Lady Krampus

I'm a huge fan of both rose- and leather-centric perfumes, and I'm always on the hunt for a fragrance that successfully incorporates both. The first ten minutes of Lady Krampus' journey does this wonderfully: a very lovely sweet, straightforward rose note is bolstered by a sassy, slightly masculine leather one, with satisfyingly mineralic hints of coal playing around the edges of the composition. If you're an indie perfume fan who likes other brands in the same vein, you might be familiar with Deep Midnight's "Black Wings"; this smells like a more rose-forward, slightly more feminine version. Unfortunately, the rosy and leathery notes only coexist for about a half hour or so, after which the latter completely disappears and the former absolutely dominates. I even tried boosting the leather element with the Cuir (Leather) layering note from the same house, with no success -- the result of mixing them just smelled nondescript and messy. This Lady isn't particularly faithful; she vanishes (up the chimney?) after a little over an hour. Despite her shortcomings, I'm enjoying Lady Krampus this Christmas season. I'm glad I bought it, and honestly, I will probably end up re-buying just because the first application is so delightful. Although it's an imperfect leathery rose, it's still a nice one, and if you're a fan of the brand I would recommend giving this a go. [A note on availability: At the time of writing (December 2023), this is available as part of the Holiday Gift Set on Alkemia's website. From what I can figure out, they bring this one back in a limited quantity every holiday season.]

this starts very leathery, with a hint of the smoky coal. this is a leather jacket with rose perfume on it and a wisp of smoke. there's a small hint of musk in the background but no fig and that’s fine with me. smoke, leather and roses is a perfect combination and it's done great here.