Radical Brown

HIDDEN GEM ALERT! So, I was ordering some decants and noticed the place I was getting them at had a 10% discount if you bought at least 10. I had already ordered 8 and decided that I could simply put in two of the cheapest x2ml decants in the cart to get a lower price. This was one of them. I chose it for no other reason other than it was cheap. I didn't expect much. I left it till last. Then, I decided that I might as well try it. Damn. It was love at first sight (sniff is kinda cringy tbh). The sweet, spicy tobacco immediately caught my attention. I could swear it had a note of cherry in there, though the notes here lead me to believe I was mistaken. It was my direct and absolute favorite out of all the other decants, and hell, all the other fragrances I bought that year! In any case, it had a beautiful opening and continued its beauty all the way into the drydown. I've often seen this called a clone of Parfums de Marly's Herod, but I wouldn't call that quite right. Imagine a triangle. You put PdM's Herod in one corner, L'Homme Ideal at another EdP in the other, and Pure Havanne in the third. This fragrance will be somewhere in the middle. It's definitely reminiscent, but not a clone of, any of those fragrances. It has it's own identity and does it's own thing. Which is not bad by any stretch of the imagination! I've heard people liking this over those much more expensive frags. I thoroughly enjoy wearing it. I don't wear fragrances for compliments. I simply don't. It's not that I don't like them, it's that I wear fragrances for my own personal enjoyment first and foremost. For this reason, I spray lightly. I live in a culture where it isn't acceptable to push your fragrance around too much, and in any case I subscribe to the 'discovered, not announced' school of thought. Despite this, I should mention I did get several unsolicited compliments the very first few times I wore it. Girls seemed to love it. It has a depth to it, a sweetness and a spiciness that makes it perfect for cooler weather. Most said that it smells amazing and different from the other usual frags people wear. Its also inoffensive, which I think makes it generally office-safe. I've also heard people say that performance is 'terrible'. It isn't. Yeah, it's not 'beast mode' by any stretch of the imagination, but it will last at least about 6-ish hours with moderate projection, before turning into a skin scent. On my skin that lasted 12 hours at least. To me this is more than acceptable. So, I quickly found myself ordering a full bottle before even having finished my little decant. Unfortunately, that's where my first, and so far only, criticism comes in. The first bottle came with a leak. Fragrance was leaking out the bottle and leaving visible marks on the inside of the box, as well as withering the paint on the bottle. It wasn't a huge leak, I'd reckon that about 5ml of fragrance were lost. Perhaps it was due to the shipping company handling it roughly (they're known to do that where I live). Regardless, I didn't want to risk a leaking bottle. A quick online search revealed that this has happened before and appears to be a "thing" for a small percentage of bottles. Thankfully, the store I bought it from quickly exchanged it for a second bottle, which had no issues. So, maybe Armaf needs to do some better quality control on the bottles of Radical Brown. The probability of you having this issue is slim, though non-zero. For this reason, I recommend buying from someplace where you can either inspect the bottle yourself before buying, or which offers a solid replacement/refund guarantee. The presentation itself is one I find OK. I like it and don't find it 'hideous' as some others mentioned, though I don't think it's a masterpiece either. Decent and does the job. As does the atomizer. For the price this goes for - it's a steal for tobacco lovers. I'd say it would also make a great introduction to tobacco for those that want a smooth, well-blended fragrance to it, as opposed to one that is loud and in your face. I'd prefer it over other alternatives in the price range like CK One Shock, and even to more expensive offerings by designer brands. It's one of my favorite fragrances of all time, and I own frags significantly more costly than this. Give it a try. Don't sleep on this one. I'd also say that, though it does lean slightly in the masculine direction, it's unisex enough to where a gal would be able to pull it off without issues. This is one of those cases where a frag punches significantly above its price point. For the fall, winter and maybe spring - definite yeah. Seriously, this needs more press. Try it. I'm so glad I randomly put this into my cart in order to get a 10% off. Now girls' panties are going to be 100% off at my place. Bad joke, bad me. Sorry. Good frag, tho. No, seriously, try it.

This is a great, safe (yet far from boring) versatile sweet tobacco and vanilla-based fragrance that you're bound to enjoy if you're fond of the Insurrection II Wild / Pure Havane scent DNA. Scent-wise, this is just about the nicest fragrance I've smelled and, along with Insurrection II Wild, another cheapie, will probably be one of my most used fragrances this Winter. In addition to the tobacco and vanilla notes there's a nice fruit-like note but I honestly couldn't tell you what fruit it is. Some have described it as cherry, but to me it doesn't quite smell like cherry. Whatever the hell it is: it smells great! Performance could be better so I recommend spraying a bit more than usual and / or keeping a small atomizer on you, but this smells so good that it kind of makes up for it not being the best performer. I wouldn't, however, call it a slouch—I'm just used to Fall / Winter fragrances having above average sillage and projection. Apparently this smells similar to Parfums de Marly's Herod which has long been one of the absolute highest rated men's fragrances and is many times the price of this. I can't comment on the similarities as I've never smelled Herod, but if you're fond of that fragrance you may want to give this one a go. Highly recommended!

Its a cheap cherry-tobacco scent. Packaging wise it comes with a MASSIVE box (i keep all of my fragrances in their boxes, so if thats important to you, then take that into account). Bottle wise it looks like it has better quality than it really has. Its plastic. However its still better than most Armaf bottles. Smells nice, i really like it. Starts with a spicy tobacco opening that lasts about 15 minutes, then goes to a cherry tobacco smell for the rest of the duration. Projects for about 1 hour, then its a smell for close encounters (kind of the way The One EDP and CK One Shock do). Lasts about 6 hours. Out of all of my tobacco fragrances its the sweetest one. Its mostly a winter/fall/night scent, but since it doesn't project much it isn't too cloying for spring/summer. Great fragrance overall, just wish it lasted longer. Has gotten multiple compliments. At first it was too sweet for me but after getting used to it i started to love it. For the price, its a must buy. If i ever see its about to get discontinued i'll get multiple backups. 9/10

#349 in my "Tour de Fragrance" To me it's a more ambery formulation of Reyane Tradition's Insurrection II Wild and I prefer this. I donated the Wild because of it's middling performance. This does better. Still pretty much EDT in performance, but makes it to lunch. Not poor performance for a $25 frag. Of course it's not going to perform like Akro Bake or MFK Grand Soir. Get real. The amber, cinnamon and tobacco in combination always give me a strong and yummy impression. The tobacco note is not as strong as in PDM's Herod where it's pronounced enough that I liked the scent, but not enough to wear it all the time. This scent is also somewhat similar to Bvlgari Man in Black, just not as boozy. I have eight of the first ten scents in the "reminds me of" list, and I prefer this to all eight. Overall, this is a winner and a keeper for me. Not for formal use and I probably would not wear it in a carpool, elevator, to the office unless I used it sparingly because this does project for a good hour, but dinner date, heck yeah.

I have had this one for what seems like forever. Another of those nose blind kind of scents I think, which even I have noticed. Case in point, sprayed this on, enjoyed the opening transition before it settles to a nice tobacco base. I too get a slight cherry hint with spices, in the realm of Herod, Man In Black and Spice Bomb Extreme, but not really a clone to me, just a spicy tobacco offering that will appeal to anyone that enjoys that style. Really great price and value too. Went to work, really did not notice the scent anymore and multiple people commented, one even waved some paper to stir it around in the air. After work I grabbed my hoodie and got a big hit of the scent again 11HOURS LATER!! This was obviously on clothes, but still, really strong. I am not going to say it’s high quality, but I don’t find it smelling cheap. It is a solid appealing profile that worked at getting positive attention for me, so money well spent.