Korrigan by Lubin, 2012

Korrigan opens with a splash of warmed cognac liquor before transitioning quickly to its very strong lavender-laced ambrette heart. The lavender adds a soft powder sheen to the musk-like sweet ambrette that is rather overpowering at times and has a slight makeup-like undertone to it. During the dry-down the powdery lavender fades but the ambrette remains with a suede-like leather joining the party but always taking a back seat to that relatively sweet booze-laced musky-makeup vibe that dominates most of the scent's development. Projection is above average and longevity is exceptional. I really thought I would like Korrigan based on the published notes but I just don't. While it has incredible longevity and quite good projection, the ambrette used is just so strong and cloying that it overpowers most of the rest of the notes in the scent, save the powdery lavender (a note I generally dislike when it comes off as powder) only adding to my dismay. I expected a more cedar wood and vetiver driven scent given the base notes, but instead I'm finding Korrigan a more warm boozy and somewhat sweet powdery musk-like scent with a poorly implemented iris-like waxy undertone. In short, I just outright dislike the implementation of the notes used in the $180 retail priced Korrigan and can't recommend it despite its great performance awarding it a below average 2 to 2.5 stars out of 5.