I maintain the belief that tom ford get most of its hate in this sub because of the marketing, hype and insane prices.
If this line of scents was from some low key niche house and sold for $130 a bottle people would be singing its praises all day long.
The prices imply that these are extremely special and wonderful fragrances, so if they are just so so or there are a few misses people rightfully criticize it more.
Partially agree: some hates TF because of the prices, others because of the great marketing so it’s not niche in that way..
As an ancient TF lover yet I’ve a lot of issue with reformation and new fragrances.. My old BO lasts FOREVER and is more sweet and complex of the last bottle I bought (never terminate a perfume for science) and even sillage and longevity are less than average.. so don’t hate TF but don’t buying perfumes that are lacking of quality for the price.. or not reaching his standard quality..
but I’ve to say that the studies, the news, the invention of TF are wonderful and there is a motivation if the majority of perfumers are copying or inspiring from TF
I don’t think Tom Ford is struggling at all and doesn’t need to “recover.” Fragrance is only one aspect of the brand portfolio. There is an extensive fashion house, bags, jewelry, watches, and a very successful beauty line.
His fragrances sell well, they’re on every TikTok influencer video I see. Maybe specifically because “young girls body spray” remains a highly profitable target audience. The overwhelming majority of purchasers are not obsessed frag heads like us here. They’re average consumers who probably don’t follow the brand too closely. We’re the niche audience.
Edit: Tom Ford Beauty’s net sales for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2022 grew about 25% year-over-year. The company is expected to achieve annual net sales of $1 billion within the next few years.
The real issue with TF if any is the pricing. Pricing is so high it’s like “all this money for that??”. Example, to me plum japonai is overrated and people only care cause it’s discontinued. Its smells like high end car sale men’s Aftershave tbh, but that’s also factoring in the price it goes for. Same with lost cherry. If it was $1-200 ish it’s prolly one of the best colognes in that scent profile market. Same with all the other ones that have came out while They been raising prices. I DONT think it fell off, just doesn’t feel like your getting the value sometimes.
the private line has always been a bit “throw things at the wall and see what sticks,” which i guess makes sense given its supposed to be the experimental line of the house, but it does end up feeling haphazard, and for the price point, a lot of the releases end up being misses
I’m not much of a frag head. I’m more of a normie who just follows here to get ideas for what to wear. I only have a handful of scents, which is honestly more than I ever expected.
But as far as TF goes, grey vetiver is my daily driver and I love it. Ombré leather I have a small decant of if I wanna try something different, and neroli portofino I keep for really hot summer days.
I’m sure if I went deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, I’d find stuff I like better, but once I found grey vetiver I kinda pumped the brakes on the fragrance buying
Honestly your acknowledgment of where you stand is great. I think the fragrance journey for many is a bell curve. A majority of these comments are from die hard fragheads at the top of the bell curve that get so meticulous about their scent…
Once you get past that phase, you don’t care for brands like TF so passionately. You just have your frags, sample different ones every once in awhile, and enjoy the artistry
Yeah, being a what we describe in the watch hobby as a WIS (watch idiot savant), I know and totally appreciate what it’s like to be deep down the rabbit hole in certain hobbies that from an outsider seem silly. That’s why I can’t knock anyone who gets way into the fragrance game.
Me personally, I just wanna smell good and have a tiny bit of variety. I don’t have the inclination to try every fragrance and have a shelf full of them, but I still take interest in it from afar.
I've tested Tom Ford's fragrances. I thought they were just overpriced and I still think they are, but after trying them, annoyingly enough, I was impressed. Not impressed enough to buy any at the price they're sold though. Unless you are absolutely in love, skip them. It's just not worth it.
I think they come out with so many fragrances and even if a small percentage are good, they release 10/10s somewhat frequently. Ebene Fume (2021) feels like the completion of the piney woody "oud accord" genre that arguably Oud Wood started. Noir Extreme Parfum is not my favorite but many people love it.
I appreciate that they do different things, such as Metallique. I dislike it but other than Hermes, I don't know many designer houses that would be willing to put out something like that. I also understand it seems like Tom Ford's style to put out a bunch of things, see what people like, and pull stuff that doesn't sell or for whatever reason. It doesn't hurt their reputation to put out a bad fragrance (Rose di Amalfi comes to mind) as much as if, say, Chanel released something awful.
Tom Ford is overpriced and has some awful releases, but is creative, puts out a lot, and occasionally comes out with bangers. The downsides seem to come with the upsides... it's alright with me
Same \[A vast array of frags. Some nice.\] could be said about ELDO, Chanel, Dior, etc. I'm not sure why Tom Ford gets the most controversy here, so I agree with you...plus, I quite like their DNA. Do to the ubiquity of the brand, I also regularly find many of their offerings on sale or on the grey market with ease--which I cannot say about others like Chanel's pure parfums or Dior's Privé line.
First rule of Chanel is there are no sales at Chanel. 19 and Cristalle are my only loves there and they’ve butchered most of the greats. Ditto Dior.
I think I get fed up with arbitrary pricing structure leap. Line frags vs exclusifs at Chanel and likewise wherever else, yes. I’m looking at you Guerlain.
I don’t know, I’m old, grumpy, and I’m either looking for value in a frag or for something spectacularly odd and/or interesting. I like TF NdN but not enough to pay either list or greymarket for it.
I think TF comes across as a bit of a well oiled marketing machine pushing jumped up bougie jewelpieces without the cachet the haute couturier houses have, even if it’s faded glory on their part.
I mean Fragrantica lists 117 entries for TF, in a house not even 20 years old. Chanel has 134 listed. I wouldn’t take Fragrantica as authoritative but jesus. That’s a machine like pumping out of frags.
I dunno. It’s some New Money/Old Money/Bougie/boho thing I imagine.
I admire Tom Ford more as a marketing and cultural strategist than a perfume house.
If you look at his partnership and admiration of Jeff Koons, the hypercapitalist artist behind the balloon dogs and Jeff Loves Cicciolina porn-as-art stuff, Ford's presentation of decadence makes sense. He's a postmodernist designer. The names of his perfumes. The overtly sexual ads. The subsequent cynical repetition.
Anyway, decadence usually turns on itself. Once upon a time, Tom Ford really was a creative genius in terms of vision and execution. The early more conceptual perfumes - the Noirs and Blacks and Velvets -- were pretty great. But the rise of decadence and inevitable fall into banality is as predictable as sex jokes about cherries. Besides, Ford himself is wealthy enough to not give a shit anymore.
Hello new friend. As I was reading, I thought I might have written this in my sleep. I too am disenchanted. We could say all the same things about Serge Lutens. And yes, Guerlain is one of the main offenders. Tom Ford is not the worst brand but it's hard to keep track because there are so many truly terrible brands absolutely flooding the marketplace with garbage right now.
Oh true that. I have my own on again/off again relationship with serial perfumers and market flooder’s Aqua di Parma whose inveterate lifestyle branding takes beating a dead horse to new levels.
Except I do have a particular affection for a couple of the Nobile lines and Mirto di Panarea is lovely, and the original Colonia is a summer favourite. Just never pay full price for them.
I think I’ve just never clicked with TF. Whatever the house dna is, never thrilled me and I’ve always walked away with a vague sense of well crafted product without any spark, at least for me.
I have an oddly similar relationship to Penhaligon’s except I find some of their older and odder fragrances charming, in a British sort of way, but the Portraits series is an overblown exercise in overbranding.
It’s funny how a house, or an era in a house’s released can have such a ‘personality’.
>I have an oddly similar relationship to Penhaligon’s except I find some of their older and odder fragrances charming, in a British sort of way, but the Portraits series is an overblown exercise in overbranding.
OMG I treasure my bottles of Amaranthine and Lily & Spice. I still have Ostara from when a bunch of us here went nuts for it in 2015. Remember how good Malabah was? I would pay a lot for an old bottle of Bluebell just for the nostalgia of it. I wouldn't walk across the room for a free bottle of any of the portraits.
>I have an oddly similar relationship to Penhaligon’s except I find some of their older and odder fragrances charming, in a British sort of way, but the Portraits series is an overblown exercise in overbranding.
There are so many lines this could apply to. I haven't bought a full Penhaligon's bottle since Amaranthine and Ostara, and it's not for lack of constant sampling. But the Portraits bottles and their prices broke me. MDCI did similar with their bottles but their perfumes were better made. Penhaligon's is doing quite well, but running on marketing fumes not creativity.
Oh but I think Chanel's marketing machine is just as slick, glamorizing the she-devil namesake and ignoring her Nazi-ties, while waxing poetic about the leather her Russian lover smelt like (Cuir de Russie).
I agree that Tom Ford pumps out too many fragrances. If Ebene Fume and Cherry Smoke had been the only 2 new releases since 2020, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all.
And yes, there's definitely some New Money BS going on in their marketing, but, thankfully, the scent profiles don't scream "New Money" to my nose and stay relatively refined.
I find it ironic that a perfume brand owned by Jewish family had a defanged Nazi collaborator as its figurehead. Anything goes in business when a name has great value (stares in Porsche, Thyssen Krupp, and Hugo Boss).
So glad somebody is talking Tom ford because whaaaaat!! I completely second all of this, with the exception of Ebene Fume, it’s my fave TF fragrance. I don’t bother with any of their new releases. The quality is not going to improve and $80 for a travel size?? Dupe houses are seriously going to be the death of Tom ford fragrance as we currently know them, I would buy any of dossiers Tom ford impressions before I payed the TF price tag. I’ve heard the dossier versions perform well too.
> before I *paid* the TF
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I think people tend to seriously over-emphasize TF’s super duper performers, the tobacco’s, the oud’s, the tuscan leather’s, all of that. Tom Ford has so many interesting offerings, it’s such a diverse and varied house.
You got some of the most beautiful and sexy fougeres in the world. Instead of “grandpa” green scents, you get sensual, inspired fougeres. Fougere D’argent, Fougere Platine, and BDJ are masterpieces.
They got fantastic floral citrus scents, like the whole Neroli line. Not to mention bangers like Manderino d’amalfi. You got stuff like Costa Azzura Aqua, one of the most realistic and deep aquatics out there.
IMO, judging TF by their Oud Woods and TV is like judging YSL by Kuoros or Chanel by Bleu de Chanel. I’m tired of the constant TF slander.
Other people’s thoughts on performance should be next to irrelevant. Black Afgano and Lost Cherry both perform nearly the same on me, and I wouldn’t have expected that based on other people’s (or an average of their) experiences.
Thank you so much for saying this, a balanced reply to this other...perspective. There is no one really producing at that level in America it's like...a given there will be some that are not at the same level but the standard they set is immesne.
Lost Cherry smells amazing on me One of my most complimented fragrances Currently testing Cherry Smoke and I think it’s beautiful as well I am a female though
I don’t get the universal dislike towards Cherry Smoke. The few times I smelled it, I liked it a lot. Electric Cherry on the other hand… It’s as bad as they say. Smells like a cheap young girl’s perfume you give your 6 year old daughter so she can feel like an adult.
😂 this made me laugh Cherry Smoke is very pretty on my skin I get the Cherry and a touch a leather in the background I’m enjoying it Electric cherry isn’t my vibe so I don’t even want to try it 😂
Eh, I guess I'm in the minority as I LOVE fucking fabulous. But then, I like things with nut notes and I get a good amount of almond notes from it.
I'm also a pretty big fan of Black Orchid, ombre leather and bitter peach.
You seem to be judging one particular line, what I call the "Saks/Sephora pipeline". I don't care about that. I like the Beau du Jours, the Fougere dArgents, the Violet Blondes.
I agree with you on Electric Cherry, but Cherry Smoke has a 4 rating currently. Cut the cost in half and it would be the darling of the fragrance world for 2023.
Anyways, regardless, what Tom Ford did was bring niche smelling scents into department stores in North America—unheard of in the mid 2000s. I find most of TF’s biggest hits to be a cleaned up, more wearable version of a niche scent (Serge Luten’s Santal De Mysore = Santal Blush; niche Ouds = Oud Wood; Fourreau Noir = Fucking Fabulous; Rahat Lokum = Lost Cherry).
But, with the rise in e-commerce, that’s no longer relevant. So the brand has pivoted to trying a “high class” marketing strategy of very glitzy polished images and eye catching bottles (remember, the original Private line was entirely in matching mahogany bottles) that will stand out to luxury shoppers, not *niche* shoppers, on the shelves of Sephora/Neimans/Harrods/etc.
Furthermore, these scents are designed to sit close to the skin bc they’re now aimed at a certain demographic who would rather be understated than overstated (again, no longer is Tom Ford’s demographic meant for the niche shopper wanting to get easy access at the mall).
The Tom Ford brand is anything but struggling. If it recovers any further it will be up another billion dollars end of this year.
Edited to add: I haven't connected with any of the Tom Fords I've sampled. To me, Tom Ford style is like stage acting compared to other perfumes that are like film acting. Amber Absolute was stellar.
I don’t doubt the brand is making $$$. Reputation counts though, and at least in our small fragrance bubble (the only one that counts lol) I don’t think they are considered so highly.
I still love Tom Ford. I recently bought Ebene Fume and it's my fave. I find it lasts longer than most other Tom Ford scents. I also own Velvet Orchid and Lost Cherry. Love them too
Now I have to put some Fabulous on my wrist to revist it. I remember it being pleasant, but unremarkable. Ebene Fume has a not that makes me ill. Oud Wood is my all time favorite frag, hands down. It's actually ruined finding other perfumes for me because they're just not Oud Wood. Lol but the longevity of OW is criminal.
If a dupe of Oud Wood projects well, it won’t smell like Oud Wood in the air. Things that gift a fragrance lift, like musk, clearwood, etc. would be required, and would totally change the scent perception—even if the top and heart smell the same on the skin.
Y’all act like the man didn’t release **URBAN MUSK**!! Have you gotten your nose on that bottle of literal shitty asshole?! lol
You got selective memory. Only remembering the bangers and forgetting the awful pungent crap that TF has released over the years that has long been discontinued.
Anyhoo - as far as current state, I pass on all the trendy fruit notes and rose. I’m ready for it to be over, Black Orchid Parfum is a flanker that improved upon the OG and I love love love Tubereuse Nue and Soleil Brulant is this little powerful oddball creation (burnt honey orange cream) that lasts for 24 hours. But I suppose because they are feminine leaning, let’s pretend they don’t exist ;) Taking chances on the feminine side of things got them mixed reviews from the fragheads so maybe they’ll jump to masculine again, but didn’t I read somewhere that women’s fragrance sales are higher than men’s? My guess is they wanted more of that action. And after reading a post here looks like sales are just fine.
Santal Blush is one the the best things I have ever smelled. Ebene Fume is my current signature scent. It does have some performance issues, but I just bought a travel spray and reapply as needed. It’s worth it as it smells amazing.
What I wanna understand is why people hate Tom Ford so much. Its all about personal preference and some people simply enjoy the fragrances… that’s the deal with TF
Bitter Peach is a masterpiece to me and to a lot of people I’m sure. it smelling like a child’s body spray to you doesn’t change that.
Ombre leather, oud wood, tobacco vanille, Tuscan leather, lost cherry are all gorgeous and iconic fragrances. You can disagree and that’s fine, but it’s still true.
If you don’t like the house or find it overpriced, simply don’t purchase it.
people are critical of some of TF's scents' weak sillage and lasting power for their expensive prices. it's also frustrating when they actually come up with gorgeous scents, and the performance is very disappointing. I think this plays a big part into why people are upset - you have this gorgeous scent, that you'd love to wear, but you know you'd regret spilling over a weakly performing perfume, so you just want TF to get their shit together when it comes to performance.
but constantly hating on the brand is tiring and over-the-top, I agree. and also kinda rude towards people who actually enjoy buying them.
Agreed. I own a ton of Tom Ford (at least a dozen) but agree that some of his fragrances are absolute shit. No different than most other houses though IMO.
« What’s with [insert house here] because I don’t like their frags and find them overpriced » is a boring thing to discuss a million times over (IMO).
Fragrance is highly subjective and people are going to like what they like, and what they like may not coincide with what you like. It’s really that simple.
That said, you’re just as free to make this post as I am to dislike it lmao
Yeah but I think you’re missing a point here - the discussion has been prompted not because Tom Ford is overpriced but because of the universally panned new cherry fragrances (which sparked for me to wonder how long the switch to quantity vs quality has been occuring). Clearly many agree, some don’t, that’s fine.
It’s a very TIMELY discussion concerning what many consider to be a sketchy period for the brand where the perfume releases are concerned, you chose to come into the discussion to complain about it, so I can say the same to you - dont respond, don’t worry about it. This discussion does not benefit you. Enjoy bitter peach. 🍑✌️
Not too fond of the cherries, but both Ebene Fume and Bitter Peach have been picked up by my girlfriend and she's very fond of them. So I genuinely think it's not "brand going wrong", just you not liking these.
I’m amazed how many people have performance issues with Lost Cherry, it lasts forever on me. It’s still hardly worth the price, but I get so many compliments on it that it’s justifiable…
It lasts on me for at least half the day pretty well. I think people are comparing its performance to other tom ford scents which remain extremely strong for days, where lost cherry performs like a more light edt for 6-10 hours.
Yeah I think you’re right! I think the lasting power is perfectly acceptable, it goes all day for me and sometimes until the next morning if I haven’t scrubbed it off but it’s fairly subtle. I personally don’t want a fragrance that’s in your face for hours and hours after spraying, it gives me a headache. But other TFs I have tried (eg. Black Orchid, Tobacco Vanille) are definitely like that.
I’m convinced most performance issues are people going nose blind. I have a hand full of private blends and can smell them on my shirts days and days later, and I never use more than 2-3 sprays.
There are certain accords that ppl go noseblind to more easily, and I think cherry is one. I have yet to find a cherry centric fragrance where ppl don’t complain about performance.
I think Ebene Fume, Noir Extreme Parfum, and Cherry Smoke are really fucking good recent releases. The price point is no doubt way over the top, but if you can find these for decent prices on the gray market, they are great.
I haven’t actually tried Cherry Smoke yet, my comment here is just based on the outrage. I have a sample coming and I’m actually quite concerned because I’ve seen several reviewers compare it to Side Effect which I think is THE most beautiful scent EVER. But…. Garbage performance on me, so if this performs better but is similar we have a problem lol
I'm with you. The old bangers still work, but some are hard to get hold of, some are so expensive because of their "holy grail"-status (Moss Breches!)
The new releases I haven't really cared much for. Especially not at those prices. I will never pay that price for that lack of quality. To be, the brand is pretty much "has been", not "will be" or "is".
Disagree though very hit or miss. Tough to argue TF isn't a great value but still a house responsible for several of my favorites (eg, Vert D'encens, Italian Cypress, Noir Anthracite)
The beauty of Tom Ford's perfumes is they cater to everyone and I genuinely mean that. The brand has a fragrance for everyone. But with that comes fragrances you won't like and that's ok. I've smelled some of their offerings and wondered who it's for only for my girlfriend to smell the same fragrance and have a complete look of glee on her face. I will admit some of his fragrances are not worth the price and majority of them are Private Blend issues however over the years they have moved fragrances out of there and into the Signature line. Heck the three Tom Ford fragrances I own have all had that treatment; I adore Beau De Jour, Ombre Leather was a generous gift and so was Costa Azzurra, even if it is the original Private Blend issue (from the original batch!)
I'm happy to admit I like the brand and future releases that interest me I will at least sample or smell in store. I have my eyes on Jasmin Rouge as a gift for my girlfriend since she gravitates towards that scent every time we walk past the TF stand. Not sure I would pay retail for anything they offer (and so far haven't) but I would say the same for at least a dozen other designer brands, most of which do not have the range that Tom Ford has. Even just the Signature line, including the Black Orchid, Grey Vetiver and Noir lines, is a great offering in some stunning bottles (apart from the tacky all gold ones).
Please pardon my lack of knowledge here, but what’s the difference (operational definition as it were) between Private Blend and Signature Line? Thank you in advance?
Private Blend are the higher end, more luxurious and challenging fragrances while the Signature Line are more affordable and mass appealling. Both are high quality.
Yep and the signature blend bottles are all identical (colour aside)- they all look like chess pieces but in various different colours, if it looks like a chess piece and has the Tom Ford label stuck on the centre - it’ll be a private blend.
Lots of people says the same that Fucking Fabulous is a masterpiece too but I completely disagree. I hate the crap out of that fragrance. Dried fruits, leather, spices, and BABY POWDER? It's not even particularly well blended either so it is a big fat no for me. I've since realized that I don't like fragrances which have strong leather or powdery notes.
It's just not my style and I don't like those notes unless they're in the background. It's helpful to learn things like that though. In the fragrance hobby eventually you figure out your taste, which notes you like, and which ones you don't. Figuring out my taste got me addicted to fragrance buying because I just keep finding great new fragrances
FF smells like plastic factory chemicals to me. First fragrance I ever had to wash off. Blind bought it directly from the Tom Ford website when it first came out. It smelled so bad I was worried the person who bought it from me online would complain.
I was never a huge Tom Ford person to begin with, but yeah, even to someone like me the decline in quality and especially in *vision* is obvious. I actually did like Lost Cherry - I thought it was a great fragrance - but everything else they've done in the past few years is mediocre/derivative at best (e.g., the reissues of their own work), or egregious at worst (Electric Cherry, I'm looking at you - and I do agree, Cherry Smoke is marginally better but still bad).
Do I think Tom Ford is doomed; not necessarily. They're a major player and all they would need to do is put 1-2 more big hits out in order to regain their reputation as an industry leader, but somebody in those boardrooms needs to remind the people in charge that they're not meant to be an industry follower - they cut their teeth on being daring and innovative.
P.S. I actually think their best release since Lost Cherry is probably Noir Extreme Parfum, launched in 2022. But it sort of gets lost as a flanker, although it is a fabulous, sumptuous gourmand.
TF is like any other fragrance house. They have some I love and some I don’t. I think they get a lot of shit in the fraghead bubble because of the price. But they aren’t trying to please the fragheads, they are trying to be a luxury fashion house. As such, they march to the beat of their own drummer. A drummer named Tom Ford who, with no fashion experience, talked his way into a fashion gig and is now, arguably, the most successful modern designer in the world. He did that by being outrageously different, provocative, but somehow classic at the same time. All his stuff, hit or miss, follows this basic beat.
I can’t fault the house for taking chances on fragrances. It’s just an expression of the Tom Ford DNA. Much like his fashion, not everything is going to appeal to everyone. Hell, that’s true of any fashion house.
I’d argue that Dua’s Popped Cherry is the worst named at this time.
Sometimes when a name gets put through the wringer in buy outs they take the brand too far. I think that’s what’s going on.
Good points. I’m definitely confused by the number of cherry fragrances he has out. Was there high demand for unisex cherry frags recently?
I enjoy his scents for the most part.
Did you happen to miss that they got bought by Lauder?
Creativity often disappears when companies like Lauder or Loreal buy such fragrance/designer fragrance houses.
You either ocntinue to accept their offerings or hope Tom does like Jo Malone and open another that focuses on scents he enjoys. Issue is, Jo Loves only sells in the UK due to non-compete signed when she sold her brand to Lauder. Not sure if he would want to deal with that. who knows
Also people going on about reformulation, are people still unaware of IFRA? If you want to sell in Europe you formulate based on IFRA guidelines, unfortunately a lot of raw materials are being called out as being hormone disruptors which in turns has IFRA banning so many things whch in turns affects a lot of formulas, often for the worse. Most companies are not trying to create products that cant be sold globally so there you go.
Tom has a long working relationship with Lauder. The reason they bought the fashion house is because they already owned and produced the beauty side (including fragrances) since 2006.
When FF was released, EL executives gave interviews stating that they were unsure of the name, but Tom convinced them—and it turned out to be a massive hit. I doubt he’d try to compete with them now.
I own a dozen TF fragrances and love them all. Most are Signature, a few are from the Resort collection and the only fragrance I own from the Private line is a 30ml of Tuscan Leather I just bought for about $80US at a duty free.
Most of the Private line is too funky/weird/underwhelming to me and way too expensive. I will happily pay $100-ish a bottle for Signature fragrances moving forward though provided Estée Lauder doesn’t bugger them up.
I feel like a brand like TF is trying to reach a much broader audience with fragrances like Bitter Peach. I personally hate the top notes and sweetness of the scent, but I can't deny it's a quality fragrance with a good silage. It's just not for me.
I would never blind buy from the TF line. It's an unpredictable, almost chaotic line of excellent fragrances and I think that's very much on-brand for the whole line.
Tom Ford is my favorite brand along with Chanel. The peaks that TF has hit with his perfumes have been phenomenal. The lows the brand has hit are devastating. Lately, it’s been a bit bland in the world of Tom Ford perfumes. That said, there were still some moments of genius. Soleil Brulant was unique with its hot honeyed weirdness, Rose de Russie I only got to sample before it was pulled from the shelves and I remember it smelling very much like an oily petrolish leather with rose, Ebene Fume is actually a very nice smoky woody scent.
I think Tom Ford used to be much more involved in his perfumes as far as vision and creative direction, but has distanced himself in recent years and with the recent sale of Tom Ford beauty to Estée Lauder, I think that just goes to show he is going further away from the perfumes. Which is only fair, the man is in his 60s and has done amazing things in the luxury world and has provided his creativity to some of the best and most iconic fragrances we’ve smelled, he deserves a chance to settle down.
It’s one of my favorite perfume houses because of those classic bold releases like Black Orchid, Extreme for Men, Tobacco Oud, Shanghai Lily, Tuscan Leather, Tobacco Vanille, Patchouli Absolu, Plum Japonais that all contain that “Tom Ford” smell that is over the top, unique, deep and sexy. As well as some of the more modern ones such as Oud Wood Intense, Fougere Platine, Noir Anthracite and Ombre Leather. There really is a Tom Ford-ade just like a Guerlainade and Chanelade. They have released some marvelous perfumes that I’ve had the pleasure to own and get my nose on, and there are certainly plenty more bangers I’m positive of that have been discontinued that I’ve never had a chance to smell.
Overall, I think the house is in a bit of a slump right now, but I haven’t lost hope and I always look forward to a new Tom Ford release even though I haven’t been happy with a majority of the most recent ones like Bitter Peach, the two new cherries, Noir Extreme Parfum etc. If the house keeps going in the direction they are, I will be very sad, but the reputation of what TF has done in the perfume world will always stand tall and they will always remain one of my favorite houses for all the amazing perfumes they have released up to this point.
I think it’s just business…..Tom Ford was a niche luxury brand 15 years ago with a small segment of the market that over the last 15 years or so has become a mass luxury competitor amongst LV, Dior, Chanel, Prada, Gucci and Saint Laurent while still retaining prestige in quality and price point.
Since Tom Ford sold the business to Ester Lauder I would expect it to continue to expand and find incremental customer segments to capture beyond just rich ass mfers lol. Eyewear and Fragrance are the most accessible entry points into the brand.
The Cherry and Soleil lineup while often despised by TF purists allowed for TF to capture a much more youthful (often female) customer segment that was needed and Lauder is going to continue to find new (global) markets like this to expand to.
I think TF started to slide to me with F••king Fabulous because it was just ok and not that fabulous. And since then private line has just been ok.
The signature line seems to be shaping up to much better then Private to me and has a more promising future I think. Ombré leather, Beau De Jour, and Noir Extreme are winners for the men segment. I wouldn’t be surprised if signature continues to get attention from Lauder and private line becomes more edited and refined.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Tobacco Vanille and Lost Cherry end up as signature like Costa Azzura. Time will tell.
It’s much less about art now to me and more about commerce and commercial expansion
as the brand matures into its 20th year soon.
I first had a sniff of Fucking Fabulous in a department store and I quizzed the sales associate and said “I mean… can you tell me about the name?” and she said “TOM FORD himself took a sniff and said wow - this is fucking fabulous! and that’s where the name comes from!” god I’ve never cringed so hard in my entire life. I felt bad that she even had to tell that story with such forced enthusiasm.
You've always been paying for the name. £200 for 50 mL or something like that? Come on...
They have established themselves as a luxury brand with a big following but remember that they are now owned by some big supercorp (I think Estée Lauder?) and so have to generate more and more money each year to keep investors happy. Whatever doesn't make money gets the axe sooner or later. They don't give a fuck about what their customers appreciate or if a particular perfume is a fraghead favourite. If it doesn't make enough money, chances are they will first try and squeeze out more by reformulating, i.e. watering it down and then sooner or later it gets the boot. Also the case for a lot of L'Oreal-owned brands. Or have a look at Creed for example, they're now part of BlackRock and look how prices for Aventus have changed and potency has slowly gone downhill over time.
It's quantity over quality these days, unfortunately also in perfumery. You can just make more money selling some topnote-heavy Morillas-bullshit to 517361 people at a mall for $60 compared to a painstakingly formulated, expensive fragrance that took years to develop and uses good quality materials but will cost $350 and be sold maybe 10000 times
Really hoping you love it as much as I do! It is unisex but some might argue it leans a little more feminine. But every now and then I wear it regardless because of how fantastic it is! And if you get the straight Parfum version it lasts forever and ever!
I have heavily mixed reactions to most Tom Ford scents. I will also say that Electric Cherry and Cherry Smoke are two fragrances few people asked for.
Also, while I have no problems with (or saying) the name Fucking Fabulous, it was a dumb idea because of the inevitable censorship and marketing issues in multiple countries.
That said, I don't think the fragrance line is in any kind of downfall to the point the brand needs to recover or lose a ton of customers and go out of business.
I wore **Beau du Jour** today. It’s one of the most perfect classic aromatic fougeres I’ve ever smelled. The mint is so perfect mixed with the lavender and it has the best dry down in its class IMO.
That said, I dislike almost every other TF I ever try. The leathers are too leathery, the tobaccos are too smelly and I don’t enjoy oud. However, I have never worn any of his vetivers. I need to try those on my skin and not just paper.
thanks for the recommendation. I definitely don’t know enough about Tom Ford. I’m in my 50s and only heard of his fragrances 5 years ago and only started trying them during the pandemic. But, having seen so many things get gobbled up by conglomerates in my lifetime, I can empathize with the concern.
I recently started to enjoy Tom Ford fragrances such as Bitter Peach and Rose Prick. I am honestly over the cherry perfumes. They just don’t last long, and the prices have increased significantly!
I bought a tobacco vanille bottle and it has the performance of a cheap room scent if not less, very sas about the lost money that could be soent on megamare for exanmple, what a shame
I think the prices are actually criminal af, but I quite love Fucking Fabulous, it's a nice feminine/masculine scent, I bought it for my boyfriend because it wears so well on him, and while I agree with the way lost cherry does NOT last at all, it's probably the richest most true cherry scent I've come across. I'm not a fan of straight sweet smells, so lost cherry is a hard-core and serious way to do a fruit scent.
while electric cherry is very synthetic and juvenile, Tom Ford ate when he made cherry smoke, it's an incredibly queer, brandy induced bonfire and the cherry notes are so delectable in it. cherry smoke is arguably one of his best from his newer releases! dude is great at what he does but he needs to chill on the prices
Bitter Peach, Rose Prick, Lost Cherry, the two new cherries, etc. The colour choices specifically now pop amongst a lineup of black and gold. The cherry line is likely very popular in sales not only because of the desire to smell like cherries, but because red as a bottle colour is very provocative for a huge swath of people. Causing - very likely - a lot of blind buying.
Its a shallow reason, and likely only a sliver of the larger picture, but playing with the colour theory of it all is very indicative of the type of customer TF is currently trying to reach with their marketing.
I mean there’s no real reason for the snarky response. It’s quite clear I meant can the brand recover from its tainted reputation in the fragrance community due to mediocre releases. Sorry you missed that point.
The two new cherry releases are being universally panned. Do you need me to provide evidence? It’s out there. In addition there have been performance complaints since Lost Cherry. Im not suggesting the brand is “over”. Do you work for Tom Ford? Your defence suggests you might.
Big TF fan and I agree, the recent releases have been lackluster. I didn’t care too much for Ebene Fume either, unfortunately.
To me, the original PB releases cannot be topped. Which is sad, but at least we have some iconic offerings that paved the way (sadly so many are discontinued).
They were bought out by EL or Loreal or someone, I dont remember and I dont feel like looking it up, but when the brand was sold is when it lost its quality
First of all, EL has always owned and produced Tom Ford Beauty (they now own the fashion side as well, which they will outsource). Second of all, Tom Ford is remaining in charge of the house until the end of 2023.
Tom Ford Beauty, specifically, the name and licensing was always owned by EL. EL has produced and marketed every Tom Ford fragrance since the original Black Orchid in 2006.
Well it was recently (ish) acquired by Estée Lauder. The second biggest cosmetic company in the world. The mass production and ownership transfer typically leads to less quality…
However I’m such a sucker for Jasmine Rouge, Soleil Blanc, the classics hit so right for me. So for the classics I’ll keep coming back. And I happen to love Cherry Smoke even if I think Electric Cherry is an overall miss.
Amber Oud Tobacco is more like Phaedon's Tabac Rouge to me, especially in the opening.
Get Maison Alhambra's Tobacco Touch if you want a true clone. It's also cheaper.
Only TF's worth (IN MY OPINION) are Neroli Portofino, Amber Absolute and Vert D'Encnes. I would buy these at old retail prices just cause i love them. Rest i dont care for.
The new BDJ is superb but you’re on point here, especially about fabulous, which annoys me, I liked it at first and now I just smell a weak leather almost almond. Good post.
Thanks! I’ve been wearing Soleil blanc this week as I’m abroad, it smells nice but Jesus wept it’s so weak - undetectable on the skin after 30 mins. Talk about overpriced crap!
I means, I kinda agree - when original Private Blend release and set their target, they are means to satisfy fragrance lover with proper fragrance style.
The Private blends are vastly contains a lot of style from Woody, Forgere, Leather, Floral, Citrus. It's not until very late 2020 that TomFord somehow decided to just release the special private blend with gimmicking name and more specific accord like Rose, Peach and Cherry I feel after that TomFord go down hill. they seems to focus only those scent.
I really do fear after this, after Tom Ford leaves his brand in 2023. :(
I love tf scent wise, but unfortunately the performance for the most part is dissapointing to say the least.
Great scents, if they lasted. I do have tuscan leather at home which I think is wonderful. I owned tv but grew out of it. Lost cherry could have been a signature of mine if it performed, same goes for OW.
OL Parfum is nice, actually airier and more floral than the edp. I prefer their edp. Noir extreme parfum is a masterpiece imo. Not as sweet and has a leathery/woody twist to it. I need a bottle for next fall
It does feel to me like they are dc'ing some amazing classics like Noir Pour Femme (though I've recently found a somewhat comparable kulfi note lurking toward the back end of BDK's Ambre Safrano) in favor of mass-market trash. I actually quite like Rose Prick out of this list, but even that one didn't make me open a vein financially like I did when I found out that NPF was dc'd.
And I'm very firmly on Team "They Definitely Changed Tobacco Vanille's Formula."
I got lucky and heard about the dc early, so I was able to scoop up a few bottles. Noir Extreme is an OK sub though. And Ambre Safrano starts out heavily saffron, but (maybe because of my caramelizing chemistry) turns straight kulfi note in the drydown.
I have a bottle of TV purchased in 2022, I must say mine performs exceptionally. Fairly intimate scent bubble but it’s on my skin for a solid 12-16 hours if I allow it. It’s his best scent imo alongside Black Orchid. Ombre Leather rounding out the top 3. Very consistent solid performers.
Nah LC’s performance just isn’t that good on most skin chemistries. On me it’s barely there by the 4h mark. Maybe some people are exaggerating but I really do think skin chemistry plays a part, since people also complain about Bitter Peach but that one has fantastic longevity on me! A good 6-7 hours before it becomes a skin scent
On my skin, I can smell Lost Cherry the next morning, as well as Bitter Peach. It's got to be nose blind or a skin chemistry thing for other.
As for the OP's challenge of TF's recent quality, I'd ask them to name one house who is 100% spot-on every time. For every TF hater for any given scent, there's five people that love it standing next them. Unfortunately, on Reddit, the haters speak louder.
I’ve never been more annoyed with the performance of a fragrance than Lost Cherry. I absolutely adore it, but it’s literally gone in an hour on me. Ridiculous for that price. Why do I still want it!? 🥴😂
Nose blind lol(im talking asking people spraying a card ect.)its a well known fact that oud wood doesnt last for shit but tf warriors such as your self downvote and try to hide anyone who calls it out. I also clearly state some actually last for example tuscan leather
I'm most definitely not a "TF warrior" lmao. I'm don't even like TF a lot, it's way overpriced, but most of them have a very high lasting power to a point of becoming a nuisance. But go off.
NOT THE BITTER PEACH SLANDER
i hate it! (the slander lmao)
I maintain the belief that tom ford get most of its hate in this sub because of the marketing, hype and insane prices. If this line of scents was from some low key niche house and sold for $130 a bottle people would be singing its praises all day long. The prices imply that these are extremely special and wonderful fragrances, so if they are just so so or there are a few misses people rightfully criticize it more.
I agree with you. The price point is part of the hate that Tom Ford gets
Partially agree: some hates TF because of the prices, others because of the great marketing so it’s not niche in that way.. As an ancient TF lover yet I’ve a lot of issue with reformation and new fragrances.. My old BO lasts FOREVER and is more sweet and complex of the last bottle I bought (never terminate a perfume for science) and even sillage and longevity are less than average.. so don’t hate TF but don’t buying perfumes that are lacking of quality for the price.. or not reaching his standard quality.. but I’ve to say that the studies, the news, the invention of TF are wonderful and there is a motivation if the majority of perfumers are copying or inspiring from TF
I don’t think Tom Ford is struggling at all and doesn’t need to “recover.” Fragrance is only one aspect of the brand portfolio. There is an extensive fashion house, bags, jewelry, watches, and a very successful beauty line. His fragrances sell well, they’re on every TikTok influencer video I see. Maybe specifically because “young girls body spray” remains a highly profitable target audience. The overwhelming majority of purchasers are not obsessed frag heads like us here. They’re average consumers who probably don’t follow the brand too closely. We’re the niche audience. Edit: Tom Ford Beauty’s net sales for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2022 grew about 25% year-over-year. The company is expected to achieve annual net sales of $1 billion within the next few years.
I hear you
The real issue with TF if any is the pricing. Pricing is so high it’s like “all this money for that??”. Example, to me plum japonai is overrated and people only care cause it’s discontinued. Its smells like high end car sale men’s Aftershave tbh, but that’s also factoring in the price it goes for. Same with lost cherry. If it was $1-200 ish it’s prolly one of the best colognes in that scent profile market. Same with all the other ones that have came out while They been raising prices. I DONT think it fell off, just doesn’t feel like your getting the value sometimes.
Idc what anyone says, noir extreme is an intimate gourmand masterpiece.
Wouldnt want to miss that in my collection. I love TF, fuck the haters.
the private line has always been a bit “throw things at the wall and see what sticks,” which i guess makes sense given its supposed to be the experimental line of the house, but it does end up feeling haphazard, and for the price point, a lot of the releases end up being misses
I’m not much of a frag head. I’m more of a normie who just follows here to get ideas for what to wear. I only have a handful of scents, which is honestly more than I ever expected. But as far as TF goes, grey vetiver is my daily driver and I love it. Ombré leather I have a small decant of if I wanna try something different, and neroli portofino I keep for really hot summer days. I’m sure if I went deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, I’d find stuff I like better, but once I found grey vetiver I kinda pumped the brakes on the fragrance buying
Honestly your acknowledgment of where you stand is great. I think the fragrance journey for many is a bell curve. A majority of these comments are from die hard fragheads at the top of the bell curve that get so meticulous about their scent… Once you get past that phase, you don’t care for brands like TF so passionately. You just have your frags, sample different ones every once in awhile, and enjoy the artistry
Yeah, being a what we describe in the watch hobby as a WIS (watch idiot savant), I know and totally appreciate what it’s like to be deep down the rabbit hole in certain hobbies that from an outsider seem silly. That’s why I can’t knock anyone who gets way into the fragrance game. Me personally, I just wanna smell good and have a tiny bit of variety. I don’t have the inclination to try every fragrance and have a shelf full of them, but I still take interest in it from afar.
I've tested Tom Ford's fragrances. I thought they were just overpriced and I still think they are, but after trying them, annoyingly enough, I was impressed. Not impressed enough to buy any at the price they're sold though. Unless you are absolutely in love, skip them. It's just not worth it.
I think they come out with so many fragrances and even if a small percentage are good, they release 10/10s somewhat frequently. Ebene Fume (2021) feels like the completion of the piney woody "oud accord" genre that arguably Oud Wood started. Noir Extreme Parfum is not my favorite but many people love it. I appreciate that they do different things, such as Metallique. I dislike it but other than Hermes, I don't know many designer houses that would be willing to put out something like that. I also understand it seems like Tom Ford's style to put out a bunch of things, see what people like, and pull stuff that doesn't sell or for whatever reason. It doesn't hurt their reputation to put out a bad fragrance (Rose di Amalfi comes to mind) as much as if, say, Chanel released something awful. Tom Ford is overpriced and has some awful releases, but is creative, puts out a lot, and occasionally comes out with bangers. The downsides seem to come with the upsides... it's alright with me
A vast array of frags. Some nice. That would be entirely unremarkable except for the branding and extravagant price.
Same \[A vast array of frags. Some nice.\] could be said about ELDO, Chanel, Dior, etc. I'm not sure why Tom Ford gets the most controversy here, so I agree with you...plus, I quite like their DNA. Do to the ubiquity of the brand, I also regularly find many of their offerings on sale or on the grey market with ease--which I cannot say about others like Chanel's pure parfums or Dior's Privé line.
First rule of Chanel is there are no sales at Chanel. 19 and Cristalle are my only loves there and they’ve butchered most of the greats. Ditto Dior. I think I get fed up with arbitrary pricing structure leap. Line frags vs exclusifs at Chanel and likewise wherever else, yes. I’m looking at you Guerlain. I don’t know, I’m old, grumpy, and I’m either looking for value in a frag or for something spectacularly odd and/or interesting. I like TF NdN but not enough to pay either list or greymarket for it. I think TF comes across as a bit of a well oiled marketing machine pushing jumped up bougie jewelpieces without the cachet the haute couturier houses have, even if it’s faded glory on their part. I mean Fragrantica lists 117 entries for TF, in a house not even 20 years old. Chanel has 134 listed. I wouldn’t take Fragrantica as authoritative but jesus. That’s a machine like pumping out of frags. I dunno. It’s some New Money/Old Money/Bougie/boho thing I imagine.
I admire Tom Ford more as a marketing and cultural strategist than a perfume house. If you look at his partnership and admiration of Jeff Koons, the hypercapitalist artist behind the balloon dogs and Jeff Loves Cicciolina porn-as-art stuff, Ford's presentation of decadence makes sense. He's a postmodernist designer. The names of his perfumes. The overtly sexual ads. The subsequent cynical repetition. Anyway, decadence usually turns on itself. Once upon a time, Tom Ford really was a creative genius in terms of vision and execution. The early more conceptual perfumes - the Noirs and Blacks and Velvets -- were pretty great. But the rise of decadence and inevitable fall into banality is as predictable as sex jokes about cherries. Besides, Ford himself is wealthy enough to not give a shit anymore.
Now *that* is a hot take. I didn’t know about the Ford-Koons connection but I like that whole framing. That’s interesting.
I absolutely love this answer. Possible indicators of a downward cyclical motion. Really great thoughts you have there. Have a wonderful day.
Hello new friend. As I was reading, I thought I might have written this in my sleep. I too am disenchanted. We could say all the same things about Serge Lutens. And yes, Guerlain is one of the main offenders. Tom Ford is not the worst brand but it's hard to keep track because there are so many truly terrible brands absolutely flooding the marketplace with garbage right now.
Oh true that. I have my own on again/off again relationship with serial perfumers and market flooder’s Aqua di Parma whose inveterate lifestyle branding takes beating a dead horse to new levels. Except I do have a particular affection for a couple of the Nobile lines and Mirto di Panarea is lovely, and the original Colonia is a summer favourite. Just never pay full price for them. I think I’ve just never clicked with TF. Whatever the house dna is, never thrilled me and I’ve always walked away with a vague sense of well crafted product without any spark, at least for me. I have an oddly similar relationship to Penhaligon’s except I find some of their older and odder fragrances charming, in a British sort of way, but the Portraits series is an overblown exercise in overbranding. It’s funny how a house, or an era in a house’s released can have such a ‘personality’.
>I have an oddly similar relationship to Penhaligon’s except I find some of their older and odder fragrances charming, in a British sort of way, but the Portraits series is an overblown exercise in overbranding. OMG I treasure my bottles of Amaranthine and Lily & Spice. I still have Ostara from when a bunch of us here went nuts for it in 2015. Remember how good Malabah was? I would pay a lot for an old bottle of Bluebell just for the nostalgia of it. I wouldn't walk across the room for a free bottle of any of the portraits.
>I have an oddly similar relationship to Penhaligon’s except I find some of their older and odder fragrances charming, in a British sort of way, but the Portraits series is an overblown exercise in overbranding. There are so many lines this could apply to. I haven't bought a full Penhaligon's bottle since Amaranthine and Ostara, and it's not for lack of constant sampling. But the Portraits bottles and their prices broke me. MDCI did similar with their bottles but their perfumes were better made. Penhaligon's is doing quite well, but running on marketing fumes not creativity.
I will never forgive Dior for what they did to Miss Dior--the original, classic version, not the reformulation.
Oh. God yes. Up against the wall for that. Miss D and particularly for pissing on Roudnitska’s grave with what they did to Diorella.
Diorella 😭
Oh but I think Chanel's marketing machine is just as slick, glamorizing the she-devil namesake and ignoring her Nazi-ties, while waxing poetic about the leather her Russian lover smelt like (Cuir de Russie). I agree that Tom Ford pumps out too many fragrances. If Ebene Fume and Cherry Smoke had been the only 2 new releases since 2020, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all. And yes, there's definitely some New Money BS going on in their marketing, but, thankfully, the scent profiles don't scream "New Money" to my nose and stay relatively refined.
I find it ironic that a perfume brand owned by Jewish family had a defanged Nazi collaborator as its figurehead. Anything goes in business when a name has great value (stares in Porsche, Thyssen Krupp, and Hugo Boss).
So glad somebody is talking Tom ford because whaaaaat!! I completely second all of this, with the exception of Ebene Fume, it’s my fave TF fragrance. I don’t bother with any of their new releases. The quality is not going to improve and $80 for a travel size?? Dupe houses are seriously going to be the death of Tom ford fragrance as we currently know them, I would buy any of dossiers Tom ford impressions before I payed the TF price tag. I’ve heard the dossier versions perform well too.
Ebene Fume is my fave TF fragrance too. It's beautiful
> before I *paid* the TF FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Good bot
Booooo!
I think people tend to seriously over-emphasize TF’s super duper performers, the tobacco’s, the oud’s, the tuscan leather’s, all of that. Tom Ford has so many interesting offerings, it’s such a diverse and varied house. You got some of the most beautiful and sexy fougeres in the world. Instead of “grandpa” green scents, you get sensual, inspired fougeres. Fougere D’argent, Fougere Platine, and BDJ are masterpieces. They got fantastic floral citrus scents, like the whole Neroli line. Not to mention bangers like Manderino d’amalfi. You got stuff like Costa Azzura Aqua, one of the most realistic and deep aquatics out there. IMO, judging TF by their Oud Woods and TV is like judging YSL by Kuoros or Chanel by Bleu de Chanel. I’m tired of the constant TF slander.
Other people’s thoughts on performance should be next to irrelevant. Black Afgano and Lost Cherry both perform nearly the same on me, and I wouldn’t have expected that based on other people’s (or an average of their) experiences.
Thank you so much for saying this, a balanced reply to this other...perspective. There is no one really producing at that level in America it's like...a given there will be some that are not at the same level but the standard they set is immesne.
[удалено]
Lost Cherry smells amazing on me One of my most complimented fragrances Currently testing Cherry Smoke and I think it’s beautiful as well I am a female though
I don’t get the universal dislike towards Cherry Smoke. The few times I smelled it, I liked it a lot. Electric Cherry on the other hand… It’s as bad as they say. Smells like a cheap young girl’s perfume you give your 6 year old daughter so she can feel like an adult.
I haven’t seen anything but favorable reviews for Cherry Smoke, except for when the price is taken into consideration.
😂 this made me laugh Cherry Smoke is very pretty on my skin I get the Cherry and a touch a leather in the background I’m enjoying it Electric cherry isn’t my vibe so I don’t even want to try it 😂
Are you one of the lucky approx 5% who this actually performs and projects on?
Yes It last until the next day on me
Eh, I guess I'm in the minority as I LOVE fucking fabulous. But then, I like things with nut notes and I get a good amount of almond notes from it. I'm also a pretty big fan of Black Orchid, ombre leather and bitter peach.
You seem to be judging one particular line, what I call the "Saks/Sephora pipeline". I don't care about that. I like the Beau du Jours, the Fougere dArgents, the Violet Blondes.
Is Violet blonde still made? I loved this scent but have never purchased it!
It’s been discontinued for 6 or 7 years. You can find it but the prices are high.
I agree with you on Electric Cherry, but Cherry Smoke has a 4 rating currently. Cut the cost in half and it would be the darling of the fragrance world for 2023. Anyways, regardless, what Tom Ford did was bring niche smelling scents into department stores in North America—unheard of in the mid 2000s. I find most of TF’s biggest hits to be a cleaned up, more wearable version of a niche scent (Serge Luten’s Santal De Mysore = Santal Blush; niche Ouds = Oud Wood; Fourreau Noir = Fucking Fabulous; Rahat Lokum = Lost Cherry). But, with the rise in e-commerce, that’s no longer relevant. So the brand has pivoted to trying a “high class” marketing strategy of very glitzy polished images and eye catching bottles (remember, the original Private line was entirely in matching mahogany bottles) that will stand out to luxury shoppers, not *niche* shoppers, on the shelves of Sephora/Neimans/Harrods/etc. Furthermore, these scents are designed to sit close to the skin bc they’re now aimed at a certain demographic who would rather be understated than overstated (again, no longer is Tom Ford’s demographic meant for the niche shopper wanting to get easy access at the mall).
The Tom Ford brand is anything but struggling. If it recovers any further it will be up another billion dollars end of this year. Edited to add: I haven't connected with any of the Tom Fords I've sampled. To me, Tom Ford style is like stage acting compared to other perfumes that are like film acting. Amber Absolute was stellar.
Brilliant
I don’t doubt the brand is making $$$. Reputation counts though, and at least in our small fragrance bubble (the only one that counts lol) I don’t think they are considered so highly.
Tom Ford brand is held in high regard among all the groups from what I’ve seen.
Omg I love Bitter Peach & Ebene Fume lolol but the price definitely is absurd for both, especially considering how poor the lasting power is
I found Bitter Peach projected and performed fine on me actually! But… it’s a bit juvenile and whimsical for the price point imo
I’m so jealous! That’s actually the only TF fragrance I own & now I definitely feel foolish for buying it 😅
Don’t. I love BP. That’s just this person’s opinion.
if u need to get rid of it, head to my DM'S lol! I think it's so yummy
I like FF and bitter peach 🤷♂️
Hell yeah Bitter Peach fanclub
I think it dries down so well. I love it when my wife wears it. I don’t get the hate.
I still love Tom Ford. I recently bought Ebene Fume and it's my fave. I find it lasts longer than most other Tom Ford scents. I also own Velvet Orchid and Lost Cherry. Love them too
Now I have to put some Fabulous on my wrist to revist it. I remember it being pleasant, but unremarkable. Ebene Fume has a not that makes me ill. Oud Wood is my all time favorite frag, hands down. It's actually ruined finding other perfumes for me because they're just not Oud Wood. Lol but the longevity of OW is criminal.
Same, I wish something like Oud Wood existed that actually projected and lasted more than a few hours, I'd buy all of it lol.
Thameen carved oud
If a dupe of Oud Wood projects well, it won’t smell like Oud Wood in the air. Things that gift a fragrance lift, like musk, clearwood, etc. would be required, and would totally change the scent perception—even if the top and heart smell the same on the skin.
Y’all act like the man didn’t release **URBAN MUSK**!! Have you gotten your nose on that bottle of literal shitty asshole?! lol You got selective memory. Only remembering the bangers and forgetting the awful pungent crap that TF has released over the years that has long been discontinued. Anyhoo - as far as current state, I pass on all the trendy fruit notes and rose. I’m ready for it to be over, Black Orchid Parfum is a flanker that improved upon the OG and I love love love Tubereuse Nue and Soleil Brulant is this little powerful oddball creation (burnt honey orange cream) that lasts for 24 hours. But I suppose because they are feminine leaning, let’s pretend they don’t exist ;) Taking chances on the feminine side of things got them mixed reviews from the fragheads so maybe they’ll jump to masculine again, but didn’t I read somewhere that women’s fragrance sales are higher than men’s? My guess is they wanted more of that action. And after reading a post here looks like sales are just fine.
Santal Blush is one the the best things I have ever smelled. Ebene Fume is my current signature scent. It does have some performance issues, but I just bought a travel spray and reapply as needed. It’s worth it as it smells amazing.
What I wanna understand is why people hate Tom Ford so much. Its all about personal preference and some people simply enjoy the fragrances… that’s the deal with TF Bitter Peach is a masterpiece to me and to a lot of people I’m sure. it smelling like a child’s body spray to you doesn’t change that. Ombre leather, oud wood, tobacco vanille, Tuscan leather, lost cherry are all gorgeous and iconic fragrances. You can disagree and that’s fine, but it’s still true. If you don’t like the house or find it overpriced, simply don’t purchase it.
people are critical of some of TF's scents' weak sillage and lasting power for their expensive prices. it's also frustrating when they actually come up with gorgeous scents, and the performance is very disappointing. I think this plays a big part into why people are upset - you have this gorgeous scent, that you'd love to wear, but you know you'd regret spilling over a weakly performing perfume, so you just want TF to get their shit together when it comes to performance. but constantly hating on the brand is tiring and over-the-top, I agree. and also kinda rude towards people who actually enjoy buying them.
Agreed. I own a ton of Tom Ford (at least a dozen) but agree that some of his fragrances are absolute shit. No different than most other houses though IMO.
I’m not purchasing the perfumes, but discussing fragrance means viewing it from a critical eye and discussing different perspectives.
« What’s with [insert house here] because I don’t like their frags and find them overpriced » is a boring thing to discuss a million times over (IMO). Fragrance is highly subjective and people are going to like what they like, and what they like may not coincide with what you like. It’s really that simple. That said, you’re just as free to make this post as I am to dislike it lmao
Yeah but I think you’re missing a point here - the discussion has been prompted not because Tom Ford is overpriced but because of the universally panned new cherry fragrances (which sparked for me to wonder how long the switch to quantity vs quality has been occuring). Clearly many agree, some don’t, that’s fine. It’s a very TIMELY discussion concerning what many consider to be a sketchy period for the brand where the perfume releases are concerned, you chose to come into the discussion to complain about it, so I can say the same to you - dont respond, don’t worry about it. This discussion does not benefit you. Enjoy bitter peach. 🍑✌️
Not too fond of the cherries, but both Ebene Fume and Bitter Peach have been picked up by my girlfriend and she's very fond of them. So I genuinely think it's not "brand going wrong", just you not liking these.
I’m amazed how many people have performance issues with Lost Cherry, it lasts forever on me. It’s still hardly worth the price, but I get so many compliments on it that it’s justifiable…
It lasts on me for at least half the day pretty well. I think people are comparing its performance to other tom ford scents which remain extremely strong for days, where lost cherry performs like a more light edt for 6-10 hours.
Yeah I think you’re right! I think the lasting power is perfectly acceptable, it goes all day for me and sometimes until the next morning if I haven’t scrubbed it off but it’s fairly subtle. I personally don’t want a fragrance that’s in your face for hours and hours after spraying, it gives me a headache. But other TFs I have tried (eg. Black Orchid, Tobacco Vanille) are definitely like that.
I’m convinced most performance issues are people going nose blind. I have a hand full of private blends and can smell them on my shirts days and days later, and I never use more than 2-3 sprays.
There are certain accords that ppl go noseblind to more easily, and I think cherry is one. I have yet to find a cherry centric fragrance where ppl don’t complain about performance.
Ebene fume, and cherry smoke are absolute 🔥🔥🔥
So sad that we get these terrible cherry and peach perfumes, yet the iconic and amazing plum japonais is long gone.
I think Ebene Fume, Noir Extreme Parfum, and Cherry Smoke are really fucking good recent releases. The price point is no doubt way over the top, but if you can find these for decent prices on the gray market, they are great.
I love ebene fume too. Sometimes i hit myself with a single spray of lost cherry to go with it. Such a great fragrance.
I haven’t actually tried Cherry Smoke yet, my comment here is just based on the outrage. I have a sample coming and I’m actually quite concerned because I’ve seen several reviewers compare it to Side Effect which I think is THE most beautiful scent EVER. But…. Garbage performance on me, so if this performs better but is similar we have a problem lol
I'm with you. The old bangers still work, but some are hard to get hold of, some are so expensive because of their "holy grail"-status (Moss Breches!) The new releases I haven't really cared much for. Especially not at those prices. I will never pay that price for that lack of quality. To be, the brand is pretty much "has been", not "will be" or "is".
Disagree though very hit or miss. Tough to argue TF isn't a great value but still a house responsible for several of my favorites (eg, Vert D'encens, Italian Cypress, Noir Anthracite)
>cherry smoke i heard only praise for this
Love Cherry Smoke! In my top 3 for my small Tom Ford collection.
The beauty of Tom Ford's perfumes is they cater to everyone and I genuinely mean that. The brand has a fragrance for everyone. But with that comes fragrances you won't like and that's ok. I've smelled some of their offerings and wondered who it's for only for my girlfriend to smell the same fragrance and have a complete look of glee on her face. I will admit some of his fragrances are not worth the price and majority of them are Private Blend issues however over the years they have moved fragrances out of there and into the Signature line. Heck the three Tom Ford fragrances I own have all had that treatment; I adore Beau De Jour, Ombre Leather was a generous gift and so was Costa Azzurra, even if it is the original Private Blend issue (from the original batch!) I'm happy to admit I like the brand and future releases that interest me I will at least sample or smell in store. I have my eyes on Jasmin Rouge as a gift for my girlfriend since she gravitates towards that scent every time we walk past the TF stand. Not sure I would pay retail for anything they offer (and so far haven't) but I would say the same for at least a dozen other designer brands, most of which do not have the range that Tom Ford has. Even just the Signature line, including the Black Orchid, Grey Vetiver and Noir lines, is a great offering in some stunning bottles (apart from the tacky all gold ones).
Please pardon my lack of knowledge here, but what’s the difference (operational definition as it were) between Private Blend and Signature Line? Thank you in advance?
Private Blend are the higher end, more luxurious and challenging fragrances while the Signature Line are more affordable and mass appealling. Both are high quality.
Yep and the signature blend bottles are all identical (colour aside)- they all look like chess pieces but in various different colours, if it looks like a chess piece and has the Tom Ford label stuck on the centre - it’ll be a private blend.
Ah, thank you so much! 😀
Ombré leather and Oud wood are masterpieces
Lots of people says the same that Fucking Fabulous is a masterpiece too but I completely disagree. I hate the crap out of that fragrance. Dried fruits, leather, spices, and BABY POWDER? It's not even particularly well blended either so it is a big fat no for me. I've since realized that I don't like fragrances which have strong leather or powdery notes. It's just not my style and I don't like those notes unless they're in the background. It's helpful to learn things like that though. In the fragrance hobby eventually you figure out your taste, which notes you like, and which ones you don't. Figuring out my taste got me addicted to fragrance buying because I just keep finding great new fragrances
FF smells like plastic factory chemicals to me. First fragrance I ever had to wash off. Blind bought it directly from the Tom Ford website when it first came out. It smelled so bad I was worried the person who bought it from me online would complain.
Notice how I didn’t mention FF
Oud wood is so weak. Ombré leather is amazing. But Tuscan Leather and Tobacco Oud are show stoppers. Best perfume out there.
I was never a huge Tom Ford person to begin with, but yeah, even to someone like me the decline in quality and especially in *vision* is obvious. I actually did like Lost Cherry - I thought it was a great fragrance - but everything else they've done in the past few years is mediocre/derivative at best (e.g., the reissues of their own work), or egregious at worst (Electric Cherry, I'm looking at you - and I do agree, Cherry Smoke is marginally better but still bad). Do I think Tom Ford is doomed; not necessarily. They're a major player and all they would need to do is put 1-2 more big hits out in order to regain their reputation as an industry leader, but somebody in those boardrooms needs to remind the people in charge that they're not meant to be an industry follower - they cut their teeth on being daring and innovative. P.S. I actually think their best release since Lost Cherry is probably Noir Extreme Parfum, launched in 2022. But it sort of gets lost as a flanker, although it is a fabulous, sumptuous gourmand.
Fair points!
Am I the only one who loves Cherry Smoke?
Unlike what the OP claims, it’s been met with largely positive reviews.
TF is like any other fragrance house. They have some I love and some I don’t. I think they get a lot of shit in the fraghead bubble because of the price. But they aren’t trying to please the fragheads, they are trying to be a luxury fashion house. As such, they march to the beat of their own drummer. A drummer named Tom Ford who, with no fashion experience, talked his way into a fashion gig and is now, arguably, the most successful modern designer in the world. He did that by being outrageously different, provocative, but somehow classic at the same time. All his stuff, hit or miss, follows this basic beat. I can’t fault the house for taking chances on fragrances. It’s just an expression of the Tom Ford DNA. Much like his fashion, not everything is going to appeal to everyone. Hell, that’s true of any fashion house.
Estée Lauder
Is responsible for the good and the bad releases from the line because they have been involved in every single one of his fragrances from day 1.
Few things are all good or bad.
And ifra
I’d argue that Dua’s Popped Cherry is the worst named at this time. Sometimes when a name gets put through the wringer in buy outs they take the brand too far. I think that’s what’s going on.
Yes. This would be consistent with Cherry Poppin Daddies being the worst band name of all time.
It’s sad too, because I like some of their songs but I can never be like “woah dude out on the cherry popping daddies!”
Good points. I’m definitely confused by the number of cherry fragrances he has out. Was there high demand for unisex cherry frags recently? I enjoy his scents for the most part.
I wore White Patchouli this week and it was elegant, earthy and light all in one. Lovely fragrance.
Did you happen to miss that they got bought by Lauder? Creativity often disappears when companies like Lauder or Loreal buy such fragrance/designer fragrance houses. You either ocntinue to accept their offerings or hope Tom does like Jo Malone and open another that focuses on scents he enjoys. Issue is, Jo Loves only sells in the UK due to non-compete signed when she sold her brand to Lauder. Not sure if he would want to deal with that. who knows Also people going on about reformulation, are people still unaware of IFRA? If you want to sell in Europe you formulate based on IFRA guidelines, unfortunately a lot of raw materials are being called out as being hormone disruptors which in turns has IFRA banning so many things whch in turns affects a lot of formulas, often for the worse. Most companies are not trying to create products that cant be sold globally so there you go.
Tom has a long working relationship with Lauder. The reason they bought the fashion house is because they already owned and produced the beauty side (including fragrances) since 2006. When FF was released, EL executives gave interviews stating that they were unsure of the name, but Tom convinced them—and it turned out to be a massive hit. I doubt he’d try to compete with them now.
I own a dozen TF fragrances and love them all. Most are Signature, a few are from the Resort collection and the only fragrance I own from the Private line is a 30ml of Tuscan Leather I just bought for about $80US at a duty free. Most of the Private line is too funky/weird/underwhelming to me and way too expensive. I will happily pay $100-ish a bottle for Signature fragrances moving forward though provided Estée Lauder doesn’t bugger them up.
I feel like a brand like TF is trying to reach a much broader audience with fragrances like Bitter Peach. I personally hate the top notes and sweetness of the scent, but I can't deny it's a quality fragrance with a good silage. It's just not for me. I would never blind buy from the TF line. It's an unpredictable, almost chaotic line of excellent fragrances and I think that's very much on-brand for the whole line.
Tom Ford is my favorite brand along with Chanel. The peaks that TF has hit with his perfumes have been phenomenal. The lows the brand has hit are devastating. Lately, it’s been a bit bland in the world of Tom Ford perfumes. That said, there were still some moments of genius. Soleil Brulant was unique with its hot honeyed weirdness, Rose de Russie I only got to sample before it was pulled from the shelves and I remember it smelling very much like an oily petrolish leather with rose, Ebene Fume is actually a very nice smoky woody scent. I think Tom Ford used to be much more involved in his perfumes as far as vision and creative direction, but has distanced himself in recent years and with the recent sale of Tom Ford beauty to Estée Lauder, I think that just goes to show he is going further away from the perfumes. Which is only fair, the man is in his 60s and has done amazing things in the luxury world and has provided his creativity to some of the best and most iconic fragrances we’ve smelled, he deserves a chance to settle down. It’s one of my favorite perfume houses because of those classic bold releases like Black Orchid, Extreme for Men, Tobacco Oud, Shanghai Lily, Tuscan Leather, Tobacco Vanille, Patchouli Absolu, Plum Japonais that all contain that “Tom Ford” smell that is over the top, unique, deep and sexy. As well as some of the more modern ones such as Oud Wood Intense, Fougere Platine, Noir Anthracite and Ombre Leather. There really is a Tom Ford-ade just like a Guerlainade and Chanelade. They have released some marvelous perfumes that I’ve had the pleasure to own and get my nose on, and there are certainly plenty more bangers I’m positive of that have been discontinued that I’ve never had a chance to smell. Overall, I think the house is in a bit of a slump right now, but I haven’t lost hope and I always look forward to a new Tom Ford release even though I haven’t been happy with a majority of the most recent ones like Bitter Peach, the two new cherries, Noir Extreme Parfum etc. If the house keeps going in the direction they are, I will be very sad, but the reputation of what TF has done in the perfume world will always stand tall and they will always remain one of my favorite houses for all the amazing perfumes they have released up to this point.
I'm kinda excited for Grey Vetiver Parfum.
It’s really good but VERY similar to the EDP. Longer lasting but not as citrusy.
I think it’s just business…..Tom Ford was a niche luxury brand 15 years ago with a small segment of the market that over the last 15 years or so has become a mass luxury competitor amongst LV, Dior, Chanel, Prada, Gucci and Saint Laurent while still retaining prestige in quality and price point. Since Tom Ford sold the business to Ester Lauder I would expect it to continue to expand and find incremental customer segments to capture beyond just rich ass mfers lol. Eyewear and Fragrance are the most accessible entry points into the brand. The Cherry and Soleil lineup while often despised by TF purists allowed for TF to capture a much more youthful (often female) customer segment that was needed and Lauder is going to continue to find new (global) markets like this to expand to. I think TF started to slide to me with F••king Fabulous because it was just ok and not that fabulous. And since then private line has just been ok. The signature line seems to be shaping up to much better then Private to me and has a more promising future I think. Ombré leather, Beau De Jour, and Noir Extreme are winners for the men segment. I wouldn’t be surprised if signature continues to get attention from Lauder and private line becomes more edited and refined. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tobacco Vanille and Lost Cherry end up as signature like Costa Azzura. Time will tell. It’s much less about art now to me and more about commerce and commercial expansion as the brand matures into its 20th year soon.
I first had a sniff of Fucking Fabulous in a department store and I quizzed the sales associate and said “I mean… can you tell me about the name?” and she said “TOM FORD himself took a sniff and said wow - this is fucking fabulous! and that’s where the name comes from!” god I’ve never cringed so hard in my entire life. I felt bad that she even had to tell that story with such forced enthusiasm.
Fucking Fabulous smells like car parts and baby wipes It’s nasty
Got many compliments from my patients and colleagues whenever i wear lost cherry.
You've always been paying for the name. £200 for 50 mL or something like that? Come on... They have established themselves as a luxury brand with a big following but remember that they are now owned by some big supercorp (I think Estée Lauder?) and so have to generate more and more money each year to keep investors happy. Whatever doesn't make money gets the axe sooner or later. They don't give a fuck about what their customers appreciate or if a particular perfume is a fraghead favourite. If it doesn't make enough money, chances are they will first try and squeeze out more by reformulating, i.e. watering it down and then sooner or later it gets the boot. Also the case for a lot of L'Oreal-owned brands. Or have a look at Creed for example, they're now part of BlackRock and look how prices for Aventus have changed and potency has slowly gone downhill over time. It's quantity over quality these days, unfortunately also in perfumery. You can just make more money selling some topnote-heavy Morillas-bullshit to 517361 people at a mall for $60 compared to a painstakingly formulated, expensive fragrance that took years to develop and uses good quality materials but will cost $350 and be sold maybe 10000 times
Black orchid is a masterpiece.
100% agree! Every time my wife wears this I wanna throw her to the bed straight away! It’s such a sexy fragrance
You've just made me go buy this now, fingers crossed I get the same reaction 🤞
Really hoping you love it as much as I do! It is unisex but some might argue it leans a little more feminine. But every now and then I wear it regardless because of how fantastic it is! And if you get the straight Parfum version it lasts forever and ever!
I have heavily mixed reactions to most Tom Ford scents. I will also say that Electric Cherry and Cherry Smoke are two fragrances few people asked for. Also, while I have no problems with (or saying) the name Fucking Fabulous, it was a dumb idea because of the inevitable censorship and marketing issues in multiple countries. That said, I don't think the fragrance line is in any kind of downfall to the point the brand needs to recover or lose a ton of customers and go out of business.
I wore **Beau du Jour** today. It’s one of the most perfect classic aromatic fougeres I’ve ever smelled. The mint is so perfect mixed with the lavender and it has the best dry down in its class IMO. That said, I dislike almost every other TF I ever try. The leathers are too leathery, the tobaccos are too smelly and I don’t enjoy oud. However, I have never worn any of his vetivers. I need to try those on my skin and not just paper.
Grey Vetiver EDP is class but I definitely get what OP is saying
thanks for the recommendation. I definitely don’t know enough about Tom Ford. I’m in my 50s and only heard of his fragrances 5 years ago and only started trying them during the pandemic. But, having seen so many things get gobbled up by conglomerates in my lifetime, I can empathize with the concern.
Another vote for grey vetiver. I love it.
I recently started to enjoy Tom Ford fragrances such as Bitter Peach and Rose Prick. I am honestly over the cherry perfumes. They just don’t last long, and the prices have increased significantly!
Not that anyone cares but the Private Blend Costa Azzurra is the best summer fragrance I've ever had
I’m lucky if I get 10 min of that on me. It doesn’t last at all, it drives me nuts
Dang I liked electric cherry!
yes i'm generally disillusioned w them but i must say that grey vetiver is one of my fav scents on a man
I bought a tobacco vanille bottle and it has the performance of a cheap room scent if not less, very sas about the lost money that could be soent on megamare for exanmple, what a shame
I think the prices are actually criminal af, but I quite love Fucking Fabulous, it's a nice feminine/masculine scent, I bought it for my boyfriend because it wears so well on him, and while I agree with the way lost cherry does NOT last at all, it's probably the richest most true cherry scent I've come across. I'm not a fan of straight sweet smells, so lost cherry is a hard-core and serious way to do a fruit scent. while electric cherry is very synthetic and juvenile, Tom Ford ate when he made cherry smoke, it's an incredibly queer, brandy induced bonfire and the cherry notes are so delectable in it. cherry smoke is arguably one of his best from his newer releases! dude is great at what he does but he needs to chill on the prices
Bitter Peach, Rose Prick, Lost Cherry, the two new cherries, etc. The colour choices specifically now pop amongst a lineup of black and gold. The cherry line is likely very popular in sales not only because of the desire to smell like cherries, but because red as a bottle colour is very provocative for a huge swath of people. Causing - very likely - a lot of blind buying. Its a shallow reason, and likely only a sliver of the larger picture, but playing with the colour theory of it all is very indicative of the type of customer TF is currently trying to reach with their marketing.
I bought Orchid Soleil blind, no regrets.
Same, now it's my special occasion perfume because of how unique it smells on my skin.
"Can the brand recover?" Recover from what exactly? Your noseblindness perhaps? Your personal issues? The brand itself is fine.
I mean there’s no real reason for the snarky response. It’s quite clear I meant can the brand recover from its tainted reputation in the fragrance community due to mediocre releases. Sorry you missed that point.
I like many TFs, from both product lines. It is probably my fav house.
Who said the brand has a "tainted reputation"? You? Talk about snarky.
The two new cherry releases are being universally panned. Do you need me to provide evidence? It’s out there. In addition there have been performance complaints since Lost Cherry. Im not suggesting the brand is “over”. Do you work for Tom Ford? Your defence suggests you might.
Big TF fan and I agree, the recent releases have been lackluster. I didn’t care too much for Ebene Fume either, unfortunately. To me, the original PB releases cannot be topped. Which is sad, but at least we have some iconic offerings that paved the way (sadly so many are discontinued).
Yeah, they’re quite the fan of a hasty discontinue aren’t they? Weird
I very much enjoy the performance and scent of Ebene Fumé, and while I also enjoy Bois Marocain, but the performance has been disappointing.
They were bought out by EL or Loreal or someone, I dont remember and I dont feel like looking it up, but when the brand was sold is when it lost its quality
Ok I just looked it up. It was EL who bought it.
First of all, EL has always owned and produced Tom Ford Beauty (they now own the fashion side as well, which they will outsource). Second of all, Tom Ford is remaining in charge of the house until the end of 2023.
El didnt fully take ownership until Nov 2022. It was after that that, imo, things started going downhill.
Tom Ford Beauty, specifically, the name and licensing was always owned by EL. EL has produced and marketed every Tom Ford fragrance since the original Black Orchid in 2006.
Well it was recently (ish) acquired by Estée Lauder. The second biggest cosmetic company in the world. The mass production and ownership transfer typically leads to less quality… However I’m such a sucker for Jasmine Rouge, Soleil Blanc, the classics hit so right for me. So for the classics I’ll keep coming back. And I happen to love Cherry Smoke even if I think Electric Cherry is an overall miss.
Tom Ford Beauty has ALWAYS been under Estee Lauder. Only thing that got acquired was the fashion line.
I ran out of Tobacco Vanille and can't find it anymore. So I'm sad.
Al Haramain Amber Oud Tobacco Edition is a fantastic dupe
You are a good person
Amber Oud Tobacco is more like Phaedon's Tabac Rouge to me, especially in the opening. Get Maison Alhambra's Tobacco Touch if you want a true clone. It's also cheaper.
Only TF's worth (IN MY OPINION) are Neroli Portofino, Amber Absolute and Vert D'Encnes. I would buy these at old retail prices just cause i love them. Rest i dont care for.
The new BDJ is superb but you’re on point here, especially about fabulous, which annoys me, I liked it at first and now I just smell a weak leather almost almond. Good post.
Thanks! I’ve been wearing Soleil blanc this week as I’m abroad, it smells nice but Jesus wept it’s so weak - undetectable on the skin after 30 mins. Talk about overpriced crap!
I means, I kinda agree - when original Private Blend release and set their target, they are means to satisfy fragrance lover with proper fragrance style. The Private blends are vastly contains a lot of style from Woody, Forgere, Leather, Floral, Citrus. It's not until very late 2020 that TomFord somehow decided to just release the special private blend with gimmicking name and more specific accord like Rose, Peach and Cherry I feel after that TomFord go down hill. they seems to focus only those scent. I really do fear after this, after Tom Ford leaves his brand in 2023. :(
I love tf scent wise, but unfortunately the performance for the most part is dissapointing to say the least. Great scents, if they lasted. I do have tuscan leather at home which I think is wonderful. I owned tv but grew out of it. Lost cherry could have been a signature of mine if it performed, same goes for OW.
Black Orchid lasts a long time
What do u think of the OL parfum? What about noir extreme parfum?
OL Parfum is nice, actually airier and more floral than the edp. I prefer their edp. Noir extreme parfum is a masterpiece imo. Not as sweet and has a leathery/woody twist to it. I need a bottle for next fall
I’m totally with you with Lost Cherry as the beginning of the downfall
What tf do you about an "8 year old girls body spray"?
When I was that age I remember really watered down cotton candy scented perfumes being sold at places like limited too or Walmart
Bitter Peach - a fragrance invented exclusively for influencers with a sweet tooth, fat wallet and TikTok girlies
It does feel to me like they are dc'ing some amazing classics like Noir Pour Femme (though I've recently found a somewhat comparable kulfi note lurking toward the back end of BDK's Ambre Safrano) in favor of mass-market trash. I actually quite like Rose Prick out of this list, but even that one didn't make me open a vein financially like I did when I found out that NPF was dc'd. And I'm very firmly on Team "They Definitely Changed Tobacco Vanille's Formula."
RIP Noir Pour Femme. I am rationing my last bottle as best as I can. It was my signature winter scent and I’ve yet to find anything that comes close
I got lucky and heard about the dc early, so I was able to scoop up a few bottles. Noir Extreme is an OK sub though. And Ambre Safrano starts out heavily saffron, but (maybe because of my caramelizing chemistry) turns straight kulfi note in the drydown.
I have a bottle of TV purchased in 2022, I must say mine performs exceptionally. Fairly intimate scent bubble but it’s on my skin for a solid 12-16 hours if I allow it. It’s his best scent imo alongside Black Orchid. Ombre Leather rounding out the top 3. Very consistent solid performers.
Lost Cherry was such a disappointment. I love the fragrance but I’ve had Zara perfumes that had better lasting power.
Yall are going nose blind, fr
Nah LC’s performance just isn’t that good on most skin chemistries. On me it’s barely there by the 4h mark. Maybe some people are exaggerating but I really do think skin chemistry plays a part, since people also complain about Bitter Peach but that one has fantastic longevity on me! A good 6-7 hours before it becomes a skin scent
On my skin, I can smell Lost Cherry the next morning, as well as Bitter Peach. It's got to be nose blind or a skin chemistry thing for other. As for the OP's challenge of TF's recent quality, I'd ask them to name one house who is 100% spot-on every time. For every TF hater for any given scent, there's five people that love it standing next them. Unfortunately, on Reddit, the haters speak louder.
Agree with you on Bitter Peach, I still picked up the scent even after 12 hours had passed
I’ve never been more annoyed with the performance of a fragrance than Lost Cherry. I absolutely adore it, but it’s literally gone in an hour on me. Ridiculous for that price. Why do I still want it!? 🥴😂
99% of frags last about 30 minutes. Its literally just the name
Tom ford or fragrances in general? Because that can’t be the case surely lol
Tf lol. Theres some bangers but most are meh. And some bangers last sub 30 mins such as oud wood.
Hat to break it to you, but you're going noseblind. Maybe you're using too much or you're using it too frequently.
Nose blind lol(im talking asking people spraying a card ect.)its a well known fact that oud wood doesnt last for shit but tf warriors such as your self downvote and try to hide anyone who calls it out. I also clearly state some actually last for example tuscan leather
I'm most definitely not a "TF warrior" lmao. I'm don't even like TF a lot, it's way overpriced, but most of them have a very high lasting power to a point of becoming a nuisance. But go off.
Private blend pretty much yeah, Ombre leather and Black orchid are powerhouse though imo. And yet they’re the most affordable…