Hard Candy

I was getting bored and thinking of stopping buying anything for a while until i found this! I absolutely love this fragrance and i am so thankful to those who tried the previous versions and begged Aaron not to discontinue this when he was talking about actually doing so. I also have to thank Aaron for not only listening to his fans unlike so many designer houses do when they reformulate or just discontinue their most popular fragrances to replace their best flankers with something subpar, but also thank him for actually listening and on top of that going and making the fragrance perform better and upping the concentration to an Extrait De Parfum! What more can you ask from a perfumer? So this is the 2023 version of Hard Candy i own. When i heard he had done this i knew this was a perfumer i had to take seriously and try out his fragrances ASAP and after talking to someone about strawberries recently in fragrances, i was looking for a fragrance with that note in it and of course came across Hard Candy, and here it is in the mid, great i thought! I love this fragrance. It only arrived yesterday evening at about 8pm and from the time i sprayed it on until the time i went to bed i just could not stop smelling myself. You would think looking at the notes this wouldn't be wearable in summer but this is easily wearable all year round. I am guessing the Elixir will be more of a winter setting version, i could be wrong. I also got 2 samples, Legend 2023 which is a blue fragrance very close to Luna Rosa Carbon and Sauvage but with what i could recognize was Aarons own twist after i had smelled the other 2 fragrances i have of his. What intrigued me more though was a sample labelled "Autumn Release" which really has me excited. I am sure that is the working title and it will have a full release name when it comes out. After 9 months of winter weather which is not normal, even here in Scotland never have i been so excited to get to Autumn before when the weather is rubbish here, but i am so excited about this Autumn fragrance coming out! What i love about his fragrances is they are absolutely high quality, and he makes it available to us all because he has his 50ml bottles and 10ml bottles at very good prices, so we can all have a taste of the niche level fragrances he produces himself. Yes, most of you probably know this but for those that don't Aaron has a YouTube channel reviewing other houses fragrances, but he is first a perfumer then a reviewer. He creates them himself, and he creates them so that he can wear them himself also, so you know he is going to be intent on making the best product possible, hence the new 2023 improved versions. Honestly i feel invigorated and so excited with just these three alone. i am definitely buying more and this is just after i recently got my first 4 Xerjoff fragrances that i am more intent on buying more of Aaron's fragrances first, that should tell you something! If you have not tried Aaron's fragrances, trust me now is the time to with the upgraded formulations and at the prices he makes them available to us all, especially the 10ml bottles at roughly £15-£35 there is no reason not to try them. This is a new favourite house for me, just nudging out Lorenzo Pazzaglia from 1st to the No.2 spot. They are both great, but i feel so excited with what i have smelled from Aaron so far and it has been a while since a fragrance made me feel this way hence me leaving a review which i hope you can feel my excitement from which is hard because words written can only go so far and is why i urge you to try the fragrances for yourself to experience it on your own. The reviewer below me is spot on and is exactly how i feel. Remember when reading some of the older reviews that some will be from his older version and possibly his Elixir which i am sure will be just as great! Scent 10/10 Sillage 10/10 Longevity 7.5/10 Price 10/10

This is the first time I have been compelled to write a review here, so please bear with me as your subjective experience may vary from mine. ATH seems to be a divisive figure in the fragrance community, but I cannot deny that he is a talented reviewer who is improving at perfumery as well. I am rooting for him. First of all, I think this is a beautiful fragrance, and one of ATH’s best from what I have sampled. The opening and top notes seemed a little synthetic to me and gave me Layton opening vibes but soon the fragrance transformed into, as the name implies, a trip to the candy shop with the general smell and atmosphere of the inside. In that respect, I do not believe it just comes off as a hard candy, rather, it’s an amalgamation of all the flavors and variants of sweets you could find inside, therefore I believe it is blended quite well. As with most of ATH’s fragrances it lasts a very long time on skin. The rest of this review applies to Hard Candy Elixir, as I believe that is the true masterpiece here. Hard Candy Elixir is even better because it evolves seamlessly into a darker, chocolatey, almost Nutella-like vibe (this may be the smooth oud coming into play, although it remains a tame background player!). The REAL (ethical) ambergris and amber in Hard Candy Elixir give it a divine, addictive, and sensual quality. This may not resonate with others, but hours after I applied the fragrance the vanilla, tonka, and amber harmonized in a very similar way to Grand Soir, which makes complete sense to me as ATH rated Grand Soir as a 10/10 classic sweet French scent, albeit linear. I personally love the way this scent evolves compared to Grand Soir. The fact that the scent transforms into this over many hours is incredibly impressive to me and shows me that Aaron has immensely improved his talents.

This is a really great fragrance that performs very, VERY well and is a mix of familiar, mass-appealing elements with some added twists making it a unique experience. Namely the strawberry, which is a note I've been seeking for a while - a strawberry heavy fragrance that is unisex-leaning masculine and actually sticks around and is more than a fleeting top note. Check and check. As for sillage and projection - projects STRONGLY in the opening 2-3 hours, and the sillage doesn't just trail behind you but lingers in the atmosphere you've just left. So, 2-3 hours of strong projection, and then it becomes moderate, but stays moderate for the next 3-4 hours, so in total, you get about 6+ solid hours of, at the very least, moderate projection and sillage, which is really, really good. From there it begins to rein in and becomes more than a skin scent - more of a scent that someone directly next to you will absolutely pick up. That's between hour 6-8. From there, skin scent, but completely detectable and not faint. Fantastic. The seasons voted are pretty accurate, and it is absolutely a casual, fun fragrance that would do well outdoors and, with a few less sprays, incredible indoors. Not work, unless work is very chill and non-corporate, but outside of that, its a fragrance that you'll enjoy wearing a lot. For me, Le Male Le Parfum smells incredible, but as a guy in his 30s I've smelled it in the vicinity of too many people nearly half my age. Wear what you like, but I don't ever want to smell like a teenager haha. Hard Candy came through and gave me that energy but with such a clear distinction that it makes a fragrance like LMLP obsolete. 9/10, only because it can be hard to get, and is maybe just a tad overpriced, but not by much.

This is unlike anything I've ever smelled in my life. Smells like Starburst candy and electricity (or something like it) that gives it lift and brightness. It crackles. I'll have to test it properly and come back. I like it a lot, hopefully it won't give me a headache. Edit: I think my husband may have ruined it for me by saying it smells like another cologne. Don't read this if u don't want it to happen to you too. I hate when this happens, someone says a fragrance smells like something I didn't notice before and then I pick it up too. He said it smells like Drakar Noir and now... I can't unsmell it. Every time I wear this he either asks why I'm wearing cologne or Drakar. I'll try to get other people's opinions. It is very long lasting but more importantly it projects like 6 feet. This stuff pushes unlike anything else and I have middle eastern fragrances, BR540, Tiziana Terenzi, V Canto, Xerjoff etc.

Amazing. Fresh, sweet & candy-like. First few sprays out of my bottle were very weak smelling and uninteresting so my original opinion was that it was just a bit “meh” but after a few days it now smells much stronger and I can tell that theres a lot more going on. Great citrusy and fresh opening which then becomes more fruity and sweet from the strawberry & vanilla and then settles down with a very smooth oud. This stuff is very mass appealing and performs very well with strong longevity and sillage. It will work in any season and most occasions, probably excluding high heat due to the sweetness. I think it’s worth the price (£125 for 50ml or £25 for 10ml here in the UK). Once my 10ml is empty i’ll most likely purchase a 50ml which as a bonus seems to have a much better atomiser and nicer cap.