Funny how I’ve had a 10 ml decant of this for ages but never actually sprayed it on my skin. I’d only smelled it on a tester and thought, “I’m getting this someday.” Finally got the chance to give it a proper wearing. It opens with a beautiful jammy Bulgarian rose, with extra jamminess from strawberry and a soft floral lift from violet leaves. Almost a minute later, the rose is joined by you guessed it, more rose. This time it’s Turkish rose. To me, they all smell quite similar, but in the best way possible. It stays in this phase for a while, gradually getting sweeter, which I assume comes from the vanilla. After around the 3 hour mark, the rose eases off a bit and the woods and amber start to show up. The “oud” reads very woody to my nose, but extremely high quality. It almost smells like rainforest wood. As it continues to dry down, I start picking up caramel and benzoin, which keep the sweetness but shift the character from jammy to more resinous or gummy. Amazing scent profile. Super high quality and masterfully blended. This one is sweet and very much in your face, but it never feels cloying or causes nose blindness. Bang on unisex in my opinion. Performance is very good for an EDP. 7 hours in, I can still smell it on myself, though it’s more intimate now. The first 3 hours were monstrous. Easy room filler from just 3 sprays, all on skin. After that, it behaves itself and projects no more than about 1.5 feet. I’m expecting total longevity to be somewhere between 10-12 hours. This might genuinely be in my top 10 of all time. I honestly can’t find any faults with it, except the price. It’s around £245 and I can’t find it at any discounter. My company discount card COULD get it down to £180, which I think is a solid price, but otherwise it’s mostly retail everywhere. I’m yet to try the extrait, but either the EDP or the extrait is making it into my collection. The extrait is a bit more expensive but comes with added notes. If anyone has tried both, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Looking for some advice from the community! My birthday is coming up at the end of February. My 12-year-old is determined to buy me a birthday fragrance this year. It’s a huge gesture, so I’m looking for something that smells 'expensive' but keeps him under that $50 mark. I want to give him a few options that feel special but definitely won’t break his piggy bank. I’ve heard a lot of hype lately around Rayhaan and Maison Asrar being great values under $50. Does anyone have experience with those brands ( I do have Legacy on the way but have not tried it yet), or have other affordable 'bang-for-your-buck' recommendations I can put on his radar?"