Dzongkha (2006)
by L'Artisan Parfumeur

This is a gorgeous and distinctive composition. I get lychee, cardamom, and incense; I wonder if lychee is the same note that many have described as "celery". I don't find the combination at all dissonant.

I'm not a huge fan of lychee and probably wouldn't buy a bottle of this, but I'll definitely use the rest of my sample.

This is slightly sweet without being cloying, which is unusual for an incense scent. Sillage is low to moderate and longevity is nearly 24 hours. Seems to benefit from a relatively liberal application.

29th December, 2011.

I like Dzonghka's beginning: it's 100% Duchaufour, with its fruit, berries and signature spice notes, fresh and hot at the same time. Then something disturbing makes its appearance: a fat, oily, foody (but not in a nice way!) note I find also in other BD works (I'm thinking at Sienne l'hiver, mostly) that for a few minutes renders the fragrance very unpleasant to wear. It fortunately passes quite quickly and a sweet and spicy incense settles in, luminous and sightly smoky. An interesting take on incense, but not a choice for me.

21st November, 2011.

I got some treats today while buying Voleur des Roses. The SA was kind enough to spray decant a small sample of this and Dzing! She sprayed each frag on identified scent strips, since the decants were blanks. Wow! Dzongkha smells fantastic on paper!!However, after I applied it to my skin I had a whole new ballgame. It came across as dill pickle potato chips crossed with edgy laundry powder. I waited for an hour to see if would settle or metamorphose, and unfortunately it remained just as acrid. Maybe it just overpowers my sense of smell; it is no doubt a powerhouse. I like dill pickles, but I don't want to smell like one. It is interesting, and I am sure others love it, but it gets a neutral from me.

22nd September, 2011.

This one opens up with rich spices, accompanied by a faint/velvety tone of orris mixed with a hint of vetiver. Amazing!

Trough time, the velvety aspect tones down and the spicy combo becomes even more prominent, now combined with leather and a hint of incense.

Anyway, a very good scent that truly captures the Buddhist temples aura with a good longevity and projection.

29th August, 2011.

The overall effect is a hospital or dental office smell. This is the cold/metallic/disinfectant facet of iris along with overtones of woods, smoke, soap, spices, leather, and flowers. [3 out of 5 stars]

15th May, 2011. (Last Edited: 18th May, 2011.)

Dry woods, orris and peppery cardamom all whirled by a dust of smoky incense. This is Dzongkha under my nose, ritual and sacramental. Dark temples and propitiatory fires come to mind. The woods are dry and herbal and the note of cedar is unseasoned and thirsty blended with rooty vetiver. The note of orris and peonia imprint a bit of real sophistication and contemporary consistence to this otherworldly and atemporal concoction. Orris and peonia are the umbilical cord with real. All the rest is dry-smoky mysticism. The dust is dry for sure, not cold and impersonal as in Black Tourmaline but warm and pungent. In its first step the fragrance is all prickly and rooty incense which is supported by vetiver, undetectable tea note, dry cedar and spices (pepper and cardamom). The blast is really doping. Just an hint of flowers and a touch of resins somewhere manage to sweeten the blend. A touch of leather closes the round with its masculine strength. The leather appears in its slightly floral mildness when the roughness starts fading or may be is the leather with its touch of velvet that manages to understate the atomic initial harshness. The final note of papyrus is able to keep up the drought. Dzongkha is a wonderful scent able to teleport me in the ancient Nikko, a mystic center of Buddhism that i visited in my last trip in Japan. The incense burns for our Nirvana.

5th April, 2011. (Last Edited: 8th April, 2011.)