Mercer

There are some fragrances you come across and they are just miles beyond anything else you've smelled. Only a few things come to mind when I think of things I've smelled and just been blown away:
"Blue Sapphire Supercharged | Boadicea the Victorious"
"Neroli Portofino Forte | Tom Ford"
"Hermessence Ambre Narguilé | Hermès"
"Baccarat Rouge 540 (Extrait de Parfum) | Maison Francis Kurkdjian"

Well "Elysium Parfum Cologne (Eau de Parfum) | Roja Parfums" fits into that group above. However, it's 99% identical in smell to "Elysium pour Homme (Parfum) | Roja Parfums" and given that you can regularly find the extrait version for under $260 USD I can't see why anyone would lean towards this version.

The performance is not there, don't listen to what anyone else says, it's NOT THERE. If you're a person who struggles to smell "Aventus | Creed" or "Baccarat Rouge 540 (Eau de Parfum) | Maison Francis Kurkdjian" because they're Ambroxan heavy -- then you'll have that same problem with "Elysium Parfum Cologne (Eau de Parfum) | Roja Parfums".

HOWEVER, it's not because the ambroxan with this one...it's because it just is not there after an hour. To be fair the extrait version isn't a whole lot better in terms of performance, but its def noticeable for longer.

I've even tried layering the PC version with the Extrait version and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Do yourself a favor and skip this version, get the better version that will last a bit longer...although the extrait performance isn't THAT much better tbh.

Original Viking certainly skews older, it has a very refined old spice feel to it...and it is quite nice.

This on the other hand, I was expecting this based on the notes and things I saw to be something that felt a little younger....somehow to me this feels even older and more dated.

I just don't know about this one, and am not sure why Creed would make this. As I've used original Viking more I've grown to like it a lot, despite it being a scent that reminds me of someone at least double my age.

This one...I just don't see any reason to ever own this.

Tons of tobacco fragrances out there, this one gives me Hookah vibes. It smells like I'm walking through the Arab quarter of Jerusalem, there is a spice to it, a smokiness to it, and a sweetness.

At first spray, there is almost this chocolate scent, like a very milky chocolate....reminds me of chocolate milk if you only add a little chocolate so that the milk becomes almost identical in color to the bottle here.

10-15 minutes into this, it becomes more spicy, and the smoke comes out a bit more, less sweet.

This is one of the most authentic tobacco's I've come across, very different than:

"Tobacco Vanille (Eau de Parfum) | Tom Ford"
"Tobacco Flirting with Vanilla | Mes Bisous"
"XJ 1861 Naxos | XerJoff"
"Back to Black Aphrodisiac (Perfume) | Kilian"
"Beverly Hills Exclusive | Unique'e Luxury"

What is it closest to? I would say Tobacco Vanille, but other than both of these having tobacco involved, that's about as close as it gets. TV to me is more of a pipe tobacco smell, and this is very clearly middle eastern.

I'm not sure how this will smell to others around you, I could see people not wanting to smell this on someone. I particularly enjoy it on myself so I'll use it...but out of the other tobacco fragrances listen I would have to say this would be the most 'challenging' of them all.

For something from Amouage that fits into the realm of being a little bit more resinous / darker as this one is...I would expect the performance to be better than that of Beach Hut Man...yet it's not.

Today for example, I sprayed this on around 8am and by now (2:18pm) It's almost completely gone, even from clothes..I get the lightest, faintest whiff of this but that's about it.

I'm not a fan of the whole reformulation theory, but when I tried this for the first time ~12 years ago, I feel like remembering this being a beast that I would categorize with LDDM, Black Afghano, and even things like Tobacco Vanille, Tuscan Leather, Amber Absolute from the same time period.

Back then, 1 spray almost felt like it was too much....this performed like Interlude did, yet today....it feels tamed. Now I did 3 sprays on clothing, and it's not even lasting more than your typical Creed.

Patiently waiting for Jubilation 40 to come out, to hopefully reclaim the fragrance I used to know.

Once as a kid I made a milkshake with some very recently spoiled milk...it wasn't curdled or anything it had just recently gone bad so it had this slight sour taste to it. As I drank the entire thing (vanilla ice cream, little bit of chocolate) and it had this weird sweet and sour flavor. At the time, I didn't know what spoiled milk was so didn't think much about it, some time later I had spoiled milk by itself and then realized why that milkshake tasted so weird.

the smell of "Valiant | Boadicea the Victorious" is identical to how that milkshake with sour milk tasted.

The other thing I can think of that comes to mind with this is a banana peel (specifically the peel) when that banana is rotting and completely black. There is a dirty, sour smell paired with still a sweetness from the banana itself.

I think I'm getting this from these notes:
Ylang-Ylang - sweetness with sourness
Oris - Dirty almost soil smell
Petitgrain - woody bitterness
Jasmine - slight moth ball smell.
Rose - Typical rose scent.

Thats's what dominates this scent, and I just don't think it's good. I think people associate the $1200+ it costs and think because it that it has to be amazing, and there are reviews with people saying it's incredible...sorry it's just not.

"Blue Sapphire Supercharged | Boadicea the Victorious" on the other hand, worth the $1200+