Ebene Fume by Tom Ford

Hey posse. Another cab from the Surrender To Chance decant pack I bought recently. Ébène Fumé (from here in Ebene Fume) by Tom Ford comes in the most divinely coloured bottle cap and plate. I’ve been lusting after it like crazy. Also, that orange brown juice! So cool. Thing is, I need to smell it without the visual and tactile jolts. To see if the fragrance lives up to the creative. So I added a decant to my cart. Better to check it out first than drop a wad of cash on something sub-par.

Ebene Fume by Tom Ford

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Incense Palo santo Black pepper Violet leaf
Heart: Leather Labdanum Cade oil Papyrus Rose
Base: Resins Ebony tree Guaiac wood

The open is peppery and smells like we are heading for a creamy sandalwood. Very soon a smoking, cool, woodsy incense comes through, very Christian churchy. There is a cool, dusty, longtime wet cement feeling like in a train waiting room in the UK. Tom Ford has always had good openings, interesting and unusual.

5 minutes in and the fireworks are over. Ebene Fume becomes a softer, resinous incense. Very pretty. Still fragrant with moderate to low projection. This heart is beautiful. Nuanced but not focussing enough on any one note to make a statement about it. Dry, pepper scratchy, inviting and with a dark something underneath creating a very alluring contrapuntal. I’m smelling hints of rose but worried that the note list has suggested it to me and my mind is creating it.

Did you ever get one of those lacquered wood boxes or ornaments? When they’re new and you get them up close to sniff. This is what Ebene Fume smells like in the heart. It’s slightly woody but also the lacquer, glue, dust etc that’s gone into making, transporting, storing and selling. Quite a sharp memory.

Dry down is dry woods and still a little incense, cold, awaiting the fire to ignite it.

Patty has written about Tubereuse Nue and Lost Cherry on Posse too.

Does Ebene Fume or its presentation float your boat?
Portia xx