Smokey Tobacco

I have passion for niche perfumery. So when I was browsing in a boutique and saw a new perfume line that promised quality juice, I promptly left the store 100ml heavier and $130 lighter. CB "I hate perfume" is a new kid on the scene and, rightly so, I stared him down with the same skeptism that I once reserved for Bond no 9. Reviews were sparse online so I was excited to try the scents in store. I tested many in the line but the only scent that appealed to me was Smokey Tobacco. It's stunningly gorgeous, a scent I felt was a cheaper alternative to Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille, yet a scent that would stand alone in my collection. Like Tobacco Vanille, it is a sweet, lightly smokey pipe tobacco scent with lots of vanilla and it totally unisex. A seductive oriental gourmand with no rough edges. Very slightly powdery, the citrus note cannot be detected; it blends beautifully creating a scent reminiscent of baked apple pie. The best way I can describe this scent is to imagine you are in your childhood home, your grandmum baking treats for you as your grandfather smokes rich, sweet pipe tobacco from an ornate pipe. The great thing about this perfume is that it does not change according to chemistry, it is consistent all the way through on each person. This also makes the scent boring to some as there is no evolution, no crescendo and quiet dry down. It wears close to skin after several minutes and is almost undetectable after several hours. If the perfume had more sillage and staying-power I might have been able to look past it's flaws. Now for the unfavourable. The colognes come in sturdy enough basic glass bottles, packaged in a cardboard tubes like one would use to store posters and photographs. I love minimalism and appreciate an industrial aesthetic, however the packaging can also appear to be cheap and haphazard or, at worst, reminiscent of a toilet tissue roll. The labels had bubbles in them from where they were placed without care and within a week of the bottle sitting on my bathroom counter the label had started peeling and the black typed letters had blurred into oblivion from light condensation... The most disrespectful part of the design approach of this company is that the misspelled perfume name on the label of the bottle is often misspelled on the packaging and booklet included. In fact the kitschy company booklet itself is wrought with spelling errors and a lack of detail so appaling that I wonder how the company has the nerve to call itself niche and charge the prices they do. Benefit of the doubt, you misspelled your own perfume name on it's very label! I cannot have faith in a company that does not respect themselves or their customers. While I did enjoy this offering from CB, I simply cannot be bothered to try any more of their line-up. Predictably, I ended up buying Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille and I couldn't be happier to get my fix.... the niche way.

A very interesting tobacco scent. I dont really get smoke form this one, but I do get a tobacco and whiskey scent with underpinnings of fruit and cream. There is also a bit if a sour note buried deep underneath, which offsets the fruity sweetness. 12 hours in this is a delicious sweet tobacco. Overall a good tobacco scent. I get good projection and great longevity on my skin. This is very mush a unisex scent that can be wornbin any attire. If you like tobacco scents you should try a sample of this one.