Torn Henry Rose 2019

This is a powder-forward, warm soft-floral. I can smell every one of the notes listed. The patchouli is not overwhelming and the gourmand notes are very background. It is definitely a floral-first scent. The florals are all soft and sweet. The sandalwood and vanilla lend some depth on the dry down, but the florals stay put throughout the day.
This is not for me at all. But it is a lovely, woody powder-floral, if that's your jam.

The beginning was confusing. I don't know if it's because my sample is old and it oxidized, but I got a weird accord of BO and like someone tried to cover it up by spraying on weak fragrance.

Very off-putting. Top notes of florals were very faint and fleeting, almost non-existent. It immediately moved to the bottom notes. I got a sickly sweet vanilla that hasn't been well-dosed, a dirty and earthy patchouli, a masculine and spicy vetiver, a creamy praline note, a sharp and woody sandalwood and warm musk. It just doesn't fit well together. It's trying to give your-skin-but-better, but also gourmand, but also masculine fragrance and soft feminine vibes. Overall, it's just a clashing mess of notes that either haven't been well-balanced or have grown to hate each other in my decant. Drydown is similar to Queens & Monsters without the coconut. After a few minutes, I also started getting a fresh, sharp, spiciness that reminded me of hand sanitizer. I just wanted to scrub it off. I also got a struggling gourmand praline note, but paired with the earthiness of the patchouli and the fresh, spicy vetiver? Absolutely not.

Anyways. I think this one is my least favorite in the discovery set. Unfortunately it has good performance and I could smell it waft to my nose as I was typing my review. It's just not it: a fragrance that hasn't found it's identity. A hard pass for me.

I sprayed twice on my bare shoulder and couldn't quite put my finger on what it was at first. Something powdery? Distantly floral and spicy? Maybe my nose wasn't trained enough, so kept sniffing it every few minutes. But after 15 minutes: vanilla. Unmistakably, overwhelmingly vanilla. Very sweet and cloying, to the point where I thought I'd sprayed a bit on my face by accident because I could taste it in the back of my throat.

The vanilla mixed a bit more with sandalwood and florals after an hour, and thankfully became a bit more nuanced at that point. It was a bit more pleasant, but vanilla was still the dominant note. Unfortunately, this nuanced stage didn't last long. After about 2 hours, the sandalwood and spice faded and once again, nothing but vanilla.

Overall, Torn is not my thing, informed primarily by my dislike of the star note. The vanilla is very strong and I generally don't like vanilla. If the fragrance went from its opener to how it smelled at the 2-3 hour mark, maybe I would've been okay with it but it lingers on this very sweet, sticky vanilla for a while and I was tempted to wash it off, but stuck it through for the sake of having a fully formed analysis on it. Probably won't finish my sample of this. But hey, if you like a slightly spiced vanilla, this may be your thing!