Hopefully, y’all remembered my previous review of Kemi where I explained what castoreum (and animal notes) was because this week we’re taking a dive into a mega-animalic fragrance from the house of The Vagabond Prince called Land of Warriors.
Also, if you haven’t read the Fragrance Etiquette 301 article aka “Where to Wear?”, you might want to take a quick moment to head over that way.
The Vagabond Prince house was launched in 2012, and is based in the United States. Since their inception, they have released four fragrances, with the last being in 2016. The nose behind all four of the fragrances is Bertrand Duchaufour.
The fragrance we’re looking at today, Land of Warriors was released in 2014, and according to the house is an homage to leather notes from all accords. Now, did they succeed in giving me an invigorating leather experience? Well… tell you what, let’s go take a look at the (many, many) notes for this scent.
Land of Warriors Notes
Bergamot, juniper, clementine, angelique seed, violet leaf, cucumber, tomato leaf, black currant leaf, oak wood, olibanum, artemesia, labdanum, saffron, nutmeg, oregano, castoreum, ambergris, styrax, birch, leather, pomegranate, tar, and frankincense.
Verdict
So you can see, this fragrance has a lot of notes going into it, and I would not recommend this for someone who is just getting started on their fragrance journey. Yes, I can pick out some juniper and cucumber on the top, and a bit of tomato leaf, but this really boils down to an animal, musky, funk bomb. And as I’ve said before animal musks are a highly acquired taste. I also probably shouldn’t have chosen this one to wear for the first time right after I rolled out of bed, because wow is it a lot. On the other hand, Land of Warriors is a hell of a good “wake up!” scent.
The dry down mellows it out a little bit, but the leather, castoreum, and the tar really do overshadow most of the other notes in here. There’s a slight sweetness to it that I like, but when you get a little closer to chase it, again, animal tar. Now, all that said, if you don’t mind waiting for the final dry down, Land of Warriors settles into something akin to a sweetened leather.
But is it one I’d gravitate to repeatedly, or even call my favorite? No. This is definitely one of those “experience” fragrances, and I’m going to be very honest with you all. If you wear this into the office or any other crowded space where people will be subjected to this animalic funk bomb, you are a grade-A asshole.
However, if you want a full bottle just for special occasions where you won’t be leaving everyone else around you wondering what died, this might be worth an investment for you. The Vagabond Prince does have some highly wearable fragrances, Enchanted Forest is one I’ll be reviewing in the future and falls into this category. Land of Warriors is obviously this house’s “art” piece and ought to be treated as such (or at the very least, give yourself time to fumigate before you go out in public).
It’s a fun experience, but I’ve tried other houses (Beaufort London, for example) that I would rate higher on the “well-blended art piece fragrance” list. Just remember, everyone’s nose is different so you never know! You might be the sort who loves a dirty animalic.
If you’d like to try it out for yourself, you can grab a sample of this over at Luckyscent. That said, they’re currently sold out of the full 100 mL bottle so if you just have to get your hands on one today, you can find it over at their official website for $180. Bitchin’ bottle though!
The Fandomentals “Fragdomentals” team base our reviews off of fragrances that we have personally, independently sourced. Any reviews based off of house-provided materials will be explicitly stated.
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