Tobacco Oud Tom Ford

Desirability: Decant

Source: www.buro247.ru

I met Tobacco Oud while visiting a friend during my travels and became pleasantly acquainted with it over the course of my stay. I had previously bypassed the grey-bottled Oud trio from Tom Ford partly because I was a little weary of oud and partly because I flinch at the pricing of TF fragrances. Yes the range has a few fantastic scents but seriously? Anyway I digress.

A heavy scent this one is. I don't usually give a stuff as to whether my SOTD would be better suited to colder temperatures than the tropical humidity I live in 365 days of the year but I would advise that less is more with the likes of Tobacco Oud. It does quieten down but that's after at least 3-4 hours into the wearing.

I smell tobacco, whisky and wood. A rich, sweet and aromatic tobacco that feels warm and rugged. The whisky in Tobacco Oud is a mellow fellow, I'm on the very early stages of the learning curve for whisky and I still wince at the perceived harshness of Scottish malts I've been introduced to, but there are no rough edges to Tobacco Oud, it's smooth, smoky and very delicious. The drydown is sweeter than when it first started and reminds me of incense rather than tobacco by this stage. On a side note I prefer this to Phaedon's Tabac Rouge that my friend is partial to but which I found to be a little on the sweeter side of tobacco scents and while I do have a sweet tooth I don't always indulge it and Tabac Rouge is a sweet treat. Despite the dark tobacco and smoky whisky I don't find Tobacco Oud to be brooding or masculine, certainly it doesn't conjure up images of cowboys, instead it feels like it belongs in a swanky smoking lounge or whisky club where luxury is like daily bread for the crowd there.

Phenomenal longevity, a potent beginning that lasts for quite a few hours before it fades but remaining noticeable for days! So despite me failing to discover any oud in Tobacco Oud, I still think this is worth sampling and definitely worth getting a decant at least. Since it lasts forever and a day, a full bottle may not be required unless you are of the happy breed that is content with just one perfume in your closet. 

Tango Masque

Desirability: Decant

Source: luckyscent

Phwoar...talk about heady and intoxicating, Tango just blazed its way onto my want list and I want this in a seriously bad way. Fragrantica lists this as an oriental floral but it wears like a spicy oriental on me, where have all the flowers gone? 

Cumin. Cumin. Cumin. Cloves. Cinnamon. Cardamom. Cumin. CUMIN. Cumin in all its wanton sweaty glory, attractive or repulsive depending on whether you like it. Boozy, bold, exotic and rich, Tango has me in a cinch, make that a steaming hot passionate cinch. It continues to smoulder all the way to its drydown, a warm, dense and sweet amber base with resins and dry wood heaped on the molten fire. Monstrous projection and longevity. Sexy beast. 

Ambra Aurea Profumum Roma

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: www.profumum.com

Smooth criminal.

This is like a sensual and languorous trip that winds and loops, doubles back and proceeds once more through creamy vanilla, smoky incense, sweet myrrh, dusky warm labdanum, freshly shaven wood and a hint of camphor. Despite being a gourmand lover of sweet things, I prefer my ambers not too sweet and thankfully the sugar level is controlled in this smooth, rich and dense fragrance. I have to mention its ridiculously persistent longevity (ditto sillage) which seems to be a common trait amongst Profumum Roma scents. Mind the oily residue when sprayed though it does give one the fantasy factor of applying liquid amber on. 

Source: kultflick.wordpress.com

Of course I have to compare it with my Holy Grail of ambers...Ambre Sultan, Ambra Aurea is glossy and lustrous where Ambre Sultan is dry and spicy. Ambre Sultan takes me on a magic carpet ride to desert lands of Peter O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia whereas Ambra Aurea is like the Sex and the City version of the Middle East i.e. a bit OTT but still loveable in the end. 

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Both are glorious amber perfumes in their own right and for those who can't decide whether they need a bottle of Ambra Aurea if they already own the Lutens I would say go for it. Many thanks (or not) to the fragrant friend/fiend who sent me vials of Fiori d'Ambra and Ambra Aurea, both labelled "smell me immediately". I obeyed your instructions and am now hooked.

Tubéreuse 3 Animale Histoires de Parfums

Source: Luckyscent

If by "animale" they mean dangerous, I think not. The closest animal this would resemble would be a purring lap cat and this is as comforting as a cuddle with said cat after a long day's toil. Unless you have asthma of course. In that case maybe cuddle a hairless cat instead but I digress.

So there's no danger lurking here but lots of fruits, syrupy and boozy plums mostly and of course tuberose, the dense creamy floral lacking its narcotic/animalic facet here and mingling well with the tobacco ( who knew?). Fresh tobacco as if you stuck your nose in a humidor and are inhaling the sweet crisp smell of unlit cigars. Those who are adverse to too cloying tuberose in dramatic white floral perfumes or overload of tobacco can rest easy as neither the tuberose nor the tobacco dominate and overall the scent smells well-blended and full-bodied if a little on the sweeter side of life thanks to the syrupy effect of immortelle in addition to the rich boozy plums minus vanilla that seems to pervade many if not most gourmand fragrances. 

Attractive in an edible way, I am left thinking of plum pancakes smothered with maple syrup the whole day while wearing this incredibly tenacious scent that packs a lot of oomph in the projection department. In the drydown there's a dusty and dry hay/woody effect and together with the maple syrup character of the immortelle, casts a golden shade over the fruity tuberose and tobacco. Unique and bold without being overpowering. Simply a must try! 

West Side Bond No 9

Source: Amazon.com

I've smelt boozy scents but I've yet to identify wine as a note till West Side where I can confidently say I smell red wine, like a classic Burgundy red that's rich and earthy ( think forest floor and mushrooms). Next to your glass or bottle of red there is a vase with a few blooms of roses, their subtle sweetness coming forth in gentle wafts. Each time you lift the glass you get a whiff of your favourite ylang ylang lotion slathered on hours ago. There is a bit of vanilla, just the barest hint as if you wolfed down some vanilla sponge cake and mere crumbs are left as evidence of the treat and the smell left in your memory. 

West Side is a laid back perfume, not quite shorts and slippers at the beach but a Sunday afternoon or a holiday spent relaxing by a quiet side-walk cafe, sharing a bottle and light chat with a close friend while people watching. Nobody in this scene least of all you, is in a hurry, everyone moves at a leisurely pace not ruminating over the past or worrying about the future...just enjoying the "now". In the drydown the vanilla becomes stronger as if you gave in to temptation and ordered another vanilla slice, while the wine and roses stay with you throughout the day.

Miel de Bois Serge Lutens

 "Let me thank all those whose labor contributed to making this fragrance.... in other words, the bees and flowers. 

From candied honey I made an ether to obtain the rich scent of the golden nectar."  

-- Serge Lutens

My signature scent if I had to name one. I have to thank Providence for my bottle actually, can you imagine the shop was going to throw their full tester in the trash since Miel de Bois was pulled from the export line and made a Palais Royale exclusive. I was in the right place at the right time to save the tester. Who throws away perfume, let alone a deity like Miel de Bois!! 

If you are looking for a gourmand honeyed scent along the lines of Tokyo Milk's Honey & The Moon, this isn't quite it.

Don't get me wrong, there is honey in Miel de Bois, but it's way more mysterious. It's a musty, musky and woody honey that is polarising, either you fall in lust and love or you think it smells like cats' piss/toilet spray/urinal cakes etc. Yup I said musty, it smells like an ages old bottle that was forgotten in an attic, musty that brings to mind antiques and marvellous relics of a different lifetime, moth eaten heavy curtains... a little like what Miss Havisham's room must have been like. 

It has a similar vintage and animalistic quality that Jean Desprez's Bal de Versailles or Schiaparelli's Shocking has on me and belongs in the category of scents that I feel require a "Danger" label for it's drug-like effects on the senses, or nausea-inducing if you can't handle indoles or  dark musks. Not forgetting that this stuff is potent and more than one spray can knock out a whole room so caution should be applied. 

I think if one gets past the initial blast of dark, dry woods and heavy sweetness, Miel de Bois dries down to the most addictive mildly spiced, sweet-woody musk, that smells like nothing else and stays with you for hours and hours like a most beguiling ambience. It's the dry down that has this heartrending quality I have only experienced otherwise with Guerlain's L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko or Francis Kurkdjian's Lumiere Noir Pour Femme, once again a Lutens has gotten the better of my emotions.

Miel de Bois is controversial, unique, passionate and wild (I'll slide in the skank award here too)...please don't ever be discontinued, the withdrawal will be unbearable.

P.S: I don't advise blind-buying Miel de Bois as it's picky with which skin chemistry it gets along with. P.P.S: I'm always happy to adopt more bottles. I leave you here with a song that is as emotive as this scent. 

Ambre Sultan, Serge Lutens

Feeling nostalgic tonight and decided to hang out with the one that started it all. Or the last few millilitres of my first bottle of niche perfume, my first Serge Lutens, my first Amber. Quite a few firsts. 

Up till now, Ambre Sultan is still the watermark when it comes to amber scents. It's like Goldilocks would say, it's just right. Some ambers tend to turn powdery like Calypso's Ambre, although that is a very good amber patchouli for its inexpensive price-tag. Some are too sweet and sedate for my taste like L'Artisan's Ambre Extreme which is anything but extreme, it's soft, polite and a tad boring. 

Ambre Sultan smells like ages past in a land that no longer exists or all that remains is a decrepit pile of rubble of past grandeur and a civilised life...its dryness makes me think of hostile, arid deserts that stretch as far as the eye can see, its spices transport me to multiple places at once, following my mother when I was about the height of her knees, to the market and watching the seller selecting various spices of burnished ambers, a myriad of reds and mounds of yellows, pouring the eye-watering blend into a cone fashioned out of old newspaper.

Or travelling in the Middle East and North Africa, experiencing multitudes of foreign smells and flavours that I never came across before and falling in love with newfound exoticism. The balmy coziness of Ambre Sultan that calms and reassures...it takes me back to around the time we first met, using the scent on rare, precious free evenings spent with friends or just chilling alone by a water's edge, watching the sun in it's last dazzling performance before it goes to say hello to another part of the world. 

This is the potent power that Lutens' have on me, that trigger a slew of memories and create dreams where I surf the olfactory waves to different lands. There's something pleasurable yet poignant about each Lutens' scent that I meet and Ambre Sultan is no different. Yes it is a French interpretation of the Orient but by someone who is not just familiar with it but understands it as well. 

“Some of my old memories feel trapped in amber in my brain, lucid and burning, while others are like the wing beat of a hummingbird, an intangible, ephemeral blur.” 

― Mira Bartok

Amber Russe Parfum d'Empire

Inebriated amber ahead.

Wow. I smell like I just emptied the better part of a vodka bottle on myself. It's drowned out whatever champagne there is in the top notes for me too. All I smell for the first ten minutes is vodka, vodka and more vodka. 

After my liver and nose have digested the vodka, I smell leather or birch tar or birch tar tanned leather, anyway it's tanned animal hides for sure. The juniper adds a crisp and sweet evergreen note reminiscent of how driving past a forest of conifers smelt in autumn going into winter.  

The amber in Ambre Russe then makes its way slowly into the scent just as I was wondering where it was. It slinks in like a knowing feline, with smoky incense trailing behind, causing a stir in the crowd and the temperature to rise. It's as if the booze has really set into your system, your pulse is racing, your face is flushed and the heat radiating off your skin smells musky. 

The dark sultry amber takes centre stage in the dry down, her voice raspy from too much smoke and drink, her leather coat with its layers of smells accumulated from all the nights spent in a bar or a club. She's lowers her guard with each shot downed, her sooty eyes and red lips are sexily smudged and her inhibitions are scattered to the wind. She's intoxicated but not vulgar, just effusive and affectionate. Having a really good time. 

Ambre Russe is definitely a unique experience and one that I would like to repeat. A wearable olfactory piece of art that will definitely make people around you pause and admire. It's unisex but I can foresee some avoiding it because of the booze overload. An unusual take on amber that all amber lovers should at least sample. I am very happy I did and found the creative spirit in perfumery still very much alive! 

Note: probably best not to wear in the office or places where you are expected to be sober.