1
An exponential decline in profile from the minute you put it on
In-doors test with a sample I got from Jovoy.
Opening: Aromatic, slightly sweet. The sample instantly gives me the same vibe that I remember getting when I first sprayed on Opus XIV - Royal Tobacco - the top has a licorice-like note driving sweetness to it, very comparable to Oud for Happiness. On initial impressions *just in the air*, I absolutely love it. When I first smell it up-close, I get a fairly mild, wearable oud. After smelling it up-close just once, my nose resets and I notice that unlisted licorice top note is generating a massive cloud around me.
But the decline in profile is exponential. After just 1 sniff up-close and the licorice cloud, I felt like the oud part of this scent seemed disappointing for €455 - it seemed too simple. But at least the profile seemed worthy of an 8 or 8.5. But then it started to go animalic, and this is exactly the type of profile that I don't want - the dead/cooked fish type animalic that I instantly recognize from my most disliked scent of all-time being Hamdani. Oddly enough, this is my second time in the last week smelling assam oud in a blend. Parfumo hasn't yet listed these 4 scents, but in Masque Milano's Ruby Collection where they are dropping 4 oud flankers of their popular scents, the Oud flanker to II-II Mandala (Mandala Oud, not yet on the database) has this exact same vibe. The scent goes smoky from around 1.5-2 hours onward.
Performance wise, I would say it starts going quiet at around 10-11 hours. Sillage may open with that licorice cloud, but it is clearly nowhere near true nuclear scents. My TLDR is that it smells fine if you don't smell it up-close. And for anybody thinking this is more wearable than Jubilation XXV Man or that this smells like Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait de Parfum... those statements are outrageous to the point where I got my head in my hands.
---
Opening: Aromatic, slightly sweet. The sample instantly gives me the same vibe that I remember getting when I first sprayed on Opus XIV - Royal Tobacco - the top has a licorice-like note driving sweetness to it, very comparable to Oud for Happiness. On initial impressions *just in the air*, I absolutely love it. When I first smell it up-close, I get a fairly mild, wearable oud. After smelling it up-close just once, my nose resets and I notice that unlisted licorice top note is generating a massive cloud around me.
But the decline in profile is exponential. After just 1 sniff up-close and the licorice cloud, I felt like the oud part of this scent seemed disappointing for €455 - it seemed too simple. But at least the profile seemed worthy of an 8 or 8.5. But then it started to go animalic, and this is exactly the type of profile that I don't want - the dead/cooked fish type animalic that I instantly recognize from my most disliked scent of all-time being Hamdani. Oddly enough, this is my second time in the last week smelling assam oud in a blend. Parfumo hasn't yet listed these 4 scents, but in Masque Milano's Ruby Collection where they are dropping 4 oud flankers of their popular scents, the Oud flanker to II-II Mandala (Mandala Oud, not yet on the database) has this exact same vibe. The scent goes smoky from around 1.5-2 hours onward.
Performance wise, I would say it starts going quiet at around 10-11 hours. Sillage may open with that licorice cloud, but it is clearly nowhere near true nuclear scents. My TLDR is that it smells fine if you don't smell it up-close. And for anybody thinking this is more wearable than Jubilation XXV Man or that this smells like Baccarat Rouge 540 Extrait de Parfum... those statements are outrageous to the point where I got my head in my hands.
---
NicheOnly
