Creed Spice and Wood is the follow-up to last year’s Sublime Vanille. Spice and Wood is the second in the Royal Exclusives collection celebrating Creed’s 250th anniversary. Sublime Vanille was a wonderfully subtle fragrance that finished out a strong 2009 for Creed on a high note. Spice and Wood shares both the same complex subtlety on display in Sublime Vanille and the trend of finishing a year on a high note as its predecessor.
Spice and Wood was created by Olivier Creed and as his inspiration he took the romance of Antony and Cleopatra. M. Creed chose to pair notes from Italy and Egypt in each phase of Spice and Wood to create an olfactory marriage of the historical lovers’ countries of origin. I’m not sure how much it really represents the masculine and feminine ideal in the end but the one thing it does do is live up to its name, Spice and Wood.
The top is a delightful fruit mix of bergamot and lemon. The third fruit is apple, tart and juicy, as it shows up right after the citrus mix recedes a bit. Now you might be asking shouldn’t this be called Fruit and Wood? The heart removes that notion as a spicy rose appears which is made even spicier by additional clove. The wood is provided by a sheer white birch and it is kept so light it never dominates the heart as it is the spiciness of the clove which makes the first, and lasting, impression. The base switches things up as cedar takes the woodiness of the birch and intensifies it but it never takes it to that cedar place where that is all you encounter. Instead the cedar is kept reined in and joined by oakmoss and musk to create a long lasting ending that lasts without becoming insipid. Spice and Wood functions as close to a skin scent as exists from the House of Creed. For something this good you might not want to share it with anyone else.
Spice and Wood has average longevity and below average sillage. As mentioned above, Spice and Wood stayed close to my skin in the same manner as Sublime Vanille did previously. If you liked the sillage of Sublime Vanille then you will know what to expect from Spice and Wood.
Spice and Wood is another example of M. Creed’s ability to employ a subtle hand to create a fragrance of maximal impact. While Antony and Cleopatra may not immediately spring to mind while sniffing Spice and Wood words like beautiful and complex might be more apparent to someone wearing Spice and Wood.
Disclosure: This review was based on a preview sample provided by Creed Boutique NYC.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Erwin Creed is making a tour of the US in November 2010. The schedule of his appearances can be found here.
-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor