ScottMcArron

Another “luxury” house putting out overpriced mostly crap perfumes. I’d even take Xerjoff and Boadicea the Overpriced over this because even they have a few decent perfumes worthy of a FB, if not overly priced FBs.

Of the brand’s lineup, of which I’ve sampled 21 (from their discovery set + now 2 samples of this one), this and two others stood out as the “best” to me. But let’s keep this in context of mediocrity.

Given the note listing, I was hoping for a decent oud/rose/frankincense to help me milk my bottle of FM’s The Night a few years longer. I did not find that here. It’s not a terrible scent but it’s far from great or worthy of wasting any money. Long story short, if a bottle were gifted to me I might wear it once a year or so, or maybe re-gift it to a friend who is not very much into perfumes and doesn’t know better.

I don’t want to waste too much more time here as I already have by sampling this house so I’ll cut to the chase. It’s mostly synthetic. They claim to use real oud so they probably use some. It’s not a lot. They’ve clearly bolstered it with some synthetic compounds to come across like there’s more. And the oud dies away anyway after about 2 hours leaving just an ambery rose mess.

These are the last words I’ll write about the house and the last thoughts I’ll give it.

Cheers!

I speak as a studied musician and bass player of 30 years. This is more tenor than bass. From the name, I’d think this would be more about thick, deep, resinous notes. Clearly it’s not.

Bright, green, grassy, floral, sour grapefruit citrusy, spicy, peppery. On the color spectrum, I visualize orange, green, earthy tones.

Comparatively, sits between TdH Parfum and Roja’s Isola Blu. Isola Blu is more colorful, like light refracted through a prism, fruitier, juicier, brighter, sweeter in the base, more cheerful particularly in the opening hour. They become more similar in the dry down. Bear in mind these are subtle differences I’m speaking of. These two are very, very close and the differences come out only on close inspection.

I do have to say that the dry down does become a bit muddled here after an hour or so while Isola Blu retains the note separation and distinctness. The latter is somewhat higher quality but you will pay dearly for that very small difference.

Performance is comparative to the two aforementioned. Ultimately about average for a fresh citrusy perfume, or what I like to refer to as classy sillage, for yourself and those close to you. For all day enjoyment, you’ll want to take a travel sprayer. Eg. if you spray before going to work you’ll probably want to spray again on your lunch break.

I would not call Basso a great fragrance, but I do really enjoy it as I don’t demand too much from fresh citrusy summer fragrances. It’s an easy, likable wear with enough depth and complexity to keep me interested.

For those with small collections, this would be redundant if you had TdH Parfum or Isola Blu. For those like me with larger collections, you may find enough nuanced differences to have any or all of these. I am biased towards this one because of the name and my love for bass playing. And the quality and price ratio sits nicely in the attainable luxury spectrum: better than a standard designer and not outrageously priced where I’d need to worry about my bank account with every spray. But once my travel atomizer of Isola Blu is gone I’ll likely be purchasing a bottle of that too to wear on more rare occasions.

Edit: I keep coming back to this thought. This is the smell of Sprite as a perfume.

A pleasant, easy to wear fruity oud with modest performance.

The oud is slightly sour, almost yeast-like, non-animalic. The tangy apple is not the sweet sour green apple of Promise but rather like dehydrated red apple chips. Mixes wonderfully with the rose and orange blossom. Very well blended. Otherwise, kind of boring. Seems to be missing something to set it apart or pique my interest.

I get about 6” projection in the first hour settling into 3-4” thereafter. Lasts quite awhile in that range. Not as good as my Bortnikoff’s, for instance, which most are rated as moderate (~7.5/10).

It’s very good, but it’s not super great and can’t compete in the Bortnikoff and Areej le Doré space, or even Frederic Malle’s middle eastern line although those can get ridiculously expensive.

I’d be happy to add it to the collection on a steeply discounted price but it’s just not quite worth the asking price, IMO. And I’m not sure I’d ever choose to wear it over the aforementioned brands. I’d spray Promise before this every time, even though it doesn’t have oud, but I love castoreum and the castoreum note juxtaposed with that fresh, spicy, sweet, sour green apple is simply amazing. And I can’t imagine anyone familiar with Bortnikoff and AlD being very impressed with this.

For me and my collection and where I’m at, this is a pass. There’s better out there at this price point. YMMV! Cheers!

…this is practically a Guerlain Heritage clone. I despise clones. I don’t care if a clone is 99% of the original at 1/100th the cost. I will buy the original. It’s a matter of respect. But here’s where I’m conflicted. Most clones are shadows of their original. Roja is different. He takes a beautiful thing and somehow makes it….more.

If Heritage was the perfect mature man’s amber fougere of the 90’s, Danger is the updated, luxurious version for the 2020’s.

Rather than a proper review, I’ll leave this comparative image I haven’t been able to get out of my head for the last couple years:

Heritage: a warm dimly lit study, leather bound books most of which have a layer of dust about them adorn the walls, dark cherry wood furniture. An older gent clear of mind and humbly intelligent sits in a plush leather chair doning a full beard and wearing a comfortable cardigan smoking a pipe and drinking single malt scotch, reading an actual physical book (they still exist, fwiw).

Danger: that older gent’s son, his father through and through, a man of similar but more modern tastes, finely groomed with short stubble as you may see in fashion magazines, luxury designer striped suit, vaping rather than smoking, living in an über-clean modern black&white apartment, sitting on (not in) a tightly molded leather chair, also sipping a lovely aged scotch as his father would do, reading on his Kindle, no physical book in sight (as that would depart from the clean minimalist aesthetic).

I respect Heritage for being the original. I love Danger for being the modern luxurious interpretation.

Many a fraghead shy away from citrusy perfumes. I think it’s an unwritten rule in the sub-culture (I’m more than pleased to be a part of, however finicky). Most would scoff at this one as well. I, however, enjoy it very much given the practical opportunity: warmer weather.

Do you know the famous and popular Bvlgari Tygar? 3 notes: Grapefruit, ginger, and ambroxan. Actually quite nice. Constructed by the legendary Jacques Cavallier. Tygar is hidden here, as in a bush, behind leafy mint and spiced rum. Less BR540 airy, as Tygar is, relying on that ambroxan for that near invisible push that others enjoy and you will rarely experience after the initial sprays. This is more standard fare in such regards. You will enjoy it throughout.

It is long lasting for its genre, very pleasant, and never boring. I have to give kudos here.

Some say it’s like a mojito. I can’t disagree. It’s much more bright and citrusy than the other mojito experience you might find in Guerlain’s Homme, which is about 1/10th the price, btw, and far more floral than citrus in comparison.

Liken to colors and textures, Burlington is bright, sparkling gold-hued yellow while GH is velvety bright pink. Both are great in their own right! I get FAR more mint in Burlington, and as much of a fan of Guerlain as I am I must admit the Roja smells much more luxurious (as usual, and why I am such a fan).

There’s much more going on here than I give justice to. In the end, if you know Tygar and like the idea of that with an addition of potent mint supported by rum then you won’t go wrong here. There is certainly a Tygar hiding inside Burlington 1819.