5
A darker masculine Erba Pura
Notorious opens with a boozy, sweet, fruity scent that is very reminiscent of Erba Pura , but instead of going with the white musk that those kind of fragrances have which keep it unisex, Notorious starts to go dark and leathery with a darker musky scent. For those who have tried Pax which is another fragrance compared to Erba Pura but also leans more masculine with a leather note in it also. If you were to intensify the leather in PAX and swap the white musk out for a darker musk and tone down the sweetness, you will get an idea as to what you get here from Notorious.
The fruits remind me of a sweet deep rich banana scent mixed with some other nice tropical fruits.
The rum is prominent in the opening but then after a few minutes takes a back seat, and while you know it’s there in the background, it’s not something you are going to be smelling the most. So the rum note while slightly noticeable, it is not creating a strong boozy scent like you may think it will be when you first look at the note profile.
For me the main players is the fruit on top, a dark musky kind of mid with the heliotrope, along with the dark, deep leathery base.
This is a very masculine fragrance and performance will be great for the cooler wintery months. You don’t need a lot of sprays from this.
I guess a way you could look at it is like this. If you are a fan of Erba Pura fragrances, then Notorious would suit the cooler, dark wintery months while Erba Pura is for your more summery sunny kind of seasons.
The sweetness feels like it is coming naturally from the fruity notes without some other note being added to push the sweetness further than it needs to be which allows you to enjoy the fruits on their own making them feel more natural.
This is a linear scent mostly. Sometimes the leather will push strong but there are not several stages that swap positions like a lot of other fragrances Aaron has created, but I am fine with that. Not every fragrance has to change every hour or so. If a fragrance smells good all throughout rather than one that may have stages you like a lot but are ruined by stages you don’t like, then a linear scent that smells fantastic all the way throughout works for me.
EDIT:
Ok so last night I made an edit stating I would do an update this morning due to there actually being quite a change in the dry down and was excited about it. The reason was I started to smell the vanilla come through along with the tonka bean and heliotropin as these notes can create an almond and vanilla effect and with some sweetness it reminded me a little of Parfums De Marly Pegasus Exclusif dry down,but just not quite as sweet, also Notorious was a little more powdery. I thought the leather may also help with replacing the oud in Pegasus Exclusif and help recreate that even more. Sadly this push in that direction was extremely short lived for me. I know that since ATH is not mass produced they’re creating new batches all the time and have seen people say in his instagram posts that they have had changes with time when ordering from Aaron. As in, with time the fragrance got better. They were alluding to the same effect that some Lattafa fragrances have, where they improve from the time they are first sprayed. Also the longevity is rated veryhighly here by other users. So it could be that my batch just needs a little more time because I only got about 8-9 hours max before this vanished all together. I just took a month break from wearing fragrances completely so I can promise you I have no issue with being nose blind. I only just finished the break and have worn only a few fragrances that I could smell well in to the following day. Pegasus Exclusif and Carlisle were 2 of them and they are strong! I will continue to test this and if I find any changes I will come back and update things. However my rating on longevity will relate to my experience I had yesterday.
I picked up a 10ml for testing but have many of Aaron’s 50ml bottles which are awesome. I will definitely pick up a 50ml when my 10ml runs out.
A nice addition to my ATH collection that I will definitely be using over the Christmas holidays.
Ratings
Scent 10/10 I love fruity fragrances.
Projection 9/10 it’s good but I have stronger.
Longevity is a 7 as it was just above average for me and just as it was getting to a very nice dry down.
Bottle 10ml gets an 8/10 and the 50ml are a 10/10.
The fruits remind me of a sweet deep rich banana scent mixed with some other nice tropical fruits.
The rum is prominent in the opening but then after a few minutes takes a back seat, and while you know it’s there in the background, it’s not something you are going to be smelling the most. So the rum note while slightly noticeable, it is not creating a strong boozy scent like you may think it will be when you first look at the note profile.
For me the main players is the fruit on top, a dark musky kind of mid with the heliotrope, along with the dark, deep leathery base.
This is a very masculine fragrance and performance will be great for the cooler wintery months. You don’t need a lot of sprays from this.
I guess a way you could look at it is like this. If you are a fan of Erba Pura fragrances, then Notorious would suit the cooler, dark wintery months while Erba Pura is for your more summery sunny kind of seasons.
The sweetness feels like it is coming naturally from the fruity notes without some other note being added to push the sweetness further than it needs to be which allows you to enjoy the fruits on their own making them feel more natural.
This is a linear scent mostly. Sometimes the leather will push strong but there are not several stages that swap positions like a lot of other fragrances Aaron has created, but I am fine with that. Not every fragrance has to change every hour or so. If a fragrance smells good all throughout rather than one that may have stages you like a lot but are ruined by stages you don’t like, then a linear scent that smells fantastic all the way throughout works for me.
EDIT:
Ok so last night I made an edit stating I would do an update this morning due to there actually being quite a change in the dry down and was excited about it. The reason was I started to smell the vanilla come through along with the tonka bean and heliotropin as these notes can create an almond and vanilla effect and with some sweetness it reminded me a little of Parfums De Marly Pegasus Exclusif dry down,but just not quite as sweet, also Notorious was a little more powdery. I thought the leather may also help with replacing the oud in Pegasus Exclusif and help recreate that even more. Sadly this push in that direction was extremely short lived for me. I know that since ATH is not mass produced they’re creating new batches all the time and have seen people say in his instagram posts that they have had changes with time when ordering from Aaron. As in, with time the fragrance got better. They were alluding to the same effect that some Lattafa fragrances have, where they improve from the time they are first sprayed. Also the longevity is rated veryhighly here by other users. So it could be that my batch just needs a little more time because I only got about 8-9 hours max before this vanished all together. I just took a month break from wearing fragrances completely so I can promise you I have no issue with being nose blind. I only just finished the break and have worn only a few fragrances that I could smell well in to the following day. Pegasus Exclusif and Carlisle were 2 of them and they are strong! I will continue to test this and if I find any changes I will come back and update things. However my rating on longevity will relate to my experience I had yesterday.
I picked up a 10ml for testing but have many of Aaron’s 50ml bottles which are awesome. I will definitely pick up a 50ml when my 10ml runs out.
A nice addition to my ATH collection that I will definitely be using over the Christmas holidays.
Ratings
Scent 10/10 I love fruity fragrances.
Projection 9/10 it’s good but I have stronger.
Longevity is a 7 as it was just above average for me and just as it was getting to a very nice dry down.
Bottle 10ml gets an 8/10 and the 50ml are a 10/10.
Mitchcraft
