Doza

#1443 in my "Tour de Fragrance" Got this as a decant. Master Perfumer Claude Dir has crafted some scents I enjoy: Amouroud "Oud Du Jour" and "Safran Rare", Banana Republic "Dark Cherry & Amber", Bond No. 9 "Lexington Avenue", Zaharoff "SIgnature Tabac" and "Signature Leather Tabac." Also some utter crap no one should ever wear for celebrity brands like Beyonce, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Kim Kardashian. Clearly you don't get to pick and choose in this business. This scent, my first from Narcotica, is a unique combination of some of my favorite notes. It's dissimilar note-wise to anything I have on the shelf, but it's also nothing I feel like I absolutely have to have. At 1443 scents and counting it's getting harder and harder to find something that isn't "same-scent-different-label" from what I already own, but the vibe strikes me the same way as some scents I have given to the more androgynous women I know (and prefer), like Frederic Malle "The Moon", Bond No 9 "Chinatown", Amouage "Journey Woman", Bortnikoff "Victoria." For the men. I think if you like Amouage "Jubilation 40", Dumont "Nitro Intense", Armaf "Bucephalus XI", Comme des Garcons "Copper" or even Creed "Aventus", you'd like this too. The notes are different, but the feel of the scent is similar. If you like any of those fragrances, I think you'd like this. This scent smells great. I'll give it that. Nice oriental, ambery woodiness with a slight fruitiness, without any note being dominant or overpowering (I could wish for more myrrh and incense). Safe for close spaces. No one will dislike this. Lasts all day as a skin scent, sillage was about arm's length for several hours . But this is fairly pricey at $270-300 for 100ml, so definitely try before you buy.

10/10 Holy Grail Amber that instantly puts much of the genre to shame. Dense, rich & opulent, there's a lot going on here & it all comes together to make one truly stunning scent. I can detect all the notes yet they're seamlessly blended & alchemic. Worth noting cypress & incense are pretty big players here, though - Especially compared to what you expect from an amber - so your love/hate of them will likely determine where you end up on Doza. There's enough of both I notice moments when Doza's satisfying my craving for my now-gone bottle of TF Italian Cypress, so yeah - not your typical "amber" by any means. The only other scent I had momentary flashbacks to was Zoologist Bee for its honeyed floral top. If you know & try to imagine those scents together, it's kind of the overall vibe (admittedly with plenty more going on)... Now take what you're imagining & dial the "wow factor" to 11. Like fougeres, ambers are great but get repetitive & sometimes downright boring or disappointing. Not here! I try to keep up with sampling both genres to catch that occasional holy grail release... Well, here ya go! This is one of the best bottles I've come across in over a decade of active sampling & collecting. The quality is obvious & value is solid. Doza's not for everyone & not for the faint of heart for that matter, but I have a feeling you're going to be hearing rave reviews about it for years to come. Credit to Claude Dir; Without a doubt, Doza & Dulce Diablo are two of the best releases of 2022. Full stop.

Narcotica Doza is described as an “amber intense” on the bottle, and a fittingly resinous, spicy, woody, smoky blend that smells like a modernized heavy-hitter men’s signature scent. Notes include pepper, incense, labdanum, tobacco, myrrh, guaiac, and cedar. It’s really a sort of resinous wintery wonderland that is a decided cold-weather, more stereotypically modern masculine turn from, say, a 4-season unisex chypre. I think that anyone could wear this, of course. It’s quite intense, as is subtitle suggests, starting off especially spicy and smoky and predictably giving way to more of the smoothness and vanilla/woods in the dry down, but it frankly almost starts out animalic with a sort of oud/pepper/castoreum-ish blend in the opening minutes, perhaps hour. It reminds me of both classical chypres and fougeres a bit while also being reminiscent of more modern bold styles like Tom Ford Oud Wood Intense, albeit without some of its castoreum-led bite, and Piotr Czarnecki Sensei/Shihan, though without much of its boozy sweetness. It’s really an impressive experience clearly marked by taking some risk but achieving a workable balance (for me) in the process, though I’m sure it’s overwhelming to some. Doza is extrait concentration is sold in US boutiques like Krystal Fragrance, from which I received a sample with a different order, for which it retails at $280 for 100ml. It performs outstandingly, intensely projective and long-lasting. 8 out of 10

Love. It opens up with a tart fruitiness, black currant, woodiness and incense in the back, after few minutes amber shines strong, all the way. Tobacco is not ash scent, it's very gentle hardly noticable. Can't compare to any other ambers I've tried or own, which is great. Picked this up the first week it was launched. Really fire and deep creation. You feel the quality of the oils , complex fragrance. You get the mature work put on to this, no b/s. Performance is excellent, compliments on the first day I wore, and the next day also. Fantastic longevity, as this brand usually does. The only reason people will talk negative about this fragrance, either it's out of their budget, didn't get it for free or simply to put a flaw on the brand and the perfumer. It's shame.. If you truly are into niche and understand olfactory materials and art, just a sniff would be enough. this quality... My holy grail amber!

I don't know why this fragrance is not talked about more than it is! Checks the box of everything people say that they love. Sweet, spicy, sexy, etc. I think the difference is you have to have taste to begin with. This fragrance doesn't belong with someone who thinks Sephora is a high beauty store. Doza is so much more than just an item on the shelf. It is art and has to be appreciated as such. The price isn't cheap and it comes directly from Italy. That aspect needs to be appreciated as well. This is what I wanted Amouage’s King Blue to be and boy o boy is it close! If you added oud, the Fragrance would be identical. I'm actually quite excited because I love that Fragrance but I hate that fecal aspect. These two fragrances are so similar that I cannot go any further without seeing or comparing the two side-by-side.