Tom Ford Ebene Fume Perfume Review
Tom Ford Ebene Fume Eau de Parfum is all about drier, lightly creamy woods with bits of spice, whether from spiced, smoky incense or sweeter resins. It started out more fiery, peppery, and green before shifting into smoky, drier woods with a hint of leather, and then finally drying down to a sweet, warm woods. The notes are:
- top notes: incense, Palo Santo wood, black pepper, violet leaf
- heart notes: leather, cade oil, labdanum, papyrus, rose
- base notes: resins, ebony tree, Guaiac wood
It opened with peppery, billowing incense over smooth woods; it made me think of the smell of fireplaces burning in the wintertime but less intense and refined–more the concept of campfire in the middle of a forest, because there was was more than just incense smoke but something darker but never to the point where it was burnt or charred.
The woods were noticeably drier after 15 minutes of settling on my skin as the papyrus note emerged. As the incense receded to the background, Ebene Fume became creamy, dry woods and aged leather with a modicum of resinous sweetness. I felt like the sweet, lightly spiced resins added more warmth and smoothed out the composition, though the incense was more of a blown out haze after an hour of wear. It was a more linear journey, which is not a bad thing so long as you enjoy those notes, and it only sweetened and became creamier over the next few hours in the drydown.
Application
For testing, I used two sprays applied to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.Â
Longevity
It lasted for eight hours until it was a skin-scent and about 14 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with the sillage dropping faster than the projection within four hours of wear.
Personal Thoughts
I enjoyed the fragrance and found it sat well on my skin, was well-blended, and seemed to smell a lot like it sounded like it would (which is always a plus), but I feel like I’ve smelled this before from Tom Ford — a spicier, smokier Santal Blush but surprisingly similar. I prefer it to Santal Blush by degrees, since I enjoy the addition of more spice and smoke.
Available Sizes
- 50ml for $270
I want to try this so bad. Your review isn’t super promising – in so far as to whether or not I would enjoy smelling it and how about my skin after that? – but has enough in it that I would still sample it if given the chance. That you said it smelled more or less what it claimed to smell like is helpful for sure!
I love Tobacco Vanille. I used to like Tuscan Leather – but over the last few years it doesn’t play well with my skin anymore. Other than that I’ve not smelled any TF fragrances that I like or held up (in a pleasant way) on my skin. This one caught my eye immediately. Palo Santo fragrances are so hard to find! I end up just burning a stick of palo santo in my closed closet to infuse my clothes and coats.
At least Tom Ford is somewhat more accessible of a brand – to at least try in store (whenever one feels safe to do so, of course!) at some point!
I wish!! In all of Oklahoma I don’t think they have a dedicated counter to the Private Blend fragrances. At least they didn’t the last time I checked a few years ago. Sephora only has a couple of perfumes in store and I don’t think they’re private blend. No Nordstroms (only a crappy Nordstrom Rack that doesn’t get anywhere near the cool stuff a larger city does). But I’ll do a fresh new search this year and see if I can track more luxe fragrances down for in person testing.
(I don’t shop any more unless there is something specific I need and even then I mask up and stay away from people. my state isn’t as bad as some about being unsafe, but it is a far cry from the best.)
I hope things have improved a bit, Z, whenever it’s safe for you to be out and about for fun things! We are the same way – pretty much stay home 24/7 except for something like a doctor’s appointment, lol!
If nothing else, it definitely sounds like an interesting and rich fragrance. Might give it a whiff on my wrist next time I’m in Sephora, because I DO love the smells of woods and leather.
This is a great review! I have been really curious about this one! and the layers of notes sound really interesting! I have nothing like it in my collection! I think I may buy!
After my booster shot then I will feel a little safer to go for a Sephora shopping trip and sample this as it sounds right up my alley.
Thank you! I have been wondering about how this fragrance wears.
Interested in this one.
This one sounds interesting. I really want to try this one. I love his Lost Cherry, & Jasmin Rouge. My husbands HG out of any fragrances he owns, is Tobacco Vanilla. This is funny, I had a large decant of it, tried it on me, I didn’t like it. So, he tried it on him, said it was too sweet/kinda feminine. Fast forward a year or 2. He gave it a go again, I can’t tell you how many full bottles of this stuff he went through! Unbelievable. LOL. He just ran out of another bottle! Anyway, I can’t wait to try this new one. I find some of his fragrances unique.
That is impressive! My husband has gone through one Noir Extreme, I think!
I love Tom ford’s Santal Blush! I just knew I was going to love Ebene because I adore Guaiac wood and Incense in most fragrances. Sadly when I got to test this I didn’t like it at all. He recently released a trio of Rose fragrances. I like rose scents not a love but I plan to sample them when available.
What was it about Ebene Fume that didn’t work for you, Denise?