Monarch

Monarch up now, as part of my Selfridge tour round - and this one is a Selfridges Exclusive. And - it's pretty good. The opening was somewhat 'generic fruity' but very pleasant, natural and uplifting. The notes say, among others; 'berries and grapefruit' to open and I'd go with that, with a tiniest smidgen of green and cardamom. Think 'real Niche' and name it - it's almost certainly not there. Vanilla and/or tonka, combined with the lack of any form orange or other 'different' obtrusive friut/floral. Lack of the obscenely overused orange blossom, violets or lavenders. And smoke - totally none of it. In short; the oud and incense (which no doubt this scent has) are hidden well away beneath pleasantries and all the while being steeped with vanilla. It's nice, smooth, a smidgen sweet and relaxing if not mind-poppingly awesome or deeply seducing. So it's passed my notorious Top-lover 'safe-head' acid-test, kudos! I didn't get much artemisia very thankfully, I think (meant to be yet another bitter green note) and the scent is sweetened with one of my favorites as mentioned; tonka. As long as the other notes are safe enough, tonka is something I never grow tired of. It's there, with vanilla, a smidgen of oud that loses battle with a beautiful sweet incense. This scent is starting to come out to play here and I'm liking it. Then the woods. It's safe and unisex yet playful and cheeky with those unlit incense sticks, like a girl wanting badly to pull off to a fine shisha bar a little to often. Picture Creed's Ambre carnelle, those who are familiar with that - this is (sort of) the 'cleaned up' Modern reformulation. Very nice, very post 2000's. Powder and 'old lady' replaced with chic and refined. The very generous (and pretty) sales lady gave me an outrageous offer of £90 for the 100ml Exclusive bottle, which looking at it now, very sad I turned down (can't believe that now, what was I thinking?)! Will have to return to pick it up, it's a fine fine scent that marries old with new beautifully. It's £150 for the big bottle otherwise which is still, given at some of the gob-smackingly terrible scents Roja and Amouage have, is quite the deal! Again, Bodecia's materials and craft is 2nd to almost none, expect no designer to even come close to the finesse on display with the notes this line plays with and I think it surpasses many Amouages and Roja's. Very nice, much like this scent's aroma itself. For me, the best of the whole House by far, easily surpassing Glorious (too much astringent rotting fruit-like weirdness and magnolia in the fruit syrup). I will likely need further testing specially to find the notes I really want like the cinnamon, rose and labdanum. This could yet score higher if I find those but for now, it's very solid and very pretty from this one. My rating: 7/10. Quality: 10/10. A hidden gem. Testing courtesy of Selfridges.

This is a soft spicy (cardamom) suede scent, red berries, pink pepper very prominent, smooth and slightly powdery from the Tonka, zero Oud (not sure why it’s voted highly.) To be clear this is in the same category as a soft spicy scent which is usually suede, tobacco, or pink pepper dominated, similar to CC Amberwood or VR Spicebomb. Not the same but similar. The red fruit is what stands out from the other scents with this profile.

goes on much like Molton Brown Oudh Accord and Gold with a tad less amber and a titch more oud; after about an hour, the oud fades and the amber rises; lovely with great lasting power and projection; there's a hint of rose in the background

As usual with a lot of the Boadicea, it hits you in the nose and brain right away with high quality, potent, unique scents. Hard not to buy instantly. Beautiful warm, spicy leather!

Great opening as usual with Boadicea The dry down comes fast and is a light leathery musk, very close to Tuscan Leather