Reviews of Scent Intense (2002)
by Costume National

For an EDP, I expected a more interesting drydown. Instead, all I got was a very sweet and generic amber-woody whisper on my skin. Longevity and sillage could have been a lot better.

A wasted opportunity...

[Original submission date: 27 May 2008]

After all the hyperbolic praise heaped upon Scent Intense, I was expecting something controversial and exciting. I imagined a work of blazing originality, something so bold and distinctive that I'd either adore it or despise it. Guess what? It's OK in my book, but just OK, and certainly not some sort of olfactory breakthrough.

Scent Intense goes on as a very sweet, fruity amber. The berry note is very bright and clear in contrast to the rich, dark amber, and the two are almost entirely unblended. I find the resulting accord decidedly synthetic and excessively sweet.

The syrupy opening is very persistent, and it's a solid three or four hours before an exotic floral element (hibiscus, I presume,) distinguishes itself. The floral note is soon followed by some incense and a nicely rendered dry wood, but these are not suffficient to balance out the overwhelming sweetness.

The drydown is amber and woods, still quite sweet and a little bit powdery, and not at all unusual. Yes, there's some incense in Scent Intense, but I still see it as a straightforward ambery oriental, and a rather simple one at that. I'm certainly not going to throw away my Musc Ravageur for this.

Not that fantabulous, actually, quite "perfumey" and generic, that synthetic, sweet smoothness I find rather uninteresting. It has some really fascinating traits though, I get whiffs of dark coffee, and a dry, sandy amber, and something citrusy and refreshing. Unfortionately, I also get whiffs of something very plastic underneath, like playh-doh, salty and plasticky like that. I remember sniffing Scent and liking it, perhaps I should have sampled that one instead of Intense...