Liquo

There is much that comes to mind with Liquo. First, there are licorice sweets from Finland, known as "salmiakki," flavored with ammonium chloride, stimulating the salty and sour taste receptors. Then there's the bundles of dried lavender that are sold after a harvest, all cool and dusty-sweet. Third, the echoes of wistful, dew-dappled violet that is found in Apres L'Ondee. Lastly, there's the phenomenon we know as coumarin, that can at once seem to represent shaved tonka beans in a galette des rois, but then also carry with it bales of hay on a damp late summer day, or tobacco leaves hung to dry over barn beams. There's a velvet melancholy to Liquo, yet it also lends a sense of comfort to me. It is well-mannered in a way often lacking from artisanal perfumery, but also seems to reveal that sweet liminal space between realism and dreamscape that is uncommon in the mainstream. It isn't one that protrudes; it lives intimately in one's space and nudges its refrain now and then. It's important that there are fragrances of this nature: olfactory nuance would be all but lost if we were expect a scent to sing in a loud tenor, as textures would begin to scratch and agitate, spaces in between would melt away with the resulting blobs unable to carry the same emotional weight as a pianissimo.

Begins with a black liquoricey anise note that overwhelms the other notes for a few moments. After a bit this dries down into a powdery and deliciously pleasant lavender and warm coumarin hay kind of thing that I really like and that sticks around on the skin forever, just as a very subtle kind of background fragrance. Not in your face at all but comforting and familiar, with wafts of it occasionally releasing into the air around you. And since I like black liquorice the opening is also enjoyable. It’s quite different and to my mind that recommends it- you probably don’t have something like this in your collection. A fragrance that is evocative of summer in the countryside that can be worn at any time of year. It’s totally unisex and doesn’t have many of the components I normally associate with perfume, it’s a really unique experience. This creates happy feelings in me when I wear it, I don’t know why but it has that ability to create a mood and it’s so calming. For me my reaction to this is about the scent itself but also about the lovely, meditative mood it creates. It is truly an experience.

Very very lovely, liquorice, anise, hay (!) and gorgeous tonka beans. I love it! It's deep, dark and pungent, but also sweet and refreshing! An amazing smell. Very true Colin Maillard - it's like the countryside after a storm!! A beautiful deep aromatic natural smell. A stillness, that is also pregnant with life waiting to spring forth anew, as the sun comes out and everything starts drying and a more dusty, smoky smell wafts around. It's gorgeous. I love it. And it's very popular whenever I'm with other people, who really seem to love it, and love breathing it in, and telling me how relaxing it is to be near me. It is quite a unique perfume for me. It has a sense of peace and mystery to it. It's beautiful, one of my favourite perfumes.

For me, it's a complete match and just the best lavender scent in the world. I have just purchased the entire 100 ml bottle of an Extrait de Parfum and can't wait to unite with it while smelling the empty 2 ml vial on my table. For some reason, it calms me and helps me focus during my work, and I'm an artist, so not every scent can do it without distraction or overwhelming. I'm from Russia and don't have any cultural background that could be matched to this scent directly, but it's something from medieval lullabies books for me, with unicorns and potions.

Luca Turin on Liquo "I always think of liquorice as vetiver’s friendly sibling, and it is an unusual note in perfumery, notably prominent in the great Yohji Homme and few others. To me liquorice is inseparable from childhood and a particular liquorice powder I used to buy for pennies in a small metal box called Coco Boer, recently revived. Liquo avoids needless complication in what should be, and is, an innocent fragrance. The drydown veers towards an entirely pleasant coumarinic tobacco note.”

Named after the Latin word for potion, Liquo’s scent profile hinges on the use of the licorice root, a plant which is abundant in the Italian village of Atri where Angela Ciampagna’s workshop is based. The fragrance is defined by the juice’s wonderfully vivid green colour and the recognisable licorice tang’s interplay with the dry and brittle note of hay (ample dose of coumarine) that conjures up visions of wheat swaying slightly in the summer breeze.

Earthy and spicy sweet and comforting, it makes for a very easy everyday wear, while having subtle depths that you can only smell up close. Your opinion of this will probably correlate with how much you like licorice, and if you like "dusty" smelling perfumes. For me that's a yes on both!

Smells like a dusty wooden spice cabinet and aniseed tea- I love it but can I wear it, idk

Hay is really not an easy note for a perfume and it's the first time a smell a succes with it. (Sova from Slumberhouse is repulsive and Eau de Lavande Dyptique is really interesting but not properly hay) The analyse from Alfarom is as often very fair. My second favorit in this brand, after Rosarium.

joshanda (desi herbal drink for when covid was cute) in a bottle.

Southern France BY Amedeo Modigliani 1919

Judging from the comments below, there is clearly a market for this kind of scent. I can't see myself ever wanting to smell like this. I imagine myself sitting in a stable, while making myself sick on copious amounts of salty licorice while wearing this.

Absinthe and tonka is what I get. It's warm, syrupy, and sour on my skin. It's lingering effects are very sweet and nutty.

Part of me really likes what Ciampagna did with Liquo, but another part of me wants to fiddle with the levels a bit. This scent places a prominent hay note that’s clean and green (and only a smidgeon horsey) up against an anise that’s a tad too feeble to stand its ground. It’s as if the focus is on the hay and the licorice is just along for the ride despite feeling like it should play a bigger role. The thing is, one false slip with licorice notes and you’re plummeting face first into candy hell, and Liquo doesn’t do that at all — the accord is kept well in check. But the resulting problem is that the hay is almost too prominent in the mix until much later on when things have mellowed out some more. For those of you familiar with Sova, the hay draws a parallel as they’re both sharing the same material. But whereas Sova is a sensory barrage, Liquo is minimalist by comparison. It feels far more refined and mannered than Sova, but that’s not a knock against Sova (one of my faves) — they’re just different aesthetics. This scent has the crafty, rustic feel of others in the line, but it’s melancholic and dusty as well — the lingering ghost of an herb stand in the Mercato Centrale that has closed its doors for the night (I googled Mercato Centrale to sound more cultured). Liquo creates an impression of a bouquet of dried, herbal lavender but I would never peg it as a lavender scent, per se. It's suspended over a powdery base (tonka merging with lavender to my nose) but it’s respectfully dialed back to let the hay shine, warming up the longer you have it on your skin. Liquo is as melancholic as it is calming; the apothecary feel is unmistakable, but it’s a dusty and hazy kind of fragrance — one that feels mellow and peaceful. It’s not quite right for me, but it’s an impressive scent all the same. Definitely a highlight of the line, and this is the scent that I’ll think of whenever the line gets mentioned.

Licorice, anise, tonka bean, coumarin, with slightly incense, lavander, and citrus. It is pleasant to my nose since Angela sprayed it on a plotter for me. I can't lie that it was weird from the beginning but i remember that i asked her for the sample cause i was kind of impressed by it's uniqueness and individuality. I haven't smell the rest of the line but i remember that i've sniffed their "Fauni" & "Ignes" (their latest for Esxence 2016) but i wasn't impressed as i was for this one. However, i can't comment on any till i sniff them again when both are out in May 2016. Edit (18th Jan 2017) There is something wrong with "Angels's" fragrances! it just deforms by time and the smell changes into something i can't bear! something like a seaweed! something like cooking a broth! spicy broth! or preparing a stew! i am just completely disappointed with this result! when i spray this on my skin and walk in public i feel as if i am a walking kitchen! thank GOD i didn't opened the bottles yet as this i got from 2 samples i bought from different locations, their website, and a niche shop in UK. Why Angela! just why! Edit (11th Sept 2019) The mix of hay, anise, & lavander is kind of unbearable that makes this blend like a cooking place, not herbal but spicy cooking with too much Asian spices, the licorice is already lost in haze. TOO SPICY!

I last tried this one out 6 or 7 years ago, and truth be told, I don't quite get how ANYone could liken this to Sova. Anyway, Sova has been voted down/out, and I decided to return to this maaany years after the fact, so I can try it out again without my Sova blinkers on. Herbal, medicinal and a little musty -- if you've ever been into a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) store, this reminds you that. They don't have the same notes, not by any long shot, but they are strikingly familiar. It does lurch into gourmand territory, albeit through the wrong door, but overall, I'm not sure this scent works as a united, cohesive unit. I mean, it's a great scent, no doubt there, but I'm not sure it functions as a perfume. This is ENTIRELY my own opinion here, of course, but for me it feels like it's lacking in a few key places. Not much base -- there's not even a vanilla in here to provide the anchor. Vanilla, which can happily tread in both 'spice' and 'herbal' categories, would've given this a bit more weight and possibly made it work a bit more. This unfortunately comes across as incidental kitchen smells and not like a planned, honed and constructed scent.

Here's another (big) hit. Definitely on the darker side of the spectrum if compared to other deliveries from the same house, Liquo is a vibrating mix of dark salty licorice, anise and hay. Something that immediately made me think about artisanal italian licorice-based liquors / amari. The hay note is remarkable from the very early stages but it gets more dominant as the fragrance evolves towards the drydown during which it's joined by a moderately sweet and dry woody-tonka base with incensey undertones. Moody and kind of blue too but comfortingly so. Again, the rustic and the modern paired together, a rural villa renovated with modern finishings, it's the goth represented in full colors as opposed to just black, it's a fragrance aimed at smelling good and modern by skipping relying on *weird* notes and / or aromachemicals. As with most others Ciampagnas, fantastic presence and great longevity. Kudos. Rating: 7,5-8/10

Licorice and tonka bean touch each other with their woody and bittersweet facets: on the brighter side there's anise, and on the deeper side there's tobacco powder and hay. Lavender is also anisic here, and a puff of incense gives that "aged rustic house near the church" feeling, which is the reason I return to Angela Ciampagna's fragrances. I can actually smell clearly all the notes listed, I can see how they connect and crossfade in a single thread of an intentional elemental simplicity. It is indeed a calming fragrance, what Body Kouros or Au Masculin could have been without the 90's designer stuffing. A new genre: Rustic Meditation. Sits quite close to the skin, for your own introspective journey.

Have you ever tried anise based (or either liquorice) flavored drink (brandy, or liqueur), very popular in the Mediterranean as well as in the Balkans? In my Homeland it is usually served mixed with water and ice, a superb compliment for a nice mixed summer salad. That is all I got from that fragrance.

A comforting but very very simplistic take on licorice. The scent feels incomplete in the way that there's no base to hold it down so it is like you only get the topnotes & middlenotes. The Extrait label & the pricing is a joke. This one behaves like a weak eau the cologne.