No.33 Eau de Cologne
Penhaligon's (2015)

Well, I'll be damned if after a rich, sweet herbal fougere opening, No.33 doesn't smell exactly - and I do mean - exactly - like the section at the back of a sports equipment store where the manager is busy pumping up a bargain bin's worth of American footballs. Soft, big rubber for miles, with the bone-dry cleanliness of gear freshly removed from its cellophane packaging. The development here can be measured in Zoom time (future self, I am writing to you from the frontlines of mid-COVID-19 isolation and teleworking) - I was still knee deep in sports equipment stage at the beginning but scarcely one hour into a group of 140 scientists explaining how they squished a 4-day conference into a 5-day Zoom session (riveting stuff, absolutely edge-of-the-seat), the scent has settled into a rather non-descript musky- floral with touches of minty lavender or chamomile. In other words, this thing starts with a bang but deflates quickly than any football that has ever entered our house.

Boring, hair spray scent. Surprised this is from Penhaligon's as it smells cheap, thin and synthetic. Projects pretty well and seems to have very good longevity, so if the smell is to your liking then you should be happy with performance.

Very unclassy of Penhaligon's Spanish owners to celebrate the company anniversary with such a drugstore-designer quality scent. Is it really revenge for Gibraltar, then? If anything, this should have been Sartorial, Bertrand Duchaufour's clever old-fashioned gents' Fougère Cologne with an ozonic makeover. While that was a good joke and an interesting perfume, this scrubber merely reeks of cheap synthetics from top to bottom and cannot maintain any claim to luxury perfumery (and niche is bad enough these days, as it is) with a straight face. It's vain to discuss "notes" that are just cheap "copies of copies" to quote Fight Club. Sterile citrus, metallic floral and the cheapest Ersatz-tobacco since Tabac Original, drenched in dihydromyrcenol and ambroxan, do manage to irritate my nose uncomfortably. Better to be done with this Victorian fake in a merciless Fight Club manner indeed and shop for some proper English gentlemen's grooming at Geo. F. Trumper's.

No. 33 starts with a soft and fruity mix of citrus - mandarin and orange - with a gentle coriander, but soon an extraordinarily smooth cardamom joins in. There is a whiff of sage, and a warm and very rounded hint of cinnamon that provides added softness.

The drydown sees a good lavender not added in, and a small floral bouquet with a slim rose impression and deeper geranium and a slightly boozy ginger. The ginger is unusually dark and subdued.

The base takes a turn to a slightly sweet vanilla merging with a mild fresh Virginia pipe tobacco and a touch of cedar, all a bit well-behaved and maybe a bit unoriginal, but it all blends in very well.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and a superb eleven hours of longevity non my skin.

Overall a lovely autumn warmer, not intrusive, maybe a tad unoriginal but displaying excellent performance. 3/5.

This eventually becomes a very nice warm tobacco and distilled spirits fragrance, with a couple of supporting notes that interact well with tobacco. At earlier stages, there are an awful lot of other notes humming around. Some of those notes don't smell that great together; and I found early stages to be funky if not down right obnoxious. I did say several times to a friend that I did not like this, but that changed within a half hour. In a short time, all comes to a good place when the boozy and tobacco accords assert themselves with a clear presence. I am not sure if I want this fragrance, but I do appreciate it. It is not overly strong, but it lasts on the skin for six or more house. It makes a nice masculine statement. The bottle is different from all the other Penhaligon bottles since it is shaped like a drinking flask. The booze and tobacco accords might make you think this is a brutish, quirky fragrance, but it is not. It is rather suave for its type; and it is worth a try. You might be surprised.

A mild thumbs-up. The scent is in two phases: the first is excellent, the second is just average in my opinion.
Starts with a green, dusky opening. So dusky it is almost dusty. Bone-dry. Cool and refreshing, yet with some warmth from the peppery spices. Everything is well-blended and subtle. I wish this phase lasted longer. The florals are a very subtle element.
Phase two is a typical masculine dry-down. A bit soft, a bit sweet. Tobacco, vanilla and slight wood tones. Nothing remarkable here, and slightly sweeter than I like.
This is a good scent, not heavy and well made. Many will like it.