Reviews of Curzon (1882)
by Geo F Trumper

Bergamot, Oakmoss, French Labdanum, Patchouli and Spices.


This is quite interesting, although I must admit immediately that I am not interested in buying an actual bottle of this. No, its not THAT interesting and my sample vial will do very nicely with this one.


Curzon starts off smelling like some vintage, dated bitter leather chypre with oily structure. There is a huge doze of oakmoss in this scent.

Drydown reveals fairly complex developments and changes, and eventually I am able to relate this even to Palais Jamais by Etro. (Although I like PJ much more as it is more natural with much more timeless and versatile feel to it)
Btw, I am surprised to see not pine wood lacking from the list of notes. At least I imagine I can smell something very pine-y in this blend.


Curzon is a classical woody chypre fragrance heavy on oakmoss. Very easy too detect that vintage-like, overripe bergamot note too that flows all the way from the top to the bottom.
Curzon is bitter-green and to my mind hopelessly dated. It smells very natural in way mixed forest smells when its thick and dry growth is seeking desperately some rescuing rain showers after some long bone-dry season.

There are much better and more vital fragrances of this kind available.

Sometimes you just want something simple that does exactly what it says on the tin. This is just such a product.After a rather soapy opening, it dried down swiftly and left me feeling clean and fragrant. The longevity was pretty good, and it retained it's class for the remainder of the day.

I love this! Usually I don't like mossy scents but this one is amazing. A combination of traditional cologne and chypre compositions. Classy, dry, oakmoss, lemon, and feels natural. I'd compare this with Paco Rabanne pour Homme. Good stuff.

A very 'classic' cologne that is the epitome of the Trumpers line but for me, this smells a little dated. To be fair, it is over 100 years old and I would wear this if bought some but I think Trumpers make some equally distinguished colognes that have a better balance and come across more timeless. (eg Wellington).

Another Trumper dry chypre (like their Eucris and Astor). This begins with amber, drys down to sandalwood, then oakmoss and pine. It's not as harsh as Eucris and slightly sweeter than Astor. I'm not crazy about chypres. I find them the most unpleasant of categories in scentland, but this one is at least endurable.

It's muggy and cloudy outside and that is not a good setting for a dry chypre such as Curzon. So I might just have to eat my words after retrying this on a cold autumn day. For what it's worth: no sweetness to talk of here for me, in fact, the citrus and lavender top is disappointingly muted and the florals also never really make a convincing appearance on stage. Everything is happening behind a musty curtain of arid herbacity dominated by what seems to me to be clove, flanked by mossy notes. Too conventional by contemporary standards, but then it dates from 1882, so one should concede it probably became so conventional by being consistently plagiarized. What's worse is that it never achieves a proper balance on my skin, which makes it mediocre for me, though I appreciate it's objective quality.

Trumper is reticent about revealing the fragrance pyramid of its scents. As others have noted, the company blurb simply says, “slightly spicy overtones add to a light chypre note.” A generic chypre formula would be: TOP (bergamot, lemon), MID (rose, jasmine), BASE (moss and patchouli, often with labdanum and clary sage). So we expect a citrus opening, a floral middle and a grassy-herbal base, and that is basically what we get. Curzon has a lemon-lime opening: there are pretty good citrus notes here, realistic and persistent for citrus. The floral middle is quite ‘pretty’, and gives this a somewhat feminine personality. Then the mossy base emerges, with good quality moss and herbal sage notes. These elements return the scent to the masculine realm. As stated, this is a light chypre. The dry-down is grassy, mossy, attractive.

Pungent lavender top with some leather and moss in the background, liked it better on the first trial but find myself not caring for it as much at this time of review. Lavender-leather accord gives it a almost tar-like quality which I still enjoy, although different from my initial impression which was more of a lavender-citrus chypre, still nice by any standards. Lasts very well and highly masculine; may be too heavy for some.

I tried to find the notes pyramid for Curzon, but the only description that I could find was this official company line: "a light chypre note with slightly spicy overtones "

Curzon has a floral-citrus opening. It smells slightly sweet - perhaps its jasmine blending with bergamot or orange blossum. From there, very quickly, Curzon reveals its chypre side - I can smell some herbal mossy action going on in there. Perhaps its the use of juniper berries with oakmoss. Or maybe its cinnamon leaves. Whatever the composition is, it does smell quite manly. However, it doesnt scream out loud - rather, Curzon stays close to skin. Longevity was average - about 3 hours.

Curzon is a nice "manly" cologne with a floral-citrus top and a herbal chypre base. Its definitely not amazing, or even intriguing. What it is, though, is a nice formal mens cologne with that reliable Trumper quality.

Typically for Trumper, this is an unapologetically dry, classy, masculine fragrance. I wouldn't for a moment describe it as sweet! I see the resemblance to the brilliant Antaeus insofar as it has quite a strong herb character. But this is much more restrained and a bit less synthetic than Antaeus. Quite dark. Also, Trumper fragrances are excellent value. Recommended.

Nice, classy, masculine. Reminds me very much of Antaeus by Chanel. It's also similar to Trumper's Eucris, but a little sweeter and richer in the dry-down, better overall to this nose. In the end, I prefer Antaeus to either one, as it has a more distinctive smell throughout (especially in that wildly unique opening). I don't think I would buy a bottle of Curzon, but it's a quality scent, and so gets a thumbs-up.

this is just ok and nothing to write home about. spicy sweet number, with a bit of citrus to boot. wearable, but am positive that it smells identical to what an old maths teacher of mine used to wear hence i will not be buying or wearing again!

HEADY stuff! Wow! Pleasantly uncorked the the top of my head and sent it into the clouds. I could see how one could over-apply this, but my experience was very warm and pleasant. This is loaded with spice and sweetness. VERY nice for evening and romantic wear, I should think, but bordering on noxious or deadly in the office environment.