Perfume Reviews by Just Fragrances

The Oud Affair by Vilhelm Parfumerie

Ugh, stinky honey tobacco and vanilla. If that is what you are going for, I suppose this will be in the realm. This tobacco vanilla, dial down the vanilla, and add in a heavy dose of honey. Unlike.

Enigma pour Homme Cologne by Roja Dove

smells like root beer. i didn't like it. Just sweet, and bit sparkley. Smells kinda childish to me.

Carven pour Homme by Carven

Meh, I was expecting more from this after buying Leau. Its fine. Its kinda a lavendar green irish tweed, with better blending, and toned down. I think GIT had the volume and longevity correct, and this tones it all down. Great bottle and atomizer. Neutral. I do love Kirkdjians blends.

Legend Spirit by Montblanc

yeah, its got some invictus to it, but it is nicer than that, to me. But, the Invictus lasts all day, and this is a 4 hour chump. Meh, not my style, too sweet. Neutral.

Legend by Montblanc

rockin 90s/2000s style. i like the way it wears. all day longevity. like the way it smells. this is my jam. never was a ambercrombie guy, and never owned that, but after years of avoiding this, it was without merit. solid fragrance.

Oud Malaki by Chopard

I did not like this. It smells like Red Tobacco, sweet tobacco, fruits, and oud. Sharp, fruity, and unpleasant. Way too heavy. Sledgehammer.

Oud Pashmina by Montale

All i smell is Oud Ispahan. I don't know. A bit of a dirtier oud, and not all bitter. Oud Palao. Whatever. bored with this. neutral.. its fine.

Armani Code Ice by Giorgio Armani

a bit of mint over the original Code. That is all. Very much a Code flanker, for better or worse. Its fine, but a tad extra to me. Neutral.

La Yuqawam Ambergris Showers by Rasasi

Great fragrance. Very similar to Irish Leather by Memo. This just amps up the dry bitter aspects, and has less of the fresh cut grass vibe. Definitely related. Smell about the same quality, blending, igredients, all. Matte, leather, plants. Solid.

Irish Leather by Memo

I smell green grass, well used leather. like a pair of gloves on an old wooden fence on the countryside with some wind blowing. bitter, green, and I smell matte. Really nice. Thumbs up. Pro tip, look into Rasasi Ambergris Showers.

The Mountain Standing Still by Floraïku

oh boy. i smell tea, synth oud, and saffron. it is an interesting combo, that i find unpleasant. Seems like decent quality, and it doesn't seem to weak, so i guess kudos there. I'm going thumbs down. Not something I want to wear.

H24 by Hermès

really fantastic. Lasts all day. I'd say it is low medium opacity. Ideal type performance. The scent is a clean zingy green type. It smells like heated metal, like an iron. It is clean and vivid, and persistent. It is not a fading brief allusion. I will be wearinga decent amount of this.

Wood & Spices by Montale

Does smell likea slightly vanilla flanker of dunhill desire blue. Better ingredients, but worse blending, better longevity, and a bit of a vanillic dry down. Meh, not for me.

Series 6 Synthetic : Garage by Comme des Garçons

So this didnt smell like a garage when I first smelled it. I broke it down too hard, and it didn't smell like any of my garages I've had. It actually smells a lot like the back yard of a rental I used to live in. Had my wife smell it and she smelled it too. Not sure. It was like creeping charlies with little red berries everywhere. I don't know. As I wore it I got more shed. Like machine parts and tire stuff inside a wooden shed. Like a shed that had a floor, is well lit, and has a peg board where everything is neat. Its a sythetic feel to it all as well. I don't know. Its pretty cool.

Notorious Oud by D.S. & Durga

So you got some of that synthy medical oud augmented by its saffron counterpart. The camphor is there, just lingering far in the back. There is something sweeter that levels some of these fake ouds oud, like a pink pepper, just not exactly that. I don't know. I don't even know what white galbanum is supposed to smell like. it does smell like a better blended lartisan al oudh, with the edges sanded off. Almost like a douchafor minus one ingredient. Eh, thumbs up I suppose. Seems decent. Proper weight, heft, and depth.

Wind Wood by Mancera

Interesting. The composition isn't brilliant, but there is a straightness and clarity of vision here. It is a green ambroxan floral. It smells remarkably like Ormonde Royal Elixir. That is much more expensive, and this came first, so I wouldn't call it a clone, but it is close enough to pass. There is something a little less intricate and delicate here, but beyond that smells good. Just feels like a high neutral to me though.

Intense Pepper by Montale

Tiny pinch of black pepper, a decent dose of pink. Built over a base on nauseating cedarwood, amberwood, chemical oud concoction. No way around it, the base of this is really bad. Seriously chemically. I would vastly prefer it to just quit with no base than put me through smelling like that for 8 hours. Gross. Very dissappointed. I feel like I'd be dissapointed at most prices here. Bad composition. Thumbs down.

Perfect Oud by Mizensir

Nicely balanced. Morillas is something of a quandry for me. Sometimes I feel like he does good work, and sometimes I feel like his stuff is garbage. He just does so much. You would hope that the stuff that a guy like that puts out under his own umbrella would be things that he thinks are great, but he never gets a brief that will allow him to use the composition he has made.

This is a pretty nice synth oud. I would have pegged some saffron here, but never the less, it is that type of synth oud that goes with the saffron so much. Think the floral type that sometimes comes under the laotian moniker. The rose here is a bit of a step back, and very well balanced. The cedar and juniper lend the medicinal nature of the whole thing a backbone, and leans it in. The interplay there supports itself like a house of cards. The iris is not something that smells makeupy or anything, it mearly lends a nice powdery clean touch to the astringent cleanliness. If the cade is there is must be deep in the back, and i maybe got a glimmer in the mid, but would never had put that in any notes without reading it.

All in all I was impressed, and surprised. This is a better composition than I see many times. It is not looking to be the most novel thing, but going for artistic nuance and beauty in blending, while using ingredients that seem high end, but not in the natural category, blended by a master perfumer who has a classical french training.

Eight & Bob by Eight & Bob

It starts out all clean. Others say dryer sheets, but this is more like soap to me. Like generic white creamy soap. Not in a bad way. Transitions in the mid, to a more complex fragrance, with the notes dividing, the ginger, cedar, and patchouli specifically. Interesting to have those notes from a fresh soapy fragrance, where you are expecting a more mossy dry down. Then, for a third act we get the cardamom and vanilla. This is easily my least favorite stage of the fragrance. It is still a thumbs up. but that dry down is not something that I find too appealing. The vanilla just stands a little too tall.

Polo Blue Gold Blend by Ralph Lauren

The best Polo Blue to me. They added incense like AdG Profumo. Fine. Not something im after, but the best blue.

Defy by Calvin Klein

4 Notes

4 notes and this stuff? Pathetic. Do better CK. Like a invictus knockoff opening, so volume down. Mid has some sage and herbal aspects, and brings it less sweet. Underneath its a generic amberwood base. Feels cheap, but wont smell bad for $20 at TJ Maxx for somebody someday.

Phantom by Paco Rabanne

Boring bubblegummy nowadays fragrance. Stuffed in a bottle thats even uglier in person, somehow. I was thinking it would be better than this. Not gross, but smells like a generic fruity sweet.

Dune pour Homme by Christian Dior

I might be anosmic to something here, because this was very light on me. Fig and maybe fig leaf or something of that nature. Herbal and dry. Kind of a cool bottle, and the atomizer was pretty nice. The thin cap reminded me of some of the Guerlain Bee bottle caps. Underwhelming. Neutral.

Osmanthus Elixir by Ormonde Jayne

Excellent blend
Opens with a pomelo note. That is somewhere between orange and grapefruit. It is vivid and realiatic, without any plasticy notes or anything. It is actually a pretty good representation of the actual fruit.
The white florals lily and jasmine are there, in a melange with osmanthis, which essentially smells like a dry apricot. All over a super classy base of vetiver, clean musk, and sparkling cedarwood. The blending here is excellent. Id go pretty feminine here. Long lasting, and high quality. Thumbs up.