DEV #4: Reprise

Rugged, bracing, and astonishing. In a way it's the cleanest and airiest of the Dev series I've tried, without the real darkness or the cinnamon-sweetness of some others. This is just the very essence of fresh cut hard wood and resins - and beautifully so - but on my skin it's also a wild and sometimes even alarming ride. There's so much fresh air that this casts a sort of transparent veil - but get in closer, or spray on some more, and suddenly the plot thickens, the forest grows darker and more tangled, and it's morphed into a warm, cosy log cabin lit by candlelight. This comes on both strong and SOUR at first, really seriously astringent. For me it conjures up a sort of stinging liquid antiseptic called TCP in Britain - and that's a smell often linked with mildly traumatic memories - childhood cuts and grazes, kitchen accidents, and so on. Once you smell that note you can't un-smell it. But bizarrely - it might just be further proof of Ellen Covey's genius- Dev 4 brings on the TLC after the TCP, and despite the medicinal aura things get gentler and more comforting pretty soon. Dev 4 will in fact kiss your ills and make them better. On me it mellows fast and the TCP tang soon morphs into clean, fresh pine wood (not pine cleaner) and a whole load of beautiful olibanum and then it's just gorgeous, rough-hewn, natural TIMBER! and RESINS! forever. If you can imagine something with all of Baccarat Rouge's impeccable wood notes but none of the sugar, and with a far more demanding, eccentric, niche-y character, that might get close. This one's a class act is what I mean. Close to resin nirvana for me but many may find it too austere to really enjoy - somehow a little gloomy? And those unwilling to ride out anything odd will probably struggle to deal with the sourness or medicinal vibes at first. Performance isn't really all I would want for something so initially overwhelming, either ... sillage is discreet (though it hangs on to skin for ages, and is compelling enough to keep me wrist-sniffing for hours). It doesn't fill a room, but considering how bracing and odd it is, that might be a good thing. This reads as if I don't like the Reprise - but that couldn't be more false! For my taste, it's stunning, special, richly characterful stuff and more than wearable as well as intriguing. It's a demanding weirdo, not a crowdpleaser - but so, so worth it. Definitely not for blind buyers though.

If you have ever been in a dry sauna with the heat turned up, you will understand the woody scent of this one. The woods remind you of sitting in a heated wooden sauna after a good swim in the pool. Takes you back on vacation. The incense smoke wafts gently around you while the gentle heat warms you up. As stated, not a sweet fragrance. This makes me think towards the masculine side of things. What a great scent. I wish it had better longevity & silage. The short distance of the silage makes me think natural oils were used, perhaps the scent molecules are heavier and only able to travel short distances. The fragrance does last several hours but not as long as I thought it would.

This has been the perfume with the most siliage I have tried so far, it really radiates! This smells amazing, very unique. I get a very sweet and smokey but also sour opening. Sourness fades into an almost gourmand sweet ylang ylang. This reminds me of being in vietnam and getting a sugarcane juice on a dirty street filled with wood smoke and spices. Also ditect pink pepper and cotton candy underneath the smokey sweetness. On drydown sweetness is stil pressent but mellows into a smokey spicy woody blast. ⛤⛤⛤⛤

When applying from those little sample bottles don't be stingy with this one. When I first tested it I got a nice sappy cedar and a salty leathery musk -- the kind that just smells a little like a sweaty animal skin but cleaner. After looking at the notes I decided to revisit. This time I applied generously and the labdum shown in all its smokey glory. The thuja is a nice contrast giving the fresh cut wood deep in the forest scent with a hint of a campfire. It is full of life and depth and lovely.

Love this, got my 2nd 100ml bottle! Compared with other dev's, this one is less grainy, more tranquil, composed, more certain with great confidence to move on to whatever is coming up. The only complaint is that I'm afraid the plastic bottle nozzle(100 ml) is not perfectly sealing, I can see the liquid level getting lower in a while. Now I love to layer it with other scents to make it more faceted, Murdock London Black Tea and Auqa Solis Le Couvent are the experiments I tried and enjoyed a lot!

What an extraordinary frankincense bomb! It's so intense I can barely make out the labdanum, tolu balsalm, wood notes or thuya. They charge at you with equal intensity. I have to wait quite a while before I can pick them out. The thuya aromatic note is the first to soften and the labdanum can then peek out. Extraordinary longevity and impressive sillage. Very unisex and lovely to wear in cold weather.

Fir sap and labdanum in the top (giving an impression of 'capers'... I swear), with smoky/peppery woods and greenery in the drydown. Like for Woodcut, it's nothing new, but a beautiful best-of various incense and resins fragrances at a very reasonable price. Very nice, and the only one of the Dev series that I might consider full bottle worthy.

Delightful! Smells exactly like you stepped into a new cedar closet to me. The woody fragrance is clean and invigorating. This lasts all day on my skin and when I woke up I could smell it on my pillow from spritzing my hair the day before. I love cedar, and this is the best I have found for my skin. Pure bliss!

I love the whole Dev series (with the exception of Lil 😕 sorry). I love that they all share a labdanum base, but that each fragrance is it’s own unique experience. #4 is sweet, sour, balsamic, wood, and incense. It’s deep, and dark, and sexy. My favorite of the Dev series.

Wow! This is my favorite of the Dev series.. No, in fact it's my favorite of the house! Minimalistic yet complex, dark but not dense; it rivals even the luxurious V for Men by Clive Christian with extra spices and warmth.

Beatiful light incense, pine needles, fruits and spices. Christmas in the bottle! If I had not written identical comment at Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles, I would have to scream and shout Bravo! Nevertheless I will still commend this creation. There are aspects of Reprise that I like more - it pronounces the spicy facets (over the fruity ones in SL) and it is less sweet at the end which is always a big plus for me. Yet, from fragrance discovery point of view, it does not bring anything new to the table for me. I'm hearing SL has discontinued Fille (or promoted it to some ridiculously priced, harder to get premium line). If you do not own either of the two yet and want to capture the essence of Christmas Eve, you can safely purchase Dev#4 - very modestly priced, but equally stunning, high quality alternative.

Out of all the devs, I find this one the least wearable for myself, at least on its own. Of course it’s probably perfect for someone else or even for layering. This opens with a very strong olibanum note which gives a strong cherry chapstick scent which I think is the biggest turn off for me. Everything else is very much a resin, incense, woody smell to me, and the cherry chapstick smell does die off in the dry down, but on a deep inhale even after dry down you can still catch it a little. I feel like if you can get passed the initial 15 minutes this is a great, solid, leathery, resin/balsam scented perfume.

Oh I like this. It opens with something like very dark, unsweetened vanilla, and a pleasantly somber and fragrant dark wood. It’s calm and lovely. Over time, the fragrant dry crackle gets stronger – sandalwood? incense? I don’t know but it’s beautiful. In the far drydown it returns to a much quieter version of the cinnamon-spiced incense in Dev 3: The Inevitable. But here, instead of a roaring fire, it’s a single candle flame. One of my all-time favorite pure wood scents. It’s mellow, deep, and dense without being sweet. A contemplative, restful scent.

This is the 1st that I have tried from the Dev series and I would say that it gives me hope. It's well created and has that dark,heavy,thick mysterios vibe going for it. I have one issue with it, where is the sweetness? I have tried a few with tolu balsam and know that it's a strong sweet note but the woody notes and olibanum overpower it here. This makes it very challenging to wear but a must try for deep incense/resinous lovers. I could see it being a replacement for fans of Norma Kamali Incense which is impossible to find.

A dry, woody, herbal marvel this is the safest amongst the four offerings in the DEV series. The perfume is primarily a cedar driven affair (the smell of a hot dry sauna) and is mellowed only slightly with the addition of olibanum, thuja and labdanum. Unisex (slight masculine leaning) with moderate to strong sillage and very good longevity. Recommended for lovers of woody balsamic earthy scents. Enjoy!

Beautiful very balsamic resinous scent. Kind of link incense but not smokey. But mostly this scent reminds me of propolis (or bee pitch), in the most beautiful, realistic yet perfectly wearable perfume form. It has that sweetness, freshness and richness to it. However, despite having good performance, I wish it lasted a tad longer.

second review. wow and a green, dry, balsamic smoke. it can remind me of ancient rituals of some tribe. sweet but also sour. transcendental. a pleasant smoky and not annoying. i like it but i don't know if i would buy it. 8/10 excellent performance.

resinous, acid, balsamic. absolutely not sweet or dark. smoky. dry. I do not like. simply sour and sour. for now wins dev 1. 5/10. low performance. funeral atmophere .

These dev scents all seem to share a common labdanum base with differences in the additions over the top. My preference ranking for the 4 dev in order: #3, #2, #1, #4 As you can see I've marked this my least favorite. I think this not because this is bad but because I've smelled this profile many times before, this is wood and incense in the churchy direction. It's quite a decent one in that category, the woodiness in particular is very nice but personally while I love incense this doesn't bring anything new to me if I'm honest so I find it a little boring.

When I sampled a teensy bit of this, my wife yelled “gross.” She said it gave her a headache immediately. She says it smells like cherry cough medicine. I smell bubblegum up close but nothing but olives in the air and smokiness. I had to scrub it off due to my wife’s discomfort. To me it wasn’t that bad but not as good as the other Dev’s. I wouldn’t say it smells anything like mostly-Labdanum (I wear diluted Labdanum oil as a perfume quite often, and I also use the resin as incense). I personally love the smell of most of this house’s scents but, unfortunately, nearly all of them give me a headache...I think that part is just a me thing.

I have 100+ samples and this is by far my lest favorite of all that I've tried. Like someone drizzled cough syrup over hot garbage and lite it on fire. 0/10

Wow. Im liking how straight forward the perfumer is with the notes. They are all there aright. Olibanum bomb (catholic incense to some) on a bed of Labdanum. Just like Mardi Gras, it's drenched in vanillin and possibly a tich of Ethyl Maltol. The labdanum is very present, I'm thinking it may be juiced up with a little cistus (rockrose). It's hard to tell which cedar we are dealing with here, I'd take her word and go with Thuja(one) (Thujopsene?) -- a cypress that mimics the odor of cedar, though it could be the much more stable and common Texas or Virginia variety.

In conclusion to the fiendish bunch of scents, we have Dev #4...A bone dry campfire ash fragrance with a Comme Des Garçon Avignon vibe. I would argue that this is the gateway drug to the other 3 devil scents. The Reprise offers nothing but the good vibrations of the 1960's. In reality, this fragrance isn't so simple but in comparison to the other Devil Scents, this is Scooby Snacks. Don't dismiss this as a good incense fragrance on a budget. This runs circles around the most popular smokies in the industry.

People keep saying this smells a bit sour or bright and I think so too but I think its the Thuja/cypress and wood. Of the four in the series, I would say that this is the least "dark and mysterious". Its way more rugged lumberjack with a touch of incense and way less Catholic church than the others. I'd say less spicy too as the notes show no spices. Woody, resinous and a touch of smokey incense. Brighter and easier to wear for most.

i feel like this one lacks the depth and subtlety of the others. i get the raw, unburnt franc, the tolu and the lab, but not the nuance and development of the others. there is also minimal progression; it's pretty linear and not much changes over the course. the franc gets a little louder as it goes on, but by and large, there is not much by way of evolution and trajectory. it still smells damn nice. just, not for me...

Amazing wet woody. Deep Amber and forest undergrowth. Been done a 100 times in the niche realm for sure but still an amazing fragrance. Tad smoky in the opening but this is basically Follow by Kerosene without the coffee. Good stuff!

Best one of the series so far. Dry woods with sweet enveloping incense.