Al-Rehab – Secret Man
Remarkable. This is my second Al Rehab, I've been playing around with Silver for a few months, with uniformly mixed feelings even for the price, but I finally ordered a huge box of single samples. (I believe roughly three dozen roll-on oil samples cost, in total, about eleven dollars and change. Ok, that's probably an exaggeration, but that's how it felt.)
First out of the box was Secret Man. Initial impression: they've done a really remarkable job of simulating, for about three dollars, the sort of christmas-cookies-and-turpentine accord that I've previously always paid a lot more to be put off by. I put it on shortly before wading out into the city smog to go shopping.
While I was shopping, something strange happened... as I made my rounds, amidst the ambient background of car exhaust and eau de vagrant, I began to detect faint whiffs of…
I am at a complete loss to understand the occasional fragrance sample that I've seen called a "masterpiece" repeatedly here on Fragrantica, and yet smells to me like nothing but a cotton candy stand at a tire fire. (The last one was A*Men, although this was about 1/3 as strong.) I definitely smell nothing like eucalyptus, incense, or cedar anywhere in this, and nothing mysterious or oriental. Just spun sugar and burning rubber.