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shark1995 – :
One full spray to the chest. After 20 minutes or so, I’d call this the unisex/niche version of vintage 1-12 by Halston, due to the powdery galbanum (though I’d guess most women who enjoy niche would find this to be too “masculine”). However, there is something creeping forward, industrial/earthy/dirty/etc., though I don’t get much of any wood note yet. I’ll update if there’s a change. Nice bottle, but at full retail I’d say you could do something like layer 1-12 and Yatagan or even Jovan’s Intense Oud. At this point I’d say I’m likely to sell or swap it, but I’ll at least give it one more wearing. Note that lavender isn’t listed but is clearly present, though not as strong as it could be (such as in super soapy vintage “masculines”). This is the kind of fragrance I tend to like, but the notes are rather tight and the lavender is a bit too strong for my tastes.
UPDATE: After perhaps 2 hours, what mostly remains is the resinous, woody, industrial base. This isn’t sweet, but it’s not bone dry. My only possible complaint is that it might not be all that complex or dynamic when the drydown arrives.
alex4ern – :
Explorer is strong stuff! I tried it because of the galbanum which I love hoping to get the super green-bitter quality that I’m searching for. It’s not the case but it has other elements which I love.
The opening is pungent with a tone of cedar, labdanum and nice smelling orris root with traces of orange. As time passes comes to the surface the bergamot which stays long time. The labdanum becomes stronger and a beautiful stiff, bitter and dusty slightly green vibe appears. All in all I get galbanum/bergamot with labdanum/cedarwood/orris root combo. The amber acts like a connecting material for those two combos. It doesn’t play a leading role to the blend. It feels like a platform which holds all these materials, softens and tights & ties the blend. Somewhere at the background there’s a little rose. It feels like a shadow of a rose note. It just exists only to give a nice twist to the blend. Discreet and airy, safe for rose haters. Overall smells luxurious and uncommon. It’s not a dark scent because of the light that give the citruses especially the mighty bergamot but it is a heavy scent for fall/winter. Beatifully blended, I love it. Performance is excellent no complains. Long lasting scent with moderate to heavy sillage and projection. Btw the bottle is a piece of Art…
Edit
If you don’t focus on the smell, it looks like a heavy patchouli scent or a westernized oud scent but this is not the case. It doesn’t have the slightest trace of oud and it is not a patchouli scent.
PitS – :
Very resinous Oud perfume, has same vibe as epic or journey from Amouage. I would prefer Amouage to be honest as it offers more juice for the price, but really good offering nonetheless.
Nikita102rus – :
You’re standing in a bright art museum looking at some dark landscape paintings filled with forests and storms. Next to you, the wooden floor creaks as a janitor slops around an old musty mop, covered in a citrus industrial cleaner. Explorer by Boadicea the Victorious.
privet103 – :
A weak woody citrus with a big galbanum note. Too much galbanum…Also Has an “unwashed clothes” quality that is hard to describe. You know when perfumed clothes have been laying in the washing hamper for a few days? Avoid.
The reviews for this fragrance were incredibly misleading compared to my experience. One reviewer below says “this takes amber to a whole new level”. Only problem is, there’s no significant amber note.
soloveyru – :
I agree with Q80, very oudy with lots of rose notes and amber. Very luxurious scent that is better worn in the colder months. I would classify it as a more masculine scent.
Scent: 8/10
Longevity: 9/10
Sillage: 8/10
Cost ratio: 4/10
Overall: 7.25/10
Solid fragrance with a luxurious vibe – pretty heavy / not for everyone.
rita – :
This is an overpowered amber oud combination with allot of Arabian touch bokhoor and doses of woods and agarwood. I don’t believe the notes mentioned above are correct cause it feels allot oudi rather than cedar and galbanum!
trimix – :
Don’t be fooled by its characterization (amber); the galbanum is very strong, so it’s mostly dry spicy-woody.
Fraill – :
If you love woods like I do, especially green, coniferous forests, this smells amazing. Take Russel Crowe as the Gladiator, with dry, brown dust clinging to his heels and sandals, and send him off on an expedition to the Pacific Northwest in the 1800’s, and you have Explorer. It smells like the smooth, moist, young wood from the core of a redwood tree, maybe some aromatic cumin, and just a whisper of worn, brown leather.
There is some menthol in the beginning. I swear that patchouli, a member of the mint family, has to be missing from the pyramid because Explorer smells as though somebody grabbed a whole handful of fresh patch…unless somehow all of those other notes blend together to create an earthy, dusty, mentholated, patch-like effect.
One surprising thing about Explorer is that it’s a “masculine” orris root fragrance. Think 28 La Pausa for men–starchy, chalky, gray. This is the first time I have smelled orris root used in this way. It is an androgynous fragrance in my opinion, but in comparison to other orris root fragrances, Explorer is distinctly on what some would consider to be the “masculine” end of the spectrum. There is nothing sweet in this bottle.
Sillage is fantastic, and so is longevity.
tp511773 – :
The best part of this juice is about 4 hours later on my skin, a whole new scent envelopes. It goes from a very earthy type scent that just smells good and fresh to a masculine musky scent that’s very complex but smells sooooo sexy and young and playful. This is for sure a signature scent that can be worn all year long!! The best boadicea I have smelled to date! Perfect longevity and project. 10/10
robinho1983 – :
This takes Amber to a whole new level of love. This is a sophisticated gentlemans scent. Masculine but subtle. Great longevity and projection. I love this house for what they do. Niche perfumery. A+ 10/10
Fragrance was designed to be tested on skin as it mixes with ones chemistry it can differ from person to person, especially male to female. There have been so many reviews posted on here where people spray on paper and run straight to this site to let everyone know all about it and how the longevity and projection is going to be 20 mins later. Please, real fragrance enthusiasts only. There’s fragrances that smell nice on paper and on skin smell like fish. Please test and post accurate info for fragrance enthusiasts such as myself. Thanks!
zla302elipseskism – :
i did try 8 perfumes from Boadicea, all can be excepted and i can live with them except COMPLEX its simply not my taste
but explorer i can classify it as second in the Boadicea collection
Scent is nice but not the best in this collection (7/10)
nice fresh amber smell
Longevity is too long as most of Boadicea group
Sillage is strong too
in general smell is second best smell from this group after imperial
in general Boadicea collections fit mostly as manhood perfumes and fresh perfumes
overall 8.5/10
paga26 – :
Longevity – 9/10
Sillage – 9/10
Scent – 9/10
inhelayhemy – :
A bomb of purity, the essence of heavenly…I think that John Stephen thought the smell of Dante’s paradise. Can anyone say otherwise? A masterpiece.
10/10
Hellboy – :
Wow!!!! I tried 6 fragrances from this house and while they were all magnificent 2 (oddly) really stood out for me and this is one of them. I say ‘oddly’ because I was not expecting the fresher more fruity/citrus end of the spectrum to tickle my fancy as much as ‘Explorer’ and ‘Adventuress’ did. It maybe because I’m used to resinous, spicy, warm and Oud scents in this price range or maybe I have half an eye on spring/summer juices now but I certainly didn’t think I’d be looking to fork out on a niche juice of this sort.
The first thing that strikes you about this brand is the bottles (flacons…whatever!?) they are spectacular!!! I mean they look great in the photos here and you kind of know what to expect but when you see them an feel the weight you can’t help but be impressed with the almost Game of thrones like, kind of ye olde, celtic styling. Just from a collection point of view these are stunning but the juice inside(from the few I’ve tried) matches the care and attention taken to the presentation.
Boadicea the victorious has real calibre and this fragrance totally blew me away to be honest…I love it.
The opening is gorgeous fruity and the strange sweetness of labdanum and orris but as it settles becomes very dry and resinous with an kind of earthy spice to it.
I can’t say I’ve encountered anything like it. Explorer shimmered in the drydown changing slightly to a ambery, fir like vibe very interesting.
Projection not huge and longevity is good enough for me but you’d expect it to be very long lasting at this price.
Alex155 – :
Bitter and dry. Resinous yet smoky at the same time.
As always, the key to wearing any Boadicea is moderation -and dare I say it- even timidity. Always err at the side of caution. This is a serious, unapologetic perfume house for trained noses.
If you carefully test the waters first in applying this one, then you’ll be pleasantly exhilarated.
boris743234 – :
Boadicea means business with this opening. I have read so much about the “bitchy wire-mother” green opening of Cristalle, but Explorer is what I imagined that green opening to be, but amped up 100x. I doubt anyone can smell this much RICH bitter green and have an indifferent response. I laughed aloud from surprise and admiration at the audacity of the opening. It’s ravishing, in a more Celtic hoarde pillaging your Roman garrison kind of way. Rich, high quality natural feel. Great longevity, and yet I never felt it overpowering– and then hours later, she put down her sword, took off her breastplate, and exposed a GORGEOUS drydown… the bitter is gone, leaving behind a non-powdery (thanks be to the old gods) iris and a not-too-vanilla amber. I definitely get some leather as well.
Other sample vials received the same day lie scattered, already forgotten. Like I need another expensive niche habit. Hail, Boadicea– still conquering 2000 years later.
Diarliata – :
This perfume is gorgeous. Just for fun, I prefer to test fragrances without knowing what the notes are and I try to guess the notes when I wear the perfume. Then later after a day of wear I go and look at the notes and see if what I smell is congruent with the listed notes. I was a bit off on this one. What I smelled was an herbal like pine and amber scent that had some bitterness and sweetness at the same time. I concluded it was a crype even though it say’s its an oriental. It does not smell oriental to me at all.
After looking at the notes it turns out that the green and herbaceous notes come from the galbanum, and yes there is amber but its not backed up by vanilla as most ambers are. The bitterness must come from the cedar or galdanum notes and theres a nice balance of bitter and sweet here in this scent.
Explorer kind of reminds me of Eau Des Merveilles because even though there is no pine in Explorer, it still smells piney to me and the pine note in EDM stands out on me along with the amber. To my nose the two are very similar, but Im sure its just my skin or nose that perceives this similarity.
Explorer is rich, herbaceaus, deep, dark, resinous, balmy, and simply divine. As someone below mentioned it has a resinous quality that does smell like frankincense, even though its not listed.
The bottles are a work of art unto themselves. I love anything Celtic so Im drawn to the whole design of the bottles from this line. So glad I got a sample of this in a swap. Highly recomend you explore Explorer.
orbinnyenlice – :
Magnificent sandalwood with galbanum and resins,also contain high quality frankincense,smells so natural and rich.The drydown is close to Amouage’s XXV.
dedvovan4 – :
My first attempt on Boadicea the Victorious!What a joy!Explorer justify its name dark,rough,uncompromising.Starts really bitter,lots of galbanum and sparkly citrus.You have to take this precious gem step to step.After a while,it becomes balmy and herbal,amber, olibanum and bitter cedar.Eventually it gets a bit sweeter but still it’s not considered as sweet.I can see myself wearing Explorer,dynamic,unrelenting,unrestrained!That’s Explorer!Very good lasting power,great quality.
ivan16 – :
Bitter and sting like a bad natural medicine!
very particular the accord galbanum+ citrus resins remember me Borneo 1834(lutens) without patchouli.
Diffucult to wear but it sounds very natural never synthetic.