Burning Ben

Absolutely awesome frag that had me in love at first sniff. This is what I'll be wearing next winter for sure. I also love the name, as my name is Ben! The coffee is definitely there, and its blending with dark chocolate is just genius, they combine to make a dark chocolate espresso note, the best I have ever smelled of any coffee or chocolate frag. I would say this note is the most prominent her. There is also realistic, campfire-like smoke constantly apparent, which really blends with the leather, similar to how Amouage's Myths combines smoke and leather in its dry-down. I normally don't like leather frags, but the leather here is so well blended and not too strong. I was also scared about the "burnt tire accord" but It's not too smoky for my nose, about as smoky as By The Fireplace, but not overpowering like A City on Fire. All this is backed up by a slightly boozy sweetness, like a slightly marshmallow-y bourbon brown sugar in the background. The multitude of other notes seem to blend into a blur, but they create a nice spicy framework for the main notes to work in. This is just what I look for in a fragrance, absolutely unique yet super approachable. This is a definitely a potent frag but it's not super sweet, like a dark chocolate opposed to a milk chocolate. I just get whiffs of yummy chocolate and coffee the whole time I'm wearing this. Incredibly cozy and delicious, this is a must try for coffee and chocolate lovers!

It opens with a lustrous, dark type of tobacco—cognac, muddied artfully with the espresso, dark chocolate, tobacco leaf, smooth incense, and beeswax—these are the notes that can be noticed. Other things like cherry, hazelnut, birch tar, plum, help to accentuate the richness of the cognac here that has a muddied yet alluring dark tobacco facet and are therefore not noticeable in the profile but as supports. It’s basically like This Is Not a Pipe by Demeter/Smoke by Akro, but miles more complex and nuanced, and really to me, in a good way. It alludes to a person that has drunk a few drinks and smoked a few dark cigars/tobacco—not cigarettes necessarily. They hadn’t bathed in quite a while, drenched a bit in their own alcohol actually, but not like cheap beer, more like cognac/wine. Hence, the birch tar, owning birch tar absolute myself, is misplaced rather high on the chart here. Fortunately, this description is here to stay in the drydown, and I’m sort of glad I waited off on looking into this genre of frags to get any FBs of the family because this is nothing short of a want for me. Admittedly, I would still reach for TiNaP/Smoke if I wanted a similarly dirty tobacco at a more economical rate, though this is definitely worth the asking price for the nuances present. + 1 * Smoke -> 100/100. An impressive artistic render by Prin Lomros.

you crash your car into a birch tree & spill scalding coffee all over your crotch & you step out of the car into the dark of the woods & a clump of hay is on fire in front of you & you're not sure if it was started by the car wreck or was pre-existent & you try to put out the fire by throwing your leather jacket over it & the half-eaten 85% cocoa chocolate bar you left in the pocket starts melting & the nearly empty pack of stale cigarettes in the other pocket starts to burn & you smack the jacket against the ground until it extinguishes & you manage to pull one of the lit cigarettes out & start smoking it & you burn your fingers but you also just wrecked your car so you're not that concerned & you put your fucked up leather jacket back on & it's so warm on your back & you lick melted chocolate off of your fingers & you decide to crawl up the side of the hill you drove off of & you look back over your shoulder & see that the little hay fire is still burning & you make it to the top of the hill & onto the pavement & you switch on a tiny keychain flashlight to inspect the tire marks you left on the road & you touch them and they're still warm

Strangers Parfumerie Burning Ben is seemingly one of the house’s better-known entries that I neglected to sample my first time around with the line but am happy to try out now. It immediately smells of a combination of various dark and smoky elements, from leather to liquor to coffee, with affectations that range from sweet to animalic to spicy, really a sort of smoky multifaceted blend that’s especially fitting for cooler weather and/or nighttime situations. I mainly get a bit of leather varnish, espresso, chocolate, nuts, resins, and spices. It’s really fascinating and performs reasonably well, though it’s always difficult to make a full assessment off of a dabber sample. As with much of the line, Burning Ben is EDP concentration, priced at $90 for 30ml, and sold in the US at boutiques like Luckyscent. I find the pricing to be very reasonable nowadays, even up slightly from $80 a few years ago, but $3 / ml is very fair for niche perfumery, and I feel I’m a bit overdue to retry some other entries and perhaps pick up a couple bottles from the line. 8 out of 10

The idea and theme is quite repulsive I’m not here to argue about that As I always do my main attention is the “juice” as they call it The packaging is not important but must note it was minimal Again another notice I might add is my previous bad experiences with the perfumer not personally mind you but his work wasn’t very impressive TBO But here MR.PRIN you scored a home run sir Coffee - leather - Castoreum - tar - chocolate and tobacco When I read the notes all together I thought to myself it will be a definite abomination In what world can you mix these together This guy made a marvel to contemplate and a milestone to be proud of I almost went through a 1/3 of a bottle and believe it or not I bought it a couple of months ago Another respectable thing to mention is the performance it was incredible As much as the word is overused in the community but this scent truly is a masterpiece