Herod fragrance notes
Head
- cinnamon, pepper wood
Heart
- osmanthus, tobacco leaf, frankincense, labdanum
Base
- vanilla pod, woods, atlas cedar, vetiver, patchouli, iso e super, cypriol, musk
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Latest Reviews of Herod

I get that not everyone loves tobacco as a fragrance, but there is just something mesmerizing about the way this is constructed. The bottle is gorgeous too. I know PDM is expensive, but if you watch for it on the grey market, there are occasional steals. I got my backup bottle for an insanely cheap price!

UPDATE: Three hours in and I’m addicted. The initial splash of dense sweetness has given way to sexy woody man musk. I smell like I’ve been making out with a sweaty, pipe-smoking lumberjack and I AM HERE FOR IT.
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Intoxicating.
If this is what osmanthus smells like, then I want to smell more osmanthus: sort of like animalic jasmine.
Surprisingly, Herod smells less like an edible confection than I feared. It is sweet, but the depth and complexity of the fragrance stop it becoming sickly sweet.
For me, any more than four sprays is overwhelming. Longevity is about ten hours and projection is good.
If Red Tobacco by Mancera is too much for you, or too synthetic smelling, then give Herod a go.
9/10


As it dries down, some of the heartier notes come up - the tobacco becomes more prominent, there are mild hints of vetiver. But I think the note I notice most is Iso-E-Super.
If you're into thick, rich tobaccos or creamy, dreamy vanillas, Herod will surprise you with its softness and subtlety. The note of Iso-E-Super means that you will get a nice, pleasant sillage. But when I put almost any other scent on one wrist, and Herod on the other, after smelling the first wrist, and then smelling the wrist with Herod, I smell almost nothing at all - it's that light. Yet I will draw compliments wearing this. So again, it's a very Iso-E-Super experience in that respect.
I think I just expected slightly more from PdM. The tobacco is very light. The vanilla is very soft. And the Iso-E-Super gives it that sugary cedar vibe. To my nose, it's not a wonderful blend. Just ... well - I think 'bright, pale yellow' is the best I can do to summarize Herod.

Ultimately, it's your money, and you have the right to hype up this brand if you so choose.

I do not prefer these type of gourmands..however I can imagine how this is more of personality based choice than anything else. Would smell great in parties and on females




Well, when sprayed on my skin, the first minutes took me on an odd world of childhood memories, as this smelled somewhat like vanilla play doh, but in an inexplicably good way. I do get somewhat of a metallic aspect to the scent as well, especially within the first few minutes. When Herod dries down, it however becomes much more interesting: warm spicy accords blend into the mix, and give it some depth, especially through the amber note.
Anyone familiar with the PdM "DNA" will find itself in familiar territory, here, with this strong, well-built, somewhat-sweet-but-not-quite-gourmand creamy vanilla-driven base that bears and effective spicy accords.
I couldn't help but think about Carlisle (from Parfums de Marly as well), which is one of my signature scents (during fall and winter), which also has a strong vanilla note and accords that do bear some similarities with this. They are distinct scents without a doubt, but those who say that Carlisle smells like Herod and Layton's love child are not totally wrong.
To me, Carlisle is such a more complete fragrance, in that it takes you on a journey where notes that would seemingly make it a plain gourmand scent instead blend unexpectedly (green apple and vanilla, nutmeg, rose and tonka bean) and give you this warm feeling that's both mesmerizing and comforting, but that also makes it so much more sophisticated than some super sweet, one-dimensional "apple pie" scent.
Herod is no one-dimensional "apple pie" scent, and in no way smells sweet in a cheap way, but to be honest, everything I like about it, Carlisle does better. Or, at least, Carlisle takes you to a similar place at some point through its dry down, then takes you to even more enchanting places. So, where Herod settles down an unveils its depth, Carlisle is just passing by, and its journey then goes on towards a much nicer destination with much more to see (to smell, actually). Again I need to insist that Herod is not a shadow of Carlisle, but the DNA and fundamentals have indeed a lot in common.
That's just my opinion, and seeing how popular Herod is (moreso than Carlisle, it seems), maybe Herod yet has to grow on me some more. But, again, frags that are mainly of the gourmand type are just not really my cup of tea in general.
Performance is good, although a bit sub-par compared to other outings from this house. Percival and Carlisle both perform tremendously better than this. That's not to say that this is not decent-lasting, or that this does not project satisfyingly. It does.
Overall, I'd say that this is a very good sweet/spicy fragrance that is too gourmand for my personal taste. If that's your thing, tobacco, vanilla and cinnamon blend delightfully, and spicy accords jump into the mix a bit later to make things interesting. However, you should absolutely give Carlisle a try before spending a couple hundred on a bottle of Herod, because I really have a hard time trying to even imagine that anyone who likes this would not absolutely fall in love with Carlisle.

The base adds a vanilla-base sweetness that enhances the caramel, with a woodosness lingering in the background, including a cedar impression. Some nagarmotha adds a more spicy note again, with a soft patchouli-vetiver duo adding a green and slightly fresher and green touch. Some iso e super adds freshness, which is given added depth by lashings of white musks.
I get moderate sillage, excellent projection, and an impressive eleven hours of longevity in my skin.
This is a pleasant autumn gourmand, reminding me of similar products other houses. Less intense than Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford, a bit less spicy than L' Occitane's Eau de Beaux, it is more linear and somewhat more generic testimony to such types of gourmand scents. 2.75/5