Playing the Shobi Roulette - High risk, high reward? - Part 1 - Reviewing Plum Japonais
Is this actual gambling? Not really, at least not in a conventional way, but you know, Shobi has a huge catalogue, they make clones of obscure/discontinued/hard to get fragrances and they sell 30 ml bottles.
I'm all against blind buying and I've sampled hundreds of clones, cheapies, designers, but it's just too tempting not to play the Shobi Roulette every once in a while and order some of the more risky, daring, and unusual scent profiles for testing.
So.. let us take a seat at the table and play the game, shall we?
Tom Ford Plum Japonais (30 + 1 ml) - Yes, I matured it for 3+ months.
Japanese plum... by the name of it, one would think of a laid-back, relaxing, almost ethereal fragrance, something soft, fruity and comforting.
Well, this is none of those: What we're getting instead is a combination of dry, smoky woods and a boozy, spicy plum brandy with a touch of sweetness. It has some medicinal quality to it, especially in the opening, one of my friends described it as Jagermeister, and he's kinda right: it is reminiscent of those complex, herbal liqueurs but this one also has plum in it.
The bitter, smoky and woody notes immediately reminded me of Encre Noire à L'Extrême, so yeah, this is definitely a dark and mature fragrance, no youthful, playful vibes here. I think the best part of its life cycle is the drydown, where the spicy, mildly sweet plum liqueur really shines and mixes well with those Encre Noire-esque notes, while its medicinal nature takes a backseat.
I have no idea how close this is to Tom Ford's offering, but based on its reviews, Shobi managed to capture the essence of the original quite well.
In terms of performance, I easily got 8+ hours of longevity with really strong projection for the first few hours, you can choke people out with this one for sure.
Overall, Plum Japonais is a heavy, masculine leaning unisex, cold weather oriented fragrance, not a daily driver, more like something for special occasions but beware: This is an extremely bold, divisive and challenging scent profile, if you're looking for a crowd-pleaser, you should skip this one.