Sampling this on my arm now. What a strange creature. I get a rounded swell of ripe green fruit (like kiwi or sour apple) and yellow fruit (pineapple?) against a backdrop of faintly smoky dry woods. As it simmers, the ripeness of the fruit diminishes and becomes more celery-like. While the room fills up with incense smoke, a vetiver and a pale floral are having a conversation just beyond ear's reach.
A totally over-reductive summary of the topnotes.
The distinguishing feature is the amped-up green fruit (I guess what they are calling rhubarb). The topnotes have the same relentless hypersmell that characterizes many of the Heeley scents; but thankfully it becomes more natural smelling in the drydown. The incense is done very nicely and gives the effect of carrying the whole thing skyward, even as it eventually dominates the scene.
I'm not quite sure where I stand with this one. I like the novelty of the topnotes even though they flirt with being too synthetic. The part I'm struggling with is how the scent is constructed in the drydown. As the fruit turns vegetal, the celery-like component is neither at odds with the smoky backdrop nor sufficiently connected to it to be interesting. It feels a bit like I've sprayed one scent on top of another. Perhaps this is what they mean in their press by "baroque".
Only an hour into it at this point, so I'll keep updating.
After four hours: What has dried down is full of prettiness--beyond what my limited nose can identify and describe. There is some real masterful stuff happening in the basenotes. But the two central characters (the green/vegetal note and the incense) are standing on the main stage, no longer on speaking terms. It lacks the fun of a wild juxtaposition or the beauty of a romantic blending. They're just sullen and won't acknowledge each other. Though better integrated toward the end, the final impression i get is one of awkwardness and disjoint notes. Perhaps too many ideas for one scent?
A totally over-reductive summary of the topnotes.
The distinguishing feature is the amped-up green fruit (I guess what they are calling rhubarb). The topnotes have the same relentless hypersmell that characterizes many of the Heeley scents; but thankfully it becomes more natural smelling in the drydown. The incense is done very nicely and gives the effect of carrying the whole thing skyward, even as it eventually dominates the scene.
I'm not quite sure where I stand with this one. I like the novelty of the topnotes even though they flirt with being too synthetic. The part I'm struggling with is how the scent is constructed in the drydown. As the fruit turns vegetal, the celery-like component is neither at odds with the smoky backdrop nor sufficiently connected to it to be interesting. It feels a bit like I've sprayed one scent on top of another. Perhaps this is what they mean in their press by "baroque".
Only an hour into it at this point, so I'll keep updating.
After four hours: What has dried down is full of prettiness--beyond what my limited nose can identify and describe. There is some real masterful stuff happening in the basenotes. But the two central characters (the green/vegetal note and the incense) are standing on the main stage, no longer on speaking terms. It lacks the fun of a wild juxtaposition or the beauty of a romantic blending. They're just sullen and won't acknowledge each other. Though better integrated toward the end, the final impression i get is one of awkwardness and disjoint notes. Perhaps too many ideas for one scent?
