Bronze Tonka

Gorgeous! Bronze Tonka is a beautiful woody aromatic scent. It smells of mildly-sweet woody tonka beans, with a saffron-softened spicy leather note, & hint of coffee. The woody background is opulent & rich. The end smell is spicy, woody, & mildly-sweet. Really good. It also comes in a heavy, well-designed glass bottle, with a strongly-magnetized metal cap that jumps out of your hand to snap on the top of the bottle with a loud metallic clank! A bottle that says "quality". However, this smells almost identical to Mancera Red Tobacco, which came a year earlier in 2017, & its clone Alexandria Hafez 1984. I am not exaggerating. They are very similar, they are almost identical. So if you like this expensive fragrance, try those for a more affordable alternative. It's worth mentioning that some pointed out that CH's Mystery Tobacco, which is from the same line as Bronze Tonka, also smells like Red Tobacco. So does that mean it smells like Bronze Tonka, too? I haven't tried Mystery Tobacco to say. Also, of all the fragrances mentioned in this review, Mystery Tobacco was released first in 2015. Some maybe Mancera cloned CH first? Overall, Bronze Tonka is a really beautiful smell of high quality that is, for a lack of a better term, overpriced. "Love" but I'm sticking with Red Tobacco/Hafez unless I find it heavily discounted, then I'll give it a shot. P.S.: This fragrance was created by Philippine Courtiere.

Creamy and delicious... the house DNA is strong with this one. They all have this softly buffered texture across the scent. Even if punctuated with clear sweet fruit or gourmand notes. For me here I get a buttery and sweet opening that reminds me of the opening of Iris Empire (an almost candied fruity Iris). Then I get an unctuous apple pie vibe coming in that just stops short of true apples. Here it reminds me of Nightfall Patchouli. Before levelling out the sweetness and lifting up to a lighter almost higher and warmer pitched scent. It’s cocooning and sweet but not sickly. Ambered yet not too deep or spicy. This is that friend that makes you feel grounded and comfortable being your whole self. A gem for heading into and out of cooler weather.

Wow! Such a beautiful scent! This is sweet, spicy, leathery and woody. The main note for me is tonka compined with coffe, oud, leather and saffron. I get some jasmine and sandalwood in the background. The thing that makes me like this so much is the contrast between the sweet, thick notes and the dry, rouch notes like coffe, oud and leather. This doesn't smell like any other fragrance i know and in my opinion is the best from the collection. The performance is great and i find it competely unisex. The only downside is the expensive price. Amazing gourmand with a dark twist!

This has nothing in common with Angel's Share and its many clones. It's also not a light fragrance. It's super powerful and long lasting. Fragrantica had the notes wrong from the start. They corrected them recently but since they don't wipe the voting data, the votes are all effed up. Not only that but half the reviews were influenced by incorrect notes. Kind of a funny psychological experiment. There's no f***ing leather in this. Saffron can of course come across leathery, but it doesn't here. There's nothing leathery about this fragrance at all.

This smells mostly like leather and coffee to me, with vanillic nuances in the background. The oud is more noticeable in the late dry down. This is the strongest and longest lasting from the other five I’ve tried from the line. I like it a lot this line is really really nice

This smells fantastic. However, I'm not understanding many of the comments. To me, leather & coffee are not at all prominent in this fragrance and I get no smokiness. Tonka, saffron & smooth oud w/faint cypriol are really all I smell.

Perfectly unisex. Strong sillage, lasts all day. Beautifully balanced, and the leather is similar to Dior Homme Parfum—a tiny bit of edge but not screechy. Sadly, overpriced.

Does anyone know the god-damn-amazing nose behind this masterpiece!?!

Bronze Tonka is very unique take on a 'Tonka' based fragrance and it took me a minute to come around to this one. I am going to get the negative out of the way so we can get to good part. The issue I had with this fragrance I think was the combination of cypriol, which to me smells medicinal herbal, woody, and bitter combined with the prominent leather note which brought to my mind leather cleaner wipes. Happily though, the cypriol calms down a lot as the fragrance develops, and the coffee, dark and bitter, makes a very fleeting appearance. Now comes the good part! Once the opening calms down, Tonka comes through, vanillic and the right kind of powdery for me. There is also an oud and sandalwood here which I can discern but they stay in the background, in a more supporting role. I cannot pick up any florals but in the base enters one of my favorite notes, saffron. Depending on how it is used in perfumery, saffron can sometimes take on a slightly leathery nuance and because of this, it is frequently used in leather dominant frags. In the dry down, which I quite like now, this is a sweet, deep, woody, leathery fragrance with saffron. Bronze Tonka is, in my opinion, a misleading name because to my nose the leather leads the charge here supported by that lovely saffron and tonka comes in only at third spot. Leather is a challenging note for me but the way CH uses leather in the confidential line surprises (in a good way) me every time. While this was not a love at first sniff, I have warmed up to it a lot and appreciate the scent more and more every time I try it. As far as performance, this is exceptional even for the confidential line where almost all the fragrances are good/great performers. This one leans masculine to me but it is one I could see a bold woman carrying off with panache! This is not one I would recommend you blind buy, none of them are but especially not this one.

Blind tested this, after owning it for ages and forgetting about it. First impressions: spicy amber scent, leaning more towards cold weather. I can kind of smell all the notes, and none of the notes. Weirdly I cannot smell the tonka specifically, but my nose rather registers "amber". With each sniff I seem to oscillate between thinking (a) it's too 'masculine' because I get strong and musty wood (oud and saffron likely), then (b) it's gorgeous, slightly sweet with just the right pop of spice, and (c) gosh, that's an old-fashioned dusty floral scent, and too 'feminine'. But that's three sniffs in 10 seconds!! It's like my nose doesn't know what's going on, but really wants to get in there and keep trying to figure it out. I think it just doesn't really appreciate saffron, and is trying to make it work. The drydown makes think of flat, spicy, Coca-Cola (spicy in place of the syrup). Funnily enough, I can understand why some people liken it to 24 Gold: it's like if you took that scent and removed the sweetness from it, replacing it with saffron. But cousins that you'd recognise were related if you saw a photo of them. Overall, I realise why I put the decant away for so long: it's just not something I would be tempted to reach for very often. I do like it, but can't think of anywhere I would wear it, other than curled up beside a fire... and I don't own a fireplace! :)

Have a 3 * official mini collection presentation box with platinum leather, bronze tonka and gold incense... Bronze Tonka smells like a woody tonka to me, creamy woods that smell like a nice sandalwood boltered by a starchy tonka mainly. The coffee note is gone pretty quickly I found, and a very mild suede note is there. Some people have voted for 24 Gold I see as a likeness; I kind of see where you are going but this is a lot better quality imho, I think Atkinsons Oud Save the King might be a closer comparision but this has a stronger tonka note like Mugler's Pure Tonka did. I like this but not at the price it goes for, and I already own Oud Save the King so I'll stick with the mini. Btw there is a review below with a lot of balloons that says this smells identical to Mancera Red Tobacco, I don't think that is true personally, I think they are getting mixed up with one of the other CH, Mystery Tobacco.

This is a light version of Angels Share from Kilian. You might as well know that Khamrah from Lattafa smells almost the same without the heavy rum (which smells better in my opinion). To my nose, Khamrah wins. It tops those 2 for being sophisticated and powerful! Bronze Tonka has low projection and performance.

Gorgeous fragrance but definitely leans more unisex I would say more masculine for sure even though a woman could definitely wear this it would have to be a woman that is probably alpha lol. It’s rich, strong and a really nice creation. I mainly get oud... coffee... leather with a slight vanilla sweetness.

Actually I'm thinking to keep this or not. It's so boozy and leathery. Leather is so prominent with the tonka beans. But the coffee note is not obvious. I think this is more unisex. Bold women or men. Not in love but like this. It's quite unique to my nose, I think this is what the hype about.

This was an interesting and unexpected composition and very different from anything I've ever smelled. I enjoyed smelling it out of the bottle but not on me. Somehow the combination of notes translated to the smell of prune juice on skin. I don't mind sipping on very cold prune juice occasionally, but once my nose connected that association, I couldn't smell anything else. I also did not detect coffee or oud individually. Generally, a creative experience of a dense scent, but not for me.

Tonka is lost here! Or is it even here? Very deep oud with leather and distant smoky/ incens-y accord. I do not feel any other notes. The review of "Confidential" collection is already on my YouTube. Dina_France

Opening is lovely. Rich scent but it ghosts me in no time flat.

Unisex masculine scent. Very spicy woody and too much oud. Not matching my skin chemistry at all. Feels quite dirty smelling and boozy. Not my type. The woodiness is sharp the overall perfume feels sharp and spicy. Overated

I absolutely love this fragrance. I have learned important lesson, the fragrance really needs to stand in room temperature for few days after being in transit. It makes big difference. I initially wasnt impressed when I got it, the leather note was way to noticeable, but as few days went by the fragrance adopted to room temperature and next time I used it, leather wasnt there and I got this gorgeous coffee note, aromatic woody notes, sweetness from tonka beans or vanilla. Its so good. I would wear it myself for the occasions I want to feel cozy and comforted but yet bossy and awake. I think its a bold fragrance for a women and oh so good and super sexy for a men. I still yet to convince my husband to wear it too but absolutely would love it on him. It will be enforced for our date. 🤣 As for the scent comparison I would say the closest I could think is Angels' Share by Kilian minus all that sweetness. I feel like Angels Share can be overwhelming a bit with that sweetness, while this one is balanced perfectly and wont suffocate you, its much softer. I love both though but if you love Angels Share you most likely will love this too. Another one it reminds me of is Back to Black by Kilian, Bronze Tonka is less powdery and minus honey and fruity notes.

the opening stage is very off-putting but give it a chance! it gets really great, the only thing is I don't get much of tonka, its more of an oudscentric fragrance. nothing groundbreaking but still a good one. the opening smells synthetic, strong saffron with tonka give it a very cheap-toys-plasticky type of smell. and its also too sweet. luckily, in about 10-15 minutes it smooths out and becomes really nice. I get bitter coffee beans and aromatic oud wood with a timid hint of saffron. so good. but that initial smell...gotta be patient

all I can utter is a rapturous WOW...this is achingly delicious stuff! it has a narcotic effect upon sniffing...I am whisked to an ancient opium den where the air is heavy with smoke, spices, exotic burning woods and gorgeous men wearing leather...but i digress...This is very warm, wearable and extremely smooth and complex. It sings in the warm air of summer, but I can expect that it will sparkle in the cold of winter! A Gorgeous, opulent,classy and completely unisex offering by Carolina Herrera, and my new favorite of the line.

Fragrantica I think you forgot the main note Tonka bean one key ingredient: – Tonka Bean. The impetuous Tonka Bean is sharpened with spicy sparks of coffee, oud and cypriol Tonka Bean saffron and sandalwood! Sounds smokey resinous dark and invigorating absolutely unisex... I feel enraptured can't wait to try this Beaut! Am also looking forward to CH Gold Incense.

Its a rich, boozy tonka. I don’t get oud or woods at all just syrupy, resinous sweetness. I wish the booze was dialed down and the tonka dialed up. Keep going back and forth with this. Want to sel it but then i don’t. Its not a bad scent, it is just not that exciting for me.

Powdered coffee, & leather... It started tonka with chunks of coffee then settles to powdered coffee, & harsh leather. i can't detect any oud in here! maybe European style oud. I can detect some saffron MAYBE...some sandalwood, and cedar. Pretty.

Am I the only one who smell the cherry? Immediately I spray it on my arm I remembered something like Tom ford lost cherry but way more sweeter and dark. Am I tripping? Nobody else is talking about that.

Pretty darn good concoction. Smells fairly similar to SHL777's Qom Chilom in some minor aspects, with added coffee and tonka, making it quite boozy.

One word: Santi. Santi is an sweet/dessert Italian wine, and this smells EXACTLY like it.