FRAGRANCE | E Gourmande Oriental Perfume by Clive Christian: A long and suffocating road to attaining balance

E Gourmande Oriental is a perfume marketed towards men and is part of Clive Christian's Private Collection, or in other words, the C.L.I.V.E. Collection, where the fragrances are named as letters of the brand. Of course, beautifully sleek presentation here while keeping their tradional bottle design intact.

The fragrance bursts with a heavy dose of cloves, a burnt smokiness, and a VERY thick, syrupy sweetness. There's also an accompanying booziness but unfortunately, it's immediately overrun by the syrup. What I wasn't prepared for was how potent this juice actually is, especially following my first experience with this brand via Crab Apple Blossom, which was far tamer in comparison. Felt like a totally different house. The sweetness can be choking up close, which seems to only grow stronger by the minute and even overwhelms the cloves.

Around half an hour in and a little sharpness develops. However, it's barely able to pierce through the viscous syrup to really make an impact on the scent. The burnt smokiness is actually a nice touch. I love the dark contrast it brings but then again, it too is struggling under the sheer weight of all this sweetness. It's like the chef forgot he already put sugar in the mix and ended up adding even more sugar—and then served the dish without even tasting it. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to wear this on a warm day or it'll choke the bejesus out of you and those around you.

Thankfully, at approximately the two-hour mark, E Gourmande Oriental realizes its brashness and starts turning the volume down. Although the scent is still sweet, that sharpness from earlier is now more evident. The smokiness is also showing a bit more of itself despite already shedding most of that distinctive, burnt character from the opening. After such a slow progression, the scent finally settles into this remarkably balanced, warm, sweet-spicy aroma radiating moderately from my skin for a few more hours. I must acknowledge that it is quite the performer.

After going through that ordeal, I never thought we'd get to this point where I would actually love what I'm smelling. Whether it will be worth the wait for you depends on how much you dig, or can tolerate at least, sweet gourmand-ish scents and spices in general. The earlier sweetness makes it a scent that's somehow more accessible to women while the latter-stage warm spiciness is an assertion of E Gourmande Oriental being a men's perfume. As always, try before you buy, especially this one.