French Avenue Specter Ghost first impression

I just got FA Specter Ghost yesterday - batch 04/2026 so its very new. I opened it and sprayed it on test strip and skin. I did the whole spray 10-15 times, flip upside down, spray 15, flip again, spray again 15 times to properly oxidize it so it matures properly.

Initially, I thought the scent smelled bad - like rubbery and play-doh like and I was very confused (this was yesterday btw) so I was kind of bummed out. After a couple of hours, I went back to spray it again on skin and test strip - while it was very similar to the initial time i sprayed it, i could start to smell a little bit of the ginger, pepper, vanilla and cardamom - but the benzoin (play doh) scent is very very overpowering still.

I started looking at reddit threads about it's performance and scent profile, and if it will improve after 2-6 months of maturation so my plan was to just leave it alone for a while and revisit it again later once we get closer to the Fall season.

Me being me, I decided to spray it on my wrist this morning before I left for work (sprayed it around 8:30 AM). It is now 11:08 AM and I swear to got its projecting pretty strongly off of my hand, and I keep on smelling it (almost same scent profile as yesterday, but I am getting more citrus and sandalwood now than yesterday) and I CANT STOP SMELLING MY WRIST.

Right now, I am getting a lemon flavoured play-doh thats very very soft (as if i have been playing with it for a while so the heat from friction has softened it and now has that lingering faint play doh scent on my hand) - some spice from ginger and pepper, a little sweetness from vanilla and more ethereal than beastmode.

While it's not beastmode, and may be a bit faint right now - I can see (and smell) the potential of this in the Fall / Winter once it matures further...

For now, I will give it a 7.5/10 for the scent profile

Performance i'll give it a 7 for how strong it is currently, and 6.5 for longevity as its only 3 hours in and it is becoming faint, and more of a skin scent - though that first two hours of projection from 1-2 sprays on my hand has promise.

I'll follow-up maybe in 2-4 months to see how this improves on me, but for now i like it but definitely room for improvement