Enigma Pour Homme

I'll cut to the chase and say that Enigma Parfum is absolutely a masterpiece. It's still the most expensive bottle I've purchased, and I'd gladly do it again. This will not be for everyone. I'm in my mid-20's, but I feel many in that age bracket won't latch onto this. It certainly has a quality to it that can come off as "dated", or "old man cologne" to some. I understand this, but disagree. Enigma opens up with bright, sparkly, almost effervescent cognac, ginger, and benzoin. Sharp, spicy, and warm. There's something about it that screams classic French perfumery of yesteryear. The cognac is boozy, but not dense, sweet, and heavy. There's a pop to it, enhanced by the ginger and jasmine. Not tea-like Jasmine, but rather indolic, almost animalic Jasmine. The bergamot lends a floral, polished citrus sweetness to the top, and while it lingers into the dry down, it's blended so well, it doesn't jump out. The tobacco is so opulent, luxurious, and mysterious. Not a pipe, not a cigarette, but approaching cigar territory. There's deep, lush raw tobacco leaf, but there's also a hint of smoke - like the leather and upholstery of a cigar lounge. There's sweetness, but it's mature, elegant, and ambery - ultra resinous and refined, with some dry vanilla coming into focus. I understand the cola vibe, but to me, it's more the sparkle of ginger and cognac, with some subtle spicy cracked black pepper peeking through the curtain. As it dries down, there's a woody, spicy, smoky facet, that reminds me of a freshly emptied cognac cask - still wet with grainy, boozy, woody dregs, and just kissed by flame of a torch, and filled again to age tobacco leaves. For good measure, some bergamot, jasmine, and neroli blossoms are thrown on top. Enigma lasts on skin for ages. An easy 12 hours, and projection is beautifully strong for most of it. Just a couple of sprays will have you set, and others will take notice. This one is opulent and seriously demands dressing up. This isn't sweatpants and a hoodie. You'll look like a fool. This is the definitive black tie event perfume - exuding this air of mystery, sex appeal, power and masculinity. Something you can't quite put your finger on, but you're oh so intrigued. Truly, an enigma. Tldr: A mature, sophisticated, ridiculously opulent fragrance that hints at classic French perfumery. Rich, potent, boozy, effervescent, sparkly, bright, slightly smoky, slightly floral, and utterly, extremely fancy. Balls-to-the-wall projection and longevity, and demanding of nice, clean, put-together outfits. Scent: 10/10 Longevity: 10/10 Projection: 10/10 Uniqueness: 9/10 Quality: 10/10 Value: 6/10 Atomizer: 8/10 Versatility: 2/10 Blind Buy Safety: NO

Did a swap this weekend whereby I got to use this in exchange for letting her use one of mine. (Do this quite often.) Yes, I know it's 'pour homme' but, TBPH, I am not being bound by that. And anyway, labelling perfumes 'pour homme' or 'pour femme' is contrary to what Roja Dove himself says. Wasn't it he who said "a rose on a man is a masculine rose, and a rose on a woman is a feminine rose"? Anyway, I had not been particularly impressed by this when I sampled it some time ago in the Selfridges boutique, and I had pretty much forgotten about it. But my friend said "no, seriously, this stuff is just magnificent!", so she talked me into trying it. And, well, my view of it is just completely transformed! This one is a stunner - nothing short of that. And it's worth its really very stiff price tag in that you are not going to get anything anything like it for less. I think the first word that comes to mind to describe it is "concentrated". By this I don't mean I used the pure parfum - no, it was the EDP - I mean that the aroma itself is concentrated. It's just crammed! It's like one of those peaches you sometimes get if you're lucky (and in this country you have to be very lucky) that isn't just juicy, but positively spills all over your face. And the amberiness and the muskiness of it are almost like palpable physical presences. And it's sheer content is so unlike that of anything I've ever worn before. But it does have that Coca-Cola / Jägermeister liqueur evocativity to it, that I've noticed many other people speak of. You might think "wouldn't want to wear something that smells of that" ... but yet it is very eminently wearable. I wrote in my review of Escada's Taj Sunset, not entirely joking, that it triggers a reflex that you have spilt some fruity drink on yourself; but when I liken this to a drink, I certainly do not liken it in anything like the same sense. And as for sillage & longevity ... just sorted - completely sorted! Having first applied this on Friday night, there was no real possibility of wearing anything else meaningfully for the rest of the weekend. Oh, by the way ... notes-analysis: I got the benzoin right! But I would not have been able to tell you that there are tobacco and cognac in there - they are just too well 'plumbed' or 'wired' in. One last thing - it was well received also. My stern critics were pretty much silent about this one, and one stranger was really very very interested in what it was.

Enigma Parfum is very unique and has a lot of character; Classic meets modern. The opening sometimes hits me as a bit old; But today, after fasting from frags for a day, I got hit with the beautiful fruity congac open. It's not that boozy, as in alcohol smell, but you get the fruitiness of the grapes, from which congac is made. I recently tried and purchased the Enigma Parfume Cologne, great fresher version. Then I thought I will only buy the original Enigma Parfume if I find a good deal, and so I did. I go into great length in my Enigma Cologne review on the heart of this fragrance, it is pretty much the same here: Congac and benzoin mainly with tobacco and floral touches, vanilla. The Cologne ads some nice bergamot and lemon on top, the Parfume is richer, has some nuances the Cologne version doesn't have. The opening of this is peppery with cardamom and bergamot. This is the opening accord that may be giving the cola smell. I love how un-linier this is. Its complex, and it takes you for a ride as it changes and evolves throughout the different phases. First impression; wow It's kind of light. You may think, for this price you are going to get a beast-mode frag in all catagories, like Parfumes de Marley, etc. But like "buysblind" says in his review, he likes boyant fragrances, ones that are not thick and weighty. So it is with Enigma. It lasts a long time, but never laud. Well, the cool thing about this frag, is it smells light when it first goes on your skin, then in a few minutes, it intensifies... I've never experienced that in a fragrance, like this, out of 400 frags I have reviewed. Two kinds of persons I see wearing this: One is James Bond (Michael Craig) in Casino Royal, when his girlfriend says to him, "I need you looking sharp" for the big poker game. Well this is what he would be wearing for a fragrance, very regal and sharp. Another picture I got was a King in old England wearing this. It has an old classic vib, yet very unique; and fit for a king. PS: Some advice, never blind buy this. It is a challenging fragrance that took me quite a while to understand and aquire a taste for it. Now it's a favorite. It gets a lot of hype, and as a tobacco fragrance. Tobacco is a slight nuance making an accord with the congac. Many won't even be able to pick out the tobacco in this. Rating: 9.5/10 Happy New year Fragrance bros and gals. John 3:16

This was the first Roja fragrance I ever tried which happened to be approximately two years ago. Two years ago I was still into mostly designers. My nose wasn't trained for overly complex fragrances and this one absolutely overloaded my senses. I smelt nothing but a powdery mess, and powdery is probably my most hated nuance in a fragrance. At this point, I was done with Roja's (until I decided to give the brand another try a few weeks ago). Within the last few weeks I now have seven full bottles, two discovery atomizers and lots of samples on the way. My nose is much more in shape these days and Roja perfumes have certainly reeled me in. Coming back to Creation-E Parfum...I can totally see where I originally picked up the powdery aspect. The cognac is incredibly powerful with an ointment-like polish. It may seem powdery and abrasive, but it is in fact actually kind of sexy and completely unique. Three things immediately come to mind as I sniff it; 1) Rum and coke vibe (cognac and coke as well) 2) Root Beer/Root Beer Float - I would say this is most definitely more prominent than the cola vibe! 3) Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille - This only reminds me of it. It doesn't smell like it due to different notes, but it has that same cool-warm-spicy character The ultimate dry down is a spicy vanilla. As I said before, it's fairly coarse and not necessarily "smooth," but it's sexy in an eccentric way. It's not sensual. It's rough around the edges but presents itself in a confident, sultry way. I surprisingly love it. I have worn it to bed the last few nights and I must say, I can see myself wearing this a lot. Really fascinating fragrance which is done up so well. Side note: I currently own the parfum cologne but will be purchasing the parfum soon. Biggest difference to me is that the parfum is more effervescent, a little more bright and boozy. The parfum cologne oddly appears to be more thick and woody. I wouldn't mind owning both, but I have to say the carbonation effect of the parfum is the difference maker!

Roja Dove describes this some place on the youtube as being big and bold, and an attention-grabber, which makes one prone to maybe expect something like an Amouage Interlude Man, or one of Xerjoffs stronger ones, but this actually is incredibly soft and not at all in your face to my nose. Nevertheless, his description still fits! It is big: Once you draw your breath, you keep drawing it in, and drawing it in to get to the bottom of the fragrance, but the pull is just subtly there until you can't breathe in no more - then you want to draw it in again, it's very delicious, spacious, soft and sweet, and with just an indispensable almost little hit of vanilla that pokes through the cognac and tobacco now and again that gives it almost an addictive quality. There is so much room in the scent, it feels like it would be easy to add a couple of notes that would overpower what goes on in there and grab all the attention, instead the sweet balance and the spaciousness is just enough of a show in itself. Incredibly pleasant! It is bold: - you will get noticed! Nobody will be unaware that you smell good - but it is not noisy or intrusive - that judgement was supported by an innoscent. I got unsolicited comments from a lady at work who walked 5 meters behind me and wanted to know what smelled so good. She proceeded to comment how unintrusive yet luxurious it smelled. She had never heard of the brand so I was happy to show her. Just for reference: I've worn scents like Creed Aventus, Amouage Reflection, Xerjoff Renaissance etc. around her tons of times, but this one is the only that she's commented on. This is quickly becoming my favorite scent. I have tried the eau the Parfum and the Parfum, and the intensity seems _almost_ the same, it is so soft and velvety that I find going up in concentration isn't a problem with this one. Longevity is great, but it's softness might fool you during the day - it's there though. Beautiful scent!