Scentastic08

During a day trip to Milan I had the chance to visit the Milan Cathedral and many other sights as well as a few perfume houses. The enthusiast in me has of course days before researched on the Internet which houses have a store in Lombardy and with pleasure I could determine that there is a small shop of Editions de Parfums.
Arrived I was as happy as a little child who enters a candy store, because the perfume houses of Frederik Malle are very sparse. The tiny store of only about 15 square meters was fully geared to the new release "Syntehtic Jungle" and decorated in the plump green jungle design. However, I was interested from the beginning only "The Moon", because it is otherwise very difficult to get alone to samples and these are admittedly also just extremely expensive. The fragrance had attracted me by its description and several reviews on video platforms and aroused my interest. I am a big fan of Editions de Parfums but have only been able to test "Promise" from the Desert Gems collection. So I was all the more interested in the high-priced fragrances, all of which are supposed to use real oud. I would also like to add that I received super friendly advice in the store and was even offered a chair so that I could sit down and test everything I wanted in peace without any pressure being put on me to buy anything. Quite big cinema! :-)

I sprayed The Moon with a sprayer on my arm, so that I could test it from the durability and sillage. My first thought was that the scent reminded me more of Promise than I would have thought. This may be due to the Turkish rose that prominently accompanies both fragrances, however, I can't shake the feeling that I also perceive a spicy pepper note at the beginning. However, this comparison is quickly invalidated as a lovely raspberry note comes to the fore. It is still strongly supported by the rose which holds back, however, more and more. The longer the scent is on my arm, the more woody and oriental it becomes, which I attribute to the oud. Leather I can hardly perceive in the course of the fragrance. The oud is definitely to smell but clearly less animalic than in his colleague "The Night" from the same collection, which I could also test. There, the oud already has an almost fecal note, whereas in "The Moon" it remains wonderfully discreet in the background and gives a spicy-oriental note. The durability is phenomenal! On my skin, the scent was easily noticeable for 15+ hours despite showering in between, and projected without end for the first 5 hours. The scent is generally very loud, however, I feel him at the same time not as intrusive.
When I later sniffed again on my arm I am the association of the shadow of a caravan that moves over a dune ridge not got rid of and had to think at the same time of Sting's song "Desert Rose". This describes the fragrance perfectly for me: Arabic singing and a low setting sun that captures the last impressions of the desert. Also, the name just fits too well and I feel transported to the Orient by the scent. "The Moon" is a wonderful rose-oud scent, with the rose taking center stage and supported by a pleasantly sweet raspberry. It is spicy, woody and smells very classy in my opinion. I can recommend everyone to get his nose to a sample, because this fragrance has me intrigued beyond belief.
I leave the closing words to Sting and "Desert Rose":
"This desert rose whose shadow bears the secret promise, this desert flower no sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this"

Soleil Neige. Sunny Snow. Tom Ford markets his 2019 creation by saying that it smells like the sun's rays shining on the blanket of fresh snow in the mountains. Hmm yes what are you supposed to mean by that now so exactly. What does fresh snow smell like? In itself there shouldn't be much of an olfactory confluence. Water, which condenses, rises, cools down in extreme heights and then falls to the ground in solid form. Doesn't sound like anything exciting to the nose. Maybe the sun. Does it smell like something? (From my own experience, I'll just say no here.) Maybe it's the interaction of these two components. We have snow and then the sun. The sun melts the snow. This then becomes water again. But even said water doesn't really have a distinctive smell of its own. So what is this name supposed to convey to us? We will look at this detail later. It remains to be said that the fragrance should smell of precisely nothing if it were to live up to its name. Or perhaps after something warm, aquatic maximum.
But this is not the case. Of course, the fragrance does not smell like nothing either. About the fragrance: in fact, it is a wonderfully fragrant nose-pleaser! What a great release from the house of Ford. It is not aquatic burning. Rather, it is a great, floral-fresh fragrance with super performance.
In the top note you get a wonderful citrus kick missed by the bergamot. Wonderfully balanced and not too intrusive. Quickly joins after a few minutes a white sea of flowers. It develops a wonderful citrus-floral mix that gives a great fresh kick. In the drydown, the scent doesn't get much different, a little bit sweeter due to the more prominent labdanum and very light vanilla notes. So we have a nice fresh floral citrus scent here. However, not the usual white-floral powdery experience that Reflection Man, for example, gives. It's different, more citrusy, not quite put into words, but still beautiful.
The fragrance is absolutely unisex in my opinion! Despite the floral notes, it's not too feminine and it's also not too harsh due to the bergamot. I think he fits perfectly to spring and summer, contrary to the expected snow rather less in the cold season.
In addition, I must say that the fragrance has an incredibly good performance for me for the freshness he conveys. On the skin it is easy to smell 8-10h and the sillage can be seen with 4-5h but times so what!
But now back to the name. So he conveys nothing of melting snow or generally of the sun or snow. And yet the name fits perfectly. You have to include the environment that the name conveys. Because if you imagine standing on a snowy, icy field, looking at the blue sky and breathing deeply the clear air, while the sun is laughing down on you, then the association fits very well with this clear, fresh fragrance.
I thank you for your reading and your perseverance, I hope I could put you this wonderful fragrance a little closer. For me, he finds far too little attention for how great he is :-)

Tom Ford. Leather. I thought that was something. One of the most famous fragrances of the house of Tom Ford is Tuscan Leather. The polarizing strong leather fragrance about which many previous speakers have already written. But wait. We are but not under the fragrance Tuscan Leather landed, but under the fragrance Ombre Leather.
Okay it is also only a word, which separates the two fragrances. Tom Ford TUSCAN Leather and Tom Ford OMBRE Leather. So we have Tuscan Leather versus "a touch of" leather. So both leather fragrances from the same designer perfume house. So it's natural to compare the scents with each other. And that's absolutely fine, but it's starting to get on my nerves that Ombre Leather is pushed into the corner by many connoisseurs, because he allegedly can not keep up with Tuscan Leather.
And it always comes down to the same thing: "In itself, this is a good scent, but even though it's not called Tuscan Leather and it's not the same scent, I'm disappointed that it's not Tuscan Leather. Therefore, the scent is bad."
I would love to read reviews of this fragrance if it had been released before Tuscan Leather.... Well but as we all know Tuscan Leather is one of the sacred original fragrances that came out in 2007. And I too think that Tuscan Leather is a masterpiece! I think it's just great and super creative. However, I just don't think it's fair to always compare to it when smelling Ombre Leather. Both scents should be considered independently as two strong leather scents from one house. On top of that, Ombre Leather is now available in the Signature Line for significantly less money. Now you have two awesome leather scents in two price categories and the full selection. About this you should be happy and not constantly the one or the other fragrance niederschmetternd compare.
So now but to the fragrance itself. Ombre Leather is namely also an incredibly great fragrance! It is a beautiful, gentle and floral fragrance with a great leather accord. Especially jasmine can be heard as a constant companion of the leather and rounds off the fragrance for me very great. In the beginning, the top note of jasmine is still very strong, but from time to time, the note slowly recedes and the leather accord takes over here more and more. The leather is in no way one of the variety hau drauf and give you the full can of new car seats in the luxury sports car. For me, it's more like a quaint old shoe factory where you can stroll through and notice the leather smell of the shoes. It is rather unobtrusive and yet well present and distinctive. For me it is also a very good representative of the unisex fragrances. This is not a leather scent that only men can wear and where women have to get used to it. No, I find it is super wearable by both sexes, which is also probably the jasmine.
The fragrance really has a great durability of 8-10 hours on my skin and the sillage also holds easily 4 hours around you. That is really strong! And here's where I have to make a final comparison, as Ombre Leather actually has a significantly longer longevity and sillage on my skin than Tuscan Leather.
That should be it now... please remember that there are two wonderful leather fragrances from the house of Tom Ford and that each is good and special for itself.
I thank you for reading and your time :-)

I have to say one thing up front. I have not yet had the pleasure of smelling Mont Blanc Individuel.
This fragrance came out two years before Original Santal and is supposed to smell very similar to the Creed version. Ergo, Creed has brought out a fragrance that is based on the DNA of a much cheaper fragrance and then also packed "original" in the name. Creed has had to take a fair amount of flak for that. And I also think that Individuel will smell very similar and also be much better value for money. Nevertheless I decided to buy the sandalwood based fragrance from Creed. Why I did this I would like to explain now in the following. (Attention harsh topic change)
I am a huge theme park and roller coaster enthusiast. It can't be higher, faster, more extreme, and one more inversion. I love visiting all sorts of parks on free weekends and soaking up and enjoying the (usually) wonderful atmosphere in the parks. There you are freed from everyday life and you suddenly find yourself in a whole other world that enchants you with great attractions, lots of fun and beautiful themed worlds.
I did not like roller coasters until a few years ago and have therefore never seen the sense and purpose to jet in amusement parks. This changed when I met my now best friend, who finally convinced me to accompany him to the Heide Park. And since the moment where I drove the roller coaster Desert Race and felt the brute catapult start for the first time, it has caught me.
You think surely, how I now find the arc to the fragrance. Again, the protagonist is my aforementioned best friend. He is my go-to guy when it comes to theme parks and we try as often as possible to discover new parks together. And that goes according to the following scheme. In order to arrive on time a departure is usually necessary on Saturday before 06:00 in the morning. Most of the time I am allowed to play the driver (which I love to do) and pick up my buddy. When he arrives he gets into my car and a metal playlist is turned on to wake him up. Mostly this ranges from Ghost to Gojira or from Slayer to Lamb of God (all metal fans may now stretch their horns upwards :-)). And little by little a certain smell rises then into my nose.
My best friend has a favorite house for fresh scents: Creed. Through him I have become aware of the house at all. Sometimes it smells in the car after pineapple, sometimes after a green clearing in the forest and sometimes also after sandalwood. But no matter which scent made it as a daytime fragrance, each scent has that certain something that makes Creed so special. It always smells majestically fresh and just wonderfully classy and world class in quality. I will always associate the smell of Creed fragrances with theme parks and fun, and have wonderful memories associated with these scents.
And it just so happens that I like the note of sandalwood so wonderful. From therefore it is also no wonder that I was from the first moment totally in love with Original Santal.
Here you get what the name suggests: Full can of sandalwood. But how ! And it is a wonderfully sweet, creamy sandalwood that accompanies you from the top to the base note. Added to that are lovely citrus notes in the opening and a bit of pepper as well as lavender to round everything out. In terms of longevity and sillage, Original Santal is one of the best Creeds. The fragrance coats you all day and can be smelled on the skin for 8h+. So it performs top! You can wear it best in summer on warm days but it also goes well with a cozy winter day.
Even if there will be alternatives that smell very similar and the concept of Original Santal is not original in any case, I would choose again and again for the Creed version, because I love this certain extra to the fragrance so and I now have my own theme park experience at home.

Parfums de Marly. A name as he could not sound nicer for a French perfume house. It directly suggests something noble, if not even noble. Add to this a handsome price and the outwardly well-formed image of a niche house is complete. Of course, this is accompanied by expectations. For the invested money, it should also be something special.
Special is the flacon in any case! A rough, not to see through body looks mysterious and the engraved logo of the house simply noble. About the heavy weight of the bottle (cap) have already been made many jokes and I smile again and again when I hold this brute heavy thing in my hands. Here, too, one remains true to itself and the weight as well as the processing are simply a treat. The flacon comes to the high expectations so fully. But now to the fragrance.

The fragrance is beautiful! It does not take much to break him down. It opens with a beautiful apple note and then quickly becomes a comforting warm sweet vanilla. Even though the scent itself is great and the blending is at the very highest level, I have to say that something is missing.
For a niche fragrance for which you put a lot of money on the counter, it is then but something stringent. As I have already described it is easy to break down. From a beautiful niche perfume, however, I expect a certain complexity, that certain something just. Layton opens violently and this violence remains. There is no roller coaster ride of fragrance nuances. One must be aware of this. However, this should in no way mean that it is a boring, bad fragrance. No. I like Layton from the fragrance DNA extremely well and I hang sometimes almost addicted to my bottle to smell it. It's just that little twist that I'm missing here. PDM has already shown that they can do better with the Exclusif variant of the fragrance. Here, the great original DNA is taken and underlaid with a wonderful woody tone that gives exactly this said twist.
In terms of performance, however, Layton screams niche again. Two sprays are enough and the fragrance sticks to you all day. Strong! Also, the sillage is well above average and you will definitely be noticed across rooms.

The fragrance is very easy to like and actually pleases every person who smells it. Also, this does not necessarily suggest niche (But that should not be a negative point now). Wear Layton should also actually only in colder temperatures, because the sweetness is otherwise clearly too penetrating. Also, a spray can be tempting for a nice date evening (But please not in the summer in the evening still 25 degrees :D).

So with Layton you get a very nice fragrance with an incredibly good performance and addictive potential. A really good all-rounder for the winter with everyone can grab a few compliments. However, if you are looking for a beautiful niche fragrance that is a little more complex and may also like to polarize times, then you are at Layton in the wrong place.