Tom Ford
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Cinnamon and cardamom hit immediately with an almost medicinal punch, accompanied by basil's green herbal sharpness and lemon's citric sting. The spice accord demands attention within the first five minutes, creating an impression of deliberate intensity rather than welcoming warmth.
The sweetness of plum and fig begins moderating the spice as sandalwood softens the composition's harder edges, though saffron and violet keep the middle from becoming conventionally creamy. Leather emerges distinctly around the two-hour mark, adding a subtle animalic dimension that transforms what could have been a fruity-floral middle into something considerably more complex and slightly unsettling.
Truffle and leather move centre-stage as the composition grows increasingly earthy and smoky, with frankincense's resinous dryness creating an almost church-like solemnity. Caramel and rum provide sweetness against the frankincense-vetiver framework, though the overall effect is decidedly austere—this is not a warm, enveloping close but rather a contemplative, slightly austere fade.
Extreme Tom Ford arrives as a baroque spice cabinet ransacked by someone with questionable restraint. Pierre Negrin has constructed something deliberately excessive here—a fragrance that announces itself through a cinnamon-cardamom opening so assertive it borders on aggressive, then deliberately complicates matters by introducing basil's green peppery bite alongside lemon's astringency. This is not a fragrance attempting subtlety.
What separates it from mere spice-bomb mediocrity is the thoughtful friction between its contradictions. The plum and fig in the heart provide unexpected sweetness, but they're immediately undermined by saffron's peppery dryness and violet's iris-like earthiness. Rather than creating harmony, these notes deliberately jostle one another—the leather accord (clocking a hefty 76%) emerges not as a supporting player but as a textural anchor, grounding the sweeter, more floral impulses.
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4.3/5 (222)