1899 Ernest Hemingway
Histoires de Parfums (2013)

A bit more opulent clone of V&R Spicebomb and maybe a bit more creamy at that. Unfortunately redundant in case you own Spicebomb. I've noticed for wuite a while that paradigm shift in niche house logic. The designers used to copy niche houses, but now it's often the other way around. Niche houses too recognise the good designer work and realise that there's money to be made by using better quality ingredients for the same appeal.

I have nothing against this, but to be in the situation someones compliments you on this with "uuu you're wearing Spicebomb, that's nice", and you give them the "nah huh, you never heard of HdP?". I mean, Spicebomb is a good fragrance for that type of fragrance, even reformulated it's not "mutilated". I'm not implying here that people shouldn't like or buy HdP 1899, but buying it solely for the reason it's HdP and not a "designer" is kind of...I don't know, maybe "insipid" is too harsh term.

All that being said, I can't vote negative or neutral because it's a damn well made clone, but I have to repeat - a clone!

Originality: 4/10
Scent: 7/10
Longevity: 8/10
Projection: 8/10
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Overall impression 7/10

I agree with Brooks Otterlake, that I really just don't see what applesauce has to do with Ernest Hemingway, because that's what I smell when I first spray 1899 on my wrist. Applesauce. I looked through the other reviews and the notes, and no one else seems to mention it. But, that's what I wrote down when I sampled this on May 3, 2020. Applesauce. Then baby powder, then pine needles, then cedar, and maybe musk? And bergamot? And a few minutes later, after top notes dissipated a little bit, I could smell vanilla and Iso-E, like in Montana Parfum d'Homme (red box), and something that smells like Bulgari Omnia Brown...kind of cedar-like. Very yummy! I like cedar. Then it dries down with a weird sharp incense-y smell, like the kind I get in John Varvatos, and then that was all I could smell. Not an unlikeable fragrance. Not sure I'd buy a full bottle though. It is however the only fragrance I've tried so far that smells like applesauce. But only for a few minutes tops.

A gorgeous but discrete fragrance. Warm, nose tinglingly spicy, smooth, a bit creamy, a twinge of sweetness, but mostly dry. Comparisons to Spicebomb are apt, though as other reviewers have noted, this is far, far beyond it in terms of composition and quality. Perfectly refined and well balanced. I just wish it had a little bit more oomph, a little bit more power behind it. Its lasting power leaves something to be desired, and its projection and sillage are similarly taciturn. I think I'll try this out when it gets a bit colder out, though only at home or at the office.

7/10

This is a quite an unusual but really interesting fragrance. It gets compared to spice bomb and eau des baux, but it’s brighter, fresher and more watery (the bergamot and vetiver?). It’s like a sparkling champagne, more sophisticated and more suited to a classy summer evening out, rather than being cosy, warming and spicy. It’s quirky in a good way.

A very nice blend of hesperidic notes, spicy florals, drying down to a fougeric ending of lavender, vanilla, amber, and a distinct blonde tobacco accord. A very wearable masculine and very distinct.

I've never been altogether sure what this fragrance has to do with Ernest Hemingway. Its soft sweetness and vanilla with exotic spices doesn't exactly conjure up the spirit of Hemingway, and it leans more feminine than masculine, though not dramatically so.

In a world full of sweet, lightly spicy scents, I don't know that 1899 does much to carve out a niche for itself. Conceptually, it's familiar, and it's not particularly precise in its construction. But, if nothing else, it's pleasant enough, at least until Ghislain's trademark "musty" accord creeps into the dry-down.