Basil
Citrus fruits
Italian cypress
Mint
Woody notes
12/31/2024
Smirky
450 Reviews
Smirky
Very helpful Review
3
Awesome masculine, old school cypress sent
A few caveats before my review: I've never smelled the Tom Ford OG. Comparing this to Polo and Z14, I'm using the currently available versions; have never smelled vintage versions. Also, with Z14, I have the latest latest, not the one from a few years ago that had a heavy cinnamon note.
So, with that out of the way, what can I say? Italian Forest is awesome! If you like old style masculine fragrances, you can't go wrong with Italian Forest. It opens immediately with a strong cypress scent (not pine) and is fairly linear, not changing much as it dries down. Under the cypress, I detected a slight woody accord. Didn't get any other notes out of it. Longevity is excellent, got about 10 hours out of it. Sillage was pretty strong the first hour or two after which it pulls back to a close scent bubble. Italian Forest strikes me as very versatile. Would work anytime of the year, both hot and cold weather, day or night. Works formal as well as casual. A real winner here!
Comparing Italian Forest to current Polo Green, I really don't find any resemblance. Polo definitely starts out with pine, not cypress and becomes more woody as it dries down, losing some of the pine. Italian Forest is cypress all the way. Z14 starts out with a strong blast of lemon. The initial citrus disappears as it dries down and a more generic coniferous note appears - not really pine but not really strong cypress like Italian Forest. All three are sufficiently different that it wouldn't be redundant to own all of them. Out of the three, Italian Forest has the best performance. I'm definitely adding it to my collection.
UPDATE:
After wearing Z14, I changed my mind and liked it better over Italian Forest. The fresh opening citrus nailed it for me. And it hung around along with the cypress for quite some time.
So, with that out of the way, what can I say? Italian Forest is awesome! If you like old style masculine fragrances, you can't go wrong with Italian Forest. It opens immediately with a strong cypress scent (not pine) and is fairly linear, not changing much as it dries down. Under the cypress, I detected a slight woody accord. Didn't get any other notes out of it. Longevity is excellent, got about 10 hours out of it. Sillage was pretty strong the first hour or two after which it pulls back to a close scent bubble. Italian Forest strikes me as very versatile. Would work anytime of the year, both hot and cold weather, day or night. Works formal as well as casual. A real winner here!
Comparing Italian Forest to current Polo Green, I really don't find any resemblance. Polo definitely starts out with pine, not cypress and becomes more woody as it dries down, losing some of the pine. Italian Forest is cypress all the way. Z14 starts out with a strong blast of lemon. The initial citrus disappears as it dries down and a more generic coniferous note appears - not really pine but not really strong cypress like Italian Forest. All three are sufficiently different that it wouldn't be redundant to own all of them. Out of the three, Italian Forest has the best performance. I'm definitely adding it to my collection.
UPDATE:
After wearing Z14, I changed my mind and liked it better over Italian Forest. The fresh opening citrus nailed it for me. And it hung around along with the cypress for quite some time.
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