Tom Ford Lost Cherry Review

TTom Ford Lost Cherry Reviewom Ford Lost Cherry is a puzzle.  I’ve been sniffing it since it first came out last year, which in perfume time is forever ago.

First, hate, then love, then meh.  I have to give it to Tom for producing something that I can’t classify how I feel about it pretty quickly.  Not even mad about the name.  In a world where fragrances are competing crazily for attention, if calling something Lost Cherry or Rose Prick happens, well, a guy has to make a buck.

Here’s what I get – in varying doses depending on the day – big old snoot full of cherry cough syrup.  It’s a hyperreal idealized cherry, over the top all in sweet syrupy maraschino level.  Then… oh, hey, what is that?  Little tobacco, little more. Okay, grandpa pipe. And then it gets tricky.  The florals and woods wrap around those little plump sticky sugared cherries, hug them tighter and tell them, shhhhh, stop trying so hard.  Tonka makes them all quit fighting, and we head off  into this really soft, beautiful, slightly cherried woody floral

With a single small dose, this whole fragrance dance is not long enough.  So I dump on more.

Okay, mostly because that opening of sugar-drenched cherries is weirdly addictive – I looooove cherries!  Add more, add more.

Every time I dump more on, I love it harder after the over the top cherries fade.  Is this just thrilling trash on the startup, or is that drydown really posh and great?  As it turns out, both/and is the correct answer.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Notes list stolen from Kafkaesque – black cherry accord, bitter almond, griotte sirup Scenttek™, Turkish rose absolute Orpur®, jasmine sambac, sandalwood, vetiver, cedar, Peru balsam, roasted tonka Orpur.

What others are saying about Tom Ford Lost Cherry

So I thought, let’s run around the perfume-i-verse and find out how everyone else feels because I feel certain that I’m probably all by myself in love for this little cherry tart.   Am I alone here?

The Cut says “Inhale a big whiff of Lost Cherry and you’ll get fresh tobacco mixed with the candy-sweet scent of Luxardo Maraschino Cherries. It’s one of the brand’s first food-inspired fragrances, and one that straight-up smells like a syrupy, drippy dessert. You might smell it and think of Shirley Temples and cigarettes. Maybe you have an aunt who smokes and likes to bake cherry pies — this will recall her. Or maybe it’ll remind you of a time you went to a bar wearing cherry Chapstick.”

Yup, co-sign.

Victoria compares it to Serge Feminite du Bois, which makes sense, though I find the Lost Cherry to be less fruity over the long haul of smelling, but it certainly is in the Serge fruit basket perfume model.

I was shocked to find Kafkaesque liked it, “ripe, juicy, sticky, succulent black cherries, splashed with a generous amount of boozy amaretto liquor and equally boozy vanilla, then lightly sprinkled with a pinch of confectioner’s sugar before served up on a small platter made out of roses and woods. The vanilla appears out of nowhere, smelling boozier than regular sugared vanillin but also boozier than ethyl maltol vanilla.” Go read the rest if you haven’t.

Kafkaesque also found that the larger application made it better – maybe it’s just that what the perfume does becomes so much more apparent when it is completely surrounding your senses.

Tom Ford Lost CherryThe open should not deter you from spending time with it, you did not just grab a Swisher Sweet cigar by mistake. Okay, that may be what is throwing me,  we used to get stupid teenager drunk and smoke Swisher Sweets. Oh,  do not cringe, I’m not about to launch into some how I lost my cherry story!  I mean, I could, but ugh, no.  That photo over there is me at about 17 – I’m the one on the right.  That was a seriously stupid teenage night, and the Swisher Sweets are probably in a pocket somewhere, along with peppermint Schnapps.  Those are my two high school besties, Cindy and Sue. I know, we were just missing Karen.  I really do think we were as cool as we thought we were, though.  I mean, that is a CPO jacket I’ve got on.

Ultimately, I have decided the Lost Cherry represents the entire trajectory of memory – something sharply memorable, unforgettable that may not be all that happy or great – though it could have parts of that –  but it is something you love(d) with silliness – like cherries! – and it always fades, sharp edges lost in the mists of time and forever re-shaped by memory’s untrustworthy razor. You lose so much of the present’s vivid juiciness – and also its harshness and pain – and that makes the softer, rounder, fuzzier memory so much better.  So. Yeah.  Genius.

 

  • Tara C says:

    I like it well enough, if it was $100 I’d buy it, but not at that price.

    • Patty says:

      Yeah, the price is dumb, all of his prices are dumb, but he sells the at that price, so I guess he is not as dumb? 🙂

  • Dina C. says:

    You know how part of the perfume journey is figuring out your favorite notes, as well as the notes you can’t stand? Well, a couple years ago I figured out tobacco is one I really loathe. My dad was a pipe smoker who died of lung cancer many years ago. And the smell of pipe smoke in the car always made me car sick. So really sad, bad associations. And then just yesterday I had to scrub off LeLabo Tonka 25 from my wrist because it didn’t work at all. I’m think tonka is another note that’s not gonna play nicely with my skin and nose. So the tobacco and tonka in Lost Cherry have scared me away I’m afraid.

    • Patty says:

      Oh, yeah, I would not go near it if i were you, you will loathe it! I really never liked that cherry tobacco smell. I don’t hate it, just doesn’t have any happy feels for me, so no real reaction to that part of it.

  • Kathleen says:

    I get the initial cherry cough syrup which is pleasant enough, but I’d never wear the perfume, that is not how I want to smell. My brother-in-law adores it! He loves cherry and tobacco. He just accepts it for what it is and enjoys the initial blast.

    • Patty says:

      Yeah, I had to get past that. I LOVE cherry, but I’d never buy it for that, especially at Ford prices. It’s that drydown that is kind of amazing. I get with your bro-in-law is saying!

  • Eldarwen22 says:

    I avoid Tom Ford like the plague. I have tried a couple things and wasn’t too impressed. Tobacco Vanille was the only one I liked but at his prices, not enough to get a full bottle.

    • Patty says:

      Totally understand that. I hate his price point, it just seems excessive. If you get the gigantor bottle, it’s not as bad but who does that? I’ve got a few I like in there a couple I think I love, but overall, there are other lines I enjoy a lot more.

  • Portia says:

    Hey Patty?
    None of you get biscuit? so strange to me the Lost Cherry smells like sour cherry cheesecake tastes, to me.
    If it was 2/3 the price I’d have bought a bottle.
    Portia xx

    • Patty says:

      I think I understand the biscuit. I think I even had cheesecake in my review at one point and then thought, nah! But I’m going to put it on again and hunt for the biscuit. I think it’s definitely in there. Yeah, the price is stupid but I really like this one, one of a couple that I acutally wear regularly.