Bruno – Pure Essence

This signature perfume from Bruno Acampora is available as both oil and extrait and I have the latter. This one is a bright, cheery and sweet Oriental-style Floral Wood. The perfume opens with notes of grapefruit, labdanum and saffron. At its heart are notes of cedar, patchouli and rose. The dense base which remains throughout the stay of the perfume is comprised of agarwood and musk. This is not a subtle perfume. It announces itself the moment the spray leaves the bottle.It is not particularly innovative either. But sometimes tried and tested, loud and bombastic works in spades. Unisex (masculine leaning) with strong sillage, projection and good longevity. A real guilty pleasure. Enjoy!

I am a fan of the richness and intensity of the Acampora Classics, and Bruno is a disappointment for me. The sweetness of the Labdanum spoils the Saffron, and the Rose and Oud which take a while to surface, are as others have said, a bit too common. Actually I am a fan of Rose Oud but they all sort of smell alike. Too bad that Bruno is not more than a sum of its parts, and also more mild-mannered and normal for the Acampora house.

I didn't get noticeable grapefruit during the opening of L'essence Bruno. It starts plush and musky right away on my skin. An incense-like note lies under this earthy yet clean musk, which eventually reveals itself as the oud note in the later stages. Spicy patchouli and rubbery saffron dance around the edge, providing subtle complexity to this sensual blend. I quite enjoy these first 30 minutes of L'essence Bruno. Unfortunately, when the sweet raspberry-like rose note appears and gets stronger with time, it goes south for me. Together with the dry oud, they form a ubiquitous, one-dimensional sweet rose-oud that I don't particularly care for. It does remind me of the sweet rose-oud base in several Nasomatto, but less abrasively smoky, and with a thick dollop of clean, papery musk added on the top. There is also a salty ambery base underneath, which is quite interesting. But this sweet rose-oud accord is too distracting for me to enjoy the fragrance as a whole. I get a heavy to moderate sillage with L'essence Bruno, and it lasts easily for 10 hours. Because of my personal grudge against certain types of rose-oud accord, L'essence Bruno is ultimately not my cup of tea. But the opening stage of earthy, incense-y musk is quite enjoyable. I would recommend it to those who enjoy modern western rose-oud such as Nasomatto or Tom Ford, and would like an earthy musky twist.

L'essence is the worst fragrance I had the displeasure of sampling this year. I knew I wasn't going to like it as soon as I uncapped the vial that I received as a free sample. This is a huge musk/patchouli/agaroud bomb that gives off a dark, dank gloomy vibe along with a searing metallic edge from the grapefruit. All the notes clash with my skin chemistry. Despite my negative comments I can see some people liking this. In general I dislike goth type fragrances with the exception of Midnight Poison (which is one of my all time favorites).

A twist on the saffron / oud / resin cliche; one that starts well but collapses into utter predictability. This is structured around a castoreum-smelling oud — slightly berry-like, but not too stinky. The saffron lends it a rubbery edge, and there’s some raunchy musk writhing around in there too, but it’s all dialed back so that the oud accord gets most of the attention. Draped on top is a scratchy grapefruit accord that’s sharp and veers a tad tropical but functions as a decent overlay to the rest of the composition. There are moments when it (the grapefruit) gets a bit too spiky for my liking, but overall it plays well in the mix. However, it becomes increasingly pedestrian over time. Even more of a bummer is that the longer it’s around, the closer it gets to Black Afgano’s sugary-wood base only with more musk and the vague remnants of a distant grapefruit. Moderately engaging at first, but turns disappointing quite fast.