Tom Ford Lost Cherry is to my mind becoming the Aventus of the cherry fragrance genre. Each new cherry fragrance is compared to that juggernaut of boozy cherry deliciousness.

Now I will say that while I own Tom Ford Lost Cherry, it is not my personal favorite. Do I like it? Yes. Do I love it? I experience an enjoyable scent profile with significant projection and longevity issues. I do not love beast mode fragrances generally, however, nor do I want to pay $225 for a 30ml that I can smell for the first 30 minutes to an hour, then can only detect if I put my nose to it. Regardless of some personal ambivalence around Lost Cherry, it does seem the fragrance to beat in this corner of the perfume world.

When I received Cherry, by the new French niche house Max Philip, for review, my curiosity was certainly high. Reading the note structure it seemed this would be a close competitor to Lost Cherry and it undoubtedly is, however there are key differences. I also should note that Max Philip is an original fragrance company and is not presenting this as a Tom Ford Lost Cherry dupe or clone.

Max Philip’s Cherry offers a bright, juicy, tart cherry, with a supporting cast of bitter almond, booze, rose, plum, patchouli, vetiver, etc. There is a gorgeous tanginess in the mix, that smells just incredible and uplifting.

Longevity is quite good: Cherry sticks around for the day on me, which I am impressed by. Projection is my personal favorite: it’s present, if someone is close to you, they may detect it, however it does not take up every inch of air in the room. Cherry lands perfectly in that pleasant middle ground of taking up a bit of space, discretely, without potentially inflicting olfactive offenses on innocent passerby.

I find in Cherry a lovely year-round gourmand cherry option, thanks to the bright sort of feeling it imparts. I would say there are a lot of similarities to Lost Cherry, however also key differences. I find this more tangy, maybe a smidge less boozy, a little less syrupy sweet, and quite cheering. This is a touch more tart than Lost Cherry so I want to highlight that if you seek a sweet syrupy cherry; you do get that here, with a tart dimension added. I personally do enjoy this one more and while not a “cheapie,” the bottle contains a large amount (100 ml) at a gentler price tag.

Max Philip graciously included samples of some of their other fragrances with Cherry, including Mango, Brown, Grey, and Black, and having had the opportunity to test those as well, I am quite impressed with the house overall. I find the scent profiles to be lovely, quality across the ones I tried, and I see these as exceptionally well-done fragrances that would appeal to many people. All of these fragrances are “easy wear,” versatile, great for many situations.

I am also impressed by how well the scent descriptions on the house’s website are written: I found that the captions for each perfume I tried quite accurately depicted the experience.

All in all, Cherry is a major win in my book and I am delighted to see Max Philip’s fragrances now available in North America.

UPDATE: I love Max Philip fragrances so much that I now have an affiliate code: TS22 saves 10% off. This discount is good on top of the 50% off launch sale, for a total of 60% off. Free shipping and samples included. The house just unveiled their Signature Collection which is astonishingly beautiful and on top of that, fairly priced–as with the regular line, you get 100ml bottles containing beautiful fragrances made in France. Go check them out and see what I’m on about!