Ex Amouage creative director Christopher Chong took over the reins at British brand Thameen in 2021. That’s likely a good thing in the long run. However, it’s not entirely off to the most promising start with these two cologne scents from a new range called the Britologne collection. The first fragrance, Fanfare, signed by Bruno Jovanovic, takes inspiration from the Covent Garden Flower Market. The second perfume, Bohemian Infusion by Alexandra Carlin and Maurice Roucel, draws inspiration from the decadent exploits of the Covent Garden dandies of the 19th and 20th centuries. Here are my first impressions of both.
Fanfare is a pleasant enough hybrid chypre scent with eau de cologne leanings. It opens with a bright explosion of bergamot, lemon, and neroli. Quite quickly, a bevy of herbal and floral notes assert themselves. Seemingly the brand is primed to deliver upon its Covent Garden Flower Market inspiration. But it all falls apart after the promising opening. There’s not enough clarity behind any of it. And it all becomes, for want of a better term, a hodgepodge of overly sweet floral fuzzy noise.
The floral notes are nondescript, and the boozy hearty consisting of juniper and what the brand calls a vermouth accord doesn’t assert itself as much as I wanted. The dry-down (vetiver, musk, patchouli) needs more punch, too. Ultimately, it all feels muddled and incoherent, like one of those citrusy Mancera perfumes that feel slightly unnatural.
Bohemian Infusion starts ok with a nice interplay of spicy and fresh notes: tart blackcurrant, spicy cardamom, and zingy grapefruit. The overriding herbal bitter quality, thanks to the combination of artemisia, myrtle, petitgrain, and the aforementioned blackcurrant, becomes the theme of the middle stages. But, the dry down of ambery woods and patchouli lacks quality, especially at the hefty price tag. It’s hard to recommend Fanfare or Bohemian Infusion, especially when things like 4711 Cologne exist. Anything by Acqua di Parma trumps these two, also.
There are some good ideas here, but neither perfume brings it all together consistently all the way through. Both dry downs lack substance. And for the price of $469AUD for 100ml of fragrance, one would expect a fully realised composition. There may be more perfumes to come in the collection. I hope they build on the good ideas here, and the brand can hit one out of the park next time.
I certainly won’t be rushing out to buy either of these, but tomorrow, I’ll introduce the cologne-style scent I did rush out to purchase and the one I’ll be spraying all year round.
Note: Both scents tested from official samples I purchased. These aren’t the first new perfumes from the Christopher Chong era at Thameen, but I haven’t sampled the others yet. Bottle images of Bohemian Infusion and Fanfare from Fragrantica. And all other images are my own.
