Mitchcraft

It's been a while since i wrote a review so i may be a little rusty but spraying it on this morning inspired me to write something about it as these images popped in to my mind and warmed my heart.

This fragrance has invoked a feeling of well being, images of coming home to a loved one after a day of being out doing fun things and your love has been baking some sweet apple pie for you to both share over a nice cup of tea or coffee while discussing the great things you have both been doing all day. I imagine a beautiful house in the woods surrounded by snow, coming in to a warm, loving home with the fire on and the feeling of someone being there happy to see you as you are to see them. And if they smell you wearing this, i am sure they will be wanting to pull you in close for a welcoming hug.

It is sweet, creamy and again has this warmth that radiates from the body, mine being my chest where i sprayed it only twice.

I really can't believe the price of this fragrance, for what it costs it is better than some of the £300+ fragrances i have been testing at times. It can be hard to get because of its popularity and when you first get it, it does need a little time to become it's full potential, but once the kinks are worked out it becomes something so beautiful that you don't want to run out of it ever. Like a blossoming love that when done correctly becomes something truly wonderful to experience. The perfumer creating this definitely knew what they were doing to make such a wonderful fragrance at such a price, which was about £40 when i bought it.

If you can get this fragrance, or it is hard to get where you are, I suggest putting it on some sort of alert when it is back in stock because this is one worth the wait and when you get it you will understand why and not want it out of your collection ever again.

This definitely up there in my top list of the best fragrances i own.

I almost forgot to mention just how beautiful the bottle and box it comes in. This is one that will be up front and centre of your display because you are proud to own it.

The longevity is great, i remember times waking up and thinking oh who is baking something today? It smells so good, and then realizing it is the fragrance i had put on the previous day.

Projection is also great. Just 2 sprays to the chest and i can smell it as clear as day. No need to be spraying this on the wrists to check every so often, you are aware of it all day, and this is not a fragrance i find so strong to the point i become nose blind from it.

It is a great winter fragrance, but you can wear this all year round, as the sweetness is not too overpowering and feeling like you are drenched in some sort of syrup poured over you at a drunken party. No, this is a nice balance between, sweet, spice and everything nice!

Scent 10/10
Projection 10/10
Price 10/10
Longevity 10/10

What more can i say? Other than if you have the opportunity to get this, grab it, you won't regret it

Notorious opens with a boozy, sweet, fruity scent that is very reminiscent of "Erba Pura | XerJoff" , but instead of going with the white musk that those kind of fragrances have which keep it unisex, Notorious starts to go dark and leathery with a darker musky scent. For those who have tried "Pax | Lorenzo Pazzaglia" which is another fragrance compared to Erba Pura but also leans more masculine with a leather note in it also. If you were to intensify the leather in PAX and swap the white musk out for a darker musk and tone down the sweetness, you will get an idea as to what you get here from Notorious.

The fruits remind me of a sweet deep rich banana scent mixed with some other nice tropical fruits.

The rum is prominent in the opening but then after a few minutes takes a back seat, and while you know it’s there in the background, it’s not something you are going to be smelling the most. So the rum note while slightly noticeable, it is not creating a strong boozy scent like you may think it will be when you first look at the note profile.

For me the main players is the fruit on top, a dark musky kind of mid with the heliotrope, along with the dark, deep leathery base.

This is a very masculine fragrance and performance will be great for the cooler wintery months. You don’t need a lot of sprays from this.

I guess a way you could look at it is like this. If you are a fan of Erba Pura fragrances, then Notorious would suit the cooler, dark wintery months while Erba Pura is for your more summery sunny kind of seasons.

The sweetness feels like it is coming naturally from the fruity notes without some other note being added to push the sweetness further than it needs to be which allows you to enjoy the fruits on their own making them feel more natural.

This is a linear scent mostly. Sometimes the leather will push strong but there are not several stages that swap positions like a lot of other fragrances Aaron has created, but I am fine with that. Not every fragrance has to change every hour or so. If a fragrance smells good all throughout rather than one that may have stages you like a lot but are ruined by stages you don’t like, then a linear scent that smells fantastic all the way throughout works for me.

EDIT:
Ok so last night I made an edit stating I would do an update this morning due to there actually being quite a change in the dry down and was excited about it. The reason was I started to smell the vanilla come through along with the tonka bean and heliotropin as these notes can create an almond and vanilla effect and with some sweetness it reminded me a little of Parfums De Marly Pegasus Exclusif dry down,but just not quite as sweet, also Notorious was a little more powdery. I thought the leather may also help with replacing the oud in Pegasus Exclusif and help recreate that even more. Sadly this push in that direction was extremely short lived for me. I know that since ATH is not mass produced they’re creating new batches all the time and have seen people say in his instagram posts that they have had changes with time when ordering from Aaron. As in, with time the fragrance got better. They were alluding to the same effect that some Lattafa fragrances have, where they improve from the time they are first sprayed. Also the longevity is rated veryhighly here by other users. So it could be that my batch just needs a little more time because I only got about 8-9 hours max before this vanished all together. I just took a month break from wearing fragrances completely so I can promise you I have no issue with being nose blind. I only just finished the break and have worn only a few fragrances that I could smell well in to the following day. Pegasus Exclusif and Carlisle were 2 of them and they are strong! I will continue to test this and if I find any changes I will come back and update things. However my rating on longevity will relate to my experience I had yesterday.

I picked up a 10ml for testing but have many of Aaron’s 50ml bottles which are awesome. I will definitely pick up a 50ml when my 10ml runs out.

A nice addition to my ATH collection that I will definitely be using over the Christmas holidays.

Ratings

Scent 10/10 I love fruity fragrances.

Projection 9/10 it’s good but I have stronger.

Longevity is a 7 as it was just above average for me and just as it was getting to a very nice dry down.

Bottle 10ml gets an 8/10 and the 50ml are a 10/10.

Someone made a topic on the English side of the forums asking if people were looking forward to Autumn ,and after 9 months of winter weather I had to answer absolutely not as this topic was made at the beginning of summer, so we were getting our first bit of sunshine after 9 months of a hellish winter weather, but then when I got a sample of “Autumn Release” I went back and changed my answer in that topic that I did have something to look forward to, and it was the full release of Oud Noir which we knew as “Autumn Release” at that time.

Oud Noir has similarities with Haltane from Parfums De Marly, but both are different enough that owing one doesn’t make the other redundant. I would say Oud Noir in its early stages is a deeper darker scent which does end up nice and sweet like Haltane in the dry down

What I would say is that they have moments where they meet up with one another like twins on the same path but then verge off and do their own things. If you like Haltane you will love this IMO.

The opening gives me a slightly boozy liquor smell from the Amaretto along with some bitter leathery notes from the saffron.

It has great projection and as the bitterness starts to subside you will begin to get a stronger leathery scent with some fruitiness and a very smooth oud which is neither medicinal nor skanky at all. It really helps boost the projection which will be great for the time of year we are in.

The notes will swap places now and again instead of going through one stage and it being gone until the next time you wear it the phases will repeat here and there with some of the notes popping in and out to say hello for a moment and then allowing another to have its time in the light. This goes on for roughly three hours before getting to my favourite part.

The best part for me is when we get to the dry down and it does start to come closer to the skin but not a skin scent. However it will be with you until the following day ,and what it is, is a beautiful sweet fruity scent with the vanilla, plum and benzoin creating this sweet fruity vanilla cake kind of smell. It is just absolutely delicious. No it’s not sickly sweet either.

So if you are someone who likes leathery fragrances you are sorted. If you are somebody who likes sweet fruity scents you are sorted. If you are someone who likes fragrances that have great longevity and projection again you are sorted.

I give it a 9.5/10 because I am not a huge fan of the bitterness of the saffron but because the fragrance changes so much it is only half a point worth from being a full 10/10

Longevity 10/10

Bottle 50ml are the best pressurised bottles with great atomisers I own.

Projection when at its best 10/10 and it tones down to roughly a 7.5-8/10 so I will give it a 9 to round it off.

Enjoy

This was my first Oud Rose fragrance that made me realise that I love this combination. It is also a great fragrance for those who want to try their first Oud Rose as it will definitely help you to be able to detect rose and Oud in other fragrances that you maybe already have rose and oud in them but wasn’t able to separate the other notes that are in them which was what happened to me after I had already had several wears of Xerjoff "Soprano | XerJoff" I had to go and look at the notes again the next time I wore it after wearing Onyx as it changed my ability to detect those notes for the better.

So, let’s get right in to the smell of Onyx.

The opening, I was very surprised with it, because to me this smells so much like a real rose has been presented to me, and the reason for my surprise is because Aaron has said in his videos that when using rose absolute, he likes to manipulate it to smell more like a sweet jam kind of smell, but here it is unmistakably the smell of a real rose. Along with it comes the smell of oud which doesn’t seem to bother me at all in this fragrance. Somehow it adds to the feeling of the rose being real and you are standing in a garden and you are experiencing the entire garden from the earth all the way up to the petals.

After a while the rose starts to give way and this light, airy chocolate smell appears in its place, which again smells like real chocolate. You still have the smell of oud with you, but the smell of vanilla and plum begins to move in also, creating a sweet, almost gourmand scent which is not a sickly overly sweet kind of smell from the likes of Vicious Cacao, but more like his Maverick fragrance which feels so natural and delicious, but not in a way that will leave you craving a sticky, sweet treat that will destroy your summer diet you have been on.

Performance. I put this on last night and 13+ hours later I am still smelling reminders that i wore this yesterday, even though I have sprayed on Bleu De Chanel EDP this morning.

Projection is great a 10/10

Bottle 50ml is a 10’/10 ,the 10ml is an 8/10


Scent is a 9.5/10 as I wish the chocolate was dialled back just a bit, but it doesn’t last long before the vanilla and plum kicks in. It’s a nightmare to try get a .5 when using your phone to rate things so even though it says 10/10 my actual score is 9.5.

This would be great for many occasions. Summer nights are fine but the chocolate stage may be a bit much for some in hotter parts of the world at midday when the heat is at its highest. It will definitely be fine for all other seasons though.

Enjoy

Indeed, the colour purple if worn by the wrong person at one time in history could have led to their death during the times when the people who brought us opera, and therefore the sopranos, were in power. I am talking of the mighty Romans, of course.

If you do a little research in to the colour purple, this is just some of the information on the history of the colour, "Purple as the royal colour started with ancient monarchies. The colour was difficult to produce, which made it expensive and available only to upper society. Rulers wore purple robes and used purple ink to sign their edicts. Some Roman emperors penalized their citizens to death for wearing purple garments"

Speaking of the Romans, Shakespeare wrote "Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that the winds were love-sick with them,” Cleopatra is said to have greeted Marc Antony on a boat with perfumed sails after the assassination of Julius Caesar and became the queen of Egypt.

On a lighter note, the colour purple is also known as "The colour of Magic" according to writer Terry Pratchett.

All that from the colour and the name of a fragrance, but where am I going with it?

Well, only recently have I began my journey in to the world of Oud and Rose fragrances, which come across as very luxurious to me. This royal purple dressed fragrance is definitely one of luxury, I could definitely imagine Roman Emperors wearing if it was around during those times, they did have something similar though. It is a perfume very powerful men such as Julius Caesar himself could have worn to impress his love, the fore mentioned Cleopatra or vice versa being that this is unisex and would have been perfectly acceptable for either to wear during Roman times also, which I will get to. Even now in 2023 I see a confident man easily pulling this off, smelling of the beautiful roses that were often a part of Roman culture. They would wear wreaths during feasts but not only that, both men and women would wear sweet rose petal scented perfumes which were made by soaking the petals in olive oil. Another use that the Romans had for rose petals other than fragrances and wreaths were said to actually be love potions along with scented puddings and medicine. I wonder if the love potions were the colour of magic?



The sillage definitely comes across as if it were coated on purple sails with the power of the wind behind them in which it leaves a beautiful trail that for anyone to cross its wake would be caught in the love sick spell from this magical scent, after all, purple is the colour of magic. This love potion would entrance them with the luxurious smell of beautiful Oud, Bulgarian Rose among other florals with a slightly spicy touch to it, and of course it would be a sin not to mention the gorgeous fruits all perfectly blended together. It has a slight sweetness to it, but nothing overpowering.

Soprano would have been a great choice of fragrance to soak the purple sails in, as it also has great longevity that would have easily lasted the journey from Europe all the way to the hot temperatures of Egypt, as this can easily be worn in both cold and hot weather. On skin alone you can easily smell this all the way in to the following day, and if you get it on clothes, purple or not it will be with you even longer lasting days, so if you end up in an odd time or place where wearing purple could have your death warrant signed at least you will be smelling good for days afterwards, but let's just hope it doesn't come to that lol. I dare say if Soprano had been applied to the purple sails Cleopatra would have been well aware of the arrival of Mark Anton days in advance with the wind carrying its scent with the powerful sillage behind it.

I am a 42 year old man and I have worn this during garden parties for birthdays, I have worn it just for casual days and I have often wondered what I would choose to wear on the day of my wedding if were to ever have one, and I would happily pick this as one of my top contenders.

I think this is a beautiful scent and if you can wear other Oud Rose fragrances as a man I am sure you would be happy to wear this one also. There are always the discovery kits that Xerjoff provides, where you can pick four of your own choice and both times I have ordered from Xerjoff it has come with the speed of Purple perfumed sails with the huge performance that Soprano boasts powering the winds behind them, all the way from Italy to the UK in the matter of a day or two. That was the case for both a singular discovery kit and the purchase of the bottle of Soprano.

What I like about Xerjoff is that each time you place an order for a bottle, they give you a free discovery kit with it, allowing you to pick out another 4 to sample for free. So if you order directly from them, always remember to fill out your discovery kit.