Rose Prick
Tom Ford (2020)

Pleasant, but not special

The rose is a bit jammy and a bit boozy, and not particularly memorable.

The spices add some interest, but are also slightly poudery, which doesn’t fit well with the rose.

The base is sweet and earthy, and does a decent job of grounding Rose Prick.

Longevity is around six hours on my skin, and projection and sillage are moderate to low.

For me, Rose Prick would have to be half price to keep my attention.

This one smells like Jean Grey, the X-Man who later nearly destroys the universe as Phoenix. It smells like Jean Grey wants Logan (Wolverine) to smell her while avoding confrontations with her hot shot (and hothead) fiancé, Cyclops, leader of the X-Men. Wolverine has an advanced sense of smell, you know, which is necessary because the sillage on this one isn't particularly great.

I'm a man and I generally like unisex florals, but this one leans more feminine to me. Still, I like to wear it on lonesome evenings, after a bath, in a heavy terry cloth robe, whenever I want to imagine Logan's forlorn pining for Jean Grey.

The top notes are a bouquet of roses, mainly May roses, a bit of the Bulgarian and Turkish varieties blended it, mainly the blossoms - but quite brief. Soon oot changes to more of the roses' leaves and stems.

Then I get a phase with a slightly herbal undertone, reminding at times of Colonna's rose-essence-infused olive oil; this is replaced swiftly but a nice tumeric impression; hints of white pepper add depth at this stage. A soft and quite bright patchouli develops, and gains more prominence well into the later stages.

The base is adding a fairly restrained vanilla, which remains rather bland on me until the very end.

I get moderate sillage, very good projection, and five hours of longevity on my skin.

The opening of this spring scent is quite nice as a good lashing of roses, albeit smells rather synthetic, and it does not last very long. The later stages are less vivid and less convincing, especially the base, which is more on the generic side. The performance is lacklustre after the first part 2.75.5

The opening is somewhat harsh to me. It is rose but of the sweeter variety without any oud or saffron, thankfully. This is better in the air than up close. The drydown is solid with an interesting smokey candle-rose note that's not too sweet or smokey. Reminds me of something like a softer, far less potent Tobacco Oud Intense/Tauer L`Air du Desert Marocain/Ombre Leather at that stage.

Projection is on the loud side during the first few hours. After it settles down, projection is still adequate but not so strong. Lasts all day on my skin.

I think the ladies will love this one. Jammy rose with a patchouli and Tonka Bean background. I actually think this is a decent fragrance. I get a light bubblegum note in RP. Projection and Longevity are pretty good though. 6.5/10

This scent is pleasant and rosy-round enough, but it wears off fairly quickly, which is unfortunately not uncommon for Tom Ford. However, it is absolutely not worth the ridiculous amount of money TF wants for it.

If you're looking for the prick, you won't find it in the scent, but there's an enormous sting in the price.