Grand Master

I went into Neimans and was excited to see that they have this collection- probably saved me needless blind buys- even decants and samples can get crazy, let’s be honest. When you think you need to smell all of the things like myself, and I’m sure alot of us do. So I tested two Mind Games fragrances first that I’d heard some positive things about (castling and Caissi). Castling was forgettable, I can’t comment on that one-because it was just not memorable enough from that one sniff, and Caissi was a really pretty, sweet feminine leaning scent- but nothing unique to my nose and not my style. The woman did spray Caissi on my hand before I could stop her- so I actually had some time with that one that I didn’t care to have- but it is pretty. All of the others in the Mind Games line that I was interested in trying leaped straight off my radar once I put my nose to Grand Master. I do wish I’d remembered to smell double attack and J’adoube, but, the discovery of Grand Master trumped the rest. It’s a fragrance I would LOVE to add to my little lineup of coffee dominate fragrances. It will definitely be the most sophisticated of the ones I own already. -I am picky as well, btw. I’ve tested, blind bought and sold hundreds of frags at this point, but I do sell them if they aren’t absolutely something I love and will wear. I don’t own a massive amount of fragrances, so, just a like will not stay with me. It has to be really good and worth the money. Anyway, so...standing at the counter by the Mind Games lineup, after smelling Castling and Caissi, I asked the woman assisting me to break down the fragrance families-basic notes in each bottle so I didn’t sniff myself into a nose coma, and the first one mentioned was the coffee note in Grand Master. So I smelled it, and proceeded to spray both wrists and one hand and tested the other scents no further. It was a love at first sniff for me. No weird opening, or an opening you have to let calm down, or settle or wait for a dry down. It’s just Immediately really really good and it stays good. I wore it around for an hour or so and then went back and sprayed more. ***For reference, I absolutely love coffee in a fragrance, even strong coffee notes. Ristretto intense cafe, coffee addict, Black phantom to name a few that I own and love. However, the coffee in Akro Awake, for instance, on first spray and opening I thought I’d found the most amazing coffee frag, but it turned WAY HEAVY quick. The amazing, wonderful realistic black coffee in that first burst from the atomizer, was almost immediately swallowed up completely by REALLY STRONG, in your face, screechy loud notes of CARDAMOM AND VETIVER, like, just swallowed it whole and then there was no trace left of the mastery in the opening. Another giant, sad, hell naw for me. Another “coffee”fragrance I just couldn’t get with was Delox by Tiziana Terenzi. I blind bought a bottle, and to my disappointment, it was a shitty version of roses vanille by Mancera that smelled strongly of alcohol throughout the wear, not the good boozy kind of alcohol- rubbing alcohol. I couldn’t smell any coffee at all in that one either. I like the smell of certain incense too, but generally incense in a fragrance has been a fail for me. I remember really liking vanille incensee? by Atelier, but it was gone the minute it hit the air. I thought I loved BABYCAT by YSL, tried a few times with that one, and it’s absolutely beautiful, but the incense would come out after awhile and punch me in the stomach. However, the incense in Grand Master is light and fluffy and blended amazingly, not in your face. Personally, I love the rose in montale and Mancera’s roses vanille, ristretto intense cafe, etc. but I like it best blended with coffee, and I recognize it may be too sweet for some people. The rose in Grand Master is sweet, but not overly sweet, or as heavy or sweet as the afore mentioned. It has a lightness to it due to the composition and other supporting notes.*** I own Black Phantom, and love that one, but just wear it every once and awhile at very specific times because it’s strong and deep and heavy. Black Phantom is slightly masculine leaning in my opinion, and the two are nothing alike, aside from maybe sharing a taste category vibe. Grand Master is much lighter, softer and exudes a more sophisticated vibe to me. Grand Master puts you in more of a scent cloud where as Black Phantom is more of a scent bomb. Grand Master is way more versatile, but in my opinion, much classier smelling than Black Phantom.I think it’s blended to perfection. -All of this to say, Grand Master is definitely BEAUTIFUL. I think it’s unisex straight down the middle. I would imagine that on a man’s skin, different notes may present differently, but on my skin this was my experience. The rose in this fragrance is present, and slightly sweet but not overly sweet. Then the coffee, is just as present, if not more present than the rose, but it’s a nice, smooth, very slightly sweet kind of coffee note. When I read the previous reviewer say the note is Kona coffee, that totally makes sense. Kona coffee has a less bitter, more smooth smell and taste than a lot of other coffee notes. The incense is also very soft in this composition. It’s not too strong at all and just adds something wonderful to the rose and coffee notes. The violet is SO slight. This is not real powdery to my nose at all. It’s a supporting note that works so well with all of the other notes. I think the myrrh, incense, and violet are just beautifully blended- light, well rounded, and supporting and blending really well the top notes of rose and coffee, with the benzoin playing a nice role there too. I wouldn’t have said there was a wood note without looking at the note breakdown. I also wouldn’t have called out peony or black currant, I can’t smell any of those notes in particular, because it’s just so well blended that the notes all create Grand Master, so instead of being able to pick out all of the notes- they seem to meld together and make their own scent profile that you can’t completely pick apart. I have no idea what panettone is, so. There’s that. 😬The only concerning thing I have to say, is that I couldn’t smell it after a little while. That’s why I went back for more. Given the situation, my nose could have been a little tired-although I really didn’t overdo too much that day. I’m not sure if it’s not long lasting, or if I just couldn’t smell it on myself after a certain amount of time, but it was still there. For this reason, I’ve ordered a decant, that is on its way to me now, to really give it a true wearing away from all If the other smells- because the price tag on this is hard to justify at all even if it had amazing longevity, it will hurt a little when that transaction happens- if the juice has decent lasting power, I’ll be adding a FB one day for sure. I’ll try to remember and update after I have a good wear of it, but..... ⭐️man I loved what I smelled that day. Sophisticated, elevated wonderfully blended, versatile straight down the middle, unisex cloud of coffee rose incense violet goodness with a sick bottle to match. Not offensive, no sharp or sour notes, nothing screechy, not overly powdery, not overly sweet, not heavy either. If there can be a sexy coffee fragrance, this is probably it. Fingers crossed my next wear test will prove this to be at least decent on longevity. Sorry about all the rambling...🤞🏼

I'm really excited about this one because it's one of my very favorite scents I've tried recently (I've tried probably (20+). It's also my favorite one from the brand. I went to Neimann Marcus and was elated to find out that they had testers of Mind Games - the brand that I have seen online (I'm not blind buying a $500 discovery set...). I was eager to test all scents and I wasn't disappointed. Grand Master is the scent I would consider getting a full bottle of because how good and versatile it is. However, I didn't like it immediately after I sprayed it. I had to give it +1h to dry down. How does it smell? It's a perfect blend of smooth, deep wood, coffee and rose with a hint of incense. Slightly earthy and smoky. No note stands out. Fragrantica mentions 'fruity' as the main accord, but it's far from my idea of a fruity fragrance. Grand Master is nothing sweet, cloying or mainstream. Nothing obnoxious or heavy. It doesn't remind of anything else, but if I *had to* categorize it, I'd put it in the same category as Cafe Tuberosa by Atelier Cologne or Intense Cafe by Montale. This fragrance will increase your benchmark of a great, non-sweet coffee scent - it's superb. I imagine an accomplished, confident, calm, intellectual, well-mannered, elegant adult wearing this scent. It makes one feel powerful and elevated. Unisex. Overall, it's an amazing fragrance. I can't get enough of it. It's mesmerizing. I could wear it all day and night, and for any occasion when I want to project competence, a bit of mystery and sophistication. I have nothing negative to say about this scent. Masterpiece. It's a shame that the perfumer behind this fragrance wasn't mentioned by Fragrantica. EDIT: it looks like Fragrantica adjusts the 'main accords' pyramid based on people's votes. The "fruity" accord is not on the top anymore.

8.6/10 in my personal opinion, very high considering I don't typically like resins. On the opening, I get a very soft and sweet Black Currant, and for me it seems to be the star of the show for the first 10 or so minutes. This is my favorite Black Currant opening of all time. The black currant is supported by rose and peony, and is very beautiful and sophisticated, similar to nothing I've tried yet. I personally do not get any coffee at all during the transition, and the transition takes quite a while for the base notes to fully develop, it almost feels like there's two sets of base notes. Towards the beginning of the base notes, I get a combination of roses, incense, and a tiny hint of violet as well as resin. Towards the end of the base notes, I get a lot of Pannetone, Ebony, and slightly softer resins. This is a very specialized scent in my opinion, they stuck to a very specific vision and they managed to accomplish it near perfectly, and I do like the creative touches they put with the pannetone and the transition complexity. I could definitely see this being someone's signature scent, and I personally find it quite unisex. Lasts quite a long time for a typical Mind Games fragrance.

I’m surprised this fragrance isn’t rated higher. In my humble opinion, it is a masterpiece. I don’t have very many coffee inspired fragrances. This is a very unique masculine leaning rose and coffee scent. It’s blended extremely well and literally takes you on a journey as it flows from top notes to the base. In the beginning you get one of the most photorealistic rose notes I’ve ever come across. The rose is coupled with a slightly creamy Kona coffee note. Towards the mid you begin to smell the myrrh and incense, which gives it a sexy and slightly smoky smell. All through the mid you can smell rose, coffee, and incense. This phase is absolutely divine! A few hours later (approx 4 hours) as the fragrance moves towards the base, you are left with mostly incense and myrrh. If you love dark smoky fragrances you’ll love this one. Most people will probably say this is best suited for cold weather and formal occasions. I say life is too short to limit fragrances you love to a specific occasion or season. Personally, I’ll wear this all year around, from casual to formal occasions. For me, it’s a definite 10/10!!!! An absolute game changer.

This house is gorgeous. Grand Master is very rosy, so if you don't like rose scents I'd steer clear. However, it's the most enchanting rose scent. Mixed with just enough heaviness like the coffee and myrrh. The rose definitely is the standout though. But it's hard to give an accurate description because it's just so well blended. I realize that most people will cringe at the price point, but you do get what you pay for. This smells like opulence in a way that similarly priced perfumes such as Delina and BR540 don't quite hit for me. Grand Master is more feminine than Double Attack, but still heavily rooted in the unisex category. It's just beautiful. Pick up the samples at the Mind Games website. All 10 of them go for about $75, but if you just want to sample a few of them, I would recommend Scent Split. They specialize in niche/hard-to-find perfumes

Smoky, spicy and woody opening, with a dark fruit hint. Some resinous notes appear right before noticing the black currant. A minute later, the rose appears. And then I just smell that, a rose enveloped of incense... stunning! I definitely see the contrast between the first seconds in the opening, masculine, strong, smoky, changing to a rose with warm spices, becoming feminine and mystical. Quickly the violet note gets noticed in the back, a little bit powdery and smoky. The more I smell my wrist, the more I like this perfume. I don’t get any coffee note. The dry-down is spicy, floral, smoky-balsamic. I can see both men and women wear this perfume, leans feminine. Fragrance and bottle’s craftsmanship are of high-quality. _____ Projection, sillage, longevity : 7.5/10 Originality, presentation : 9.5/10 Quality, value : 7.5/10 8/10

This is one of few that I really love from line of Mind Games. First of all, the composition is beautiful and quite different from what I currently own. It has Black Phantom vibes but more smoke, less boozy and accord of young fresh rose. It opens with this fresh rose, black roasted coffee and a fruity hint of black currant. As it dries down the smokiness and woodsy notes really came out and create this dark, mysterious and magnetizing aroma...I have to admit, so far this is my favorite coffee inspired perfume. Performance is great. I get around 8 hours wear with cocoon silage...I know price is steep but this juice is totally worth it!

Girls, don't be afraid to try this. While it does lean masculine, i think it smells much better on me than any man I've smelled this on. It smells like it's floating around me, not sitting on my skin, absolutely ethereal. The violet and incense combine in the most beautiful way and are really working overtime to make this shine, especially given the heavy ebony base. I am getting more peony than rose though, would have liked it to pull though a bit more. The drydown is beautiful, the violet gets to shine after the heavy lifting is done 9/10

Very smoky and sexy, opens almost sweet (reminds me a bit of Campari liqueur actually) but quickly dries down into a woodsy smoky rose, with incense notes. Easily the most masculine and modern rose scent I've ever encountered. Definitely not Grandma-ish at all. Still definitely unisex though. I only get a little coffee scent from it personally, I was hoping for a bit more since I love coffee scent. Bottle is beautiful too. Price point is steep but a little goes a long way and I've gotten compliments on it.

Absolutely stunning fragrance. The longer I wear it, the more I enjoy it. When I first sprayed it on it overwhelmed me with an almost chemical alcoholic scent that put me off until it immediately faded into a rich, current, incense haze. It smells like the inside of what I imagine a high class sorcerers lounge to be. It's otherworldly, commanding, and noticeable. I got compliments on it very quickly and it lingered when I left the room. I would get this scent again.

Spectacular. Beautifully blended and smells like luxury. Very unique and evocative. Definitely has a sophisticated vibe to it. Reminds me of walking into a very chic bookstore, with coffee, and light incense, in the background. An amalgamation of beautiful smells. combining with the books. I wear this to the office and constantly get complimented. 9.5/10 ZERO likeness to intense cafe. Intense Cafe would be shining the shoes of Grand Master.

This opens with a rich wave of smoke & rose—dark, elegant, & instantly luxurious. The woodiness feels upscale, like mahogany polished to perfection—not your typical woody scent. There’s something old-world & dramatic about it that reminds me of The Merchant of Venice—refined, tragic, & powerful. It wears almost like incense, & while you could layer it, it’s already bold & stately on its own. Unisex, elegant, & commanding.

I waited until a cold summer day to try it. On my skin, it opened up with a gourmand cake accord. Not much more. However, soon it starts playing with the coffee and violet. Rose note is not fluffy, more like a dry bouquet I kept from the anniversary. Myrrh is pretty in the dry down. I've enjoyed wearing it and finding how it is changing throughout the day and didn't feel I need to change it for something else.

This is the most beautiful fragrance I’ve ever tried. It works so well with my chemistry and I get compliments on it constantly. I’ve worn it in every season, in multiple states, and always get asked what I’m wearing. I didn’t think I’d like it based on the profile but the components work together beautifully. My only complaint is that I’ll never be able to own a full bottle because the price is ridiculous!

This is basically just a better version of Intense Cafe. If you like the general smell of Intense Cafe, but want something more elegant and less Montale-y, Grand Master has all of the good qualities of Intense Cafe, but without the flatness of a Montale fragrance. It's for the people who like rose and coffee together, and not for people who don't. You have to like that combo.

*Top notch* Seductive coffee woody smoky vibe. This is for rare occasions. It reminded me off Amouage Royal Tobacco for some reason.. it’s fruity also and has this rose on the background just giving this scent a classy dark sophisticated touch. I just would wear it on cold nights out.. Very elegant and mysterious this fragrance is for sure a head turner.

I love this one. I used to wear it to go to my fencing master's house because it complimented the scent of metal polish and slightly rusty swords extremely well. I would say it smells like if a bookstore was a slightly androgenous and very handsome old man. Notes of dust. I wish they made a candle version; I want my room to smell like this very badly.

I wore this fragrance at the late summer night and I feel bliss, I smell the rose dessert when the autumn wind kiss my face, it's the same family of TF Cafe Rose (the original formulation), but smell more dark, mysterious, delicious and blended very smooth, I love this perfume ps : a successful blind buy for me Grand Master is 9.75/10

Grand Master has climbed to the top of my favorite list. It’s so intoxicating and I find myself smelling my wrist throughout the day. I get a little rose, amber, resin notes and the most sexiest milky coffee. This fragrance is blended so well with all the notes coming together making this a unique fragrance in my humble opinion.

This is so damn delicious. I had no idea that this was a Rose dominated fragrance at all when I got this Dillard's sampler. It came off as a super rich and cake like coffee scent for me. I've been going back to this one repeatedly and i don't know if i need a bottle of this one because it's not as linear as I would've hoped.

Very Floral, sweet and woody. May be to feminine for some guys. This one is going to be one for special occasions, smells like a rosey cup of sweet coffee. Definitely worth trying out, I don't suggest blind buying since it cost 395$ But on their website you can buy a sample for 10$

Super seductive rose and amber all while accompanied by a nice almost smoky incense. Sophisticated, professional, whatever this is damn good and addicting. Pretty accurate sonic interpretation for this fragrance would be Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode imo.

Mysterious coffee with resins combined with sweet Panettone bread in the background wow this is amazing and sexy just wish it lasted longer (4-5hrs) for this i will not be repurchasing another bottle overall 9/10

Totally different notes, but on my skin, Grand Master smells like a more masculine version of Queening (which I still love to wear, even as a guy). Really good stuff.

Roses and roses! very rose forward not many of the other notes show up unless you are looking for them. The opening has a very dense and very heavy dark gothic nice rose smell. It's a mysterious rose with a nice hint of bitterness in the background from the coffee note. Then, in the middle, the violet and peony take the edge off the rose a bit, making it less harsh, dark, dense, and making it a softer, more palatable rose. Then, at the base, the sweetest of the fragrances finally comes through. The coffee turns into a nice, sweet latte, still lingering in the background, while the dark rose splits into two distinct smells of incense and rose. Rose is still the most prominent smell, but it's much lighter and sweeter than before. Then, in the background, you can smell a bit of sweet coffee and that wonderful, deep incense. Overall, a 7/10 fragrance. I wish some of the other notes came through more because if I didn't know there was a coffee or incense note, I would have never smelt them, but the sillage is absolutely overpowering; this fragrance fills a room and lasts forever.

At first I thought I wouldn't like it. It's leaning slightly masculine, and definitely for colder weather. It doesn't have much rose at all. The overall impression I get is "dark chocolate". It's not a loud smell, but it's solid. It smells of dark wood, dark chocolate and restraint. It kinda reminds me of a more masculine Black Opium from YSL, with the flowers and pear removed. This then goes into a different stage: chocolate, vetiver and ebony. Vetiver isn't listed, but I'm really unsure about what else it could be - it definitely smells of some kind of root. A whiskey-like note is there too - I guess this is the Pannetone-note. Very pleasant, cozy, and complex woody scent I really enjoy the sample I have of this.

Opening is very resinous with strong incense notes. I was immediately turned off by the fragrance, especially not being a huge fan of incense in this particular fragrance. The amber note was also very strong, and i can see why some people might get a headache from it.That said, the dry down is very nice! is it $395 nice? No! I got a bit of a reminder of Tony Iommy by Xerjoff in the dry down (without the rose), although i haven't compared them side by side. I think this is the type of fragrance that eventually grows on you over time. So if you wear fragrances for mainly for compliments, not sure if this is for you. Definitely sample first, this is not blind buy safe.

I am not sure why the rose not is not rated as the strongest note in this fragrance. I quite like this one and would give it a love if it were not in line behind a lot of other fragrances with similar notes. Its price point is high and I can't see myself buying a full bottle but I have only tested it once and will test over the next couple of days to see if it improves. It has higher than average longevity and moderate sillage. I would be happy wearing this one any time of year, day or night It might be a bit strong for the office, but it is well-blended. I do not think it smells much like Intense Cafe. Rose overpowers coffee in this one.

On the first couple sprays my opinion on it was still undecided leaning towards "meh." but then the compliments started flooding in. This scent pulls compliments like crazy, I had a date literally grab my arm after smelling it and hold it up to her nose to smell it again because she loved it so much. Definitely a fall and winter frag thats very heavy on the incense and ebony. Has a hint of vanillin-like sweetness with a bit of a dustiness that creates the panettone accord. Less rose than youd expect, I only smell a small amount of rose-like florals that's in the background of the profile. Overall quite good.

Grand Master It took me a while since I got used to this, decided to spray on my skin and wear it around. And every sniff I began to like it more and more. Its a warm coffee smokey ambery scent that takes you sniffing all the time it goes around your head. If it's worth the money, not exactly. I think it's a bit overpriced, but the quality I think is good though. Without the price, a 7.8/10 Get yourself a sample set and try it out for yourself!

At first this fragrance reminds me of cherry cordials (chocolate covered cherry candies filled with fondant) with a hint of coffee. Smokey-dark, smooth and well blended. Completely unisex but I find this to be more masculine. After a few mins of wear the incense becomes apparent. Very sexy. I would imagine this would be a date night scent. Definitely not worn during the day or summertime.

Opening is very powdery. So much so that I almost immediately wrote this off, which would have been huge mistake. Once the powder settles, this transitions to an extremely smooth fragrance. Actually reminds me quite a bit of Dior Homme Intense, though higher quality and with better performance. There's just something about the dry down that is addictive AF.

By far the best of Mind Games' Dark Collection. Sweet and smokey, yet grounded with coffee and rounded out with rose, this is definitely among the best of the more recent fragrances featuring rose. Projection, sillage, and longevity: 7.5/10 Originality: 8.5/10 Quality: 7.5/10 Value: 7/10 Overall: 7.5/10

Beautiful rich amber fragrance with notes of coffee and rose. The incense note makes this too masculine on my skin so its not something I would personally wear but I think this would be a beautiful scent on someone who prefers more overtly masculine scent profiles.

I’m cuckoo for Coco Puffs. 🦤 On skin, opens into a sweet rose, resinous coffee and myyrh accent. A mild floral/fruity undertone develops thereafter. I could swear that I smelled Coco Puffs when I put it on paper. Very niche scent. Subtle enough. Mainly unisex.

A contender to TF Cafe Rose! Delightful coffee and berry scent with incense and almost a chocolate note. A little bit of cake and wood. Not a lot of rose, on my skin. Rich, but not heavy. Gourmand adjacent.

Starts off very woody and smokey with a bit of coffee, then slowly fades into this really sweet rose. Not for me as I'm not too into the florals but we NEED to put this on a lesbian.

If this wasn’t $300, I’d definitely get it. The ebony, coffee, and rose go so well together. The longevity is amazing and the sillage is great.

My first time experiencing Mind Games and I found Grand Master to be the best. (Queening was a good second). I like the combination of the darker/gourmand notes: coffee and panetone with the lighter florals: rose, peony and violet. The dry-down is where the blackcurrent hangs-out with the myrrh, ebony and the residuals of the gourmands with slight smoke. I like it, but I'm not too impressed by the range. It's all actually quite light and chemically smelling (in a Montale way). If Mind Games were a mid-range Arabian collection I could believe it - I had to look up the American origins to discover the noses. At least Grand Master is a bit more grounded and earthy with the darker notes. It's actually a light, wearable fragrance. I was hoping for a more dedicated gourmand.

I was hoping for a floral, woody fragrance, but this is unequivocally a gourmand scent. Coffee note here is more on the mocha side of the spectrum, so I can see the comparison to Black Phantom. This is a high-quality juice with great performance. Ultimately, I was hoping for more ebony wood in the dry-down, something less sweet and more masculine. Therefore, this is not for me. However, if you like sweet, gourmand fragrances, you will probably like this one.

Grand Master is exactly what I had WANTED Montale’s Intense Cafe to smell like. The opening is an intoxicating rich, dark, almost mocha deep coffee. It is the sexy coffee note that I’m always hoping to get in “coffee” scents, but I am usually disappointed. The dry down is a beautiful spicy rose and incense. The rose is done very well, it is bold and round and sophisticated and not at all overbearing or girly.

It's very rosy, more so in which I kind of wish the coffee was more stronger. Also reminds me of a grandma/grandpa smell (which I'm not a fan of). The quality of the fragrance is indeed superb and there is not question that mind games makes quality fragrances, yet this one ultimately did not meet my expectations. 7/10

Black currant opening was pleasant, and it dries down into a mostly incense fragrance that reminds me of a store in the mall I've visited. Can't tell if I actually like it, but I keep smelling it to try and figure out what that store it's reminding me of is.

Rose, Black currant and Myrrh. Nice, smooth. One of the better ones from Mind Games.

I was so excited for this to be a smoky, woody, deeper rose and coffee, unisex if not masculine as some other reviewers have described. The opening is promising and excited me at first, with a deep, freshly-brewed coffee and woody scent, but soon after it transforms into a mocha with whipped cream on my skin. I went on a walk with my mom about an hour after applying and she commented, "What are you wearing? Something with vanilla bean?" I was so disappointed because I had such high hopes for this scent, but I'm not a fan of gourmands and that's exactly how it wears on me; almost like Montale's Intense Cafe but with less rose somehow. I'm sure this is gorgeous on others, but for me it was not nearly as dark, deep, or rosy as I had hoped.

I'm not really sure why the perfumer mentions coffee as the highlight of this; it's smoke. Feel free to skip this if you don't like smoke, because it eclipses pretty much everything else here until very late in the drydown. I'm also mystified why people say this leans male. Mental picture: Trapped in my chain smoking great aunt's living room smelling a flower bouquet for relief while she brews a coffee two rooms away. Very situational; cold weather, formal/date nights only; middle age to older adult; unisex to female-leaning. I would not call this a crowd pleaser, office safe, or blind buy safe. On the plus side, if you do like it, longevity and sillage are both good to excellent (easily 8 hours).

When? When will they stop using cheap, screaming super amber woods in otherwise interesting fragrances? You can't even wait the stuff out, it'll be there past the apocalypse. Hell, even roaches won't outlast the crap. Otherwise, this is a fine fragrance, natch.

I'm testing this blind from the discovery set, not looking up the name or notes prior. This one opened up with a familiar warm herbaceousness and quickly faded to a smoky, vetiver, woods, and herbs body. Now, I hate to say it but the scent reminds me of amazing buttery herbed chicken skin; salty, and fatty sweet. There's almost an herbes de provence side to dry down. This is 'fun' to smell, but as a personal fragrance it is far, far from anything that I want to smell like. It took several hours for it to calm down to a more approachable personal fragrance. Looking at the notes, it doesn't make any sense and I practically wasted the little sample bottle trying to find a rose. To me it just isn't there. It's pretty much myrrh, incense, and ebony. I'm sure the rose and violet are adding to the herbaceous perception, and the black currant lends itself to the very slight "salty" top. This is probably the most perpetually different fragrance so far where the impression and suggested notes simply don't line up. The fact that Thanksgiving just passed and this makes me crave more poultry should give some idea how mouthwatering and successful it is in that regard. Try it on an unsuspecting friend. Definitely lives up to the brand name, and if you want to be the grand master of poultry sales, this might be perfect. For me "foodstuff" fragrances - even if unintentional - just don't do it for me.

I didn’t like this, the opens with very strong dirty earthy coffee and no rose at all, then in the dry down it stays that way but you start to smell the incense, I wouldn’t buy this for $30 let alone $375, I hate how influencers get sent fragrances then instantly think they should have a bias to the fragrance, this is also very headache inducing

Wow. I went into this thinking that since I don’t like Intense Cafe and I struggle with RoseOud combos (and just Rose in general) that this wouldn’t work for me. But I think it’s the incense that pulls it together for me. This is not linear that all. At first I get a real assertive, bitter coffee, balsamic, rose. Not bad bitter... lit just grabs your attention. As that slowly fades you get more of the sweet warmth of incense and panettone (also, how fun is that?!). The whole effect is very well rounded and complex. You can definitely smell each note but they play beautifully together getting warmer and sweeter over time. Oddly, I seem to become anosmic to it kinda quick. After about 30 min I was reaching for it again. My husband said he could smell it when he walked in the house but here I am putting my hand to my nose every few minutes. Will definitely have to plat around with this before I ever consider a full bottle. Oooofff 🏦 One more thing... I’m comparing side by side with Black Phantom which, I agree gives a similar vibe. Smelling side by side they are quiet different. BP is seriously like a black hole... it is so deep and dense it’s like no light escapes from this thing! 😅 GM is like you added rays of light to BP with the rose and incense. Which I think makes GM a bit more impressive. But overall in the dry down they give a very similar experience.