Reserve Collection - № 21: Vintage Suede Cremo 2022

This is a fantastic leather scent. Definitely has a vintage 90s vibe to it with the suede accord being amplified by a leather jacket. It's a more casual take on Tom Ford's Ombre Leather. I wouldn't consider this to be the most polished leather scent, but it's absolutely worthy of a suit and briefcase. You can also do this with a simple black or brown smart casual look. It very sexy and sophisticated.

This isn't a review comparing Vintage Suede to any other fragrance.

Performance: On the strip, untouched, this last about 8 hours. On skin that doesn't make contact with clothes, it projects for 60 minutes, then a softer project for another hour, and then it's a skin scent for another 3 hours, leaving it just shy of a 5 hour duration. On skin that does make contact with clothes, it projects for 30 minutes and then it's a skin scent for another 3-4 hours, totaling under a 5 hour life with very low sillage. On clothes this lasts a bit longer: projects for the first 90 minutes, then softer projection for another hour, and then a "clothes" scent for another 5 hours, totaling a 7.5 hour life. If the sprayed area on your clothes rubs up against clothes or other stuff in any significant way, though, it has the same performance as on skin, under clothes.

Scent: There are only 2 stages to this fragrance: the suede-moss stage, and then amber with a hint of suede stage. This is a suede accord, so it's not really smoky, and it's less animalic and more new car smell. The immediate opening is not pleasant. While the initial alcohol is evaporating the fragrance smells as much like an industrial byproduct as something that's meant to make you smell better. But, within 20 minutes a more respectable scent emergence. Stage one is the suede-moss stage. The moss contributes a metallic greeness to the suede note, and the suede accord is pretty much new car leather seat smell. The amber maybe tempers things a bit, but it's very background until about 90 minutes in. There's a transition period where it's the first stage but now with amber. This is the most pleasant stage of the scent because you get the all the notes at once. The amber accord is very generic -- sort of warm, sort of powdery, all-purpose sweetness. The suede accord only lasts for half the life of the fragrance, so most of the duration is this generic amber. I don't like gourmands, and this amber here is fine to me, so I don't think anyone except the most manly manly man would find this fragrance too sweet. There are surely some musks in here too, but I'm guessing they're mostly part of the suede accord and the amber accord and not free-floating as their own notes.

Overall: I shouldn't complain given the price of the fragrance, but I will. I don't think this that good of a fragrance. It's literally 3 note, 2 stage. The opening is not good; the namesake of the fragrance only lasts for 40% of the wear; and there's no character. This isn't a bad fragrance, but there's little to compliment other than it's price and it's ability to avoid sucking.