Cubano

Got my hands on a bottle of this as I'd been curious about it for a while and it's one of the most interesting fragrances I've had given you go on a journey with this one. Opens on first spray as incredibly boozy, I'm talking pure, acidic 'rum spilled down your front and the smell of alcohol hits your throat' boozy. It's this initial point where you can be forgiven for thinking "I've made a mistake." Settles a bit more and a buttery cinnamon comes through, however it remains unsweet and has a masculine edge to it, this is the point where the 'unisex' reveals itself. Could definitely be a choice for a particular type of man, I'm thinking stylish, romantic, quite creative, very, very Italian or Sicilian. Immediately picturing Vincent Gallo (sorry). Dry down after a couple of hours it does almost a 360 degree rotation. The masculine bite completely goes away (can't imagine a guy pulling it off at this point at all) and it is pure cosy vanilla, chocolate and cocoa butter. Its sweetness fully leans into itself on your skin. It's comforting, clean and autumnal/wintery. The cinnamon fades more into the background and it softens up completely, as does the rum, although at points they're inoffensively detectable. One disappointment I have is the sillage, this is definitely more of an "intimate" and "clings to your clothes and neckline" scent, you're not gonna be leaving a bomb-like trail in rooms, however it is a buildable fragrance and more sprays do improve its performance somewhat. This is complex and if you're willing to spend some time with it, it pays off. I absolutely adore the dry down. However I agree with others this isn't a safe blind buy.

Wow! .... This is boozy! Straight up rum truffles. It’s a gorgeous scent. It’s very strong initially, which I do love, but it dries down to a more wearable soft cinnamon milk chocolate. I love it! I might just have to invest in a large bottle. Very unique. This also layers beautifully over Bianco Latte

Boozy eggnog deliciousness!! Seriously, the opening is SPIKED EGGNOG to a T. It's super nice in the dry down too. Creamy, cozy, tonka and chocolate. It sits pretty close to the skin, which I personally see as a negative.

It smells likes paradise. The most yummy fragrance I ever smelled. 🩷🩷🩷🩷

Just by looking at the notes listed for Cubano, this should be a gourmand lover’s dream perfume: white chocolate, rum, cocoa, cinnamon, liqueur, vanilla. But it’s not my dream because it smells like cheap alcohol, chemical and artificial/plasticky sweetness. And it made me sneeze instantly as soon as I smelled it... Sulmona Essenze is a small, niche Italian house that is discussed occasionally by some YT people and I happen to think Italians make the best gourmands on the market. I have said it in the past reviews and I still believe that. So I said I am going to order some samples to try some of their perfumes. Cubano is the first scent I am trying from Sulmona and I expected great things but I have to admit that not all (Italian) perfumes are made equally. When I say equally I refer in this particular context to the quality of the ingredients used to creat a fragrance. With a higher quality raw materials, Cubano would be spectacular! But it smells like supermarket, cheap rum, vanilla bottled essences that you would put into your dough or cream when baking a cake. Without sounding too harsh, cause I don’t want to be that kind of person, I want to say that I wanted that Cubano to smell more refined and elegant. Like some of the gourmand fragrances from Pantheon Roma, that I have tried at the end of last year, but be more affordable priced. Turns out that when you pay less, you get inferior quality.. I rest my case... It’s an ok gourmand scent, does smell nice, but maybe if you’re new to perfumes. If you tried a variety of brands and scents already, this might disappoint you as well!