Rising Phoenix Perfumery: Musk Rose, Sicilian Vanilla, Amber Oud & Yeti Ambergris Attars

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Source: Rising Phoenix Perfumery, Etsy.

Today, I wanted to take a quick look at four attars, Musk Rose, Sicilian Vanilla, Phoenix Amber Oud, and Yeti Ambergris, from the American indie brand, The Rising Phoenix Perfumery. Each one has something appealing or interesting about it. Musk Rose is a chypre-oriental-musk that was chosen as a finalist at the 2016 Art & Olfaction Awards. It layers several complex attar blends over a truly lovely rose bouquet that blew me away, and I’m saying that as someone with well-known rose issues. Sicilian Vanilla is a delectable, perfectly balanced gourmand-oriental centered on beautifully smoked, oak-barreled Bourbon vanilla with tobacco, singed woods, and nuances of black tea and autumn bonfires. It’s bound to be a hit with anyone who ever wanted a rich, long-lasting, heavy version of Aftelier‘s Vanilla Smoke or a good vanilla-tobacco fragrance. Phoenix Amber Oud attar would appeal to fans of Profumum’s cult classic, Ambra Aurea, thanks to its dark, chewy, mixed amber accord infused with smoke and oud. Finally, Yeti Ambergris attar takes vintage Mysore sandalwood and combines it with a famous piece of ambergris that was featured in the book, Floating Gold.

Collage: my own.

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Tom Ford Fucking Fabulous: The Name, The Story, The Scent

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Source: Pinterest.

There is an 800-pound scented gorilla in the room, and its name begins with an expletive. Fucking Fabulous is the latest release from Tom Ford, a limited-edition eau de parfum in the Private Collection that has people in a tizzy, half of them thinking it’s the coolest thing ever as they rush to buy the scent, half of them decrying the name as being too vulgar for their tastes. I’m not a prude and I don’t care enormously about the name, per se, but I am immensely annoyed by the blatant manipulation underlying it. I’m not keen on the insulting implication from Tom Ford himself (as well as from some fans) that you’ll only find the name to be offensive if you’re a prude, but what really sets me off is the sheer brazenness of their marketing manipulation and the underlying assumption that either you’re too stupid to see it or so “cool” that you don’t care. Amidst the dollar signs in Estee Lauder and Tom Ford’s eyes, layered between their own quoted words, there are loaded assumptions, cynical calculations, dismissals, glibness, generational differences and, worst of all, obnoxiously blatant disingenuousness.

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Creed White Amber (Les Royales Exclusives)

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Creed White Amber via creed.com

Today, we’ll take a quick look at White Amber, the latest addition to Creed‘s super-luxury collection, Les Royales Exclusives. White Amber is an eau de parfum that was created by Olivier Creed and released several months ago. On its website, Creed describes the fragrance as “a fruity-floral scent featuring a bouquet of fruit, jasmine and benzoin combined with rich amber and Indian sandalwood.” The official note list is:

Top note: Amber, Vanilla, Fruity accord
Middle note: Floral accord, Sandalwood, Benzoin
Base note: Floral accord, Absolute Jasmine, Sandalwood, Benzoin

Creed White Amber. Source: creedboutique.com

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Review En Bref: Tom Ford Oud Minerale

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Oud Minerale via Luckyscent.

Today, a quick look at Oud Minerale, an eau de parfum which Tom Ford released several months ago as part of his Private Blend Collection and a further continuation of his oud series. Tom Ford says it merges “rare and precious Oud with the fresh exuberance of the ocean, capturing the refreshing play of surf and sea against the burning flame of smoked wood.” While he does not list the specific notes, if you combine the elements provided by Luckyscent and Fragrantica together, the note list looks like this:

Sea salt, aquatic notes, oud, pink pepper, styrax, seaweed, balsam fir, pepperwood or hercules club and ambergris.

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