Danse Sauvage
Chris Collins (2017)

Danse Sauvage by Chris Collins (2017) feels a bit on-the-nose really, as former fashion model Chris Collins had a known love of fragrances from By Killian, and clearly based this one off of that love. In an instant, you can tell this is an homage to By Killian Straight to Heaven (2007), and it is no surprise that he was invited to visit Killian Hennessy himself subsequently, to collaborate on scent further. Instead of perfume Sidonie Lancesseur, we get the unknown Marie Patricia Hurel, who pulls the style of Straight to Heaven towards an oilier patchouli mix, so much it almost turns into a head shop. If a darker, rawer, much spicier version of this scent is what you want, keep reading.

This opens with rum and fruit notes, not altogether unlike Harlem Nights by Chris Collins (2017), but swap out the CDG-style finish for the Killian-style one instead. I get when you're a fan of fragrances you tend to show your inspirations clearly in your own creations; but like many Navitus perfumes coming down the pipe with involvement from many influencers on YouTube, this one wears its stripes a little too plainly for comfort. Once we move into the amber/vanilla/oud/patchouli phase, the latter really wins out, and in time, this becomes a very heavy sweetened patchouli fragrance with a dark streak, like Rasasi or someone else took a shot at Straight to Heaven, with half the materials budget.

None of this would be a bad thing if this was a $60 perfume at 50ml getting close to the golden ratio of $1 per ml of fluid, the best balance of bang for buck qualitatively speaking. Since it's not, all I can say is buy into this brand if you believe in the work of the owner, since it has a good heritage theme behind it, and frankly something we need to see more often in this high-end perfume space; or buy into the brand because you're just a fan of the man himself, or are just really picking up what he's putting down. I was never a big lover of By Killian or this particular style anyway, so I give it a pass, with grace. Neutral

Danse Sauvage is a great fragrance, with cognac, plum, saffron, pepper, chili, rose, cedarwood, vanilla, and oud many of the notes I don't detect, however those I do get are plum, saffron, pepper, chili, cedarwood and oud. At first sniff, there is the pepper sweetly chili saffron that is amazing.
I love the subtle plum in the ground, the and the cognac that hover around at the fragrance lingers. Fragrances that come to mind are both Iunu and Rogart both from the Molton Brown Navigation Scent collection. The sweet balsamic spiciness that comes through. Not overpowering and not to faint. A gorgeous fragrance to lean into.

Performance is above average, longevity is moderate, sillage...the verdict is still out! I do like it, the same if not more than African Rooibos as I await the arrival of my bottle!

A carpenter’s shop kind of perfume, somewhat single-minded but fulfilling if straight-up woodies are your thing. Everything else seems incidental here – a fleeting glimpse of plummy fruitiness up top, a light sprinkle of booze, touches of pepper, tobacco – they all fade before the big cedar (accompanied by woody-amber aromachemicals) occupying its centre. For me perfumes like this are as easy as slipping on a jumper when cold or opting for something brainless on the idiot box after a hard day’s work. I can wear them without bothering to think about them much, completely at peace. Would I rush out to buy this, though? No.

Sits on my skin like a dollop of 'house sauce'.
Very similar to Robert Graham's style in Fortitude, or possibly Miller Harris' style in La Fumee Intense.
Very linear, with average performance.

Not my bag, but YMMV.


Edit: This is a SBD beast! Silent But Deadly silage & projection! 12 hours later I'm filling up the house and I don't even realize it....

If you like boozy scents, this will be a beast! But you won't really notice that it is....

One of the best performing boozy fragrances I've ever tried. Danse Sauvage is a cognac and cedar fragrance that hints at Killian's Straight to Heaven, but with far better performance. The scent is rounded at the top with plum and saffron, but in the middle chili and rose appear and move in a smooth gourmand like direction. There's hints of vanilla in the dry down but the cognac and cedar notes never disappear and are the feature of the scent. I wore this on a cold day and it was outstanding. I could still smell the scent 12 hours later on my clothes and skin. Great holiday season fragrance but could be worn throughout the colder months. A thumbs up for me.