Royal Wood

#1421 in my "Tour de Fragrance" I'm not sure Rayhaan was even going for a clone here so much as trying to make a scent with some very popular and common notes in a men's fragrance world dominated by Bleu De Chanel, Sauvage, Invictus, One Million and YSL La Nuit de L'Homme. Because what we have here is something that appeals in the opening to fans of those scents. Where it falls short is the top and mid notes are gone in mere minutes, and I mean in like five minutes. What's left is a vaguely woody skin scent with a hint of the bottom notes, sillage of about a foot. It's not bad, but doesn't make an impression. It really smells like the EDT Quorum "Silver" which will cost you $11 and is roughly the same quality. Yves de Sistelle now has an EDP available, "Thallium II" which touches all the same bases with better performance and goes for $23. But I think if you already have something like Afnan Supremacy Silver or Armaf Odyssey Mandarin Sky you already have something like this in that price range on hand.

Its a miss for me this time rayhaan. Bottle cheap and stopped spraying after 3rd time using it. Not one of your better scents either.

This stuff is DENSE in the opening. Resinous woody and it has a tang to it - I’m guessing the ginger. In the air it comes off very coniferous to me, almost like a saw blade after it’s gone through a Douglas Fir. I didn’t get the Jubilation connection until maybe my third or fourth wear but now I definitely get it in the drydown. I couldn’t put my finger on what else it reminded me of - something old school - and finally I got it, it reminds me of Van Cleef & Arpel’s Tsar. Like a very concentrated Tsar. That dense tangy opening is slightly jarring to me but it’s growing on me.