Explorer

Wow!!!! I tried 6 fragrances from this house and while they were all magnificent 2 (oddly) really stood out for me and this is one of them. I say 'oddly' because I was not expecting the fresher more fruity/citrus end of the spectrum to tickle my fancy as much as 'Explorer' and 'Adventuress' did. It maybe because I'm used to resinous, spicy, warm and Oud scents in this price range or maybe I have half an eye on spring/summer juices now but I certainly didn't think I'd be looking to fork out on a niche juice of this sort. The first thing that strikes you about this brand is the bottles (flacons...whatever!?) they are spectacular!!! I mean they look great in the photos here and you kind of know what to expect but when you see them an feel the weight you can't help but be impressed with the almost Game of thrones like, kind of ye olde, celtic styling. Just from a collection point of view these are stunning but the juice inside(from the few I've tried) matches the care and attention taken to the presentation. Boadicea the victorious has real calibre and this fragrance totally blew me away to be honest...I love it. The opening is gorgeous fruity and the strange sweetness of labdanum and orris but as it settles becomes very dry and resinous with an kind of earthy spice to it. I can't say I've encountered anything like it. Explorer shimmered in the drydown changing slightly to a ambery, fir like vibe very interesting. Projection not huge and longevity is good enough for me but you'd expect it to be very long lasting at this price.

This perfume is gorgeous. Just for fun, I prefer to test fragrances without knowing what the notes are and I try to guess the notes when I wear the perfume. Then later after a day of wear I go and look at the notes and see if what I smell is congruent with the listed notes. I was a bit off on this one. What I smelled was an herbal like pine and amber scent that had some bitterness and sweetness at the same time. I concluded it was a crype even though it say's its an oriental. It does not smell oriental to me at all. After looking at the notes it turns out that the green and herbaceous notes come from the galbanum, and yes there is amber but its not backed up by vanilla as most ambers are. The bitterness must come from the cedar or galdanum notes and theres a nice balance of bitter and sweet here in this scent. Explorer kind of reminds me of Eau Des Merveilles because even though there is no pine in Explorer, it still smells piney to me and the pine note in EDM stands out on me along with the amber. To my nose the two are very similar, but Im sure its just my skin or nose that perceives this similarity. Explorer is rich, herbaceaus, deep, dark, resinous, balmy, and simply divine. As someone below mentioned it has a resinous quality that does smell like frankincense, even though its not listed. The bottles are a work of art unto themselves. I love anything Celtic so Im drawn to the whole design of the bottles from this line. So glad I got a sample of this in a swap. Highly recomend you explore Explorer.

If you love woods like I do, especially green, coniferous forests, this smells amazing. Take Russel Crowe as the Gladiator, with dry, brown dust clinging to his heels and sandals, and send him off on an expedition to the Pacific Northwest in the 1800's, and you have Explorer. It smells like the smooth, moist, young wood from the core of a redwood tree, maybe some aromatic cumin, and just a whisper of worn, brown leather. There is some menthol in the beginning. I swear that patchouli, a member of the mint family, has to be missing from the pyramid because Explorer smells as though somebody grabbed a whole handful of fresh patch...unless somehow all of those other notes blend together to create an earthy, dusty, mentholated, patch-like effect. One surprising thing about Explorer is that it's a "masculine" orris root fragrance. Think 28 La Pausa for men--starchy, chalky, gray. This is the first time I have smelled orris root used in this way. It is an androgynous fragrance in my opinion, but in comparison to other orris root fragrances, Explorer is distinctly on what some would consider to be the “masculine” end of the spectrum. There is nothing sweet in this bottle. Sillage is fantastic, and so is longevity.

This takes Amber to a whole new level of love. This is a sophisticated gentlemans scent. Masculine but subtle. Great longevity and projection. I love this house for what they do. Niche perfumery. A+ 10/10 Fragrance was designed to be tested on skin as it mixes with ones chemistry it can differ from person to person, especially male to female. There have been so many reviews posted on here where people spray on paper and run straight to this site to let everyone know all about it and how the longevity and projection is going to be 20 mins later. Please, real fragrance enthusiasts only. There's fragrances that smell nice on paper and on skin smell like fish. Please test and post accurate info for fragrance enthusiasts such as myself. Thanks!

This is similar to Pioneer but a tad fresher. It's a very dry, bitter, woody, and smoky scent. The pyramid is somewhat incomplete, as I get a hint of cypress, flint, moss, and artemisia, along with a touch of incense that may stem from the labdanum. The inclusion of iris makes this a smoother blend compared to Pioneer. Explorer sits in the same realm as Italian Cypress (as others have noticed), yet maintains its own identity that comes accross both sophisticated and polished, making it best suited for mature gentlemen. I like it a lot.