Thadl68

First of all, many thanks to Ergoproxy for this wonderful fragrance sample.
This will definitely be my Christmas gift (if I can hold out until Christmas and not go shopping beforehand... cough...)

The opening of the fragrance is woody-spicy. Is that birch I smell?
Clove is very present from the start, but it is framed by a hint of cinnamon and woods. Definitely a very robust, masculine start. I feel connected to nature and free. Indeed, it makes me crave a walk in the woods. It's great that a fragrance can be so invigorating!

The scent now becomes sweet-spicy. Frankincense and tonka bean (I recently smelled tonka bean extract and now I know what it smells like :-) ) join in and support and present the clove in a fantastic way. After a while, the clove steps back a bit, but in such a smooth manner, it is a true delight. Like a good DJ who seamlessly transitions one song into the next. It's as if the perfumer had worked with fragrance intensity regulators.

Everything is now very warm, sweet, and smoky on my skin. I would certainly describe it as powdery, but a completely different powder scent than, for example, Midnight in Paris. The clove takes another step back. Somehow, I feel like the cinnamon is becoming a bit more prominent again and, together with the leather, merges into an absolute feel-good scent. A noble sweet spice blend.

For the youngsters, this fragrance is probably not for them, the price alone dictates that. I would rather say that the age group 30+ will find pleasure in this wonderful oriental autumn/winter fragrance. Definitely suitable for everyday wear (I will keep it that way) but, in my opinion, a lovely scent for the evening, e.g., when going out for a nice dinner or being invited to a game night with good friends.

It would be interesting to note that Linari is by no means an Italian company but a German one that, for whatever reason, names its fragrances in an overly Italian manner.
Would more interest in the scent have been generated if it had been called something more sensational like "Hellfire"? Who knows... But those who want to stay in the niche and also be a bit distinguished naturally call it Fuoco Infernale, and that indeed creates a rounded noble overall impression of a very beautiful perfume.


Longevity: approx. 4 hours
Scent presence: medium (never intrusive)
Bottle: very elegant, in my opinion, based on the pictures

Motivated by the many great comments I read here every day, I kept an eye out for a new fragrance for myself.
Since it was supposed to be a warm, sweet, and if possible, powdery scent, the fragrance description and comments about Midnight in Paris made me very curious, and after wandering around the scent for a few days,

I took the plunge...

Midnight in Paris

The beautiful blue bottle completely captivated me online. However, I must say that in person, the blue doesn't come across as intensely, but I definitely find the bottle beautiful.

After spraying it on, I smell what has already been aptly described below:
pure hairspray
I never would have thought that these top notes (bergamot, rosemary, lemon) would smell like this, but okay.
Very quickly, the hairspray scent fades away, and the powdery heart opens up. A masculine, distinctive powder scent. I am deeply impressed that powder can be made to smell so masculine and distinctive, yet also sexy, high-quality, and warm. A scent note reminiscent of car tires is also very noticeable, which runs through the entire heart note and, I believe, is responsible for keeping the powder scent from drifting too much into the feminine, instead remaining distinctly powdery. (sounds strange, but it is so)
The scent becomes vanilla-sweet after hours, maybe it's also tonka bean-sweet, (amber-sweet... ??? … help...) I really could use a seminar for that, but in any case, it's such a cozy warm pleasant sweetness, which by the way was still subtly detectable after 14 hours!

I have always had a thing for powder scents or simply enjoy smelling them. Just thinking about my wonderful scented candles that smell like baby powder or the brilliant Loulou, which is at least in my universe the most powdery scent I know.

Hmm, there it was, my personal Loulou pour homme...
...never really searched for it, but still found it...

By the way, the longevity for me is 6 hours + and the scent intensity is very, very decent. I got to know this when, out of sheer enthusiasm, I sprayed 5 sprays on myself and received many, many (positive) feedbacks regarding scent presence.
But why shouldn't I let others share in my happiness...? ;-)

A beautiful scent that fits very well into the colder season, modern, androgynous, and if Paris smells like this at night, then I definitely need to go there... :-)

This year I went on vacation in Greece again and of course went on a search for perfume.
So I set off and asked the nice saleswomen what new fragrances there were. In the first perfumery, the girls were briefed on Kenzo scents and had nothing useful to spray. In the second one, I found myself in the blabla-SPORT hell. Allure Sport, Dior Homme Sport, The One Sport... it was a sad spectacle.
Then came the day of the return flight.
So I went to the duty-free in Athens and there it was:

S*P*I*C*E*B*O*M*B

What a name, what a bottle, what a fragrance.

Fresh, but already with the spices in the starting blocks, the scent begins. I can clearly smell bergamot and grapefruit. It transitions relatively quickly into the heart note where I mainly detect the cinnamon, but it is not overdosed. I can't smell the remaining ingredients, I'm not a perfumer. :-) What I can say is that now it starts to smell like something I have fallen in love with: it smells for quite a long time (at least for me) like a softer, sweeter, not so overloaded, and simply more straightforward OPIUM homme by YSL. For me, an absolute dream. The scent smoothly connects with my skin and simply leaves a good feeling. Prozac in fragrance form, practically. ;-)
After 3-4 hours it becomes very subtle and, in my opinion, positively vanilla and still very sweet, but I think that's great.
The bottle honestly just brings joy. Maybe I'm just easily entertained, but I like the wordplay. It’s called Spicebomb, looks like a bomb, has this funny V&R bomb disposal knob on it, feels good in the hand, and is just a well-rounded thing. The scent, the bottle, and the name fit well together.
Back in Germany, I also find out that it’s not so easy or at least a bit overpriced to get it here. What more could you want? Everything done right.

Conclusion: a great scent that I can highly recommend. But beware: as I said, I am in love with this little bomb... ;-)