Chandler Burr, for the record, is a very nice man, who clearly takes these things very seriously. But... well, let's let him describe!

The perfume opens nicely on skin, a wood mixed with such a striking vanillic chewy accord (plus anise and pepper) that it reads like the smell of the firewood waiting to heat the oven of a pastry chef. The wood has bathed in spices and hot creams and kitchen air steamed with bubbling sugar.... But if Sensuous avoids copying extant perfumes (a serious plus) and states its case clearly -- a contemporary oriental -- it does so with a somewhat muted voice. I believe, but can't judge for sure, that the November iteration was reined in. There is no smoke from this wood. That might have been too edgy. In fact, the wood there is has been kept at such a low volume that the perfume morphs into a golden, accessible gourmand rather than anything close to a full-on wood concept (reference: Chanel's Sycamore). More pretty than striking.