Category Archives: Cologne

As much as I love Tom Ford (and clearly I do, much to my bank account’s distress) I have not found most of his fragrances befitting the lighter touch needed for summer (with the possible exceptions of ‘Neroli Portofino’ and ‘Azure Lime’ – and maybe ‘Lavender Palm‘ on cooler days.) Mr. Ford’s Private Blends are usually too strong and dark to work well in the hotter months. Luckily, he just released two cousins to the Neroli collection, one of which I purchased on the first day of our recent family vacation, just in time to wear it to the beach.

‘Mandarino di Amalfi’ retains a strong thread of Neroli, but adds notes of tarragon, bergamot, and citrus. It is refreshing and effervescent, and manages to maintain a decent sillage – no easy feat for the lighter frags of summer. Citrus is notorious for disappearing soon after it is applied, and while this does simmer down to a skin scent with a couple of hours, that’s what I look for in the heat of the season.

So enamored of this scent am I that I’m already seriously considering its second cousin, ‘Costa Azzurra’. I tried that one out as well, and it has a slightly smokier shade to it, something perfect or the end of the summer. That’s a long way off, and I am in no way going to rush through the sun and warmth, so for now I’m basking in the sparkle and glow of ‘Mandarino di Amalfi’. It’s perfect for the beach, and the aquamarine shades of an undulating ocean. In fact, those are the memories already embedded in my heart from just a few short days on the Cape Cod shore, and Tom Ford wafting through the sea breeze.

Fragrance is one of the strongest memory-triggers. One day in the future I will spray a bit of this Mandarino, and be instantly transported back to that magical time and place when I watched my niece and nephew bounding across the beach, kicking up sand, carrying seaweed, and playing in the sunshine.

If there’s one fault I’ve found in Tom Ford’s Private Blends (and there are, actually, a few – but most of them are a matter of taste) it’s that with the notable exception of the exquisite Neroli Portofino, and possibly Azure Lime, there are none that are truly summer fragrances. His touch is simply too potent, his essence too powerful. The Private Blends are a lot of bang for the buck (and given their hefty price-point, that’s saying quite a bit.) The problem comes in the heat of the season, when heavy scents are the last thing I want on my body. I want light and crisp, effervescent and airy – and that is decidedly not Mr. Ford’s way with fragrance.

That may change with the arrival of two new Private Blends that are whispered to be cousins of Neroli Portofino. As he did with his Oud collection, he will be offering two new blends in the same vein as the Neroli, and the bottles alone look worthy of purchase (in shades ricocheting off the original Neroli bottle, imitating the aqua ocean and mesmerizing like the Mediterranean sea.)

Mandarino di Amalfi sounds like the more promising of the two, featuring tarragon, mandarin orange, mint and lemon. Tom Ford finally delves deeper into the citrus grove, and I like the possibilities at hand. Costa Azzurra is the second blend, said to focus on oak, driftwood, lavender and vanilla. As with most Ford items, what’s on paper is often quite different when sampled in person, so I will be anxiously awaiting the arrival of these two lovelies, one of which may be my new summer scent. Get your olfactory engines running.

I’m a big-ticket boy when it comes to gifts. Flowers and chocolates are nice, but they’re not sufficient. However, for our upcoming wedding anniversary (May 7!) I’m going to go easy on Andy and his pocketbook – well, easy in Alan-land. Typically, I’ll drag him into Neiman Marcus or  Hermès and politely pick out a bottle of a Tom Ford Private Blend or the latest Hermès cologne.

This time around, I’m pleading for Tom Ford, but not one of the pricey Private Blends – I’m requesting one of the, ahem, mainstream fragrances: Black Orchid (which clocks in at a much more reasonable price point, and is not to be confused with Black Violet.) Up until this time, I’d ignored this one, being that it was over in the perfume section, and while I’m not averse to wearing perfume now and then, I tend to find most of them too sweet and floral for my liking. The last time I was in Sephora, however, I noticed that they had put it in the men’s fragrance section (Andy, you walk in and turn to the left wall, then go about three-quarters of the way into the store). I knew it was likely a store decision based on who was buying it, as the fragrance had been in the women’s section since it came out a number of years ago, so I gave it a try and fell in love. Maybe all these years of wearing Mr. Ford’s scents had finely attuned my sense of smell to better appreciate what I had hitherto ignored. Either way, I fell in love with Black Orchid, despite its questionable name. (I don’t know of a single orchid that’s very fragrant.)

It also has a sweet-enough aspect to make it palatable for spring – and I’m big on being seasonally appropriate when it comes to fragrance. I’ll grant you your white pants before Memorial Day nonsense if you must, but when it comes to scent, please show some sense of decency. Even with that sweetness, however, Black Orchid may be too much for many, and that’s precisely why I like it. The nights in spring are just as dark as the nights in fall.

{Available at Sephora in Colonie Center, first floor. I’ll supply a map if necessary.}

The tricky transition from February into March has traditionally been difficult to navigate as far as fragrance goes. It’s still winter, but I’m dying to break into something lighter, so the scents that worked in the fall don’t fare as well now. The heavier ones that saw us through the holidays and early winter (‘Amber Absolute,’ ‘Japon Noir’ and ‘Santal Blush’) are simply too much. We are almost, but not quite, into the early spring forest of ‘Oud Wood’ and I confess I’ve already spritzed some because I just couldn’t wait. Yet before that we have ‘Bois Marocain’. The latest addition to my Private Blend Collection, it forms the perfect bridge from the weightier winter musks to a less oppressive olfactory experience, and would also work well in fall.

Because the Private Blends are made from essential oils, many are perfectly suited to mixing and matching – something that should rarely be done with most colognes, even by the most experienced hands. In this instance, given its woody, cedar base, I like to pair ‘Bois Marocain’ with the aforementioned ‘Oud Wood’. Both have aspects that blend nicely together. Mr. Ford seems to be on an Oud overload of late, but I happen to love it, and I still want to more fully explore ‘Oud Fleur’ and ‘Tobacco Oud’.

While I’m looking forward to the new ‘London’ Private Blend, I’ve also heard whispers that there are other things to do with Tom Ford coming down the line. Now that is something that takes away the most trying of winter blahs.

Attention: Tom Ford’s latest Private Blend ‘London’ is now available in Terminals 3, 4, 5 at Heathrow Airport. Just a short while ago it was only available at his Knightsbridge store. Now, it seems to be on the slow-move across the world, and it’s only a matter of time before it reaches these shores (fingers crossed). It definitely sounds like an intriguing scent, a bit darker and less feminine than his Jardin series, and more similar to his recent Oud infatuation. As should be apparent by this third post on ‘London’,  I simply can’t wait to try this one out. Tom Ford rocks.

My contacts in the frag world have been whispering that Tom Ford’s Private Blend ‘London’ (until now only available in the London store) is making its way across the world, and will be available here long before I ever get my ass back to England. That’s good news, in a way (I was hoping to get it while actually in London, but if I end up not liking it I’d rather be disappointed on these shores.) Instead, if it turns out to be a keeper, I’ll wear it if and when I make it back to its glorious namesake city.

Mr. Ford’s Private Blends can be exquisite, but at such an exorbitant price point they are not to be taken lightly, and if you don’t absolutely love one, it’s not worth it. I have high hopes for ‘London’ but they come with reasonable reservations. Too often what sounds good on paper reads very differently to the nose, and even if one loves every single ingredient in a certain fragrance, the way it’s put together can turn it into something that is far less than the sum of its parts.

I tend to enjoy the darker, more complex Private Blends, however, so ‘London’ has that in favor. It sounds slightly smoky, with a dash of the oud that he’s been obsessing about lately, and both of those aspects appeal to me. It may be the perfect tail-end fragrance to winter, or something to be savored over a ripe fall. We shall see… or smell, as the case may be.

With its golden perfume bottle and lingering smokiness, Tom Ford‘s Sahara Noir channels a desert of amber tones, sparkling sand, and spiraling plumes of incense. Settling somewhere between his Private Blends and mainstream fragrances (both in style and price-point), it’s also decidedly straddling the feminine and masculine (much like this wearer). To that end, I had to get a bottle, even if it comes dangerously close to the Amber Absolute Private Blend that I favor at this time of the year. Sahara Noir is lighter than that though, and a better fit for everyday wear. Where Amber Absolute smolders, Sahara Noir simply glows, its embers settling nicely into a smoky incense-like romp through the fall nights.

Leave it to Tom Ford to turn a plum into the basis for one of the more sensual fragrances of the season. Plum Japonais marks a return to the deep, complex scents that once marked the original Private Blends line (and that went slightly by the wayside for his Jardin collection last year). The Atelier d’Orient quartet brings at least two new classics into the oeuvre, in the forms of Rive d’Ambre and Plum Japonais. The Rive was a perfect end-of-summer fragrance, while the Plum Japonais falls on the other side ~ the start of autumn. It’s too deliciously heavy for the day, but since the nights have started to descend earlier, that works out perfectly.

It does have a slight similarity to his long-ago discontinued Japon Noir (the very first Private Blend I ever procured, rumored to be the one that Mr. Ford himself wore), but whereas that was almost too deep and dark, Plum Japonais manages to remain on the lighter side, lifted by the sweetness of Japanese plum, then shaded by the likes of saffron, cinnamon, oud, amber, fir, and vanilla. Its opening is bright, the fruitiness of plum augmented by an all-too-brief burst of plum blossom and camellia, then it begins to smolder, with the spicy and enduring aspect of amber, before evening out.

The amber notes are especially powerful, and the bit of smokiness dries nicely into a vanilla middle. While I’m not a big fan of vanilla, it works well here, taking the edge off the incense-like vibe that never gets as strong as Amber Absolute (which is a good thing). All in all, this is an admirable addition to the Private Blends line, and will work well into the holiday season, visions of sugar plums and what-not.

How could I resist something that the nice young lady at the fragrance counter described as a roller-coaster? It was one of Tom Ford’s new Private Blends, from the Atelier d’Orient series that has held me rapt since its release last month. Initial reviews said the two to watch (err, sniff) were the ‘Plum Japonais’ and the ‘Rive d’Ambre’, so when the Rive was described as a roller-coaster, I strapped myself in and sprayed away. She said to give it twenty minutes, but I was sold after one.

Tom Ford’s Private Blends tend to vacillate between very heavy (Italian Cypress, Tuscan Leather, Amber Absolute) to very floral (Champaca Absolute, Black Orchid, Santal Blush, Neroli Portofino), and though they’re technically uni-sex, they usually fall distinctively into a traditionally masculine or feminine vibe. Rive d’Ambre comes somewhere between the two, a brilliant merging of the best of both worlds, and it is, at least currently, my favorite TF Private Blend. So much so that I bought a bottle myself when last in Boston (usually I wait until Christmas or a birthday and rely on the kindness of Andy or family to deliver). This time around I simply couldn’t wait, and took advantage of the tax-free weekend for a pre-birthday splurge.

It’s the perfect fragrance for the tricky transition from summer into fall. Light enough to lift the hot days in store, but heady enough to withstand the morning chill, Rive d’Ambre works on every level. Opening with a bright fruity splash shot through with notes of citrus and bergamot (two of my faves), it soon ripens into a rich amber hue, redolent of sunsets and early evening ablutions in preparation of a night out. There is just the slightest sense of smokiness to it, a trademark in some of Ford’s darker work, that balances out the lighter aspects. It’s not heavy enough to stick around forever, which is nice on the hotter days that September and October still afford.

Far more than a song or a taste, one of the strongest memory-triggers is said to be fragrance. It will be interesting to one day see what Rive d’Ambre recalls of this pocket of time ~ what adventures it brings to mind, what emotions it releases, what memories are being created at the moment I write this. It is, I think, a very special time.