“Welcome to the tobacconist’s shop. Feel free to look around while I eat my corn chowder. But please don’t try to pet the monkey, she bites. Ladies, we do have a special section of ladies’ tobaccos, right here. But please don’t try to pet the lady monkey, she also bites. We also have a collection of antique books, if you’d like to browse that.”

Here we have another Rogue scent that blooms quickly into something indescribable and wonderful. If experience is any teacher, though, I’ll get about a half hour of this and then wonder where the magic went.

But, still, until them, it’s another symphonic Rogue opening, this time full of tobacco, old books and somebody cooking something very rich in the back room, as well as, yes, a little bit of monkey. Very dignified but not staid.

Did you ever watch Downton Abbey? One of the things that always impressed me was that Lord Grantham was, in his way, very progressive, at least for his time and station. He was every bit the British Aristocrat, yet would tolerate breeches of decorum, and was easygoing about being open to new ideas and behaviors that the upper class usually reflexively frowned upon. This is the scent he would have worn. (And probably elicited some sort of entertainingly sarcastic remark from the Dowager, too.)

After 20 minutes something fresh comes in, like someone opened the door to let in the spring air.

I don’t know what that corn chowder note is, though. Is this a gourmand scent?

Untilllll…..

After a while, we’ve made a sudden right-angle turn and magically shifted back to the sugar-cookies-and-asphalt smell I’ve detected in other Rogues.

It’s frustrating. These Rogue frangrances all open incredibly, symphonically, and then 90 minutes to 2 hours later, they smell nice, nothing more. They become utterly two-dimensional.

I can appreciate the art in crafting these amazing aromas, but if they don’t last, they’re just curiosities.

Two hours later, it’s fruity and floral and sweet. What a disappointment. No, seriously, this is the third Rogue that’s turned to christmas cookies on me, it’s getting repetitive.