Tom Ford fragrances (now owned by Estée Lauder as of November 2022) are still in my top three for designer fragrances. There’s something about their projection, longevity, and use of good materials in their fragrances that gravitates me towards them. So, when I heard about the possibility of two new fragrances from Tom Ford a while back, I admittedly got excited. The one thing I’m never excited about though is the price tag, but, if you want something that smells as good as their fragrances do…I guess you gotta pay the price.
Lost Cherry
I can honestly say I had never smelled Lost Cherry up until about a week ago. It’s been on my radar as well as Bitter Peach, Ebene Fume and Neroli Portofino. Prior to testing Lost Cherry, my thoughts immediately went to a fragrance that would be more of a feminine fragrance than something that would even be considered unisex. I admit I was wrong.
Lost Cherry Eau de Parfum was released in 2018 as part of Tom Ford’s ever-growing Private Collection. The notes in this fragrance are bitter almond, black cherry, sour cherry, jasmine, tonka bean, vanilla, sandalwood, patchouli, and a smattering of other various notes that are not 100% noticeable but are in there (notes like clove, cedar, balsam, etc.). If you’ve ever smelled Guerlain L’Homme Ideal, either the EDP or the Extreme version, then you’re in the right ballpark as far as how this fragrance smells. But to me, it’s more on the side of bright and fresh as opposed to the warmer cherry scent that Guerlain has produced. They have their similarities, but Lost Cherry is different enough to keep both around.
When you first spray it, you notice the cherry smell immediately, but I’ll be honest, it’s not the same type of cherries you buy at the grocery store that still has the pits in them and they’re super delicious and good for you…. not those ones. The smell is more of a synthetic cherry, kind of like the one that goes on your sundae, or you find in Cella’s Cordials during Christmas time. The cherry mixed with that almond is where you get the Guerlain scent but when Lost Cherry starts to dry down, that’s where the woody notes mixes with the sour cherry and lingers until the scent dissipates many hours later. Longevity on this one will last you around 8 or so hours and projection is moderate. Not a bad start, I’d say.
Cherry Smoke
So, if Lost Cherry is the all-season scent, then Cherry Smoke is definitely the fragrance designed for fall/winter. The notes here are sour cherry, saffron, leather, woody notes, and smoke. Tom Ford’s website says it’s: “An experienced hedonist, CHERRY SMOKE plays with fire, bursting with the scent of dark cherry, ignited by seductive osmanthus and smoldering, smoked woods.”. From there it lists only three notes: Dark Cherry, Osmanthus Absolute and Cypriol. Osmanthus is a flower that smells of woods, leather, and apricot (I personally didn’t smell apricots in this fragrance, but your mileage may vary). Cypriol is an earthy woody fragrance which adds that warmth to the bright cherry to make this an amazing scent profile.
When you first spray this scent, you are met with cherries, as expected, but you can also already smell that warm, woody profile that will soon follow. One thing to note is that there is no cherry scent listed in the mid or dry down notes, which is odd to me. Lost Cherry had black cherry in the opening and sour cherry in the mid helping keep that cherry profile throughout, but Cherry Smoke seems to not have anything after the opening. The reason this is noteworthy is that once you pass the opening and head into the mid, cherry takes its foot off the gas and doesn’t even go to the back seat of the car…it’s all the way in the trunk.
You’d think that something with “cherry” in its name, that cherry would be the centerstage rockstar from opening to dry down. I’m not noticing it, but again, mileage will vary from person to person. Let me know in the comments if you notice anything different. Longevity is around 8 to 10 hours and projection is moderate like Lost Cherry. I will say, in my home, Cherry Smoke wasn’t the front runner in the cherry lineup.
Electric Cherry
To recap: Lost Cherry is all-season, Cherry Smoke is fall/winter so that would make Electric Cherry spring/summer, right? Erm…not exactly.
“ELECTRIC CHERRY merges the scent of Morello cherry with the warmth of musk and sultry jasmine, evoking a teasing flirt sparkling with playful effervescence.” Hmm, effervescence is a word that makes my brain think this smells like cherry soda. The notes here are cherry, ginger, jasmine, ambrettolide (musky amber), pink pepper and musk.
When you first spray it on you get an immediate blast of cherry and it’s aggressively pushed forward by the ginger note. It is super bright and smells a lot like cherry soda, maybe not Cherry Coke, but more like Cheerwine (for my southern friends). The cherry scent is quickly wrapped up, tucked away, and gone to bed leading you into a false sense of hope thinking that this cherry will last throughout the party, but alas, it also does not. Instead, in walks jasmine, amber and musk mixed with pink pepper to remain for the rest of the time.
Again, not that it’s a bad scent profile, but seems we’re 0 for 2 in the cherry lasting from opening to dry down in these new flankers.
Longevity is 10 to 12 hours on my skin and one thing I have to point out; I sprayed this on around 1pm one day, put on a thermal long sleeve shirt and put a heavy winter work jacket over that and I could smell the fragrance hours later coming through the thermal AND the jacket. Another thing to note is that out of all three that I’ve tested, Electric Cherry is the one that my family immediately noticed and were asking what it was. As soon I walked out of my testing room, they all claimed that they really like the scent and continued to like it even after dry down. I will say though, this one may not be for everyone, but still worth a try if you’re into Tom Ford fragrance like I am. Let’s wrap this one up though with my final thoughts.
Final Thoughts
Lost Cherry is a great addition to anyone’s collection. It was on my radar before and still remains now that I’ve fully tested it and I really like it. Electric Cherry and Cherry Smoke are also good, but I’m still not sure I like the fact that they went soft on the cherry. I will also say that I’m surprised that they released these flankers so close to each other. Normally fragrance houses will release a flanker and give it time to get to the market and let it simmer for a while and then release another a year later.
What may make more sense is the fact that there are many people saying that even though these are both considered unisex, that Cherry Smoke leans more masculine (warm/spicy) and Electric Cherry leans more feminine (bright/floral). Whatever the reason, I will say if I were to put these into any order of importance, I would actually put Electric Cherry as number one, Lost Cherry as number two and Cherry Smoke as the number three. Electric Cherry claimed the number one spot mostly because of that opening, and even though the dry down was floral heavy, there are already a few men’s fragrances that dry down just the same (Narciso Rodriguez Bleu Noir EDP and Acqua di Gio Profondo Lights).
There you have it! Two new flankers from Tom Ford and we’re not even two weeks into the new year. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are on these new fragrances. Which is your favorite? Hope you all have a good week and I’ll see you in the next one!
