Reviews of Frapin 1270
by Frapin

After reading about this fragrance, I was expecting something more boozy and far less foody. Between the candied fruit, the tonka, the cacao pod,and the vanilla, I can hardly detect the promising wood and floral notes that I crave.

I am especially sensitive to rich food notes. They tend to take over the whole blend for me. As a result, and unfortunately, 1270 smells to me like a generic, syrupy gourmand.

I saw on the blog NowSmellThis that this frag has been revived. The description sounded really interesting, and notes from luckyscent are:

exotic woods, spice, raisin, vine flowers, pepper, candied orange, nut, hazelnut, prune, cocoa, coffee, leather, woods, white honey, vanilla

I must admit, the candy in the candied orange is definitely dominant upon first spray. My first thought was of those sweet and tangy "Lick 'm Aid" candy packets I used to buy as a kid. It had a white candy stick that you lick, then dip into the pouches of fruit flavored sugar (grape and cherry). It was a contrast of sweet and tart, and also had a strong fruity and vanilla combination. That is my initial impression of 1270, but it is barely dry on my wrist right now. Of the notes, I'm really only getting the candied orange, white honey and vanilla. Makes me want to lick myself, lol.

Top notes are fading a little, so the more muted sweet notes are starting to come out. I smell fermented fruit, sweet wine, and a bit of leather. I can barely smell the woods, but I do get the idea of the "aged in oak" quality that wine has. From this, the wood is present in a way, even if it is not a branch or a plank. The fermented quality is a bit sour, but I get the raisin or prune notes, although to my nose it still seems very "grape". The leather adds a bit of bitter and biting quality that stings my nose a little.

Well, it has been 45 minutes now, and although the initial "candy" blast is much subdued, 1270 still smells very tart and fruity. The sweetness is really not very present for me (which is often the case), and the spices are starting to come out a bit now. It is too bad that tart candy note persists, because I can smell something caramel-like below the surface, and it does not go very well with sour candy. The vanilla is getting nice and mellow, though, which is pleasant. Still, that "in your face" tartness is doing the fragrance no favors at this point.

At the 1 hour mark--I am sad to say that this fragrance seems really confused and/or confusing. It has this gorgeous caramel, wood and wine lurking below the surface, and a really dry, puckery, fruity candy on the top keeping it from coming out. It just seems wrong! It could be my skin knocks it out of balance--I am not getting a glass of fine cognac or wine. I guess I can understand why it received mixed reviews on luckyscent. Sort of disappointing

I do not understand why I do not get a similar experience as the other reviewers AT ALL when I wear 1270. Was there a reformulation at some point?