Bentley for Men Absolute (2014)
by Bentley

Strong peppery start with frankincense, cedar and sandalwood. It is a solid dupe/copy of Gucci Pour Homme. It has a underlying dry, dusty spicy nuance that is similar to Tauer L'Air du Desert Marocain. For the price it is well worth the investment if you are into Gucci PH. Enjoy!

Bentley for Men Absolute / 100 ml EDP - 

Clearly, Michel Almairac had a job to do and many with the exception of only the most ardent Tom Ford era loyalists will enjoy this Gucci Pour Homme I re-creation. If you have never worn the original then you won't know what you are missing anyway - WIN!

For around $30 you can experience this interpretation while patiently waiting for your Ebay search engine to find a vintage bottle of GPH. Then you will need to make the call - pay my rent or get this juice!? (100 ml New In Box can go for $500 +). 

I have worn GPH I for years and for me Bentley for Men Absolute is not a clone, but rather an impression. There are many similarities, but ultimately the composition of the original Gucci is superior as apparently synthetic oud is de rigueur in men's perfumery forever more. 

Nevertheless, I look forward to wearing Bentley this Fall as the cooler weather will allow it to shine. 

3.5 stars. 

Pretty close to Gucci pH I. It's dark, sweet, refined, and has plenty of woods and incense. When I compare side-by-side, the Bentley feels slightly younger, not as musty.

Performance is very good. Projection is solid but not huge and it lasts for most of the workday.

A blend of woody (vaguely pencil shavings in vibe), resinous and dry spicy elements. Ideally a sort of Gucci Ph/Montana Graphite/V&R Spicebomb-combination plus a vague toasted tobacco/toasted coffee-veined sort of undertone. Ginger (connected to a tad of hesperides) is featuring and responsible of the kind of watery/aromatic spark (slightly classic in vibe). The dry (kind of woods/paper-oriented) spicy dustiness is mostly provided by peppercorn and papyrus (notable under my vulgar nose). A minimal touch of anything gourmandish? Probably is just the combination of resins and spices. Dry down is more restrained, vaguely musky and virile (as for a kind of ambergris-pattern).

I blind bought the 2013 release Bentley Intense some time in early 2015 and was quite smitten with it like many—boozy, acerbic, but somewhat sweet—and it was difficult to argue with the pricing and very strong performance. Even though Absolute had already come out in 2014, I didn’t get around to blind buying it until recently, but I’m perhaps even more delighted with it than Intense.

Absolute is a semi-smoky/ashy, semi-sweet tobacco/oud-like fragrance, clearly less infused with spices and sweetness than something along the lines of Burberry London but not wholly as earthy or smoky as a more vetiver-leaning fragrance like Lalique Encre Noire. Rather, it sits somewhere in between, and that balance is excellent, particularly at the under-$40 pricing found on both FragranceNet and FragranceBuy. Absolute’s main standout notes on me are olibanum, oud, sandalwood, cedar, amber, and moss, with the spicy influences of the ginger and pink pepper going relatively unnoticed, at least on my skin.

I find Absolute a bit easier to wear than Intense, and in that respect Absolute is less bold and daring than Intense, but that’s why it’s nice to have both and not one. Still, I feel I could reach for Absolute more often, whereas I’m a little more careful with Intense, which I really don’t wear too often on account of it being a bit too biting despite being a nice option to cut through cold of a winter day, in particular, not to mention that noticeable rubber note in Intense for which there’s really no corresponding standout odd note in Absolute.

I’m quite pleased with Absolute and am almost annoyed I hadn’t bought it sooner, as it was literally at the alphabetical top of a short “blind buy” list I keep (for cheapies that I have some trouble sampling in stores) from which I’ll randomly choose a bottle to order here and there. Certainly for men, Absolute is an easy winner, fairly uncontroversial and easy to wear. It performs reasonably well and is priced in the $36-38 range for the standard 100ml bottle size.

I’m quite impressed while not being over the moon, but for the price, Bentley Absolute is a steal.

7 out of 10