industrial). The lavender seems to clash a bit with the other notes, so I wish they had used a different note, or just taken it down substantially. It's not sweet or syrupy, but I don't get much in the way of wood or citrus either. In terms of composition, it reminds me a bit of Horizon Extreme (Davidoff), though that one is missing the lavender and isn't as strong. I intend to try Explorer again, with only half a spritz just above the navel, to see if I get a different impression, and I'll update this review at that point.

I'm quite enjoying this one, despite all the bad reviews. On me, Explorer smells like woods mixed with boozy immortelle and dark rum. It's undeniably dark, like a song in a minor key, though I find it much more natural smelling than the other reviewers here. There's a quiet opoponax giving it a loamy earth smell, which gives way to Lutens-esque dried fruits soaked in booze as the day goes on. The whole thing reminds me of that mix of resins that Andy Tauer uses quite often, but set against booze and dark, damp woods.

My only real complaint is that it comes off fairly linear. The transition from earthy to fruity is subtle - the boozy wood is always in the forefront and doesn't change much. That being said, I like the smell so Explorer earns a thumbs up from me!

a cclashing concoction of synthetic notes thrown in your face, rather much the same vibe of the same hous..gloomy but boring

Explorer by Boadicea is probably the nicest scent by this brand I've tested so far. It opens with a rubbery, dry, spicy and dark blend centered on sour woods (cedar, but really dry and gloomy), herbs, galbanum, austere resins and initially just a hint of labdanum. The texture is thin, leathery (no leather, though), somehow quiet but bold and threatening. The mood is refined and mysterious, fairly synthetic too but not (that) unpleasant, as it nicely recreates a sort of fascinating, nocturnal, silent and obscure “natural mood”, with nuances of aged wood, something salty-camphoraceous that reminds me of ambergris, dusty resins. In the middle stages it “warms up” a bit, and the orris root note emerges – fairly restrained and tamed down, well concealed behind the general austere darkness, but it's there; almost not powdery at all (as you would expect instead), rather rooty-earthy and dusty, with a hint of amber too. Finally, a smoky, earthy, shy rose note emerges, quite a “masculine” rose despite being much subtle. Overall Explorer remains sour and dry in a way that becomes a bit boring after a while, but with a fascinating, sophisticated feel of austere darkness. Not saying it's particularly good, but say: “not unpleasant”.

6,5/10

Genre: Leather

Explorer's dry, bitter, aromatic top notes are harsh and musty to my nose, and time does little to soften the composition. Medicinal oudh steps up quickly, accompanied by a smoky birch tar and a stark conifer resin note. The effect is one of “biker” leather that bears a passing resemblance to the bitter galbanum and birch tar top notes of Bandit eau de parfum. (This is the second Boadicea the Victorious scent to remind me of Bandit in its opening, the first having been Complex.) The leather and oudh might also sound like Montale's Oud Cuir d'Arabie, but Explorer smells very different: it is a cold, stark, flinty scent that has none of the Montale's animalic sensuality. Oud Cuir d'Arabie oozes sex, but I'd never dream of getting into bed with Explorer's hard edges and sharp angles.

A scent that's this uncomfortable by design intrigues me as a concept. After all, a confrontational stance is part of the strange beauty and originality that's manifest in masterpieces like Yatagan, Kouros, the old Route du Vétiver, Vero Profumo's Onda, and Muscs Koublaï Khan. Yet Explorer is so unrelievedly abrasive in its execution that it becomes tiresome. Lacking both contrast and internal balance, it slips across the boundary from challenging to irritating. This I can live without.