Tonka

This stuff is beast mode. If you like Tonka and Fall/Winter spices, you'll probably love this one. Don't sniff too close, this one needs to be enjoyed as part of your scent bubble. 10/10 for quality, originality, and longevity.

This is a nice scent, but tonka beans sit at the back and plays a major support role rather than being the star of the show. Top: Pink peppercorn, Mandarin, Bergamot Heart: Ylang ylang, Clary sage, Coriander Base: Vetiver, Tonka, Amber Tonka opens, strangely, with a pink peppercorn, black pepper and a bitter mandarin. It transitions into a green and spicy scent after minutes, as the zest fades. Yes, the fruitiness of peppercorn is detectable, but the framework is very much green aromatics, almost culinary to my nose at one point. There are green herbs, peppery spices, citrus peels. Are we cooking or making a cocktail? Enjoyable. There is heat and dark soil in the background - we approach this warm earth very slowly. This is where the TONKA plays, supported by ambroxan and synthetic woody & vetiver notes. The combination in the dry-down forms a tobacco accord to my nose. The namesake of this perfume does not appear until later, in other words - well after the impression of this perfume has been formed. Whilst the tonka beans are deftly used, I think the naming of this scent would potentially confuse buyers into thinking they are buying a vanillin/coumarin bomb, or that tonka would punch us in the face with the first spritz. I would rename this perfume SCHINUS. But no, Tonka here is used in an indirect but creative manner, providing the deep, earthy and rounded aspects to this green, spicy scent. Rather than just being a vanilla substitute in the base, that is, the tonka here grounds and balances the scent. Projection is moderate after the first few minutes. For an EdT, longevity is fairly good on my skin. This is a very good and unusual perfume. Fans of spicy greens and savoury culinary scents would like this one. Just don't go in expecting a facsimile of vanilla.

A bit greener than I expected from the name, and leans rather more masculine (definitely a touch of barber shop in there) but as a woman, I find it a very wearable. It's a slightly unusual, spicy herbal aromatic fragrance. The mandarin and bergamot are not very prominent, and the tonka doesnt have a particularly vanillic aspect, but it all develops pleasingly on the skin and warms together nicely with the woods in the drydown. I now own all of Laboratory Perfumes' scents. Very much worth getting, and I hope there will be more at some point.

Yeah, zero tonka. Same DNA as the one labelled "Amber" (which smells nothing like Amber, and everything like Aventus.) Again, a green, spicy aftershave smell, zero tonka, don't be fooled. Shame on you Laboratory Perfumes, I thought this would be niche category; it's in fact false advertised as niche and gives you basic mainstream. A faint whiff of plastic in the background to add insult to injury. **Let's trade samples - I have loads, trust me I will put you off this one. UK only **

I echo the reviews stating this smells nothing like Tonka. I had Tonka absolute on one wrist and this Tonka on the other. Absolutely nothing in common. Must keep looking for an affordable linear Tonka.