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Portia
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Hi there Fine Fragrant Friends,
Tom Ford , even the name produces this weird reaction in me. I love that this out, gay, handsome man has taken the world by storm in a field that he never was trained for. On the other hand he seems like a complete head up arse twat totally obsessed with form. His fragrances for Estee Lauder create the same ambivalence within me. Many are lovely, others only for about 15 minutes till they collapse into quagmire or worse banality. It’s a long way from his Gucci Envy Man days.
Yet I still want to try them all, often with a prearranged sneer ready for action. Don’t worry, I am ashamed of myself when it happens.
So the Jardin Noir range came out in 2012 and I was in LA with Tom Pease early 2013 trying to get my hands on Madonna Truth or Dare Naked (which had already been pulled off the shelves everywhere except one store) and we came across the set. Desultory sniffs ensued and already Cafe Rose had been heralded as the sets big winner. I agreed it was the best but everyone else had already done pieces and I thought I was a bit late to the party so ignored the whole range basically. Yeah, I’m a dufus. Anyway, Cafe rose is the last one standing of the Jardin Noir set, all others D/Cd so I bought 10ml in a split.
Cafe Rose by Tom Ford 2012
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: May rose, Saffron, Black pepper
Heart: Bulgarian rose, Coffee, Turkish rose
Base: Amber, Patchouli, Sandalwood, Frankincense
I love that freaky plastic smell of saffron, here the pepper gives it a gourmand zing. It’s a little like a pepper cracker biscuit, dry and spicy. Almost gunpowder-ish or like unlit fireworks (but not really, just the idea of them).
Cafe Rose is one of Tom Ford’s good ones. While not being the most unusual of his offerings it is elegant and refined, seems to have the best ingredients and offers a very smooth non challenging ride.
I never really get much coffee but I think the name was a device not a description. The rose are luscious, verging on radiant but a bit heavier. All the other notes give Cafe Rose a depth and add lustre, like a Caravaggio or Rembrandt chiaroscuro in their paintings. We have warmth and spice, the heart is dryer than the open.
Dry down ends up smelling like a smoky, charred, powdery, used incense stick.
Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and NotableScents
LuckyScent has $225/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $4/0.5ml
Are you a Tom Ford fan? What’s your fave?
Portia xx