Reviews of Moss Breches (2007)
by Tom Ford

The top notes have the most personality in this fragrance. There's a distinct dried-herb accord; a touch of the garrigue, and then an upwelling of sweetness. This warm, sweet honeycomb note gives Moss Breches a sore-throat lozenge feel.

The balance is brief, however, and quickly the herbs and honey vanish, leaving a pleasant and unassuming vanillic amber with a mossy touch.

It's nice, but it doesn't motivate me to restock in either bottle or decant form once my sample runs out.

Moss Breches: whew..what a scent. it reminded me of and for all you know, it's inspired by the classic release we all know as, Van Cleef & Arpels Pour homme....Today i happened to dab a lot more of Moss Breches and what struck me the most is the way patchouli is done here. very wet, sloggy patch i must add. not as dry as in thundra or Ingrant patchouli. this has a very wet forest floor kind of accord. it's clearly visible upon application, almost watery quality, within 5-7 minutes it slowly takes the backstage for other accords to follow in... i have stated elsewhere that i get this vibhuti accord in No. 88, which is white ash, it is very camphory sweet and dry in smell..and exudes a white incense like accord. i could also distantly relate it to an intense version of Chanels masterpiece, Coromandel(could be the patch playing tricks with me). it's pretty spicy in it's opening...but, where SL's Ambre Sultan exudes a color which is golden.. Moss Breches exudes the color white for me. so, it's spicy, but not in the spicy amber type scent we know of. maybe there is Angelica in there that gives it this "white" feel... that said, i dont get that image of Moss from it until i reach the mids to base section. whne someone mentons Moss, the firsts scent that springs to mind is Leonard Ph...however, the mossy nature of this scent is clearly expressed and it's not the smell of wet moss on stone after rain..it's more like dry, golden hued moss over stones...lovely! Patchouli indeed holds this scent and forms the core. but theres a lot of other things going on which doesnt make it a patch exclusive scent. this is a must try for anyone who appreciates VC&A ph, C&S's No.88, Creed Angelique Incens & Chanel's Coromandel, and also Leonard ph to an extent (i dont mean to imply all these scents smell similar to each other, it's just a reference, that im sure we all can relate to).

A deep, spicy and herbal impression slowly melts into something more animalic, resiny, and oriental; a strong allusion to chypre construction can't be missed in this scent. The whole seems particularly innovative in the weight of spice and herbals vis-à-vis the chypre theme. The total lack of florals in a chypre is quite striking, really. This is barely balanced at the tipping point, but its audacity gives it the edge it needs to pull off the stunt with panache.

Mean green sexy machine! A classic chypre, with a blast of tarragon and sage to open your sinuses at first. From there, it's all about the labdanum, spices (can't quite put my finger on them, though), patchouli and benzoin.

What comes to mind first and foremost for me is the old Givenchy Gentleman -- I get much of that with the patchouli-heavy drydown. Still, this has no civet that I can detect (unlike Gentleman) and a slightly more unisex dry-down.

Gorgeous "dark" green frag, but the price tag (as with the other Tom Fords in this line) is, for me, prohibitive. (A huge thumbs up, though!)

I'd call this a "musky chypre" or "musky fougere" in the vein of Jicky. It does not have the distinct lavender note of Jicky, the herbs are more vague and mossy, but it shares the combination of green herbal notes and a sweet, soft, animalic warmth. Like Jicky, it's also a bit "perfumey" in feeling, in a sort of old-fashioned way. I like it.

It's very difficult to combine two such different families as green and spice, but Moss Breeches does it splendidly. A fabulous fragrance that surprises and enchants like the wild forest spirits it's named after! Love it!