Theo Fennell Scent; biehl parfumkunstwerke MB02; Social Creatures Rebel Ambush; Claude André Hébert Africa

Social Creatures Rebel Ambush: with a name like Rebel Ambush, I might be forgiven for expecting something fiery and take no prisoners, but even with three full sprays to the back of my hand, Social Creatures Rebel Ambush is a rather mild and laid back woodsy scent with some tobacco leaf and just a hint of vanilla.

With a backstory that states that the fragrance is dedicated to the Maroons, a rebel group of several West African tribes who escaped their captors on arrival in Jamaica, I was hoping for some sweat and drama, but the ingredient list includes lavender, tobacco, vanilla, sandalwood, champaca, sweet orange and cardamom -- fairly drama free.

The champaca and cardamom dominate the introduction before it morphs into the exceedingly dry, dusty scent of a lightly sweetened tobacco, and it's not at all bad, but I can't really gather any enthusiasm for it, either. I like its use of the tobacco element, the true smell of light wood burning, and that the incorporation of vanilla is highly restrained, but the moment I take my hand away from my face, I forget all about it.

UPDATE to Rebel Ambush review:
I received an email from the creator of Social Fragrances. He stated that Rebel Ambush has a target consumer audience of 30+ males who aren't already big fragrance wearers, and that "All Social Creatures fragrances are 98-99% natural, so they tend to live quite close to the skin." Both pieces of information help explain what I had originally considered an overly-mellow approach to a woodsy/tobacco scent.

Claude André Hébert Africa: following in the footsteps of Rebel Ambush, we have Canadian Claude André Hébert's take on the continent of Africa. Less dry woods and tobacco, and more cardomom and bitter herbs than you can shake a stick at, Africa is a bolder attempt at playing the dusty spice game than Rebel Ambush.

The website offers a vague ingredient description of African vanilla, ochre, incense and dry herb bouquet (the full knowledge of what comprises that bouquet is apparently beyond our pay grade). The herbal, almost musty tone to the drydown of Africa resembles the smell of sun-baked earth, oiled canvas and and gunpowder. The ochre adds just the right amount of dust, and the vanilla's late appearance is thankfully low key.

Claude Andre Hebert is another perfumer working with an increasingly natural list of ingredients -- I previously reviewed other fragrances of his here. Both Rebel Ambush and Africa are categorized as masculine fragrances, but can easily be worn by women who like earthy, woodsy perfumes (Africa is earthy, Rebel Ambush is woodsy; I think female consumers might actually groove on the quiet tread of Rebel Ambush).

Theo Fennell Scent: generic spicy oriental, with a lack of emphasis on the spice. Five minutes after spritzing it on, it was barely detectable. It sells for quite the hefty price on the Theo Fennell website, but you're paying for the bottle.

Allegedly stuffed with thirteen different spices, flowers and resins, the fragrance smells synthetic, muddled and so drearily been-there, done-that that I could barely stay awake to type a review of it. There are so many sophisticated and imaginative feminine orientals out there that it would be a shame for anyone to choose to support the continued existence of this perfume over, say, Bond No. 9's Chinatown.

biehl parfumkunstwerke MB02: unfortunately, MB02 doesn't hold up well under scrutiny, either (though it's still better than the Theo Fennell). Ordinarily, I'm a fan of Mark Buxton's work -- he created the fairly stunning MoslBuddJewChristHinDao and has developed numerous surprising concoctions for Japanese design firm Comme des Garcons, but the King Midas touch just isn't present with MB02.

Just as with Theo Fennell Scent, MB02 is supposedly chock-a-block full of flowers and incense resins, but instead comes off like a hospitalized anemic in desperate need of a blood transfusion. Buxton is famous for understatement, but there's a fine line between minimalism and laziness, and MB02 reeks of lazy.

It's too bad. biehl parfumkunstwerke is a relatively new perfume company and can't really afford any poor performers on its roster. It's not like they have the reputation of a groundbreaker like Chanel No. 5 that they can sit back and coast on for decades.