STEPHANE HUMBERT LUCAS
Harrods H Mamba

2015

osmanthus

iris
amber

oud
leather
styrax

Made exclusively for Harrods.

‘Inspired by the chiaroscuro painting technique, oud and leather encounter warm notes of styrax resin and amber.’ – Harrods

I had to steal this bottle from my brother @dbxofrag for a photo, since it looks pretty cool. More importantly, Harrods (H Mamba) is one of the best sweet, but dark and heavy scents that I’ve come across.

This opens as syrupy, spicy sweetness with hints of dried fruit sitting on a piece of leather. A hint of animalic in the leather, but the leather subtle. What is less subtle is the sweetness. This is very thick and jammy to me. Like molasses.

Styrax plays a big role here. Fiery ambery sticky red tree sap, with a smoky edge throughout. Quite earthy, a bit daring, but in this case also very sweet. Not gourmand at all though.

The best and only comparison I can make to this at the moment is Roja Parfums Parfums de la Nuit 1. In the drydown, those are quite similar.

If you don’t love leather, it’s probably not too overpowering in this. I think the leather is really well done and kept in check. The animalic facet is more and more in an ambery sense.

Overall this remains a woody amber with a peppery spice, an animalic edge and ton of sticky sweetness that I can best describe as ‘fiery’. A very rich smell and a quite unique one.

One of the best, if not the best, Stephane Humbert Lucas that I’ve smelled without a doubt, but not something to wear frequently.

Has anyone else smelled this yet? And how do you rank it versus other SHL releases?