Regal

Aptly named. I've been testing a few from Boadicea and have thoroughly enjoyed Ardent, Inceni and Intense (so much so that I've pondered over adding them to my "want" list). However Regal is the first of the Boadicea house that I truly and madly want to go home with, no demurring, just take my money already. This is a superb oriental rose, both dark and sweet. The scent is intoxicating in its beauty and its quality is unquestionable. Warm and inviting woody notes, dry spices, gorgeous and lush rosy blooms, a rich patchouli and amber base. Regal may not be original or unique but if you are looking for quality and class, this would be a definite contender. Solid performance.

Man I like this. It starts out as a light greenish flora. A geranium, rose & saffron combo, blended with hedione (which gives it lightness), & some amber thrown in. What makes this shine for me though, is the drydown. it seems to morph into a different beast...one with a bit more character. I think that is due to the patchouli and cedar. It does have some similarites to the Mancera lines. I find many of the Mancera fragrances to be loud and brash...this one is a bit more understated and refined. Plus...the drydown is surprising. I haven't had a fragrance change this much ever.

Cheerful floral woody musk that opens with green fruits (pears, green apple), with hints of saffron. The brief heart is floral and mainly rose and jasmine. The perfume settles on a bed of amber and sandalwood with patchouli, cedar and synthetic musks in the background. The unisex scent has moderate to strong sillage and good longevity. A pleasing lingering olfactory experience, but not hugely exceptional. Enjoy!

This is a very airy scent. It goes on smokey like a diluted complex with a huge dose of rose added. The rose it large in the top notes. This quickly dries down to a soft scent then fades. I like it but don't love it. I can't put my nose on the notes. None stand out.

A lovely bottle, but I think the scent smells like one of those cheap arabic scents which you can buy from Amazon. A more superior quality Rose/ Patchouli fragrance is ROSES DE VOLEUR by L'Artisan.

Yes, at first I was rather smitten by Regal. I was joyful to find fragrance with rich almost lipstick rose oil and honey and suede with strength and tenacity and some smokiness and darkness at the end, there is an oud (oud oil) in this fragrance, slightly "medicinal" at the beginning. This fragrance exudes quality and somewhat exotic. There is so much more going on in this fragrance, it smells beautiful, intoxicating and powerful. "Regal" is well fitting name for it. Quality seems to me comparable with Jean Patou house. Something at the opening of this fragrance makes it easy and wanting to inhale it(saffron, rose or iso-E..?). Regal puts me on the path of traveling from the lush gardens of an oasis towards the desert, where roses slowly condense into the memories of the home left, giving space in the present to more spiritual, devoid of sweetness arid,oily and musky wood smell. There is fire burning during the stops along that path, dry smell of the wooly musky back of the animal(camel?) that carries the traveler. Heat, heat, but not a pepper heat, rather a suffocating heat of trying to smell a brushed wool sweater in the hot summer. Although the connoisseurs of all things olfactory tell us that smell of lavender is the most preferable, comfortable for human nose, for my nose the smell of rose is like home. I even went so far as to buy the bottle at the local boutique. Now I realize that it's much more unisex than I could ever imagine. In enamored haze I failed to notice very strong smoke and probably very strong patchouli and probably oud oil maybe with frankincense and such a different and darker amber at the time when I decided to buy(it gets very dark at the end). The metallic note(very much ambergris) makes me think of somebody was freshly finished here: I smell the bloody sword or nature mort with meat or just very bare skin. This is uncomfortable. I sprayed it on several clean blouses in my closet. And only in a couple of weeks when I entered my closet, I have realized that I have a guest, probably a creature, I have never known, somehow appearing not really friendly, who is not familiar with the deodorant. Then I smelled blouses which I sprayed with Regal: they were the culprit: I want to know, is it ... patchouli, ..or oud, ...or amber, or..saffron? It's not playful touch of cumin mixed with neroli a la Declaration Cartier. It's something different, suffocatingly profound. It took me about a month to realize, that when I put a careful spray on my skin, the smoke starts bothering me(maybe I should use it only in winter) It's not that I am suffocating, but this stuff is rather airless in warm summer air. It's not easy for me to love it any more. There are features that Regal shares with Encens Mythique D'Orient Guerlain and Calypso Robert Piguet and Black Afgano Nasomatto. Also Regal resembles (not the quality, power and longevity although) Agent Provocateur Eau Emotionnelle (the only fragrance I have from Agent Provocateur line), the very first impression after spraying Eau Emotionnelle, then Eau gets mossier, damper and chyprier and sits very quietly, while Regal is very woodsy dry oily rich and rather big and lasts for loooong time. But none of mentioned fragrances(except Jean Patou fragrances, such as 1000) comes close to Regal in quality or smell. Maybe, it' s in the realm of Montale ouds or other ouds (not Kilian) where I should be looking for similar fragrance. Good luck, I really want to see some positive reviews of this fragrance from les femmes.

This is an interesting one. I'm about two years into my frag hobby, and I'm starting to really dig Christian Provenzano's work. This one starts as a slightly sharp rose/oud combo with a saffron airy spiciness, and slight green/fruity tones. The mid becomes a thick floral scent, led by a heavy rose. Not a jammy rose, but more of a oily feel, which might be due to the jasmine notes. The thick floral notes and the spiciness of the saffron can make this a bit dense. Not quite cloying, but there is a presence to this one that cant be mistaken. I *felt* this fragrance as I wore it. The opening and mid last for a lot longer than I expected...I mean hours. I wore this to a business meeting...then went to the gym (this is definitely NOT a gym scent, btw) and did a good 2 hour workout, including cardio...and I got clear whiffs of the opening/mid notes AFTER that. I'm sure the people around me definitely some opinions about it, but I didn't ask, lol. The really interesting thing is the drydown. It turns into a woody, smoky, musky scent that seems the complete opposite of every stage before it, but also seems to fit the thickness of the mid stage. The spice fades away, and the florals gradually drifts into the woodiness and creaminess of the sandalwood and cedar, as the pungency of the patchouli eases the process. This drydown came about HOURS after the initial spray, and was still on my skin hours after a shower and dinner. Look, I'm not trying to write a novel, but this is a very interesting fragrance that I'll definitely comeback to for a cooler night out. I'd give it 7.5/10. It's a bit sharp, and dense all at once, but it works, I think. And the drydown is really nice & smooth. Grab a decant if you can.

Today, moving to the opposite end of the price spectrum of The Body Shop, I've decided to dip into my yet-to-be-reviewed Boadicea the Victorious carded samples. First up: Regal. Memories of Nejma Two rushed through my mind the moment I applied Regal to my wrists. I have seen that others compare this composition to Czech & Speake Dark Rose, which is another rose-oud-saffron perfume. Not sure what to think of the people who find this perfume similar to Tocca Cleopatra or Robert Piguet Calypso. (A chacun son nez!) To me, Regal fits aesthetically into the rose-saffron-oud genre--though it does not actually claim oud as a note. This would confirm my belief that oud is more like a code word these days for a sort of scent, which is definitely present in this perfume. It's a Westernized oud: gentile and pleasant, not harsh and dirty at all, as is the real thing--at least to me! The differences in perception and taste among perfume lovers never cease to amaze me. Another reviewer counts Regal among the most "boring" of the Boadicea line. I respectfully demur. If I were to buy a full bottle of any perfume from this line, Regal would be among the final contenders. Lots of rose and orientalia here. What's not to like--or even love? I'm happy to have selected this perfume to wear as I toil through another day of moving hell. An aside: I saw in a recent feature here at Fragrantica that Boadicea the Victorious has rebranded itself as a Michael Boadi-free house. I wonder why that should be?

I'm not going to give along review, this is the skinner, weaker older brother of Mancera's black to black, older brother because this came out first, if you've smelt black to black you've smelt this, it's spot on, only difference is in projection and longevity, for the price and quality,Black to Black in the clear winner.

it has all those notes like it should have in any good scent, but somehow it smells rather cheap. Like fake Prada bag. All fragrances in this line are like that. If you smell them after trying anything really good, you may be disapointed.

Acidic rose, saffron patchouli, lemon zest, (slightly fermented) oud and a slightly peppery finish. Pretty standard rose-oud oriental.

Just yesterday I tried it...foud very similar to Montale Black Oud but more gentle and spiritual! I can still smell it in my room...

The saffron note is divine But the projection is soft

This is just beautiful full stop. 10/10