Fireside Intense (2007)
by Sonoma Scent Studio

Sonoma Scent Studio’s Fireside Intense is a mid-winter comfort scent. Aromatherapy rather than cologne, but genius nevertheless.

I feel the same way about Muscs Koublaï Khän – Fireside Intense is to smoke what the Serge Lutens scent does for sunkissed skin.

Fireside Intense is a technical masterpiece. Meditation teachers and alternative healers might get you to close your eyes and picture yourself in the relaxing scenario of choice – well, this stuff is a creative visualization session in a bottle. One spray and you are beside a campfire. The wood snaps and cracks, sparks fly and a line of smoke climbs lazily into the starlit sky. . . (Later on in the journey I get peat smoke, and I’m hiking Scotland’s Western Isles, listening to the clack of tweed looms from every croft.)

And it’s smoke, not ashtray. I usually struggle with smoke notes in colognes. While I love Comme des Garcons’ Kyoto on paper, the minute it hits my skin you would think I’d just put out a cigarette. Anyone who can make a smoke fragrance I can wear must know what they are doing. I think it’s the castoreum and leather notes that give this scent such a warm, sensual glow. (Full disclosure: I’m just a castoreum-lovin’ fool.)

However, be warned that Fireside Intense is anything but an everyday scent, which is probably because it so perfectly achieves what it sets out to do. I first wore this the day after a backyard barbeque. My wife suggested I really should have had a shower and a change of clothes, and there was not one thing I could say to dissuade her. Having said that, it’s hard to imagine a better scent for a hike on a frosty morning, especially as it dries down to a mix of soft leather, peat and smoke.

As they say, on the occasions when you want to smell like this, nothing else will do.

It’s somewhat spoiled for me by the sneaking suspicion that a sociologist could write a crazy Baudrillard-style rant about Fireside Intense: spray-on campfire smoke for people in downtown apartments. What better to wear with a chunky diver’s watch and Eddie Bauer lumberjack shirt as you jump into your all-wheel-drive for the commute to your cubicle? That and an online piece that quoted someone saying this frag made the reviewer smell like a piece of meat that fell down the back of the barbecue and got burned to a crisp.

All said, thumbs up for perfumer Laurie Erickson’s mastery of this genre, despite the limitations.

23rd November, 2011.

I ordered this and Tom Ford Extreme trying to find a good winter scent. When I first tried TFE I got a smokey note that kept me thinking about it. Now that I have them both, they really are quite different. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to keep extreme (still need to wear a few more times). But Fireside Intense is right on the mark for what I was looking for. I live in cold winter climate and it gives me a little extra comfort when heading out into the cold. A few reviews have used the word "Cozy" to describe it. I agree completely. Definitely a keeper in my book. And it lasts quite long too. If you like the smell of a campfire, do yourself a favor a give this a try.

12nd November, 2011.

Another beefy cedar scent, Sonoma Scent Studio FIRESIDE INTENSE also features a dark leather note which helps to temper the smoky wood to some extent. The oakmoss is difficult for me to detect because of the darkness of the wood and leather notes, but perhaps it smooths out the composition somewhat, since I do like this perfume more than some of the SSS beefy cedars. Still, I do feel that I could live without a full bottle, since I don't really like this cedar note, which is clearly an acquired taste I have yet to acquire! Désolée.

12nd July, 2011.

Campfire. Tar.

Many fragrances offer smoke, but don't think for a second that your Serge-y smoke or your Montale-y smoke is what you'll get here. Not a chance. This is straight up, back woods, cowboys at the campfire, beans in the pot, charred and tarred wood smoke. You need merely walk by someone wearing this and you'll be confident they either just returned from a long camping trip or they've been smoking ribs for the last 24 hours.

Tar, char, and the smokiness of a campfire that's been going for hours. It's not a scent for everyone, but my goodness is it ever well done. For smoke lovers, it's an excellent change of pace. For non-smoke lovers, I know not what to say other than, who knows, give it a shot.

1st March, 2011. (Last Edited: 14th April, 2011.)

I was looking for a fragrance that would be reminiscent of sitting around a campfire on a chilly evening. Fireside intense pretty much nailed it. However I quickly learned that this wasn't something that I wanted to wear on my body, but rather belonged as an accent spray around the home. I made the mistake of thinking that I missed on the first spray and went for two for good measure. The scent was so sickenly intense that I had to quickly wash it off and start over. This one you need to use in moderation. If you are looking for a campfire-like fragrance, and don't mind that some people might find it a bit off-putting, then this is for you.

2nd November, 2010.

After sharing my rather disappointing Fireside first experience with Laurie, she figured I might find FIRESIDE INTENSE much more appealing. She was right. Fireside Intense loses the chemical bug spray accord that plagues the original and dives right into the drier, woodsmoke-y feel of a campfire.

The inclusion of agarwood and cade seems to compliment the cedars well, adding more bite to the wood element and amplifying the smoke with an intense tar-like odor. But it is the smooth well-crafted leather backdrop that turns this smoky composition from ‘smokescreen’ into ‘SSSMOKIN…!’

Notes:
guaiac wood, nagarmotha (Cyperus), Himalayan cedar, Texas cedar, Indian sandalwood, agarwood, birch tar, cade, leather, oakmoss absolute, castoreum, ambergris.

12nd January, 2010.