Chicago High

Wow! I am blown away with this one! I fell in love with Vilhelm Perfumerie after trying several of their masterpieces. So let’s talk about Chicago High...By the way my home city ;) It’s all about 1920s, retro chic and speakeasy atmosphere.... It opens up boozy, sparkling and accompanied with juicy pineapple and zesty bergamot surrounded by honey and tobacco smoke..... I close my eyes and the scent transports me into this elite secret bar in downtown of Chicago, where all the classiest and influential people gather to celebrate life with a fine drink and a smooth cigar and enjoy some jazz hits of that time... As time goes on citrusy and fruity notes tame down and I get even more tobacco which now is accompanied by leather and a little bit of amber and even less patchouli... Performance is beast on me...10+ hours and projects enough for others to notice To say I am obsessed with this scent is understatement I have never experienced anything even close to this.. It’s a must if you are into heavy night time slightly masculine scents...

A very rich and dry amber, combined with a boozy and leathery undertone. There's also a distinct immortelle note which isn't mentioned, but it adds a sensation of licorice and brown sugar to the whole. Due to the extreme opulence of the fragrance and the lack of cheap tricks, I'm going to guess this was created by Marc-Antoine Corticchiato as well (cfr Body Paint). Very well made, stylistically so different from the rest of the brand that it might have issues finding its audience.

Longevity is very long ,so I will venture to disagree with some of you saying its poor.Me,and my dry skin, on which everything dissapears instanteneously-this lasts all day. Fabulous perfume with those boozy,chick elements-truly a masteriece.The rest from this collection is no.None of them is worthy to spend money on.

What a unique fragrance. Very heavy on the booze, but sweet honey at the same time. I haven't smelled anything like this before. There is a small similarity between this and Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille, but I may like this one more. A bit more complex.

This is really good. I recently I went to Saks, and this wasn’t even on my radar. I smelled a ton of fragrances, but kept coming back to this. It’s like nothing I’ve ever smelled. Try it!

Freshly opened champagne, tobacco curls through the air, thick and heavy, mixing with the dense sweetness of honey. A regal mélange. Booze-heavy. A testament to excess.

I love this fragrance but I have a very specific memory association with it. It's definitely not for everyone. My husband hates it.

High end tobacco scent. It is not super heavy, but not weak also. It has significance elegance in it.

Very, very nice release... Beautifull scent with good performances. Worth money.

The best fragrance i ve ever smelled so far , its so warm and sexy

Didn't post this review until I gave the scent at least 5 hours. I typically try to sample without checking the notes or main accords. My original impressions were: Opening I get a combination of some sort of a fizzy drink with mild sweetness and an apparent darker base tone. A certain sweetness starts to pop up after the first 20-30 seconds that makes me think of Apple Brandy on the Rocks, but this clearly has way more depth, darkness, strength etc. I can't quite figure out what else this is, but it's some type of a hybrid between Apple Brandy OTR and something else. And surprisingly, there was 1 other person here that thought this smelled like Apple Brandy OTR. The problem with the Kilian, to me, has been it's horrendous performance (max 5-6 hours). Apple Brandy OTR, scent wise, is a 9-9.5 to me - something special that I love as a summer scent. However, it's important to note that this comparison fades as Chicago High dries down - the dry tobacco starts to become more and more prominent, making this a like, not love. In the deep drydown, say 6+ hours in, what I get is mainly a tobacco with champagne. I only put 2 tester sprays on my right hand and longevity appears to be among the best-in-class for honey-tobaccos, albeit the honey isn't as prominent as you may think. Total longevity will be 10-14 hours. This is a fall fragrance mainly, sillage will be moderate as long as you wear it in the heat/cold, not at your PC like I am right now. Profile is unisex, but might lean masculine like other honey-tobaccos (e.g. Naxos). 100ml now priced at €250, I don't think Vilhelm as a house is really worth it at this price level outside of you absolutely loving a scent. Here, you can get Naxos for €30 cheaper in the same size with better presentation. The scent isn't really like Naxos, but considering you're buying this as a fall-winter fragrance, Naxos fills the same function.

This perfume is old memories in a bottle, Is very bold and strong yet so gracious and beautiful. The opening is loud and stunning, I imagine this opening smells like the entrance of one of those jazz clubs from the 50's, with lots of ladies and gentlemans leaving their fur coats at the coat check, while the doors open and close and the champagne and booze is all in the air but the wood from the place is so warm that exudes that spicy note up there too. then you get the tobacco and honey, is so well balanced and mix that you feel like you are reading a book and eating cookies close to the fire with your lovely grandpa who is smoking his tobacco pipe, when it settles you get a more bitter tobacco but once in a while the champagne comes and goes with the sweet of the pineapple. I really like how this fragrance dries, is very leathery very ambery and with a back of vanilla that I really like, I can see a man or woman wearing this to a very elegant date night or just to a romantic dinner. Sample it first, tobacco scents tends to be a hit or miss so I suggest u to try it first!

I've now tried this three times and had three totally different impressions. Take one: Spritzed on a tester at a store, thought it was a pleasant, light tobacco. It didn't make a huge impression, but I liked it enough to order a sample. Take two: Sprayed directly on my wrist, it was an unpleasantly sour leather/tobacco. I didn't get any sweet notes, and was pretty disappointed. Take three: Sprayed on my neck/shirt. Suddenly, it's beautiful! That sourness from before has become a light fruity tartness, I get the touch of honey, and the tobacco is warm without being overpowering. I did wear a soft, mild vanilla perfume on this same shirt recently so it may be offering some lingering sweetness, but this third try is very exciting! I'll have to try it again on fresh, clean clothes to see how it goes. Will update when I do!

Got a sample in the mail today and it's just so weird. Doesn't have the whole aesthetic of the brand at all and is smelling somewhat dusty. Can't associate it with anything specific but it's just in the middle of fruity-woody-leathery categories. I get tons of sparkly tobacco and fruity patchouli on the skin. Update: Ok, after wearing down my sample I finally got it. It's still very different from the rest, very abstract scent. My favorites are poets of berlin and mango skin. These two are literally edible. Chicago high is more about the atmosphere. It's all about the entering old entertainment building. A theater, cabaret or something like that. Where people used to party and walls have absorbed that smell of cigars and old wooden floor is always well polished. It's growing on me. Winter-fall. Sillage is very good.

A very unique scent, walking around the local department store, sampling probably 10-15 scents that day, I was immediately struck by this one, not necessarily because of it being my favorite of the bunch, but rather by how different it smelled comparatively to everything else. After getting a sample of it I can't say I am particularly interested in wearing or owning it but that intensity of the opening remains astounding, essentially a mix of an effervescent boozy note together with heaps of candied pineapple leading into a honeyed sweet tobacco accord. Unfortunately it quickly turns into a woody ambery oriental base with little character, and it wear overall quite sticky and sweet, but nonetheless if you are looking for unique this is definitely an option.

I had been really excited to try this so getting my hands on a sample was nice. I get a lot of tobacco, amber, honey and there's also a boozy note. No idea if this can be labeled as champagne but yeah, it does smell like some good alcohol, a stronger kind of it perhaps. This comes off as a very cozy scent to me, despite the chic roaring twenties inspo behind it. Longevity is good while sillage appears to be moderate to strong. It seems to share a similar vibe with Ambre Russe which I miss a lot - it has this boozy amber which simply makes me melt. Should make a good winter/fall scent. I can see it being equally appealling on everyone regardless of their gender.

The opening is a booze-rush. You feel like you're blind drunk first thing in the morning. The edge soon wears off though and gives way to the most thickly sweet blend of tobacco you've ever smoked with your alcohol. Eventually it turns eerily similar to Tobacco Vanille by TF, only sweeter, and without the same longevity or sillage. Lasts a good six hours on me, projects well and borders on cloying during the final stretch. I don't hate CH and while wearing it I can absolutely imagine time-travelling to a prohibition-era watering hole in Chicago. But there are fragrances on the market that pull off the seductive-smoky act with much more success.

Living near Chicago I wanted to try this, and I did at Merz. It stars of boozy fresh honey tobacco, and settles down to a sweet honeyed leather with hints of a smokey pineapple tobacco in the far back. I do want this and feel like you can pull it off most of the year. I would give this a 8.5/10 with out a full wearing. It does remind me of something but I cant put my finger on it because only a small aspect of it, the tobacco and honey, but it smell unique on its own at the same time. It does not however smell like Chicago. That being said, It is gourmand to me and as a lover of this type of scent, again, ill get it eventually.

A boozy honeyed leather bringing in mind good and mad times previous generations had. Unisex leaning masculine. But also very fitting for a lady in tuxedo. It paints a perfect picture of busy Gangster Era cocktail bar in Chicago filled with cigar smoke and melancholic sounds of blues. Great name for a scent that takes you so convincingly back in time. For me, the initial blast is more of a smokey whiskey rather than champagne. Furthermore, its almost exactly like a well blended and iced Old Fashioned. An interesting and eccentric offering from this house.

It starts with some freshness and booze from the champagne but it seems like hiding a crazy monster under it and this is exactly what happened After hours and hours from application it just went beast mode on my clothes I started smelling it from far away across the room it was a shocking event but guess what it’s almost very different from the opening and the mid it became very challenging and animalistic The dry down was a monster that is hard to wear And yes I definitely smelled dry fruits in the scent which wasn’t mentioned mainly plums

Booze, cigar smoke, drop of honey. Dries down to a dusty leather and amber. Like an old speakeasy bar vibe with leather booths and stuffy smoke still lingering after the closing time. Don’t know why they list champagne note as it is too delicate for the composition. This is more of a bourbon smell, more full bodied yet smooth. Leans masculine but I own and enjoy wearing it as a female. Not blind buy safe. Gotta be a 1920s flippant flapper or a gangster goon to pull this one off. Ok, maybe not. But you get the vibe allright.

Poor longevity for the type of fragrance. It lasted on me only a few hours. I don't see much similarity in notes, but this smells like a deeper version of Guerlain's L'homme Ideal EDP. Downvote me for this if you must, but I prefer the former simply because it lasts longer on me. Your mileage may vary. The above is one man's experience. Yours may be different and from the looks of previous reviews, it appears many are different. Get a sample and see for yourself!

An interesting one, say you mix pineapple juice with tobacco oud and apple brandy and you'll get something like this. If you like slightly animalic tobacco and sweet honey fragrances you'l like it I think, but it won't bore you as just another tobacco honey mix, the juicy pineapple makes the difference. Not bad, although personally I'll be getting a decant not a full bottle.

The top notes seem out of place with the rest of the scent. Pineapple and champagne don't go well with Tobacco and Honey IMO. But if you can wait that part out, you are rewarded with an expensive smelling honey/tobacco amber, with a slight leather facet on my skin. Very good drydown, creamy, warm and a little dirty. Scent 7/10 Performance 7.8/10

Similar to Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille but this one has more tobacco, so if you didn't have enough tobacco on TV, try this perfume. There is a lot of tobacco, a lot of leather, a lot of patchouli and a lot of honey. After few hours, it becomes less heavy and the dry down is more like glass of champagne with pineapple slice that was used as an ashtray.

I get mostly the tobacco, leather, and patchouli. The honey note adds some much needed sweetness. I find it very interesting but tobacco can sometimes smell like ashes on me and this one does a bit in the dry down. One of those fragrances that probably smells better from afar.

Oh my sweet God... Honey? Maybe. Champagne? I don’t think so. Tobacco? It’s closer to an ashtray... I got huge expectations with this so I ordered a sample, sprayed on my wrist and boom! I felt like like I was back in 70’s! It reminds me smell of a toilet in an old train in Poland, when You can smell some people’s urines, cigarettes smoke mixed with some air freshener and old perfumes. To me - disturbing, disgusting, blah.... I absolutely do not want to smell like this. Seriously. Better try it first before buy.

To me it smells like spicy cinnamon with honey poured over and balanced by tobacco. I can see a girl with a strong personality wearing this, it's not for the shy ones. A girl who makes witty jokes in the back of the bar who catches your attention efortlessly.It smells like when you're about to leave your coat at the cloackroom and you're feeling excited for what's about to come next.But it has a weak sillage and lasts only a few hours on skin.

As others have said, very ashtray foward. After that, all I got was cheap mall incense. Reminiscent of going into East Meets West with your ex who smoked a pack of reds in the car.

a smoky oud amber. nothing special.

I walked into Saks with great attitude, Some might say a high mentality, I walked over to the Vilhelm Parfumerie section of Saks and picked up the bottle with around 75% cologne left inside the bottle. With high hopes I sprayed it on a piece of paper, thinking it would be maybe a little decent at best. This cologne smelled like sweat, garbage, and a guys bottom of his shoe after traveling through the subway station of new york city. I decided " Hey maybe this cologne might be a little better on skin, right? Absolutely not, I then walked around saks smelling like I just dug through the garbage trying to find new clothes. This is absolutely the worst cologne I have ever smelt, I wouldn't even want to spray this cologne on my worst enemy because I would feel bad. 0/10 Awful

Apparently this is meant to smell like a smokey club. To me it smells like a smokers ash tray.

Sweet and boozy, but unfortunately, on me it reads like sweet, boozy bacon. There are several other fragrances that read bacon on me--it's a weird phenomenon as I can't seem to find the exact notes that create that aura. My husband--a notoriously tough critic--approvingly described it as "sultry" so I don't think he smelled bacon (or maybe bacon is a positive for him). This reminds me a bit of Tobacco Vanille (Tom Ford), but mainly because that fragrance also gives a bit of bacon (though far less). Personally, I much prefer Tobacco Vanille. Very unisex but masculine-leaning. I imagine this on someone enjoying late-night cocktails in a speakeasy. I do think with the right body chemistry, this could be someone's bold, unique signature scent. Just not mine. 5.5/10

Whoever recommended this to me hates me. PUNGENCE AND SWEET DECAY. A can of pineapple in syrup starting to turn. A large, unhealthy man’s BO. Cheap cheap rum. A not-so-gentle whiff of the frat house garbage room. Take all that and roll it around in several tons of cigarette ash. That is Chicago high. This smells of pawn shops, dirty frat houses and wannabe coke dealers who want to make it clear they’re “not the marrying type.” I might have retched more at this than Babycat and that’s saying a LOT.

Reading the notes it seems fantastic, but on first spray I get a distinct cleaning product feeling. The tobacco notes comes in strong afterwards. Not a tea like tobacco but a sharp one, with honey far in the background. The leather is comes in as the citrus fades away, it's quite animalic not soft and suede like. I didn't get the bubbly champagne note that I've enjoyed in other fragrances, the honey is very very subtle, the patchouli comes in my in the mid and dry down. It's very sharp and rugged.

Heavy on pineapple and definitely smells of an alcoholic beverage in the first hour or so. More like aged whiskey than champaigne to me. To me it smells like an average vintage mens cologne. Something your moms friends new boyfriend in too tight shirt would wear. It lasts a while and projects like a monster. Also smells a bit like fermented black tea at drydown. It's OK.

I finally found a place to try this, and I couldn’t have been more disappointed. It smelled of sour oud mixed with tobacco, and that’s all I got. It didn’t really develop over time either. I hope it simply was a bad batch of samples.

Yeah, this is pretty much your regular ordinary ashtray... and not even a luxurious cuban cigar ashtray but a plain Marlboro one that sticks to your sweater after you exit a room. It's a hard pass for me.

This is a hookah shisha based scent with some blackberry nuances. This is great juice but not as a real tobacco fragrance.