Initio Parfums Prives
Side Effect
Gourmand · EDP · 2016
Rum, tobacco, vanilla, and cinnamon: a warm gourmand with a boozy flash. A dessert scent that projects hard. The sweetness splits people. Heavy for the office and for heat. Excellent for evening and cold weather.
Context
Side Effect is Initio’s rum, tobacco, and vanilla. A boozy flash opens it, cinnamon and vanilla sit in the heart, and a warm woody base closes it. The brand calls it addictive. The sweetness and the alcohol do the hooking. Poor as an everyday.
On skin
The opening is rum and tobacco, boozy and warm. After 30 minutes cinnamon and vanilla come forward and the sweetness settles. Longevity is excellent, 9 to 10 hours and often longer, with strong projection. In heat it is cloying. In the cold it is comfortable and a little dangerous. It pulls compliments, especially at night.
Alternatives
In the rum-tobacco-vanilla lane: Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille (drier, more expensive) and Parfums de Marly Herod (spicier, easier to buy). Side Effect is the booziest of the three, and that is what makes it its own scent. If “dessert with a glass” is the brief, this is the one.
Verdict
Good for evening and cold weather. Wear a decant. Sweetness and rum split people once they hit real skin. Skip it for the office or for summer. Initio in Russia is almost entirely parallel import, so check the seller.
Scores
Notes
Top
- Rum
- Tobacco
Heart
- Vanilla
- Cinnamon
Base
- Woody Notes
- Musk
Before a bottle
Ask for 2 to 10 ml. Wear it three times on your own skin. A blotter will not tell you what hour four smells like.
Request a decant
