Supernova

It feels similar to gris charnel which is one of my signature fragrances but is still different enough that I need a full bottle of this too lol ive been craving this smell so this is at the top of my full bottle list for fall/winter Update: Finally got a full bottle! I found someone selling their partially used bottle for a good deal Update no. 2: After getting the full bottle of this I find it way less similar to gris charnel than when I was using my sample. Honestly they are both so uniquely beautiful that it's kind of a shame to compare them. This seems to have a lower sillage, but I still pick it up on clothes days later.

I like it! I have a sample of this and I felt it smelled very familiar. Checked the "reminds me of" section here and, indeed, it does smell similar to Gris Charnel. Perhaps somewhere in between the OG and Extrait.

This is woody and spicy with a lot of cinnamon making it a good choice for fall/winter. It’s quite nice and lasts quite a while, especially on clothes. This leans more masculine than I like, but overall very nice.

Dry, woody, spicy and a bit herbal. A bit like Volcano by Carner Barcelona, but without the punch in the face. Definitely a stunning and friendly fragrance.

I'll be honest, I'm torn on this one. Andrea Maack seems to be a pretty divisive house, and this is no exception. Why it's substantially lesser-known than Coven (a fragrance I found to be extremely underwhelming) is beyond me. There's quite a bit going on here, and it culminates into something that's colorful yet odd. Immediately on spraying, I'm reminded of something like TF Oud Wood, a sophisticated and tamed woodiness that aims to represent the concept of oud without smelling like actual oud. The type of lacquered-hardwood base that's best paired with sharp aromatics and fresh spiciness, in this case being the cypress and saffron which are very detectable. Once it warms up on skin, however, the cardamom comes out in full force and transforms this into something entirely different. The sweet creaminess does make this smell quite a bit like Gris Charnel, as others have mentioned. What I really appreciate most though is the leather and saffron, as it creates this full, magnetic, and almost ethereal resonance in the background. The only other leather/saffron fragrance I tried with that same effect is Slow Explosions by Imaginary Authors. Unfortunately, that effect is just a fleeting moment, and the drydown is simply boring in my opinion. At this point, the persistent cypress also seems out of place and occasionally clashes with the rest of the fragrance in an unappealing way, until it eventually leans the profile into the more masculine fougere territory. This really just seems like a strange, unbalanced execution of a neat concept. Not to mention this stuff sits close to the skin so it doesn't have much of a chance to express itself. I would still say it's a unique and interesting fragrance, so I don't particularly hate it.