Boadicea the Victorious — 1907
Essence
1907 is Boadicea the Victorious’s 2024 collaboration with Neiman Marcus, named for the year the Dallas department store was founded. Within the British house’s vast catalog it functions as a polished, fruity-spicy woody EDP with a candied-lemon top, violet-and-sage heart, and a tobacco-tonka-cedarwood base. Its distinctiveness - and most of the controversy around it - comes from how closely it tracks Stephane Humbert Lucas 777’s God of Fire while sanding off that fragrance’s screechy opening and pushing the sweetness toward a glossy, almost edible register.
Scent Profile
The first ten minutes are the most polarizing stretch. Despite a notes list that reads woody-spicy on paper, what actually reaches the nose is a high-pitched candied lemon - almost confectionery, like lemon drops dissolved in a Kir Royale of cassis - riding on the soft floral-pepper bite of baies rose and a dusting of green cardamom and cinnamon bark. Multiple wearers spontaneously reach for “God of Fire with less of the opening funk,” and some wearers, comparing it directly to its SHL777 reference, calls 1907 “the more mature, refined, and clearly superior interpretation,” writing that “where God of Fire roars loudly, 1907 glows with control, elegance, and a fascinating depth.” A mango-adjacent tropical sweetness is reported by enough wearers that it appears to be doing real work even though no tropical fruit is listed. Through the first to third hour the violet steps forward, candied rather than soapy, and the sage and nutmeg provide a thin aromatic-herbal seam that keeps the sugar from collapsing. Cashmeran starts radiating its woolly, slightly resinous warmth here; this is where 1907 stops feeling like a sweet citrus and starts feeling like a dressed-up woody. The pink pepper has done its work and recedes.
Performance
Strong projection for the first two to three hours - a confident two-foot scent bubble from three sprays, larger in warmth - settling to moderate arm’s-length by hour five and to a close skin scent past hour eight. Sillage is above average but not a Sapphire-line beast; it leaves a trail rather than a wake. Longevity on skin runs 8 - 12 hours for most wearers, with several wearers reporting 13+ hours and skin-scent traces overnight; one reviewer’s wife logged it past 13 hours. On clothing it is essentially permanent - easy 24 - 48 hours on wool or denim, and the tobacco-cedar drydown is what survives a wash cycle.
Wearing Context
Best in fall, winter, and cool spring evenings; passable but risky in summer because the sweetness amplifies. Evening over daytime, dinner over office. It is at its best in low-light, cool-air settings - a hotel bar, a December dinner, a restaurant where someone else is picking up the bill - environments that match the Neiman Marcus inspiration. It falls flat in athletic, outdoorsy, or fresh-air contexts where its varnished sweetness reads as overdressed, and it can become a liability in close-quarters office work given how loud the first three hours are.
Comparisons & DNA
The unavoidable reference is Stephane Humbert Lucas 777 God of Fire, the Aztec-themed niche piece widely cited as 1907’s DNA donor. The wearer wearer response has been brutal about this: one top review calls 1907 “just god of fire rebottled… Not 90%, not 99%, but 100%,” while a more measured wearer-driven discussion write-up describes the core DNA as identical with God of Fire pushed onto a smoother, less screechy base. Differences in wear: 1907 is lemon-forward and cleaner up top, God of Fire is louder, fruitier, and more sour-mango; 1907’s drydown is more cedar-cashmeran, God of Fire’s more amber-vanilla.
Reception
Wearer response is bifurcated. The dominant praise is for blending quality, projection, and the controlled sweetness of the opening - “luxurious, smooth, polished, without ever appearing sterile” recurs almost word-for-word across reviews. The dominant criticism is value: at the Neiman Marcus retail of $540 for 100ml, more than triple the price of the God of Fire reference and considerably more than the Lattafa-level dupe ecosystem charges for similar profiles, multiple reviewers say it cannot be justified unless you already own God of Fire and want the smoother variant. Wearers repeatedly use the phrase “glorified clone brand” in connection with this release.
Versions & Reformulation
Single composition since 2024 launch, no known reformulations. Listed by Boadicea and by Neiman Marcus as an Eau de Parfum at 100ml only - the standard “Pure Perfume / Parfum” terminology that some Boadicea releases use does not apply here, and despite the Venba retailer page calling it a “Parfum” the brand and Neiman Marcus both list EDP. The bottle is the standard Boadicea crown-topped flacon in a cherry-red glass with “NM” pewter shield. No flankers, no concentration variants.
Acquisition Notes
1907 is a Neiman Marcus exclusive in the US at $540 for 100ml EDP; in the UK it is sold via Boadicea’s official site at a comparable price bracket. Scent Split’s 1907 product page lists a full-bottle reference of $675 USD when retail bottles are stocked through that channel, with 1ml, 2ml, 5ml and 9ml decants in standard Scent Split sizing.
Notable Facts & Lore
- 1907 is the year Herbert Marcus and his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman founded Neiman Marcus in Dallas - the “NM” engraved on the pewter shield refers to the retailer, not a perfumer.
- The brand frames 1907 as a celebration of a “partnership with great synergies” between Boadicea and Neiman Marcus’s elevated-luxury retail ethos. The release’s brand-stated intent is to “tempt the imagination and wrap the wearer in luxury” while encapsulating “the innovation and vision of Neiman Marcus’ founders.” The perfumer is undisclosed - standard Boadicea practice, since founder Michael Boadi prefers his perfumers to remain anonymous so the creative direction reads as house-driven rather than nose-driven.
- The choice to launch through a department-store partnership rather than the typical Harrods/Selfridges niche channel is itself the story: it is Boadicea’s bid to establish a US flagship inside an iconic American retailer, and the cherry-red bottle is unusually graphic-pop for a brand otherwise committed to pewter-and-jewel aesthetics.