L'Art de la Guerre (2014)
by Jovoy

Beautiful apple & rhubarb fragrance from one of my favorite houses. There is also a dash of lavender & nutmeg. Unlike most Jovoy fragrances this one does wear a tad light. Not my style but very nice.

7/10

Slightly medicinal apple and rhubarb.
More wearable but less characterful version of Hinoki by CdG.
Not offensive but nothing to write home about either.
I may wear Hinoki for fun but this is not worth bothering with.

Fragrance: 6/10
Projection: 7/10
Longevity: 7/10

Head by Jackson Pollock

For so much to be going on with this one, it smells terrific! This and Ambre Premier (which I purchased) are the main ones that stood out when sampling. I get a lot of patchouli and violet with this one. Not too sweet because the leather note (light leather)seems to calm it down along with the bergamot. Nicely done! 8/10

Jovoy L'Art de la Guerre is a particularly (for a part of its run) aqueous-aromatic (and somewhat fruity-musky) take on the sandalwood-leather-forest resins accord. More precisely the aroma opens wet-aromatic and fruity morphing gradually along the way towards something woodsy, resinous and leathery. This is an extremely spicy fragrance, nutmeg (may be supported by a touch of saffron) is pungent, dusty and wet. This scent is really sultry, almost tropical and wet, despite the presence of typically "restraining" notes as woods, leather and violet leaves and despite a sort of resinous undertone provided by cistus (an intensely woodsy resinous presence). The "key elements" are sandalwood, green apple, violet leaves and rhubarb. The latter is probably the characterizing element of the whole creation providing its typical herbal-freshly-spicy-simil boozy (vermouth liquor-like) aura which fully envelops the intensely pungent fruity accord of violet, sandalwood and musks. The opening is sparkling, aromatic (lavender-immortelle) and extremely "wet-fluidy". The green apple presence is central providing an obsessive fruity (sharply bitter) "pungency" (all the more in its connection with sandalwood/leather and violet leaves). The violet leaves presence is dominant too but it doesn't perform "traditionally" in to an earthy-lymphatic way being almost juicy, fruity, humid, fizzy and freshly spicy. This fruity/floral "core" is really too much pungent for my current taste to be honest. The note of bergamot is never glorious (and structuring) but mediocrely pungent and fizzy-spicy. I detect in particular a seasoned whiff of woodiness throughout which is just slightly veined by a touch of leather in the second phase of development. The dry down is extremely woody (more restrained, earthy-spicy and virile) but still fruity and vaguely leathery. Not my cup of tea (frankly I don't crave for this kind of intensely spicy-fruity musky accords) but I can see how such type of fragrance could be attractive for the lovers of temperamental "obsessively penetrating" aromas with a sultry-spicy intensity.
P.S: once settled the dry down, after many hours (stout longevity) the wet fruity spiciness recedes (under a general act of restrainment) while a "tough" (and somewhat bitter-licorice/immortelle/smoke veined) sandawood/leather accord gets the scene (somewhat bitter-sweet, by violet veined and melancholic).