Harâm / Farah
Brécourt (2010)

The complexity of this scent is crazy. It first is rightly described as oriental spicy. this is what I would imagine an eastern spice market smells like accept cleaner. It doesn't have that grit of most oriental spicy scents. It is the perfect mix of gourmand/oriental/sweet/amber scent. I compare this closely to PDM Herrod. It's just a beautiful warm winter scent.

A fine, oriental-style opening. A dark cinnamon-styrax combination. Cool, breezy, slightly thick. It really "feels" like a cool wind of aroma in the beginning.

The middle notes are honey sweetened. A gourmand-like blend with honey-coated dates that is truly pleasing. Cedar isn't overdone. Just a hint of sueded leather.... The notes seem to thin out after a bit of time. Top and middle notes merge into one.

The base is sweet and remains so. Tonka is strong. The remaining notes merge, mix, and mingle creating a typical, lovely, oriental base.

Patchouli, Tonka, and benzoin increase hours later, on the skin, and create an amber-like accord. Sweetness deepens and darkens. Long-lasting fragrance. Overall, a wonderful use of dates, in a perfume.

Golden Tears by Gustav Klimt

Sweet, with a dose of cinnamon and honey this is pretty good. I get a light cherry note in this one. The notes say it contains leather, but I didn't get any in this. Unisex fragrance IMO. 7/10

Farah is a powdery sweet composition that would be greatly appreciated by those who like the smell of old hand bags with the smell of leather, lipstick and poudre and a hint of old perfume lingering. When I received my samples from Brecourt one vial with Farah was broken and the perfume had impregnated the carton box of the packaging. When I received the box it smelled sweet and comforting. I thought that Farah in that state was rather beautiful. Alas when later I tested Farah on my skin I was let down by the unremarkable sweetness and powdery accord. Farah is much better later in the dry down, especially after 10 hours! Then the creamy sweetness of the base notes stands on its own and it is rather superb. Silage and longevity are quite extraordinary. I just don't see the point of this creation as it is really nothing new, exciting or groundbreaking. It is well blended with high quality ingredients though and those in favor of old fashioned perfumes will probably like Farah.

This composition packs so many notes and somehow manages to stuff them all into one extremely rich and balanced tablespoon of gourmand "vitamins".

I feel that each note mentioned in the pyramid is extremely vital and important, whether it's detectable or not. And that for me is the recipe of a winning scent.

"Smokey" dark honey (as if someone was smoking inside a honey pot) and cinnamon are the most detectable on my skin, then it dries down into a sublime authentic dried dates accord.

I wish the projection was a little better, but that only extracts a tiny bit of my rating.

Full bottle worthy without a doubt in my mind.