Rehab
Initio (2018)

How in the world this fragrance ended up as a marketed towards men only is seriously beyond me. Unisex would have been fine, but to leave out women… I don’t get it. I understand that we can all wear whatever we want, and I do… and my likes tend to be feminine leaning fragrances. And to me, this is very feminine leaning. I really wouldn’t care what the label said most of the time, but niche brands tend to put unisex on everything, and yet they neglected to do so for this. So let me tell you what I get from it…

Lavender, maybe a hint of soft and smooth tobacco, vanilla… and lots of it, sandalwood… the creamy variety, and finally… a soft, fluffy and cozy musk. It’s sweet, and it’s VERY comforting and cozy.

I absolutely love this scent. I love lavender, and I love soft and fluffy musks. I love vanilla and I love creamy fragrances.

I have no issue at all with a man wanting to wear this fragrance, I just have a little bit of an issue with the brand not saying this is unisex. Which is a fact I did not learn until about 19 seconds before I started to write this review.

It’s beautiful though. Definitely one to pick up on chilly nights or snowy days.

I was prepared for all sorts of madness after reading the reviews, but my takeaway is: Emperor's New Fougère. Whatever else is allegedly in here–vetiver, tobacco, lavender–it's crushed under the heel of obnoxiously loud vanilla and musk. I understand the desire to be noticed, but for this? Pass.

Rehab is a fougere riff on the Initio formula for fascination which includes a mix of woods and musks in the base. Most of the Initio fragrances I've tried have a thick amorphous, undefinable musk main body to the fragrance and this one follows that path. Along with the musk are several wood and incense type notes - patchouli, guaiac wood, sandalwood, cedar and vetiver that moves the musk into an incense quality and the fougere elements of lavender, bergamot and vanilla yields a healing rehabilitation quality that you might get after a go over in an old fashioned barbershop. The result is a warm creamy woods and vetiver toned musk that stays warm and fuzzy in feel while giving me the feeling that better days are ahead. I like this one from Initio because it avoids that complicated but sweet character that so many of these musk type scents seem to have. Instead of sweet it is spa like rehab and a dry incense afterglow. 8 of 10!

Initio Parfums Privés is a house I hold to task sometimes for being overpriced designer drivel with over-amped bases like its sister brand Parfums de Marly, but also like its sibling, can sometimes slide a winner or three across my desk that I'd be willing to pay for (at discount). Initio Rehab (2018) is one such fragrance, and almost gleefully combines several tropes I enjoy about modern designer perfumery into one, then uses the higher concentration and predilection for richer base notes this brand is known for to deliver something that isn't worth the asking price, but worth obtaining nonetheless. There is a bit of hype with this one, and I can understand why that hype exists, as there is a lot to like about Rehab, even if you can mostly find what it offers piecemeal for less elsewhere. The jist of Rehab is to mix creamy woody oriental tones with a nutty lavender core, then sprinkle it with tobacco and pepper before smoothing it out with musk. If you know anything about the state of the online fragrance community, you already know why the "FragBros" are going nuts for this, plastering their smarmy faces and too much hair gel all over heavily-filtered pictures of Rehab bottles on Instagram or Facebook, crying "banger" or "stunner" in the blurb. Yeah, this stuff turns some heads, I'll give you boys that.

The opening reminds me most of Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb (2012), especially with the black pepper and cinnamon aldehydes. The nutty lavender a la sister brand Parfums de Marly's Pegasus (2011) comes next, mixed with some leafy tobacco that will conjure images of L'Occitane Eau de Baux (2006) or Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille (2007) if you ignore the pepper. A few moments in, the scent gets creamier and woodier, more complex and richer, but still feels "designery" if that's a word you'll permit. Notes of guaiac wood, patchouli, and sandalwood are listed, but likely javanol, norlimbanol, clearwood, and fuzzy cashmeran (which I more readily detect) are to blame for this, hearkening back to the days when the now-unicorn Gucci pour Homme (2002) lumbered onto the Earth to introduce the modern woody-amber style. Vanilla and white musks soften and sweeten the deal, while the lavender and pepper linger. Wear time is 12+hours and projection remains a moderate but steady performance throughout, and best use for this will be colder weather. Versatility is between office and night out use for me, but not casual kicking with friends or family. The blurb about Rehab being hedonistic or so profound you could reach out and touch it is a bit much, but such market copy comes with the price tag.

The stiff price tag of $350 for 90ml of extrait de parfum will be the deciding factor for many (including myself) for picking this up. You could almost layer Spicebomb, Eau de Baux, and a bit of Azzaro Visit (2003) to get you in the ballpark, and spill pay less overall for those three bottles than you would have on just one bottle of this stuff. If Rehab wasn't such an obvious cocktail, I might be a bit more inclined to get behind the hype for it, but we're all just being tricked by someone with enough savvy to know their own market (mostly upper middle-class executive men who watch YouTube videos about perfume), and have perfected a lure to use if hunting "FragBros" for sport ever becomes a thing. Just set out a bottle of Rehab and watch some jackass with a backwards hat, Under Armour shirt, and neck full of "drip" crawl from the darkness into the light in order to grab it. Congratulations, you just nabbed a prize buck! All joking aside, this is good stuff and if you can get it for around the same prices Parfums de Marly goes for at discount (or in the gray market), I wouldn't blame you. If you drop retail cash for this, don't look at me if you end up realizing you've been served YouTuber Turducken in a bottle. Thumbs up

So I've heard a fair bit of hype around this one and I must admit....I'm impressed. Much like HdP 1899 the connections to Spicebomb are justified but of course this one is on an upper tier. I actually get a slight Spicebomb Extreme vibe as well. Longevity is fantastic, while sillage and projection are both good. I do get touches of lavender with this one which I don't get with SB. Drys down to a sweet, woody tobacco. Very nice but not something I want or need in my personal collection.

Somehow I missed the hype around Rehab and didn't even know it existed until a couple of months ago (I guess that's what happens when you don't watch YouTube fragrance reviews). So I didn't know what anyone was saying about it, good or bad. And when I ordered a bottle of it the only thing I knew was that some people were saying it was like Spicebomb and that other people were arguing with them and denying any connection to the Viktor & Rolf smash-hit. But I like Spicebomb so I figured at the least, I'd like this, and if it was different, then I'd have something new. Well, now that I've had Rehab for a couple of months, I think the best way to describe is like this: Rehab is a much smoother, richer, creamier, more polished and overall much better version of Spicebomb. It's also whiter and airier, more aromatic, and less spicy. But the central accord which drives each is very similar in terms of their basic smell. Still, I love that smell, and will gladly pay more for what is absolutely the best version of it I've e countered so far. And, as is the case with 1899, RehAb is only similar to Spicebomb for so long. Once it hits the dry down stage it really takes on a very different character altogether, here becoming much more about lavender, a creamy sandalwood, and an excellent aromatic tobacco. It projects extremely well and lasts a long time. Rehab's become one of my favorites, with its upbeat, friendly aroma an excellent choice for casual wear and for socializing. No need to complicate this review by saying much else. It's a great fragrance, even if the first hour or two are a bit familiar. Final rating: 9/10