Loire

Tom Ford's Lost Cherry built its cult status on a dominant black cherry accord layered with bitter almond, syrupy and tart rather than simply sweet, before settling into a smoky-sweet base of tonka bean, Peru balsam and sandalwood. Loire, inspired by it, opens on the same cherry-almond pairing reinforced with cinnamon, and the resemblance is strong in the first hour - genuinely boozy and appealing. The heart brings in clove, rose, jasmine and plum for a fuller fruity-floral middle than the original attempts, but the base is where the gap opens up: Peru balsam, tonka and vanilla give a comfortable sweet finish, but without the smoky sandalwood complexity that makes Tom Ford's version feel so layered, it settles into a straightforward cherry-vanilla gourmand rather than Lost Cherry's more sophisticated dark-fruit signature. Still a genuinely fun, boozy cherry scent for the price, just one-dimensional next to the original.