Royal Barn

I have the entire new collection in full bottles and have been going through them slowly to get a feel for each fragrance. As a disclaimer I have full bottles of over 20 ALD fragrances, and I don't believe in rating or ranking them, because I see each one as an individual work of art with its own language of expression. Royal Barn first struck me at how GREEN it looked. If there were such a thing as alligator juice, it would have this color! It also smelled somewhat sharp and grassy off the strip and quite abrasive. I was sure I would dislike it. But when applied to skin a completely different side opens up, as though I had previously been listening to a piece of music through a tweeter only with the bass and midrange drivers turned off. The civet is immediately noticeable as is a kind of sharp grassiness from the artemisia and citrus leaf, but buffered by an inner warmth from the mid and bass notes. I felt immediately transported to exactly what was described: a palace in the time of the Tzars, sitting beside a stable in front of a wide open field. There is something floral that is detectable along with hay and oud, but it comes across as a single waft of air from field filled with horses. I am reminded of Atelier des Ors Musc Immortelle, which manages to smell exactly like a sub-alpine meadow, but a pretty one in autumn. Here we have the meadow notes but also the dirtier notes of wet earth, horse poop, and flowers. It is at once regal and rustic, exactly as it is supposed to be. There is also a pissy sense that brings to mind old furniture in a basement, or maybe antique sofas that could be on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Again, exactly as described. The dry down becomes a bit sweeter and a bit smokier and not as green, and here I am reminded of Kilian's Dark Lord, which has a smoky-sweet vetiver dry down that brings to mind a forest-dwelling savage dressed in a tuxedo. This is clearly a classy fragrance, a back tie fragrance even, but one meant for bohemians. I could imagine Richard Grant in Withnail and I wearing this. It is photorealistic in how it conjures images of royalty alongside rusticity. How does it compare to other ALDs? I don't rate and rank, but I honestly see no comparison to War and Peace, which I own and is not even remotely green or hay-like. War and Peace is more monotonically ambery, while Royal Barn has more contrasts between the grassy artemisia and hay with the darker truffles, tonka and oud, with the civet unifying everything like a backbone. This can be work in any season except high summer, and it best for making an impact at special events or just wearing on your own for a Sunday walk to immerse yourself in its antique world. Could be polarising on dates or in the office because of the musty furniture and hay smell, but at an event these are precisely the things that will make you stand out and seem like a bohemian prince of the night.

This fragrance a beautiful, but polarizing. Its name really sums up the composition of this fragrance. It is somehow both regal and royal, yet dirty and challenging. Most will know this house, Areej Le Dore, makes small batch artisanal fragrances that really speak to fragrance enthusiasts and collectors alike. There may only be 100 - 500 bottles of any fragrance at a given time created. Most who will wear these probably have extensive experience traveling through various fragrance journeys. We who enjoy these often seek out the chaklenge rather than something that simply smells pleasant. Royal Barn is lovely. Some make comparisons to another fragrance from the collection, Cuirtis, and while they share a dark, thickness and leather accord, they are quite different. I personally think this is the more challenging fragrance though they are both wearable. This gives a fiery dense, dark green top with oily leather throughout. The pungent beginning starts to soften as time goes by, sweetening up some. I recommend sampling, as it’s a fun one to wear. While there is some animalic tendencies and funk present, it never gets barnyardy at all. I would definitely recommend going easy on the trigger with this one. I could go a bit heavier with Cuirtis and never had an issue. I applied 4 light sprays to myself and feel like it’s just a little too much. As it’s drying down and settling (an hour or so later), it’s clear I went a bit too heavy handed. Aside from that though, it’s a wonderful composition and I’m thrilled to own it. I highly recommend for the fragrance collectors and fans of leather fragrances. Sample, sample and sample. There is some stock on the grey market available, and prices range from retail to quite high. I don’t think this is worthy of paying thousands of dollars as some of the first collection demand. But at retail or slightly over, I think it’s a solid fragrance to own and enjoy. Happy Hunting!

My first impression review for the full set. I may add the full post impressions later, after a week. Ok, my dear oud lovers, who are baiting on the word of "Barn". My dear Indian oud lovers, I will disappoint you. The banryardy feel here comes directly from the Civet. This is a very animalic smell, and you immediately pick up Civet with minty leafs. Those minty tea-citrusy leafs are pissed on by the civet cat. Yes, the civet concentration here is far from low. It is truly a civet based scent. So, beware, if you love that note, you will fall in love to this scent. If you can't stand civet, then, my friend, this fragrance will give you a chance to start appreciating this note. Have you smelled, for example, another disaster of a fragrance that was created by accident and released with a misleading name - Oudh Infini from Ms D? Well, forget that disaster which smells of a bad quality synthetic civet mixture, and welcome this proper civet-based creation from Russian Adam! If you are someone who wanted a proper civet frag, but skipped the Civet De Nuit because it uses the vintage civet which already lost its harsh animalic qualities, then this one now is the perfume for you. This will be the best and most pleasant minty civet representation, which indeed focuses on civet! In the far backbone of the scent though, the oud and truffle are creating cool ALD familiar structure. P.S. Post review ranking of animalicness for the collection from most animalic to least animalic, for you, my animalic-lover perverts: 1. Royal Barn (1 and 2 are interchangeable) 2. Forbidden Flower 3. Cuirtis 4. Creme De La Creme 5. Paradise Soil P.S.2. I hope that Ramsey will get his hands on all these perfumes to do a review.

The chlorophyll-colored juice of Areej Le Doré's most daring fragrance from his musk collection first suggests—given its almost comical name, "Royal Barn"—that you've found yourself ankle-deep in the part of the stable from which you can no longer leave unsoiled. Thankfully, the shock of the opening top notes come more from how green this is as opposed to any kind of bodily and animal fluids. There's a mandarin peel-esque pithy tartness and a bit of ketonic pungency from the tagetes that's reminiscent of bug spray, which, coupled with the artemesia, gives off one red flag after the next that Royal Barn spells trouble. The whole experience is oddly refreshing; As you wait for Royal Barn to "settle down" there's the sensation that it's doing the exact opposite. But the good chemicals of fragrance do their thing, and eventually more minty and herbaceous nuances come into play, conjuring vermouth and other aperitifs/digestifs with rose and jasmine working invisibly to tinge the outward projections of ALD's earthy wonder with a bit of grace. Base notes like vanilla, truffle, and oud are especially present from here until the late dry down, slowly softening and sweetening while also "greasing" the whole endeavor so that Royal Barn runs a wild gamut from sharp, green roots to Moroccan salt-cured olives and sauteed mushrooms to powdery and pillowy, vanillic musks. Throughout it all, the civet varieties frame the experience, coming and going, depending on how my body temperature heats up from moving from point A to point B throughout the day. At times, the stink is real. It's enough to make almost anyone blush and maybe even sweat a bit.

This is the absolute best of the collection IMO,true to Adams DNA while having a different approach, dirty and so well done. The opening to me, is an absolute gem.. green, almost citric and bitter, punchy, it last a good time and it’s so good, slowly floral aspects appears to give contrast to the animalic base, (always present) but it’s never too floral it just rounds everything out while the civet is like an sleeping animal that wakes up in the drydown, the more time passes by, the more animalic it gets... musky, dirty... almost a bit of a homeless stank to it, but in a good way 😅😮💨(this is were it has a W&P nuance) There’s something in the mid of the scent, Maybe the hay absolute mixed with the oud, truffles and animalic notes creating my favorite kind of accord on the scent, that motor like grease, black leather feel. It is Funny, Cuirtis has a big leather punch in the opening, but mellowed out in the drydown, this keeps a greasy leather kind of feel way more through the life of the scent. To me is Not similar enough to be considered a flanker of other Adams work, but it has some hidden easter eggs to scents like antiquity/W&P, That you can pick up sometimes when you get wafts of it, I prefer this already to W&P since it doesn’t have that fat wall of nitromusks/musks in the middle...it is More balanced to me. Vanilla and tonka just gives this a bit of subtle sweetness to that nice civet thats not that pissy to me, it is almost paste like. I think this is going be considered a classic when the time passes by.. if this sold out in 30 seconds it might be considered a grail by some fans now....lmao. Typical.