ROYAL MAYFAIR

This newer edition of Creed's Windsor  is based on the same potpourri of sources from the British Empire as its predecessors: a beautiful opening blast of lime and Gin - do I smell Hendricks?  Very soon the gorgeous rose arises, which is and remains the core and leitmotif and this fragrance.  The rose is on the bright side, it is intensive but neither dark nor velvety in character.

In the drydown it misses the greening touch and the beautiful perfect balance that the first version of Windsor boasted, and compared to the second and last edition of Windsor the rose is less smooth, and less jammy, less endowed with the comparably thick and nigh tuberose-like fatness of the last Windsor.  This a slimmer, more elegant, more contemporaneous rose note, and the rose is closer to the first version than the second Windsor, albeit less substantial and composed of ingredients that are of a less amazing quality that the Ur-version was.  

The base is darker, a touch greener, still with an overarching orange-y side and expresses an additional  light woodsy impression.  There is a spicy, earthy whiffs towards the end, which have hints of eucalyptus incorporated; but it is more soil-laden and quite atypical for this Australian icon, more like the wood than the actual leaves.  The base nonetheless retains a certain lightness compared to other ambergris-laden Creed bases.

The performance is impressive beyond doubt: moderate sillage, excellent projection and an exceedingly Un-Creedy superb longevity of twelve hours on my skin, albeit close to my skin for the last three.  For a Creed, this is a monster performance and better than that of the preceding Windsor of any formulation.  May it has some synthetic help.

The ingredients are of top quality, the blending is sublimely executed whilst keeping a good structural fabric - a great scent. 4/5