Cumming: the fragrance is the brainchild of actor Alan Cumming, nose Christopher Brosius and creative director Jason Schell. It features notes of bergamot, black pepper, scotch pine, whiskey, cigar, heather, douglas fir, rubber, leather, Highland mud, peat fire, and white truffle.

According to the Cumming: the fragrance website, this is "a scent that is all about Sex, Scotch, Cigars and Scotland". The top notes have all of the above, plus a heavy dose of pine and some burning rubber. It does not strike me as a perfume that is likely to sell based on the first whiff from a testing strip, and I wonder how it is doing in Sephora, where it will be competing with fragrances that are designed to smell better on paper than they do on skin.

All of that lasts only a few minutes though, and then the rubber and pine calm. There is a bit of smoke, a bit of whiskey, a bit of leather, and lots of dirt and moss. If all of that sounds very heavy and overtly masculine, it isn't. It is a calm, earthy scent, very low-key and relaxed.

Over the next hour or so, it loses much of the whiskey and leather, and the rubber disappears entirely. It stays very earthy, and evolves into a subtle, sexy, your-skin-but-better fragrance. Eventually it is very smooth and soft, and there is something that smells wonderful but that I don't recognize. The white truffle?

Christopher Brosius pointed out yesterday that "fragrance takes itself far too seriously too much of the time", and while I agree entirely, especially when it comes to celebrity perfumes, I admit to having had some trepidation about Cumming. Too much humor in a personal fragrance might not necessarily be a good thing. All such fears have been laid to rest. Try it, but don't try it on a test strip.

Cumming is an Eau de Toilette, and the lasting power is good. Available at abeautifullife, beautyhabit, and sephora.

Bonus surfing: Alan Cumming's website.