Replica By the Fireplace
Martin Margiela (2015)

Absolutely delicious. Burned wood or paper or ... something, which might sound off-putting, and judging from the reviews, it is off-putting for some people - but for me? The mixture of that accord with a sweet, roasting chestnut smell is just heavenly. The way this one wears on my skin is divine - a truly smoky gourmand with a sweet nuttiness that lasts and lasts and lasts on my skin, despite the fact that the one I'm wearing is an edt.

This one has risen in my ranks to become among my all-time favorite fragrances, and as far as niche or 'arthouse' fragrances go - it's not prohibitively expensive.

A winner in my book. (Cannot stop smelling my arms where I applied this hours ago - YUM!)

I sprayed this on a tear paper in the mall and all I could smell was burning wood smoke.

But this ended up being in a fragrance sampler from Sephora so I tried it on my skin.

This is amazing scents of wood and vanilla, it’s a little Smokey, but not like a smoke bomb. This feels more like a winter and fall fragrance and is a great unisex scent.

Like the worst of Margiela's clothes, too many of the Replica series of scents are really more of a knowing and ironic postmodern joke about the possibility of representation rather than a fragrance you might actually choose to wear for pleasure. This is one of these jokes. It's amusing enough, but it is lacking in any depth. You see all those fruity and flowery notes listed? Well, just as with Jazz Club, I don't think they are even part of this fragrance's actual profile. The people who say they are smelling them are just influenced by the fact that they have read the list. This scent starts with a blast of burnt sugar (this is not subtle chemistry here), and while the smokiness remains in the background, this gradually gives way to an equally unsubtle vanilla over time. And that is it, folks. Anyone who tells you different is just buying into the hype. Unless smelling like burnt sugar, smoke and vanilla is your thing then the only real use I can see for this is in layering, if you wanted to add a sweet smokey tone to an amber or oud.

Who walks up to a burn ring and says , "Ahhh, what's that wonderful fragrance?" This is one of only a handful of colognes that I do not care for; a scent trying to smell like a burned down pile of wood. Sure, it contains vanilla and spices, but it still smells like the stuff you don't like to get in your eyes. By the Fireplace is nice for what it's supposed to be; I just don't want it on me.

Like a wooden sauna with Christmas spices added in.loving the peru balsam, vanilla and cashmeran,and the not too overpowering pepper.the perfume contains ingredient with pretty strong smells,but they mellow down to something soft pretty fast. balsamic, sweet,woody,warm,cozy and senseous but it just doesn't wow me.

The opening is promising,with pink pepper, chestnut,humid balsam, smoke and a bit of vanillic sweetness, but all of that complixity vanishes during the dry down,which is just a smidge above your friendly neighborhood woodsy/vanilla base. traces of the opening remain,but ultimately they're quite fleeting.by the four or five hour mark,it's just a faint skin scent; this one is no beast.i think either day at the office (warm sweater with a colourful scarf comes to mind) or night out,would work fot either.

Initially, this is lovely, but I'm not sure I when I could wear it: it would smell like I'd burnt a dessert and gone out in the same clothes I cooked and cleared it up in. A few hours later it's almost straightforwardly vanillic, verging on too ordinary, as the complex smokiness subsides. I like having this around, though, and I daresay I'll use the sample again.