Complex (2009)
by Boadicea the Victorious

I went into this expecting a sharp violet, a filthy leather with strong animalic musks... beautiful!
However... I was wrong. I seriously tried my best to enjoy this fragrance. The first harsh, bitter blast is a very green, dirty smell, and this smell of upturned earth stays as the main feature throughout this scent. I tried hard to pick out the violets, if they are there, they are buried under piles of decaying leaves, it is not sweet or powdery in any way.
I really couldnt smell any animalics and if the base is leather, it is a cheap, very very over worn leather. It is a long lasting bitter earth scent, slightly medicinal, with big sillage unfortunately.
Whilst yes you could describe this as complex, if you were to sniff it on a passer by, you'd probably just think of it as a very pungent, bad cologne.

6th October, 2011.

For the lovers of Tom Ford's Tuscan leather: a bitter, louche and sexy leather fragrance with optimum staying power. Hypnotic, sensual, and evocative of an opulent drug den. Sacrilegious, animalic and irreverent. The bitter notes of violet are championed by a harmony of musks, incenses, resins, and a lovely smoky vetiver. It must be sprayed on the skin for optimum enjoyment!

16th August, 2011.

BAM! This is what happen when you spray Complex on your skin. A blast of (extremely) bitter green notes on a straight forward animalic leather accord and some violet that stays quite linear for hours and hours. In the drydown I get hints of musk and some incense (labdanum?) lurking in the very back.. .Just think about a Nasomatto remix version of Bandit without flowers. Loud, overwhelming, monolitic and uncompromising. Almost disturbing yet somehow fascinating. Don't get me wrong, it takes guts to really appreciate this composition, but if you're into weird, bitter animalic leather fragrances you should give this at least a try. For trained noses only.

Complex projects for yards and has a tenacious lasting power (more than 12 hrs).

Advice: If you decide to approach this composition be aware that you won't be able to smell anything else for hours.

3rd June, 2011. (Last Edited: 10th January, 2012.)

Smells like something you would pour into your car to make it explode. Not something I would want on my body ever again.

25th May, 2010.

Complex emerges from its bottle as a fully-blown green leather chypre with animalic overtones and an intensely bitter edge. Birch tar runs rampant here, and your reaction to this fragrance will depend largely upon how you respond to that ingredient’s smoky olfactory profile. Me, I love the stuff, so Complex is right up my alley. The opening is vaguely reminiscent of Bandit EdP, but whereas Bandit reveals floral elements after its spiky herbaceous launch, Complex is resolutely linear in course, and never veers far from its initial subject matter. After several hours of solid projection and conspicuous sillage, Complex settles into a warm, animalic labdanum drydown. As a composition Complex is bold and uncompromising, and I admire how it keeps true to its materials.

Indeed, I have only one major problem with Complex. Its name? Aramis 900.

Stop laughing.

Right now.

I won’t claim that the two scents are identical – they aren’t. But there are parallels, especially in their opening and closing movements. The Aramis too starts out as a brashly bitter, herbaceous, green leather chypre, though admittedly a bit softer in texture and less smoky than the Boadicea The Victorious scent. Ironically enough, Aramis 900 is more, well, complex than Complex in its development. While Complex is staunchly linear, Aramis 900 builds a floral/balsamic accord alongside is leather chypre block, thereby establishing a compelling structural tension. Both scents ultimately arrive at the same labdanum-rich destination, even if the Aramis does take a more circuitous route.

So while they do differ, I believe that Aramis 900 and Complex could easily play the same role in a moderate-sized fragrance wardrobe. The question for any potential purchaser is whether Complex’s relative toughness and monolithic structure appeal enough to merit spending five times(!) Aramis 900’s price. I will tell you in no uncertain terms that the discrepancy in pricing does not reflect any difference in quality. Aramis 900 may be inexpensive and in good supply, but it is a superb Bernard Chant formula and parent company Estée Lauder has treated it with great care – oak moss and all. The bottom line: Complex is a good scent, but I’d try both Aramis 900 and Bandit before spending upwards of $250 US on it!

11th December, 2009.

This is not for the faint of heart! Dusty-dry and resinous-bitter, piercingly strong and quite unlike anything commonly known as "perfume". If you've smelt the woody/herbal bitterness of Wode, this one is even more unconventional and challenging. I find the smell reminiscent of an overdose of turmeric on some kind of metallic resin base, but when I read the notes listing violet, civet and sage that makes sense too. I can faintly smell the floral sweetness of violets, but these violets feel transparent and natural and not at all candied or powdery like most violet scents. Since violets can easily overpower a fragrance I find the use of them in this sharp and bitter blend quite ingenious, just a faint whiff to temper the dryness and bitterness. Also, violets go very well together with old-fashioned dark civet basenotes, and I do smell the civet in here, although it's not exactly "dirty" as in "animalic", more like "dirty" as in "earthy". Despite the civet, this is definitely not a "seductive" fragrance, it's rather a reserved and eccentric "don't come closer!" fragrance, although possibly kinky in a sadistic kind of way. I disagree with negative reviews that it's a CdG-style synthetic fragrance with chemical/gasoline/vinyl type notes though - despite being metallic and medicinal and somewhat "abstract" I definitely find the scent "organic". It feels rich and dense and "alive", like the bitterness of dirt and roots and leaves. It doesn't smell "good" by any conventional standards but I'm allured and intrigued by its complex darkness.

29th November, 2009.