No. 007
Floris (2022)

Floris has a longstanding relationship to the character of James Bond. His creator, Ian Fleming, wore Floris No. 89, and gave mentions to Floris bath products in his novels.

Now, for the sixtieth anniversary of the film Dr. No, Floris has produced a scent not for Ian Fleming, but the character that outlived him. What Floris has produced here feels utterly appropriate: immaculate and conservative, in the house's traditional British manner.

No. 007 opens up with a burst of high-grade orange citrus before turning warm and sweet and boozy. It initially presents as a cola-style amber fragrance with a tropical undercurrent thanks to a bay rum throughline, which puts this in the tradition of classic masculines grooming products from the twentieth century, while also tipping the hat to 007's affection for Jamaica.

The amber here is a dry, powdery, restrained amber with a soapy edge, in the vein of earlier ambers like Estee Lauder Youth Dew, so it's very far away from the likes of the syrupy ambers favored by Serge Lutens or Francis Kurkdjian, or the drier but synthwoody ambers found in the likes of Tom Ford fare like Beau de Jour.

The floral facet, giving the impression of creamy, velvety rose petal, becomes more noticeable as the sweetness and spices present in the opening recede. It helps take the edge off of the decadence and take this back to the territory of Savile Row.

All in all, it's hard to find fault with it, beyond lamenting that the branding tie-in might scare more snobbish folks away from one the better releases in recent Floris history.