Samson

Inspired by Blazing Mr Sam is Luxe Fragrances' take on Penhaligon's The Blazing Mister Sam, the 2018 Portraits entry built as a hot, spice-driven oriental around cardamom and cinnamon top notes, a black pepper-saffron-cumin heart and a tobacco-vanilla-cedar-patchouli base. Samson's own listing points to cedarwood and exotic spices as its focus, and the dupe opens with a warm cinnamon-cardamom rush that is a fair, if simplified, echo of the original's fiery start. The cedarwood base gives a woody backbone that nods to Penhaligon's cedar-patchouli finish. What is missing is the saffron and cumin that give the real Blazing Mister Sam its earthy, slightly animalic edge, along with the tobacco richness that makes it feel properly loud rather than just warm - Samson's spice reads more generically sweet and its dry-down thinner than the Portraits original's dense, smoky character. Performance runs three to five hours with moderate initial projection that settles quickly. A reasonably priced way to sample the warm-spicy oriental genre for wearers not ready to commit to Penhaligon's premium price, at the cost of much of the original's complexity and staying power.