Tom Ford Tobacco Oud

When Tom Ford dropped a tobacco oud fragrance, I dug it, having decided that I had enough of my clean, light fragrances and was going to go for something dark.

Tobacco Oud

Tobacco Oud

In Bottle: Resinous and spice with a woody opening with a heady alcohol waft that opens rather powerfully.

Applied: Like I said above, the initial application is very strong and heady. It smells of sweet resins, woods and spice. It makes me think of whiskey and while I’d like to get the tobacco oud, the strength of the other notes in the opening doesn’t quite allow for that. And as it turns out, tobacco oud is somewhat lacking in oud. It actually smells quite smooth, like a very good resin but is it a good oud? I can’t, personally, detect any of that. I get more spicy ambers than anything else and upon dry down I get the sandalwood and a very nice smokiness but still not all that much oud unless the amber I keep smelling is supposed to be a stand in for that. Tobacco Oud is actually not bad–actually, bad is probably not one of the words I’d use for this. I quite like it. I like the amber, I like the smoky incense, I even like the big, powerful opening. It’s got a nice, strong initial presence a good middle ground personality and a pretty delightful dry down with the smoky sandalwood with that touch of amber. But it wasn’t the dark, powerful scent that I was expecting and hoping for.

Extra: Tobacco Oud was released in 2013. Interestingly enough and maybe I was a little swayed by the notes list was that it lists whiskey as one of the ingredients. Fascinating addition, though I never cared much for whiskey myself. I’m more a rum kind of gal.

Design: Fairly similar design to many other Tom Ford fragrances out there. Nice shape, very classic. Easy to own and display if you’re into that kind of thing. Not too special or flashy or different from other Tom Fords. Good and reliable are probably two words I’d use for this design.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Spice

Notes: Oud, tobacco, sandalwood, patchouli, spices, whiskey.

So now I know that Tobacco Oud is probably not the kick I wanted out of a fragrance. Any recommendations for some really dark and smoky ouds? I have a hankering for one.

Reviewed in This Post: Tobacco Oud, 2013, Eau de Parfum.


Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb

Considering the complete lack of flowers in Viktor & Rolf’s very popular, Flowerbomb, I had to try out Spicebomb to see if it lived up to its name.

Spicebomb

Spicebomb

In Bottle: In short, no, this isn’t a spice bomb. It’s rather pleasant though, sweet and warm with a hint of spiciness.

Applied: Initial spray of bergamot that settles into a sweet cinnamon candy scent that makes me think Spicebomb is taking the same “bomb” approach as Flowerbomb. Which also leads me to think Viktor & Rolf’s idea of a bang is something sugary. The fragrance ages into a more mature spice as I keep wearing it, but it never shakes the sweetness that it gathers in the top notes. The scent takes on a stronger cinnamon and peppery scent as it flows into its end stage with a wilting smoky tobacco scent and a bit of synthetic-smelling leather. Over all, I’m not all that impressed, but the longevity was fairly good, giving me a decent ten hours of wear.

Extra: If you were wondering what the elemi note listed below is, it is a resin from a tree. I didn’t get much resin from this.

Design: The shape is somewhat reminiscent of Flowerbomb, given more angles and straight edges to appeal to a more masculine audience, I guess. I don’t really like it and think this particular depiction is a bit lame. Sorry, Viktor & Rolf.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Leather

Notes: Bergamot, grapefruit, pink pepper, elemi, saffron, cinnamon, pepper, paprika, vetiver, tobacco, leather.

Spicebomb failed to impress me in numerous ways. The fact that it started out sweet and reminded me of a more gourmand Flowerbomb didn’t really help matters either.

Reviewed in This Post: Spicebomb, 2012, Eau de Toilette.


Illuminum Wild Tobacco

I was in the mood for something a little heavier today and picked Wild Tobacco out of the samplers of Illuminum. So far the line has offered bright, clean fragrances and I was hoping Wild Tobacco would shift things in a different direction.

Wild Tobacco

Wild Tobacco

In Bottle: Smoky dense, tobacco with a touch of warm clove.

Applied: Looking at the notes, I had expected something sweeter. What Wild Tobacco is is a strong tobacco and clove scent that rises out of the initial application with a big shout to declare that it’s here. I get strong, almost single-minded smokiness from the tobacco with a bit of spicy tempering from the clove. The strength is admirable but the complexity is leaving me somewhat wanting. As the scent ages, the tobacco settles down a bit and I get more clove out of the scent followed by a mild, sweet tonka and a very light cedar note. The scent dries down a sweetened clove and mild tobacco.

Extra: Wild Tobacco was released in 2011, and was meant to evoke the scent of a gentleman’s club. Having never been to a gentleman’s club, I’ll just let it speak for itself. It’s strong and dry, very heavy on the clove and tobacco. Wild Tobacco can be had from LuckyScent or Illuminum’s website.

Design: Still not much of a fan of the packaging or branding. But I still think it would nice if you had more than two of these and displayed them all in a row.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Woodsy

Notes: Clove, clary sage, cedar, tobacco, castor, tonka, labdanum.

I’m not entirely sure about this one. It goes on with a strong tobacco presence but over time, it actually turns into a primarily clove scent. I almost felt like I had put on a tobacco scent and left with a Christmas time clove. If you’re drawn to smoky clove, then you might want to give this one a try.

Reviewed in This Post: Wild Tobacco, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.


Tauer Pentachord Auburn

Tauer Perfumes caught my eye while I was shopping for samples and thought of my husband’s birthday. Now his birthday is a few months off at least, but when it comes to me and fragrance shopping I can’t get started soon enough. What attracted me to Auburn was the promise of a cinnamon and tobacco scent.

Pentachord Auburn

Pentachord Auburn

In Bottle: A hint of sweetness mixed with a bit of cinnamon and smokiness. Reminds me a bit of autumn.

Applied: A hit of sweet cinnamon up front. I get no orange flower from this and the sweetness of the fragrance instantly disqualifies it for my husband. But I let it sit and see where it goes. Auburn rather happily introduces a sandalwood and tobacco mix, more heavy on the tobacco than sandalwood though. There’s a pleasant smokiness to this that dominates the fragrance giving it a very rich incense-like quality. What I don’t care too much for is the sweetness that I’m not sure I quite like mixed with tobacco. Auburn is definitely warm and sweet and gives me an idea of what a cinnamon smoke would smell like. But I can’t say I’m a big fan of the mixture. It’s definitely interesting, but I don’t know about wearable when it comes to my taste.

Extra: The Pentachord series is about the molecules in the fragrances where every fragrance features just five notes.

Design: I’ve always liked Tauer’s bottles. Pleasantly geometric, functional with just enough style and none of the fluff. Good spraying, good feel in the hands, looks great on display and if you have more than one, they look fabulous together.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Oriental

Notes: Orange flower, cinnamon, sandalwood, amber, tobacco.

I do find the concept of the Pentachords interesting and while I don’t think Auburn really suits me, I’d definitely like to keep exploring the rest of the series.

Reviewed in This Post: Auburn, 2012, Eau de Parfum.


Montale Wild Aoud

The Montale line of fragrances is known for its numerous different interpretations of aoud. I find it kind of funny that up until now, I only had non-aoud samplers. But that’s okay, I’m going to remedy that by smelling Montale’s Wild Aoud.

Wild Aoud

Wild Aoud

In Bottle: Whoa, lots of aoud in this one with an underlying hint of warm smokiness. Very nicely done.

Applied: Bergamot with sharp citrus as the aoud comes up rather quickly as the scent heads into its midstage followed by a soft floral presence that lingers in the background of the fragrance. As Wild Aoud continues to progress the florals disappear while the aoud continues to go strong as a clean woodsy note settles into the midstage marked with a progressively smoky personality as the fragrance keeps aging the dry down smells like a warm amber and smoky patchouli fragrance with that–by now–familiar aoud scent.

Extra: I haven’t gone out to seek many aoud fragrances but many perfumistas love the aoud note. Aoud is a resin that forms in the heartwood of Aquilaria trees when they are infected by a certain type of mold. The smell, to me, has a very pungent animalic quality with a hint of sweetness. Unpleasant on its own but mixed well into a fragrance and it can give the perfume a whole different dimension.

Design: Designed in much the same way as many other Montale fragrances. A rather plain-looking metal bottle that is, in this case, a warm dark brown color. It’s functional though not entirely exciting to look at. The most fascinating part of these bottles are the toppers.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Bergamot, geranium, artemisia, aoud, teak wood, patchouli, tobacco.

Wild Aoud is a nice fragrance that showcases the aoud note in it, but given how many aoud based fragrances (many in Montale’s line too) , I do wonder if there are any that interpret aoud in a different way. This makes me want to hold off on committing to an aoud until I’ve tested more.

Reviewed in This Post: Wild Aoud, 2009, Eau de Parfum.


Chanel Sycomore

Chanel Sycamore is a member of the Chanel Les Exclusifs line where the fragrance house tends to get a bit artsier than their mainstream releases.

Sycomore

Sycomore

In Bottle: Sycamore is vetiver, first and moremost. This dewy kind of vetiver instead of the dry grass that I usually get. It’s also a bit woodsy and smoky at the same time.

Applied: The vetiver comes up first and is joined shortly by sandalwood and tobacco. There’s a bit of powder and clean in this as well and a wet sort of smoky scent. This reminds me of my childhood and the smell of woodsmoke after a rainstorm. It’s a bit more perfumy than the memory I have of actual rain and woodsmoke but it is a very nice approximate and a very close concept. It takes me back to simpler times and I really like that. The fragrance itself is a vetiver centric scent with perfumed sandalwood, a bit of smoke with a moist, dewy personality. Very nicely done. I get fantastic longevity with this stuff.

Extra: Sycomore was a combined brain child from Christopher Sheldrake (Ambre Sultan from Serge Lutens and Daim Blond also from Serge Lutens) and Jacques Polge (Chanel’s Chance and Egoiste).

Design: Designed the same way as other members in Chanel’s Les Exclusifs line. A big glass rectangle with a simple label. It’s at recognizable as an elegant, simple, Chanel design. Also it has a magnetic cap so I’m sold.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Vetiver, sandalwood, aldehydes, tobacco, violet.

If the memories keep rolling in when I wear Sycomore, it might be large bottle worthy. All of the Les Exclusifs seem to be big hits with me and Sycomore, so far, is the biggest hit due to the memories it stirs up.

Reviewed in This Post: Sycomore, 2010, Eau de Toilette.


Cher Uninhibited

Hey, remember when Cher came out with that perfume? It was the late 80s, the oriental fragrance era was just starting to peter out and out came Uninhibited–clearly uninhibited by the timeline of its release because not only did it break away from the oriental fragrance fad of the time, it was also a sparkling floral aldehyde.

Uninhibited

Uninhibited

In Bottle: I think the sampler I got may have come from a bottle that’s gone off. I get strong floral aldehydes but there’s this faint and unpleasant whiff of alcohol lingering around too. You know that sweet, cloying, sickening smell of rot and alcohol? I’m getting that.

Applied: Floral aldehydes nice and big and that unfortunate smell of off-perfume is also pretty big too. I’m not going to blame the fragrance for this as I’m pretty darn sure the age of the sample is probably what’s doing it. Anyway, the aldehydes are still sparkling and the florals with a dominant jasmine and rose scent are still going strong. As the fragrance ages, there’s a bit of rose, jasmine and woodsiness heading through the aldehydes though this fragrance remains mostly soapy and powdery. It dries down with a pleasant dry woodsiness with a distinct cedar note that’s been calmed down with age. I probably would have really liked this fragrance if it hadn’t been for that bizarre off-perfume smell. But again, this was a pretty old sample and I don’t think the quality of a sample from a fragrance this old could ever be guaranteed and I did gamble a little bit on an obscure celebrity fragrance being kept up like a vintage Guerlain Mitsouko would be. From what I did smell, I could tell I rather liked it. It has a classical air about it thanks to those aldehydes and there were several layers of complexity that still shone through in the fragrance despite its age.

Extra: I’m really sad having read the notes list for this because most of the fragrance was an amalgamation of scents and all I got were jasmine, rose, aldehydes and cedar.

Design: There’s almost something Art Deco about this bottle that makes me really like it. It’s got clean lines with a little bit of whimsy. If you were to take a gander at it, you wouldn’t have guessed it was a celebrity perfume until someone told you. The bottle just seems so classy like it’s from a much earlier time than it actually is.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Heliotrope, aldehydes, ylang-ylang, geranium, rose, jasmine, tobacco, cedar, musk, sandalwood, vanilla, vetiver.

Uninhibited has been discontinued for quite some time, though tracking down this stuff isn’t too hard. There’s a lot of secondhand sellers but I would advise caution when you go to buy this stuff as my sample had gone off. I’m unsure as to when exactly Uninhibited was discontinued so watch out for that also if you plan to track down your own bottle.

Reviewed in This Post: Uninhibited, ~1989, Eau de Parfum.


Soivohle Tobacco and Tulle

Been a while since I reached for the adorable box of samples from Soivohle. I don’t know why it took me this long to come back to them. I love them all but I suppose the other stuff waffling around in the drawer of samplers needed to be dealt with first. I feel like Soivohle is a bit of a palette cleanser after a bunch of chemical fruits. In my notes, it’s wedged between two celebrity fragrances, surrounded by a bunch of fruity ones so it would seem my theory holds some weight.

In Bottle: Lush, complex tobacco and florals with a warm sense of animalic musk and ambergris.

Applied: The tobacco blooms beautifully upon application and it blends in very well with the creamy tuberose note. This is dense and deep and dark. There’s nothing light and flowery and weak about it. It makes a big statement and I love how it eventually evolves into this subtle warm animalic scent without me even noticing. I really enjoyed the opening moments with the tobacco and tuberose. The tuberose lends a bit of help as the fragrance delves into its murkier, muskier undertones with the ambergris lending to that animal quality. There’s so much complexity in the fragrance as it ages on the skin. This smells classic and daring at the same time. Like how perfume used to be done and how it should still be done. The animalic element is just a bit too much for me so while I appreciate it’s complexity, I really can’t see myself ever being daring enough to wear it.

Extra: It should be noted that on Soivohle, the musk mentioned in the notes list below is actually a cruelty-free variant. In that it’s a “hyrax tincture”. Hyrax tincture, for all us grownups, is a petrified stone-like compound composed of urine and feces excreted by a guinea pig-like creature called the hyrax. It’s generally been “aged” for hundreds of years and is perfectly fascinating stuff.

Design: Bottled rather simply but you don’t buy Soivohle or other independent perfumer fragrances so you can admire the pomp and circumstance surrounding the design of the bottle. All you need to know is that it looks great, feels great, and works the way it should.

Fragrance Family: Smoky Floral

Notes: Tobacco, tuberose, musk, ambergris.

I know how daunting the price point for this might look but once again, keep in mind that all natural ingredients are expensive and the complex experience you gain from fragrances like these make up for the price point. You are also paying for higher quality ingredients than what you’d get in most mainstream perfumes and you would likely need to use very little of this stuff to get the same amount of power from your run of the mill EdP or EdT.

Reviewed in This Post: Tobacco and Tulle, 2009, Absolute.


Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille

When I ask people what fragrance can be a stand in for Spiritueuse Double Vanille, people often say try Tobacco Vanille. But when I tried Tobacco Vanille, I found these two fragrances too different.

Tobacco Vanille

In Bottle: Seems Tom Ford fragrances have a tendency to be on the strong side. Tobacco Vanille is a sharp smoky vanilla upon first whiff. The first whiff was all it took for the scent to travel up my nose. I think one of those cardinal rules you learn in middle school science class applies here; waft, don’t whiff.

Applied: On the skin Tobacco Vanille behaves a bit better for me. This is all tobacco and vanilla that sort of smoky, warm, creamy scent that’s sort of echoed in Spirituese Double Vanille. Unlike in SDV, Tobacco Vanille has a less woodsy and less boozy smokiness to it. This smokiness is coming from a pipe tobacco scent. And let’s not confuse tobacco used as a fragrance with the often sour smoky smell of a cigarette. This stuff is smooth and clean and smells a bit more like burning leaves with a very nice smooth character. As the fragrance ages, I get a bit more of the other notes in this, particularly the hints of woodsiness here and there and occassionally a good sniff of spices. There isn’t much else I can say about Tobacco Vanille. It’s a smoky vanilla scent, a couple of notches away from SDV though these two could be pretty close cousins. I still like the touch of booziness in SDV and the more woodsy character in that fragrance though.

Extra: Tobacco Vanille is a member of Tom Ford’s premium line of fragrances called the Private Blends. I had a devil of a time tracking down an actual bottle and didn’t end up liking it enough to drop over $300 on a bottle.

Design: The Private Blends are bottled a bit differently than other Tom Ford scents. I’ve seen various styles and all of them are very pleasing. There’s the style shown above that I see most often but the bottle I sampled out of had a square cap instead of a round one. I believe the style of bottle differs depending on how much juice you’re getting.

Fragrance Family: Smoky Gourmand

Notes: Tobacco leaf, spices, tonka bean, vanilla, cacao, wood sap.

Lovely as this is, it didn’t sway me from the SDV crowd. I’m still a big fan of Spiritueuse Double Vanille. Though Tobacco Vanille can scratch a very small itch if it came down to the wire.

Reviewed in This Post: Tobacco Vanille, 2009, Eau de Parfum.


Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarettes

I didn’t want to leave Etat Libre d’Orange as, “Those people that made that one perfume” since they are a lovely, off-beat, and fantastic fragrance house. Jasmine et Cigarettes is one of their many very beautiful compositions.

Jasmin et Cigarettes

In Bottle: Tobacco is very prominent in the bottle with this fragrance with a lovely heady bouquet of dry jasmine flowers mingling with it.

Applied: Tobacco, smoky and heady, with that mixture of jasmine. There’s something about this fragrance that will stick to your nose when you smell it and you won’t honestly mind it that much because it’s simply lovely. The tobacco hangs out during the majority of the fragrance, even into the spicy sweet mid-stage as a cedar note tries to come up. It’s tame cedar, and I am happy for that, as the cedar attempts to clean up the fragrance a bit but just ends up adding another layer of complexity to the smoky spicy personality of Jasmin et Cigarettes. I get a lot of jasmine in the mid-stage too, but it’s well-behaved and works fantastically with the smoke and spice. By the time the dry down approaches, I get a crisp jasmine scent with a warm amber quality along with remnants of the spicy mid-stage.

Extra: Jasmin et Cigarettes was composed by Antoine Maisondieu, who is known for composing other Etat Libre d’Orange fragrances such as Antiheros.

Design: Most of Etat Libre d’Orange’s bottles are the same with differing labels. You will find the fragrances bottled in a rectangular glass bottle with a very simple cap and an equally simple label listing the fragrance name and its unique graphic on it.

Fragrance Family: Smoky Floral

Notes: Jasmine absolute, tobacco, hay, apricot, tonka bean, turmeric, cedar, amber, musk.

I’m a little addicted to this strange little beauty. It’s got the jasmine that I love in it mingled with that smoky scent. Some days I can’t stand the smokiness, other days I can’t get enough of it.

Reviewed in This Post: Jasmin et Cigarettes, 2010, Eau de Parfum.