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.

Brand new bottle, first 2-3 sprays on my arm - nice and familiar BUT it is not even close to War and Peace II. It's not comparable at all and not in the same league. It is nice, earthy, slightly musky, a bit of mushroom, hay, dirt, very little rose or none at all, not green and not herbal at first. It smells like a barn. I hope it will get better after a while. As is, brand new, it is pleasant enough if you like dirt and real musk, but it is not W&P at all. EDIT: In the early dry down, a couple of hours after spraying, it started smelling of very nice aromatic honey, with some herbal and green notes, with some musky pissy animalic whiffs as well. It lasted for almost 24 hours on skin and I could smell it in the air from my arm 16-18 hours after spraying. I covered it with CDLC on my arm the next day and after 2-3 hours, all I could smell was the pissy civet as CDLC was either gone or simply overpowered by Royal Barn which had been sprayed 16 hours earlier. All in all, it is a great animalic frag, vintage style, which lasts forever and projects very well.

An undeniably earthy quality, like wet soil, early on (hay, truffles, oud) A vibrant deep purple floral quality (I think that is mostly the champaca?) giving a velvety texture Smoke, burning incense airy Powdery leather, very light petrol Almost a soapiness deep into the drydown Comparisons to War and Peace 2 make sense, although I feel like Royal Barn goes pretty comfortably into it's own direction. What I get most from W&P2 is the smoke and musk from the civet, it feels more tonally neutral, albeit more aggressive. What I get from Royal Barn is more the floral heart, I get a lot of floral coloring this fragrance this beautiful rich purple. It's a little more sweet, a little more approachable. I found the civet to be pretty tame. My wife says Royal Barn is the official perfume Dracula would wear, from the unholy consecrated soil down to the deep purple velvet of the inside of the coffin.

Royal barn starts earthy with a very short lived explosion of smoky rose oud, couple minutes in the rose oud is gone & the earthy dirty barn (not that i find it dirty or barnyard) start to appear and its like that for the rest of its life span, after many many hours what could be described as the barnyard side has mostly faded and all i smell is the musky/pissy notes. unlike some people i get a lot of resemblance to war & peace, royal barn starts right at the middle of W&P after the leather blast has faded aka the war part & the peace starts to take over. its a very relaxing perfume, i enjoy it very much 100% unlike W&P's leatheriness which i find sometimes overwhelming. i've seen people describing it as laking/flat/boring... when compared to the masterpiece of W&P everything is boring/laking, nothing can compare to W&P except W&P. 8.5/10 which i hope can make it to a 9/10 with time.

This is a a deep, dark Areej classic. It's in the league of "War and Peace". It is Russian Adam's favorite from this series, I heard him say. In the open I got a bit of bergamot or lime, like in the opening of Siberian Musk. It's very dark and woody, green. But the florals, mostly hidden, lift the fragrance. It's very creamy smooth. A bit of toffy like vib in the beginning with oud, slight sweetness. It's more wearable than War and Peace. Very pleasant and warming fragrance for me, in the cold especially. It is a masterpiece in my opinion. It's complex, but not in a busy way. It may take many wearings to understand the beautiful subtleties. The civet is natural, and creamy smooth. Nothing like the synthetic civet in Kouros. Rating: 10/10 God bless. Emanuel. John 3:16

Masterpiece. Enough said. The civet and hay accord are still present after over 19 hours. Edit: Masterpiece is a stretch, I was enamored with the fresh and dirty composition, however, it's longevity is no joke and it's easy to see why this one is a fan favorite. It's fresh and green, but very earthy and dank. This is what most people associate with "animalic," a misleading association given that the the term is synonymous with dirty and wild, but clean and otherworldly scents like ambergris and musk are thrown in the same category. Nevertheless, for "animalic" scent lovers, this is what you've been waiting for.

Earthy, floral, funky marsh. Very reminiscent of something you might find in Pineward fragrances, but with more complexity and depth from the notes that aren’t... trees. The animal is aggressive at first, but after ~30min it subsides, allowing you into the swamp. What at first seemed wild and territorial, dissipates into an intriguing, shifting greenscape. Breezes here and there carry the unexpected: bitter olives, musty mushrooms, a creature somewhere nearby. The marigolds and accompanying flowers suggest an exotic locale. Take a seat on a patch of hay and breathe in your surroundings.

Very dry civet-esque, artemisia is a note which I am sensitive to which I sense in Royal Barn. I expected it to be more challenging than what it was, Russian Adam really smoothly blended everything together. Yes it is green but it is also DIRTY and that is unusual for a green scent. I must add that this being a grassy oud makes it so unique in my opinion. Actually a versatile one also.

This is such a BEAUTIFUL fragrance. A true GEM, and the BEST from this collection. My initial ranking for the MUSK Collection is 1. ROYAL BARN 2. CUIRTIS 3. FORBIDDEN FLOWER 4. CREME DE LA CREME 5. PARADISE SOIL This ranking may change after maceration.

This is RA ultimate masterwork until today. It blends a beautiful civet, with green moss and truffles.All supported by a beautiful buthan oud. Etremely long lasting and projections. I do often get compliments wearing RB.

My favorite fragrance. If I had the money I'd wear this all the time. Instead I have to save it for special occasions. Greatest civet note I've smelled and perhaps best 'woody' fragrance I own as well

I only bought a 10ml decant because this one was my second least favorite after Flower. Now I don’t agree with this being a “masterpiece”. Antiquity and Siberian Musk are masterpieces . Royal Barn is very skanky and way too earthy and green for me. I own both this and Antiquity and they are not similar at all. Some ppl need to clean out their nose. Royal Barn and Antiquity couldn’t be any different from each other . Like night and day. That said I don’t hate RB, the dry down is the best part, if u can wait out the initial 30mins of skank. This is one perfume that u buy and wear to enjoy for yourself because trust me other ppl will not appreciate it. Very well done. 9/10

More reminiscent of what you expect from a typical ALD fragrance. The civet is of a high quality and shines through, you get a lot of the typical Russian Adam oud, and the hay and vetiver complement the oud well.The florals are not prominent but give it a nice touch. One of the better ones from this collection and good value for money, a powerhouse, $350 for 53ml.

first impressions of royal barn: one of the more animalic ones in this collection. the exotic note, black truffle, is hidden somewhere underneath all the luxurious civet. the flowers do not take centre stage here (cf. Paradise Soil, Forbidden Flower). Enjoy!

Royal barn This one is a complete BANGER, I even think I prefer it over Cuirtis which I love so much Opening: The fragrance opens up very vintage, the civet smells like it has been ageing for decades (which it has), getting almost dusty as time has went on. There is a slight, noticeable chocolate facet, I’m not sure if that is one of the notes in here but I will try doing this review without looking at notes as much as I can 😂, this chocolate isn’t fancy, it’s not milk nor dark, I suppose if this isn’t a note it could be popping out from another note, maybe to do with such a strong animalic in the civet. I’m gonna be honest, this animalic is STRONG, super animalic, but.... It’s so well done, this is not how Prin uses animalics, it’s more refined, less harsh and synthetic. There’s a strong green smell, this green smell is mostly leafy, almost earthy. Imagine picking up a leaf of a tree, one of those bright green, harder leaves, that is this green smell. There’s also a touch of artemisia, almost hiding in the background, cowering away from the brutal aged civet. This civet isn’t really pissy for me, just a strong, animalic, it’s also not really inherently “barnyard”. The scent is very dark, slightly harsh (which isn’t a bad thing), and green. Apparently the idea behind this was royalty in their carriage decades ago, a fancy interior, but... on the outside, the streets are dirty, and that scent is coming into said carriage. I think this description is spot on, it’s a lovely idea, I think without this description i would like the scent slightly less (still 10/10 though). Heart: Once the scent develops (2hrs), a lovely jasmine starts poking through, by no means bitter, infact a very smooth, luxurious jasmine, I feel this scent really helps enhance the story that was told (see opening section for story). the animalics are still there for sure, still that gorgeous vintage civet, but... it’s more friendly, it’s as if the royal person (let’s say queen for practicality sake) has drove through the animalic peasent area, and has reached a much nicer town, it’s still animalic and dirty, but less, more tame, less brutal. The rose adds a slight maybe jammy feel? It’s hard to pin point exactly because of how subtle the rose is, the greenness has been pushed through from the opening for sure, it’s still there. This heart section may be the best part of a fragrance i have ever smelt. i am greatly looking forward to the drydown. Drydown: This is truly a masterpiece, the black truffle is an amazing touch, creative aswell. That tonka vanilla combo is ADDICTIVE, it’s so sweet, then kind of a reserved sweetness (I can’t find the right word). The Ethiopian civet really works well to meld it all together, these different scents fill your nose, but all still backed by this civet, the civet is much more clean than the initial civet, it’s still animalic, but by no means even slightly off putting like originally. I don’t pick up on a lot of oud, it’s subtle for sure, maybe a slight spicy kick to it, im not familiar with “Bhutanese oud” but that might be the origin of the spices kick. The hay is a lovely touch, herbal, green, unique. I feel it adds a nice blend with the civet, giving it depth. Overall this is a complete masterpiece, could be too strong for some, too animalic, but I completely love it, it just takes you back, travels you to 100+ years ago, royalty among the lesser, this is the perfect story in a fragrance. I usually don’t give ratings but I will for this just for how much I love it 10/10 This stomps Cuirtis out of the park, which is also a 10/10

#sotd Royal Barn by Areej Le Dore from Russian Adam This is what I was most interested in trying from the new Musk collection and here it is. RB starts with civet and ends on civet but the intensity of the civet with other notes changes a little through it's life. RB starts of with a fresh and very clean citrus note with some civet and bitter/camphor like green artemisia which is very prominent for like 90 seconds or so but it's manageable not off putting. Try to spray only around neck as the atomizers are amazing and the mist might reach your nose and you end up sneezing couple of times like me 😆 The first thing I noticed from RB was it's color, its green, sharp green which I have seen on numerous occasions (ruh khus, vetiver grass) as being from north India, ruh khus is easily available and accessible to us and the color of that vetiver stands out to me, reminds me of emerald wrapped up in sun rays. RB shapes up in 30 minutes and florals starts to shine a little, I think it has to do with body chemistry or the weather but that rose and Jasmine were talking to me in 18 miles an hour wind. I love me some rose and Jasmine smell to calm me down and RB did exactly the same. It makes you feel confident and composed as you keep getting those whiffs. I did 3 sprays, front and back of my neck and front part of my shirt around chest which went straight to my nose (very little 😝) and I believe that's more than enough for 10 hours. Since it has Civet, I wanted to keep the experience very personal. I don't want people to talk about fragrances to me, good or bad, only friends and family (experience with starngers have been weird so far) Around 3 hours mark (am at work), I feel something else is poking my sense of smell. Along with civet, I get some butter and olive mixed well and you have to sniff it real hard to understand what's going on. But while I was at it, hay took over and I was on a separate route. Hay, which is very powerful and overpowering has an distinct aroma which is sweet and herbaceous. The dry down is a mix of sweet and intense indole odor which is not only very redolent but pleasing.