Master

This is a warm, brown-black leather, slightly smoky. Rather classical and masculine. The shoulder to lean on. But not your father's shoulder, there's hardly an old school drift nor barnyard attacks. Russian leather as the underlying fantasy note maybe, yet careful and comparatively modern. If you smell closely you'll find the early bitter orange, but think orange zest in your Old Fashioned rather than the common high impact fruity nose catcher. Speaking of Old Fashioned: Mark replaced the whisky with a spoonful of fine cognac, which I detect when smelling the sprayer but not as part of the scent when on skin. But this along with other harmonising notes make the overall sensation as I feel it: The vanilla and tobacco smooth out the potentially harsh leather, and so does what I understand as the main player - the aromatic cocoa. While it's not the most prominent note per se, it works wonders. It is a genius move imho to balance this powdery, dry and soft note as a counterpart to the strong leather accord. The result is a comforting scent, bold yet emotional, that surrounds me and makes me smile. Combined with the surprisingly moderate projection you have a more versatile perfume than you would expect from your previous leather lessons.

Amazing, dynamic fragrances that screams "daddy likes leather". It opens with a splash of citrus, both fresh lime and medicinal bitter orange, this scene is drowned out by the cognac a few minutes later. After the cognac you get to the first long stage of floral leather, notes of jasmine, lychee, and leather dominate, eventually fading into the multihourslong "warmer" notes of frankincense, cypress, and oud. The notes are perfect on paper, but on my skin I get a civet note, starting at the floral leather stage ending at about the sixth hour of wear, that smells like a feed store. The civet note is subdued, but at anything closer than arms length smells bad. Longevity is great for a dynamic fragrance, noticeable the morning after, but projection fades based on the remaining notes. Though objectively great, I have to hold off on this since I can only comfortably wear it in situations where I can't smell myself.

A nice one. I dig the citrus in the opening, very much an orange-bitters-in-your-whiskey-sour feeling, and then it sticks around to the skin pleasantly with a warm leather that projects. I'm a sucker for scents like this, and will probably save the rest of my sample for cooler weather. For the girls who love imagery: imagine wiping down a dark oak desk in a library with clean, bright citrus polish, then placing your glass of bourbon on it. Maybe your leather driving gloves are in the desk's dusty top drawer. Can't be mad at that, can you?

Spice and citrus zest dominate for me here: background players for me are tobacco, some woodsy notes, and leather. Obviously your mileage may vary with this comment, but to me wearing this makes me feel like my father when he was going to a nice dinner. I don't know what he cologne used to wear, but I've never felt more like him than I have when wearing this.

Masculine perfection - loamy old fashioned, peat, sweetness, smoke, orange - just an utterly addictive and rich smell. Not cloying, uplifting and beautiful. Cool weather wear. I picture walking in London, well-dressed, cloudy day, cool breezes. I could swim in this. Can't get enough.