I see. The imperial perfume (or imperial perfume) of Boadicea the Victorious. Excuse me, but the whole brand, and the name of this fragrance, tramples on my E**n so much that I doubt whether I can even appreciate the fragrance fairly
It is not my first tested Boadicea, but my first commented, so a few words about the brand may be allowed. I first met Boadicea at the KaDeWe in Berlin, when a nice, funny and knowledgeable salesman tried to get me interested in this brand. At that time, I was struck by the high prices, the Celtic opulent flacons and the bulky names (I remember Monarch, the same name category as Imperial). The fragrances I tested at that time were quite powerful and reminded me of the more brute Amouages, both fascinated me a bit, but didn't seem quite right for me. Nevertheless Monarch was on my watch list for a while for the sake of later in-depth tests
In the meantime, between me and this brand is rather an empty bottle. I still don't like the prices (50 ml = 145 pounds sterling), neither do the bottles. As for the fragrance names, I have meanwhile noticed that they not only offer ostentatious and British-nationalistic ones such as "Britannia", "Empire", "Imperial", "Monarch", "Majestic", "Hero" and "Glorious", but that they have also named part of their collection after contemporary Arab sheikhs and princes, who were probably honoured for their services to boosting British exports rather than democracy in their home countries. In addition, I feel pi..., uh, stung by the energizing emissions policy: 114 fragrances since 2008. I hate that
But what bothers me most is the name of the brand. Boadicea the Victorious, Boudica the Victorious, is celebrated in the brand presentation as the beautiful, glorious warrior queen with flowing hair, whose attributes beauty, strength, power, glory and victoriousness should radiate onto the fragrances (and their buyers).
The only victorious thing about Boudica (which is usually referred to as Boadicea in English-speaking countries) was its name, which means "the victorious one" in Celtic. According to the current state of research, which is based on a meagre source (mainly archaeological finds and the report of Tacitus, who was anything but a foolish talker), the story went something like this:
Around 60 AD, Nero ruled in Rome, and (South) Britain had been firmly in Roman hands for about 50 years. A part of this Britannia was ruled by a client king (old name for puppet regime) quasi on behalf of Rome: the deal was: he was allowed to rule for life, after that his territory fell under Roman direct administration. When he died, however, he decreed in his will that his daughter Boudica and Rome should share power. The Romans didn't see this as an agreement and didn't consider it to be in accordance with the contract, they simply took the whole small kingdom and on the occasion raped Boudica's daughters, which was not quite in accordance with the good order even by the standards of that time (but only because they were aristocrats of an empire that was in principle still allied with Rome).
Boudica was chosen as leader by the outraged people of this part of the kingdom, but also by other Britannic tribes, and in a kind of anti-colonial frenzy she fell upon the Roman settlements in south-eastern Britain, where she slaughtered about 70,000 men, women and children (Roman settlers and Celts who had come to appreciate the Roman way of life). This was not very clever strategically, because the Roman legions in Britain, which of course were much more powerful and only at that time had other things to do somewhere in the north of the country, rushed in and in turn wiped out Boudica's entire army, including all the men, women and children in the retinue, 80,000 people in all. Boudica escaped, but did not survive for long (probably poison). After that there was silence in the box for about 400 years.
Must this blood-soaked, endlessly sad, foolish and tragic story, which stands for the worst that people are capable of, be slapped on a company sign to sell people fragrances? Do you want to think about all this in the morning at the bathroom mirror, and also about the stupid advertising slogans of the beautiful, beaming winner when you put on your fragrance? Not me
Imperial is a surprisingly sweet fragrance, which impresses me (even if there are no traces of it in the Pyramid) very fruity. For the first ten minutes I perceive the oily, lavish note of British fruit wine gums (not the one from Haribo, it's delicious), which I have always found rather scary. After that it remains gummy, sweetish, diffusely fruity, but also becomes buttery-creamy in a nice way. There are then undoubtedly dense flower chords, a little bit of spiciness like red pepper, something like a very delicate suede note and a bezoelike tingling.
I can't recognize pronounced oud notes, they are certainly as well used as the lavender. Nothing is more misleading in the pyramid of scents than lavender, because the typical freshness, lightness and dry powdery nature of this note is missing in the fragrance.
For me, a consistently sweet, soft fragrance, covering a wide range of notes (like many fragrances of this brand), but with a strong floral and quasi-fruity component. Thoroughly well composed, not violent or grossly overburdened, but already quite massive. The soft sweetness is in almost caricature-like contrast to the advertising slogans for this fragrance ("feel empowered", "authority of calm assurance that is the key of imperial power"). But it is also not voluptuous and opulent, for me this is definitely not a lascivious (or sexy) fragrance. I think most of all of gravitational, but meaningless activity, or of confused dreams that entangle the dreamer deep in his sleep and finally arrive much too late and yet unfreshed. In terms of colour I think of rich, dark, billowing masses of colour, violet, dark red, perhaps a muted emerald green. Emotionally I think of melancholy
Despite my bad mood with this imperial fragrance (you can tell by this comment: I don't like the whole direction) certainly not a badly made perfume, and therefore the attempt of a fair valuation with 7,5.
And in a good mood (!) thanks to Floyd for the testing opportunity.
Top Notes 
Rosewood
Angelica
Lavender
Heart Notes 
Galbanum
Jasmine
Base Notes 
Cambodian oud
Indian sandalwood
Gaiac wood
Patchouli
Leather
Patj1994
BoBoChamp
BertolucciK
Hermesh
Shemsmeller
DarkWinterCS
