Absinthe and Laudanum in the Afternoon

Green, musky, slightly powdery. Slightly smokey. It's fairly heady for a green scent, and it seems to get more musky/powder the longer it's on. This one is definitely a new favorite. I think "languid" might describe it well.

Gently balsamic at the outset - mostly lavender and galbanum. It's kind of bitter in a pleasant way, maybe due to the opium, maybe to the wormwood. There is a tiny bit of sweetness, but for the most part it's very dry. The musky element of this scent really comes out as time goes on. It's hard to decide whether this is stereotypically masculine, feminine, or unisex. I thought it could fit all three at different points in its evolution, which I guess makes it unisex, but not in a neutral way. It doesn't matter, of course, as anyone can wear it. I almost want to call this sexy, which is weird because I don't really find any fragrances sexy. It's sort of animalic in a very light way. There's something alluring about it, anyway. Hey, who knows, maybe it's the opium! I didn't expect to like this scent as much as I do, but it's really nice. Not my usual style, but I would wear this.

I have a sample vial of this that I dutifully let rest the several weeks required for oil scents. It's really lovely. Of all the other Alkemia scents I've tried, it reminds me of Sultan's Reverie, another scene of daytime inebriation, except SR is musky and sweet, and this is more musky and dry. I think if this scent were made by conventional perfumery the notes would read too masculine for me, but in natural perfumery they feel delicious and unisex. My childhood best friend and I made cubbies out of some crannies under her front porch. We stuffed them with moss and grass and sticks and flowers and whatever else we could find. To get to our cubbies we had to walk past the vent coming from her laundry room, from which laundry smells were always pouring out. When I first tried this scent, it took me back there, to that meeting of warm musky "clean" air with moss and weeds.

Solid fougere opening, reminiscent of Drakkar Noir.