Terrae (Dirt)

Terrae may translate somewhere as dirt, but it shouldn't be here. It certainly doesn't smell like dirt. Alkemia names its notes as dark amber and aged Indonesian patchouli, and it's all of that and more. Deep and rich patchouli, very woodsy, and not at all like hippie head shop patchouli either. It's dark and serious and adult. Put it in a brown Tom Ford bottle and you'd gladly pay $300 for a 30ml bottle, instead of $20 for a little brown 5ml bottle at Alkemia. Fabulous stuff. Edit, as of February 7, 2024: I realized today that Fragrantica has misnamed this scent. I'm not surprised; Alkemia has so many scents, many having nearly the same names, and since it isn't a high end perfume Fragrantica personnel must be rolling their eyes every time they have to identify one of Alkemia's scents. This Terrae is not dirt; it is named Terrae (Ambre II). They have another scent: Terre (Dirt). My review here is for the Terrae (Amber II) scent, which right now Alkemia lists in its Last Chance category. I think last month (January or maybe last Dec 2023) it may have been in its reissued category. it must not have generated enough sales, possibly because the art piece listed with it is of a man with a sort of rounded belly (satyr?; I'm not up on my mythical images tonight, sorry). To find it, you have to scroll down Alkemia's homepage to find this Last Chance category. A lot of work, and you run into all those other scents in the meantime, but Terrae (Ambre II) is worth the effort.

I bought this after testing and being thoroughly disappointed by all the Demeter fragrances related to rain, as none of them smelled anything like it. I think this is the closest I've ever found to that delicious wet dirt smell right after it rains and whenever I spray it I just cannot stop smelling my wrists, it's truly addictive to me! I see one of the reviews liked the Demeter version more, I have to disagree, as my experience was the opposite. The Demeter ones were okay-ish but this one worked a LOT better for me. I haven't had it long enough to convey the evolution of the fragrance through time, so I can't speak on that end.

I love this! I layer it under Cherries in the Night and it smells like a cherry tree on top of wet soil from last night's rain. And it can be layered with many other fragrances as well! I also paired it with Relique d'Amour, to add more of the wet dirt smell to the cold stone chapel scent. Definitely a personal choice to wear this, but it's a beautiful single note!

A fine dirt scent, very straightforward as all their single notes are. I was shocked and disappointed that the longevity of it is less than Demeter's Dirt, which is bizarre as it's an oil suspended scent so one would assume it would last longer if project more intimately. Not a waste of money, though, as it pairs incredibly with their monthly scent for March 2024 (Jonquil Alchemy) and I've since mixed the two together permanently to create the best spring scent I've ever had.

I was expecting an oil version of Demeter's dirt, but something that hovered close to the skin, rather than the blast of alcohol and short life that Demeter is well known for. When I first got this, it was pretty close; although it lacked some of the mineral nuances of Demeter. I wasn't wowed, but it wasn't bad. I never thought about reaching for it (neither out of sheer curiosity nor to layer) so I put this aside for a few months and when I went back to it, this had morphed into a burnt plastic monstrosity! No dirt. Not even close. More like electrical fire than anything resembling earth. I kept it in a temperature controlled room, away from all sunlight. In less than a year's time this made it straight to the rubbish bin.

This is a nice warm spicy patch to me. Not too earthy or dirty, mostly just a very realistic patch.