Avant-Garde by M. Micallef

Scentszilla

The main notes of Avant Garde are lemon, yellow flag, iris, cocoa, tobacco, incense, tonkabeans, tolubalm.
From these I did not expect it to be quite as sweet as it actually is. It is supposed to be unisex, but comes off somewhat slightly more feminine to my nose (but that seems the trend for masculine scents recently). It does however get more masculine as it moves along. It's also got an unexpected fruity opening, with the top notes reminiscent of watermellon sweets. I am not familiar with the yellow flag note, so cannot really fairly comment on it, but my guess is that's were the fruityness derives from. It then moves swiftly into more of what I was expecting with the cocoa, tobacco, incense combo warming the fragrance up nicely. It becomes more and more appealing as the notes develop. However there is always a slight odd "lipsticky" type scent that permeates giving the whole composition an odd slant (my own skin chemistry could be the culpruit for this though!). The dry down is comforting balsamy and vanilla like from the tonka and tolu resin. All in all, I believe the fragrance perfectly named as the scent is certainly an unexpected and odd chocolate fragrance. But ultimately well blended and unique. I highly recommend sampling before buying as it's highly unusual but perfect if you are looking for something different and, well, 'avant-garde' !