Wood & Absinth (2009)
by Mark Buxton

A perfect mix between the anise top note and the mysterious wood basenote. The top note draws you in with an intense presence, and the woody basenote gives that dark mysterious touch. My favorite fragrance in Mark Buxton's collection.

5th March, 2011.

Wood & Absinth comes across to me as quite translucent. I really don’t smell citrus, sage, or anise. I will take the word of whoever supplied the pyramid that the floral note I smell is jasmine. But I do get definite woodnotes: rosewood and vetiver… with an occasional airy shadow of absinth circulating through now and then. These woodnotes make up almost the total fragrance for me. It’s a lovely fragrance… soft …too soft. I can barely smell it on my skin, but I do get delicate, wispy ends of sillage now and then for an hour or two.

I like this the idea of this fragrance very much: It has the notes and the timbre and the ambiances that I love… I just wish it would come across with a stronger presence for me.

9th January, 2011.

Mark Buxton's Wood & Absinthe present a huge whallop of the 'woody amber' material used in many modern masculines, ranging from Givenchy Play to two different Boadicia the Victorious fragrances (Intense is one of them, the other I believe is Exotic but I may be wrong on that). Basically the fragrance is this woody amber with a progression of different accords that attempt to mask what we're really smelling. The intial blast of an herbal/anise accord similar to absinthe readily gives way to 'the' woody amber accord. At first there is a sweet floral/woody note (rosewood? perhaps) that joins the woody amber, then a sharper, more peppery accord takes over trying to hide the woody amber. From this point the fragrance persists for a few hours and fades out without further development.

For the purposes of full disclosure, this review is not based on a full wear but rather only three arm-samplings. Normally this would be wholly insufficient experience to gather enough information for a review, but sometimes you just know what you're smelling. I'm surprised Buxton, an excellent perfumer, would put his name on something like this. There's little structure and zero that distinguishes it from the myriad other woody ambers available at the mall these days. This is a rare thumbs down for me.

28th August, 2009.