L’Air du Desert Marocain from Tauer receives the highest praise, earning 5-stars and was even the scent of choice for Turin’s wedding. He’s quick to shift into the superlative, and “cannot think of a fragrance that elicits more immediate delight in all who smell it”. Praised for its lucidity and its radiance, “one hale breath of Desert’s vast spaces clears the head of all the world’s nonsense”. A woody-amber accord in the base, made up primarily of patchouli, labdanum, cedar, and ambergris tethers the infinite reach of soaring aromatic material, including coriander seed, cumin, and petitgrain.
1740 from Histoires de Parfums revived Turin’s heart: “I felt something give way when I smelled 1740: the shimmering classical accord of leather, immortelle, spice, rich pipe tobacco, and a sort of lived-in buttery warmth is simply irresistible. And why resist?”. Not only did this scent earn 5-stars, but it also made the list for the best leathers. We believe it. 1740 is coarse and mysterious, unflinching and hedonistic. It boldly dares to do what many leathers shy away from.
Luca’s review of Le Cri is positively glowing: “When I sprayed Le Cri on a strip, I was bowled over; the back and forth between iris and rose in the first five minutes is one of the most beautiful opening melodies … it was as if by some magic the molecules themselves were opening and closing, atoms dancing in concert …”. Without fault, we are ruptured by the radiance of Le Cri’s opening, followed by exquisite ambrette musk that results in a shimmering yet potent drydown that feels to happen in slow motion.
Bogue Profumo is praised overall for its originality, modernity, and quality. The highly innovative and grand lavender-jasmine unfurlings of MEM has earned it a perfect 5-stars, as well as places in Turin’s top animalic and retro lists. A “tremendous achievement”, Turin turns to a musical metaphor - it is a huge orchestra, replete with harps, horns, strings, winds, and percussion - every instrument contributing to a total sound. Bogue’s perfumer Antonio Gardoni liberates aroma in the way Wagner liberates sound, exploding them without losing their form. Turin lauds MEM’s “balance, texture, and sheer symphonic opulence[.] Mem is in a very rarefied league”.
With Cuir de Chine (Les Indemodables), Turin notes the shift from a traditional birch tar and castoreum accord that defines classic leather perfumery, to the suede impressions of osmanthus: “a material so complex and fully formed that perfumers hardly need to mess with it.” Indeed, Turin’s love of the note has been reported many times. He continues: “this is one of the best osmanthus ‘soliflores’ out there, with some gaps discreetly filled by floral and tobacco notes. Excellent”.
Perhaps the greatest praise goes to New York by Nicolai Parfumeur-Createur, scoring a perfect 5-stars across both books, Turin’s testimony is a recommendation of its own: "It is one of the greatest [woody-spicy] masculines ever, and probably the one I would save if the house burned down. Reader, I wore it for a decade". Later, he reaffirms his point: “I doubt very much that there is at this point a better masculine fragrance out there”. Turin praises its “dreamy lavender” charm set against bracing citruses, and its resulting composure - which he describes as “contemplative [and] steady”.
