Game of Spades Royale

Alright, one bottle, one nose, no biases. This opens hard and it opens right. Rich hazelnut and cacao straight off the top, warm, creamy, borderline addictive. To me, it smells like Nutella if you were smelling it out of an old but well preserved cedar bowl. There’s sweetness, but it’s not sloppy, the cedar keeps it upright and grown. This isn’t dessert, this is refined indulgence. As it settles, the moss comes in and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It smooths the cedar, adds a slightly fresh, earthy edge, and keeps the whole thing from going sticky. This is where Royale earns respect. It smells intentional, balanced, and expensive. Cozy without being lazy. Sweet without being juvenile. Let’s address the obvious giant elephant in the room, yes, this is clearly inspired by Bond No. 9 TriBeCa. The DNA is obvious. Hazelnut, cacao, creamy warmth, soft woods. If you know the OG, you know this scent. The difference is execution. The Bond has a bit more depth, Royale is slightly sweeter and more approachable. Performance wise, they’re basically the same, and that performance is, to be honest, meh. Projection is moderate for about four hours, maybe five if you’re lucky. Longevity is six to seven hours before it fades into a skin scent. But here’s the thing, those first four to five hours are a straight 10 out of 10. Strong scent bubble, noticeable, confidence boosting. Neither this nor the OG are all day monsters, so you judge them on quality, not endurance. When do you wear this? Fall/Winter/Spring date nights at lively cocktail bars, winter/fall day trips, situations where you want people leaning in, not backing up. It leans slightly feminine because of the gourmand sweetness, but any confident and well put together guy can pull this off easily. Final verdict, elite opening, beautiful mid, average staying power, zero regrets. Score, 8.4 out of 10.

This was a blind buy, and I’m genuinely impressed. First, the juice (because that’s what matters most): Royale smells very, very similar to Tribeca by Bond No. 9. I can confirm that. For those who haven’t tried it, I’d describe Royale as BR540 with hazelnut, cacao, and coconut milk. There’s a distinct coconutty, creamy, milky element here in my opinion (not declared). The juice is very oily and the scent is pretty strong. I haven't had a change to give it a proper wear because I just got it, but I'm confident this will pull 8 hours, at least. Now, the presentation, which honestly deserves its own paragraph: The packaging is top-notch. The box is actual wood, not cardboard, and it features a beautiful raised relief spade emblem in gold. The attention to detail is insane. Even the outer wrap has a luxury golden tamper seal made of metallic foil that breaks when you open it. The bottle is heavy, the cap feels substantial, with a beautiful spade design. The atomizer is great, and everything about the unboxing experience feels premium. I truly value the whole experience of a fragrance, not just the liquid, and this house absolutely delivers on that front. Overall, I’m extremely happy with this purchase and definitely plan on exploring more from this brand.

I love this dna so much. I never want to run out of this particular perfume. I own both Tribeca and Royale and even Luxe Blanc. About to own Coconut Candy & Royal Gold. I'll say that the opening of Royale has more sweetness and coconut-y smell that shine the brightest in the beginning. There is also some earthiness & mintiness, likely the cedar and/or moss that opens up after a minute or two of the intial blast. Tribeca is more cacao/hazelnut/woody forward. On drydown, Tribeca holds more structure and Royale becomes a bit airier. Ambroxan in both is ever present ofc. My nose just perceives the aforementioned notes more. I like to layer both and touch it up with Luxe later in the day lol. That'show addicted I am 😭. In my opinion, Luxe is closer to Tribeca for its less prominent cedar/moss note & coconut-y nuance. This isnjust from memoryy though. Have yet to compare all along side each other. I feel that I didn't need Tribeca. It was more of an ownership of the OG thing. While I don'tregret owning both, I prefer Royale just a little more for the moss & cedar amplifying the sweetness of it. This is a dupe done right and better for me.

These Jo Milano Game of Spades are the best inspired by scents I have encountered. I have Wildcard, Full House, High Roller and Royale in which I share with my wife. They have nailed the Bond DNA especially and actually last much longer than the originals. Royale is a less soapy take on to Tribeca with a touch more density. So well rounded and high end perfumery with no untied loose ends like many middle eastern clones. Without the Jasmine note it would lean masculine but adding it it’s definitely unisex perhaps a touch feminine. That said I love to wear it myself with no reservations being a man. Smells rich, clean, relaxed and soft spoken. Does not offend anyone and really doesn’t give off that typical fragrance vibe. The bottle, atomizer and packaging are top notch as well. Lasts 8 hours on skin and 24 on clothes. Super high class scent !! 9/10

got this bottle in a retail store (60 usd) before the hype. now is more than 80 usd. this scent remind me the coconut candy i used to eat. the opening has coconut notes while the middle notes i smell cacao and nuts. has long duration and i would wear it when going to a resort or a buffet dinner with friends or family when a gourmand scent is needed to open the apetite

Buy this. Please. Do not sleep on this fragrance. If you have freshies in your collection and want a well rounded gourmand, white floral fragrance, this is it. To me this gives off vibes of fresh cut out of the barbershop and I'm ready to step out on a fall day. Man this is a beautiful scent profile. Intoxicating as heck to me.

from my recollection this is identical to tribeca and it projects very well i sprayed the cologne once on myself and my living room only smelled like it for an hour it starts off very creamy almost giving a silk or satin vibe, then it goes to a more ambery smell with some caramel over all i’m very happy with the purchase

Really ? No coconut in here? I swear this smells like coconut baccarat. Very nice, smooth, sweet , saffron , and coconut ... I almost detect a slight white floral or something solar but not quite . It’s smooth and creamy and almost nutty . I like it . Seems like a great summer scent

A very beautiful creamy fragrance. Very close to bond. The ambroxan keeps it from going gourmand which is a plus. Unisex but as a confident man, I have no issues rocking this hard and heavy. For me this a 9/10, I get very positive feedback from both women and men.

This has became a favorite of mine without even thinking it would be. You can use this all year long. I love how you can smell every ingredient in it. You just get a boost of confidence wearing it. It’s unisex which is a plus.

The best gourmand fragrance that isn't too cloyingly gourmand. Awesome 90-95 percent similarity to TriBeCa. The jasmine note really shines on drydown.

Smells so good bro, i layered this with althair yesterday and 2 people said i smelled so good. I love this straight sweet gourmand caramel scent.

Very good. Wearing this is perfect for parties or going out. Smells like a musky cocoa lotion with the heart of jasmine

Probably my favorite perfume of 2024.

this stuff is very very strong

To me, with the exception of Full House, Yellow Sapphire, Ruby, Boston, and a couple others: Game of Spades fragrances kinda smell like they just 'ended up' as fragrances. Often times they don't smell very... Deliberate? Some have no scent beyond 30 minutes. Many are just skin scents. Others have weird base notes that smell like air fresheners. Then there's that one that smells pretty good to you. Not great, but good. And then it doesn't last. Or it ends up like an air freshener. Or it doesn't to you, but you KNOW it does to others. Hmmmm... 6/10

A coworker gifted this to me stating it was a vanilla fragrance but based on the notes and scent, vanilla is non-existent in this fragrance. I prefer gourmand scents and this is a mature perfumey scent that reminds me of pear.

I love Tribeca, but this? Not so much. It is more floral and airy, synthetic smelling. Lacks that rich hazelnut and depth that Tribeca has. They tried, but missed the mark.

Am i tripping? This reminds me of Odyssey Dubai Chooclate... and that is better. This isn't gourmand in the slightest, smells like synthetic musky cologne with a hint of coffee bitterness. The game of spades line has been a huge letdown so far.

I smell the caramel but can’t get over the synthetic smell i get from this. I don’t know what it is, but i wouldn’t recommend this as a blind buy. Smells like chemicals mixed with caramel.

I purchased The Series 1 Coffret. After opening the sampler I can easily say I have never been more disappointed with the quality of fragrances in my life. I have to assume I either got a box with fake or ruined samples. These fragrances got ratings higher than most every classic ever created. I tested Wildcard and Royale on my skin. They are simply awful. The opening of Wildcard was ok but the drydown is just putrid. The scents don't match the notes listed in the box or on Fragrantica, Some of the samples smell so bad and are so headache inducing that I refuse to spray any others on my skin. I have tried all 9 on spray strips. they either smell horrendous or have no scent at all. Rouge Extrait had no scent whatsoever. I purchased this from a very reputable online retailer so I'm really confused. I contacted Jo Milano to try and ascertain whether they thought this item was authentic. They never responded. They can go fuck themselves. I hope for their sake this isn't the real deal because every scent in this box is shit.

Unbelievable how dog shit this is, smells like squirrel shit. Maybe I’m over reacting a bit but really is not nice. I’ve never smelt Tribeca but this by itself is super bad. It is a women’s perfume tho so it wasn’t meant for me in the first place. Just safe yourself some time and look for an alternative. 2.1/10

There's waaaaay to much hype for this perfume house, yes they must be paying coked up Jeremy a tonne of blow and mean money and yes Wildcard is amazing, it delivers performance, longevity and sillage for hours but that's where it ends for me. I have 2 more bottles, opal and royale. Full house may just be a banger but I ain't looking for no 4-5 hour scent that I have to reapply 2 or 3 times a day, especially at these Jo Malino price's, it's a dupe, sure it's high end but I need 8 hours plus powerhouse. Don't tell cheapies can't give that range when you have franc Oliever touch of oud, shagouf oud gold, art of nature 1&2 by lattafa that easily last 10hours+ Surely they have different notes and some last longer than others but Jacqueline boggart nailed it with most of his silver scent fragments which also included freshies and that was years ago. Ibrahim Al Qurayshi nailed it with french tobacco which a LV imagination inspo. Bottom line, it can be done. Hasn't Hawas done it several times, khadlaj, even Armaf although they have a screechy lemon synthetic harshness to Thier perfumes which is why I wasn't going to mention them and left it until the end. I have way too many 3-4,4-5,5-6 hour perfumes that I've forgotten about in my collection. I don't enjoy the idea of reapplying when something cost £50-100. Rant over. Review on Royale. It's nice, it's warm, nutty, creamy. It's pleasant. The type of fragrance lattafa could easily pull of for a fraction of the price and the type they probably will and have better longevity and sillage. It's a 6 hour fragrance. Clearly there's too many shills online for this brand. I've samples queen, that's trash. I've samples rouge, that's.. Interesting. It's not a 1:1 barakat rouge and there's others that cheaper that perform better but it's a nice skin scent. Would I pay anything near to what they are asking for? Hell no. Game of spades Opal, just received. Came in this annoying glitter box that leaves crap on your hands. Thousands of glitter particles everywhere yay good times! Alright forget that, let's get the important part the scent. Well I'm wring this 10pm, I sprayed at 5pm and there's not even a skin scent I can detect. I sprayed this thing like 16-20 times all over, my body, my clothes. Can't smell nothing. 5 hours and not even a single note left, £70 for this? I received a sample of greek tobacco by Ibrahim Al Qurayshi, wanted to know what it smells like and how long it lasts. Some say it's feminine leaning. I sprayed one spray in the crease on the inside of my elbow & can still smell it. That's not impressive as I would expect it to go on for up to 8 hours but amongst all the other sprays around it, my wrist, my other elbow, my chest, 4 on the neck, back of the hand... Opal has left the building along time ago. I could hardly smell it after one hour honestly. It's not a strong, loud projecting scent and ALL of these influencers are on the pay roll. I hit the jackpot with wildcard but considering how much I've spent since then on the rest Im at a loss now. I was interested in emerald but the seller didn't send a sample but I'm done with this house. I'll repurchase wildcard again if it's on discount under £50 but never will I experiment with any others. I've pretty much got everyone's top 3 or any one with a list of top 5 (besides weak performing full house which I'm not interested in as I have french tobbaco by Ibrahim Al Qurayshi 200ml for £50) it'll so much cheaper, twice the amount and lasts longer, it's a no brainier.

Picked this up in New York for $50. Never seen this line in the UK, this is an ambroxan & cacao bomb!! Nutty and creamy with great sillage - I usually have an issue with ambroxan, either noseblind (BR540) or it just smells like total musky dirt. The hazlenut & cacao here is just about enough to off set the dirtiness I detect, I would say this is totally unisex and of great quality. Not smelled Tribeca but definitely intend to now I’ve let this sit for a while and enjoy the scent. In the air this has a cacao butter vibe - really enjoy this and I like the bottle EDIT: Tested out Tribeca - excellent dupe, same thick cocoa butter with dirty ambroxan

People complain how this $60 fragrance does not have the depth or use of naturals, as the $350 OG. Are you freakin serious??? 🤣🤣 Get out of here, respectfully smh

This smells exactly like By by Dolce & Gabbana for Women when it dries down. On My skin the projection is weak. Don't mine over spraying. This smells so good.

Bond No. 9 has a very distinctive scent dna. Tribeca is an easy to wear niche fragramce that gets lots of compliments. Highly recommend

I bought this looking for a clone of. While it is similar it lacks the depth of Tribeca and has a soapy latex scent that is nauseating

@mickmedical your review has so many AI tells in it It's crazy. Thanks for the laugh for the straight chat GPT perfume review lmfao

I like the overall DNA, but it’s giving me a little.. rubbery latex vibes. Maybe after some maturation it will smooth out a bit.

It smells like cocoa body lotion not bad tho