24 Gold

My oh my oh my!!! I'd read and watched every review I could on this one before I got it as a blind buy. The amount of respected reviewers I'd listened to saying how amazing this fragrance was and how it surpassed expectations at this price point etc... I still had reservations until I got my nose on it. To be honest all those glowing reviews don't even come close to doing it justice this is a phenomenal fragrance and I don't say it lightly... a true MASTERPIECE. It's blown me away...I couldn't wait to unbox it and when I sprayed it on my hand I waited for a few moments before smelling it, all the while my mind racing at this exciting prospect. Before I could get my nose on it I was treated to a sneak peek, a waft emanating from my hand at about waist height...It was instant love at first sniff! The moment it entered my nostrils my first thoughts were disbelief at how expensive and opulent this smells, although the reviews I'd seen had warned me of exactly that, nothing prepared me for it. 24 Gold is such a magnificent blend of notes that you get everything in the opening a very, sweet amber, jasmine, ylang ylang and anise which create a kind of spicy, middle eastern incense vibe with the sandalwood in there too. This must be contributing to the sweetness and it's almost edibile sweet. The opening is so hardhitting... an epic bombardment, it reminds me of something from Amouage. The Oud is very evident to my nose it the first hour or so it has exactly the strange quality that lots of 'Oud based' fragrances lack (It actual smells of oud!)and that's not even what this scent is all about. It has a vanilla through it too which keeps it creamy and rounds off any sharp edges the vanilla gets more and more apparent into the drydown. It's a strange reminder of elements from lots of high quality niche fragrances I love...Clive Christian C, Amouage Interlude man, Armani Prive Royal Oud/Myrrhe Imperiale and MFK Oud...without being like any of them! So fairly complex you would think? Not really. It's because when a scent is this good you can just take it at face value and you don't dissect the notes just sit back and enjoy the experience. As for the image... a sweet scent with strong branding and massive projection and silage in a gold bottle...sounds familiar huh? Don't get me wrong and no offense to 1 million but this is in another galaxy. Finally, I've been aware of this line of frags for sometime and heard people mention the Jack Bauer connection I thought jokingly...even when I saw the digitally displayed letters on the box I never thought it was actually a concept based on the hit TV series. I never really watched 24 to be honest but if Jack Bauer smelled like this no wonder he was so effective at counter terrorism. The terrorists must've been mesmerized by his princely aroma, like a deer in the headlights. I'd have told him whatever he wanted to know, with no torture necessary. This fragrance has everything going for it and is an instant favourite.

24 Gold by Scentstory is a strong fragrance. A little goes a long way, which means that the bottle will last a while. Smelling the atomizer before spraying, I picked up both a gorgeous and realistic agarwood incense scent, as well as a beautiful raspberry note. Agarwood is the tree that the essential oil oud comes from. To produce oud essential oil, an agarwood tree needs to first be infected by a fungus. After an agarwood tree is infected by a fungus, it will produce sap as a natural defense and the portions of the tree inocculated by this fungus will become saturated by these naturally occurring psychoactive resins(sap). It is recorded in the Pali Canon that the Buddha had said that the scent of burning agarwood incense containing these resins was the smell of “Nibbana.” The scent of the oud after spraying didn’t smell the same as it did from the atomizer. I am only familiar with pure agarwood incense (which is now sustainably produced by a farm in Vietnam). I am not familiar with how oud essential oil should smell, so I can’t say how the oud in the fragrance ought to have smelled. It did smell nice, and if I’m correct, was a prominent feature. The best part of 24 Gold for me aside the scent of agarwood incense lingering from the atomizer, was the raspberry note which began to get stronger as the wearing went on. 24 Gold also has a very beautiful and earthy vanilla that anchors the fragrance. Some vanilla pods (Madagascar and Mexican) have a spicy, earthy, tobacco-like smell as the vanilla begins to cure and dry, rather than the sweeter, more floral notes found in Tahitian vanilla. The vanilla in 24 Gold was somewhat reminescent of the more spicy, earthy vanilla varieties sans the tobacco note. Although it may be better worn in cold weather, it wore very well today in warm weather. 24 Gold is very exotic while feeling full-bodied and comforting at the same time. 24 Gold develops a sensual and exotic complexion while at the same time providing an enveloping and comforting feel which gives this fragrance a very distinct characteristic that almost seems paradoxical. There hasn’t yet been many fragrances that I’ve come across that shares this attribute. It is almost like the fragrance finds and delineates the line between what is wholesome and taboo, and then resides on both sides of that boundary, choosing to participate with niether construct.

This is a blind buy (most of my collection is) after coming here and stalking the notes and reviews for months. On me, the woods are the first things I notice. Just a tiny, barely perceptible hint of oud, with the sandalwood and particularly the cedar shining out. I don't know what star anise smells like (still a relative novice), but I think that might be what I'm smelling, too. I can't tell if I can actually notice the jasmine, or if I just associate oriental scents with jasmine, so I'm sort of "expecting" it to be there. Can't tell. Maybe the jasmine is noticeable. But even if it is, it's faint. The vanilla is under there, but I definitely agree with the "Main Accords" listed at the top. First I get the woods, then I notice the amber, and then I can smell the smoky vanilla underneath. It's not sweet on me at all (thank God, I've worn a lot of sweet fragrances lately, and needed a break). This has no sweet or gourmand vibe at all on my skin. I don't get any raspberry or cherry either. Just the wood, amber, and smoky vanilla. It's marketed as unisex, and I personally love it, but I do feel like some women might find it to be too masculine of a fragrance, just based on other reviews of other unisex fragrances I've read (but I obviously don't want to make generalizations or speak for other women, that's just been my experience). Good, more for me. It would absolutely turn my head if someone walked by and I smelled this on them. I imagine an old, worn, faded, soft leather jacket, dark clothes, soft-spoken but smooth and charismatic. Maybe a bit of an introvert, but they how to turn on the charm when they want to. Someone warm and kind, the kind of person who attracts people like a magnet. The kind of person other people just like being around. I live in the desert, so I usually don't pay attention to whether a fragrance is good for warm weather or "only for cold" weather. We have like 8 cold days a year. But as thick as this is, it might be a good idea to at least cut down on how much I use in warm weather. I think anything above 80 degrees, this might become a bit too much. We'll see how it works in the springtime, when the temperatures start rising. But I love it, it's awesome. Definitely a hugely successful blind buy.

Epic Journey Into the Bottled Yonder, 192 ------------------------------------------------------- Purchased January 2021 Excellent pungent powder and oud. Very strong and almost stinky, beware this one and I likely will be buying a full bottle within the next 6 months since I loved my 2 mL decant spray. There was something like this around my extended family/relatives growing up so there's a nostalgia factor as the scent itself pre-dates 24 Gold by at least a few decades. Batch code: K18S473A (unable to decode). Update: I've worn this at least a few times since first reporting on it. Just amazing every time. Grows on you more and more. People are saying this is horrible, now, due to apparent reformulations and I have no idea what they're talking about because my 2021 decant and proceeding bottle purchase in November 2024 smell excellent. No worries nor dramas about quality and content. Functions like a true Arabian EDP, it's a face blaster; a searing guitar solo with a power ballad fade out. Comfort. That M.Yassir idiot returned his bottle right after ordering, how the FUCK are you supposed to know what to look for if you missed the actual honest comments that detail the enjoyment that can be attained with this bottle. You don't know what you're talking about because you HAVE NOT SMELT IT. Upon reflection that sweetness is a raspberry note, more prominent in my bottle vs. the depleted decant which I'd prefer if there were less raspberry. It sticks around throughout the day and that's not a very manly thing, smelling like raspberry. This bottle never said which sex this is for. Now I don't know how old my bottle is, batch code above please PM me, but the raspberry that some of you loved in the original batch/es is still there and it makes it a little unisex. I want more powder, vanilla/oud instead. I love it but that's what I want. Please don't go for Jaguar Oud, this is where it all begun.

I've had this for over 2 years now and in only now doing a review. The reason is that you don't get many occasions to wear this monster. Spring, summer even fall...forget it. This has to be worn on bone chilling days, -10C and preferably heavy snow. With that said it's an amazing perfume. It lives up to the name perfume, not scent or fragrance but perfume. It is bold, unapologetic in its nature, if gold actually had a scent this would be it. It also seems to play a great line of being unisex, many labelled as so often lean toward either masculine or feminine. 24 is worn by both my wife and I and the perfume develops differently. With one spray to the chest mine becomes a spicy amber, the sweetness is toned and the woods are more predominant. My wife sprays once on the back of her neck and all day she smells of raspberry, vanilla and Nutella. Delicious. Be aware one spray under either clothing or behind long hair is all you need unless you are going to an old French whores convention. This perfume can be sickly if sprayed even more than once. It lasts 16+hours and one spray will radiate at least 6ft in all directions. I give this a 8/10, it would be a 10 but it's just not versatile enough. I bought the 100ml + 24ml travel spray for $35cnd and still probably have half of the travel spray left and the 100ml is still untouched. While many mention is bargain price this is no longer so as I see even on discount online retailers now charging $92 for what I paid $35. Looks like the cat is out of the bag. But even at $150 this perfume is gold.