Side Effect Initio 2016 Eau de Parfum

I read and watched so many reviews describing side effects, stating it’s a very balsamic cosy scent along the lines of black phantom which is my holy grail for comforting winter scents.

Side effects is undoubtedly beautiful but to my nose it was not remarkable, the opening was nice cinnamon ( I like that) but quickly it became a soft skin scent vanilla. I kept sniffing my wrist as it was developing but to me it lacked something maybe a sweet note.

I tried it side by side with blessed baraka which I pretty much preferred to it.

I still prefer black phantom ( Kilian) as my cosy and bouquet idéale (casamorati), which has a beautiful cinnamon opening and a skin scent vanilla dry down and better sillage.

You don't get that nuclear performance, projection and sillage anymore.. I have a sample pre 2023 and it's amazing, just recently bought a bottle from the official Initio website and I thought I got a bad dupe instead.. yes it's kinda the same DNA, but thinner, toned down.. the difference is quite big. No amount of maceration, maturation, praying to god is gonna make it smell like the old Side Effect.

I’ve had this decant for almost a year now and just never reviewed it, so let’s all pretend this is my first time smelling it, cool?

So this is what all the teen TikTok influencers are hyping up? This?? I can’t wrap my head around why. I would never peg a teen boy as the target audience for a fragrance that smells so… alcoholic. And not in a sexy or good way. More in a "your father's stash of empty rum bottles under the couch cushions" kind of way.

I mean it’s not flat-out disgusting. But I really don’t like this scent profile. And I think if you grew up around alcoholism, this would probably be triggering to wear. It’s that on-the-nose.

Pop open a bottle of rum and you’re basically 90% of the way there. Maybe sprinkle in a touch of saffron and tobacco to round it out, but that’s it. It gives off “40-year-old musty man downing his third glass of whiskey in a cigar lounge” not TikTok frat king. I genuinely don’t know why that crowd has latched onto it.

That said… I’ll give Side Effect its flowers where they’re due: it projects like a monster and lasts forever. If you want people to smell you from across the room, this will absolutely get the job done.

But me? I’ll pass.

If you look at the notes, there isnt a lot about Initio's cult classic Side Effect to excite or go crazy about, and yet it is one of my all time favourite fragrances and one that I cherish like few others.

I first came across it at the start of last year on a business trip to Dubai, before I moved here. Initio were not a house I knew much about in all honesty, and I sampled it in the Duty Free shop in the airport on the way home. In and amongst the jungle of D&Gs, Chanels and Armanis I picked up the bottle and it smelt impossibly exotic to me. Not exotic in the sense of far away lands with different cultures but exotic in that I honestly hadn't smelt anything like it before. There is rum in it but it doesnt read boozy and there is saffron in there but it isnt really a saffron fragrance at its heart. It ends up being something else, and that thing smells wonderful. I was sniffing my wrist all the way home and it radiated off me in the way Side Effect does. The lady next to me on the plane complimented me on it as I sat down and the Marechausee agent at Schiphol did again when I landed at AMS.

My head was filled around that time with an idea to move back to Dubai, a place I lived in from 2013-2019 and that I consider home, even though I am a Londoner originally. I had all these ideas about improving my life, being better, doing better, going on Mounjaro, fixing things up at home, fixing things up at work and becoming a better version of myself, and Side Effect was the olfactory accompaniment to this.

Side Effect is a type of perfumery where the blending masks most or all of the major accords in isolation and makes them sing together in unison to make a different smell that is something more than its constituent parts. It is about the feel and the texture of the fragrance as much as the scent and I instantly connected with it. It walks a fine line between spicy and too sweet, but never steps over it. It so evocative of places I've never been to in cities I don't know, enjoying life with people I've never met. The playful, irreverent boozy note, like a very fine XO Single Cask brandy with Cherry Coke, is more imagined than real. I almost imagine I can smell champagne and cocaine in this as well; again imagined but hinted at. The imaginary version of me is me but better. Funnier, smarter, more confident, fitter, wealthier and cooler. He is the guy who wears Side Effect as his signature scent, and every time I wear it I feel a bit more like the best version of myself. Side Effect smells like what I imagine being completely happy in my own skin feels like.

As I get older and wiser, (*and moving back to Dubai for the second time last year has made me more of both in spades*), I have come to realise that I'll never be that guy. I will never have the perfect smile, the AP, the chiseled abs, the eight figure bank account and the respect and universal regard, nee adoration, of others. And that is okay. I am doing okay, my life is on the up and generally I do okay. I am lucky. And I smell fantastic.

Not everyone is going to like me but pretty much everyone is going to know I smell fantastic.

Side Effect is one of those fragrances I reach for when I need to be reminded that the best version of me is the one staring at me from the mirror and the blessings I have in my life are better than anything I can project onto myself like some cosmic atomiser. It is a reassuring pat on the back and a little wink from the universe, to tell you that you're doing fine and life is good.

All true fragrance enthusiasts know what I mean when I talk about the little frissons of something; those stolen moments against whatever drudgery and trauma the world is throwing at you, in spite of the noise and chaos, you wear a certain perfume on a certain day because when you close your eyes and sniff your wrist it all stops. Just for a second it goes quiet and your soul smiles a bit because you smell absolutely incredible. You close your eyes and just bask in the fragrance and allow it to make you feel great. You open your eyes and let the world back in, with the tiniest little self-satisfied smirk on your face. It feels almost masturbatory doesnt it? Almost :)

I dare say there are a lot of Side Effect wearers, male or female, who do so for compliments because it is beautiful fragrance that projects nicely and is a reliable source of nice comments from those around you. But I wear it because I love how it smells and how it makes me feel when I smell like that. It stays with me for seven or eight hours and settles into a skin scent after that.

In this world today of self doubt, self torture and trying to live up to unrealistic, unhealthy ideals that can only ever defeat you, the gift of a perfume that can make you feel happy in your own skin, if only for a short time, is a wonderful thing indeed. Side Effect is one of a handful of fragrances that does that for me. It tells me I'm moving on up in my own way and I've come a long, long way in the last 12 months. Moving on up and learning to be happy in my own skin smells like Side Effect to me.

Three Word Summary - Me Being Me.

Scent - 10/10
Sillage - 9/10
Drydown - 9/10
Bottle/Packaging - 9/10
Performance - 8/10

45/50

Side Effect is a very nice sweet/boozy/tobacco fragrance. It's quite smooth and creamy and a masculine fragrance. So, while I like the scent itself, the overall package has a number of negatives for me. It would certainly work well for a guy who likes sweeter fragrances. It ended up being too sweet for me. My preference for a boozy tobacco is Kutay which has a touch of sweetness but isn't as sweet as Side Effect. I also was thinking about it from the perspective of a smooth and creamy masculine scent. Maybe add some incense and resin. What I was creating in my mind and confirmed with testing is none other than Boss Bottled Absolut (2024 version) which fits the smooth and creamy groove better for me than Side Effect. Lastly, while Side Effect is a nice scent, it also struck me as very designer-ish. It just can't justify the purchase price.

Longevity was very good with very good sillage for a few hours.