Nox

Transparent salty cedar that is unisex bordering on feminine for this style. The first impression is blinding white light, like the sun reflecting off white painted houses in the mediterranean noon. It's salt lifted up and ensconced in white florals creating a fresh air feeling and also the salty sweet mark of great fleur de sel. Then comes the cedar in the base, more robust than the pencil shavings in many compositions, a real wood almost like cedar incense. In the same family as Jo Malone Wood Sage and Sea Salt but with greater density and presence, more of a proper perfume. Prismatic around this triad, and radiant. Really nice.

Please wait at least ten minutes before you say Acqua di Sale. It is just the beginning. It's indeed, sea salt and cyclamen, subtle mimosa and the seashore at dusk. It's in fact AC's own Kanat scent in a black and white Mario Giacomelli photo. But as said, these sea impressions are just the start. There's eucalyptus medicine, pile of patchouli sachets, church incense, some dry herbs. There's cedar wood and hinoki wood polished with balmy resins yet still unpolished, rough, handmade. You need to go to an antique shop to see what this scent wants you to smell. If the night gives you calm, this is for you.

Very weird perfume on my skin but i must say...addictive! It is Green & Woody, with a balsámic dirty hace and a salty vibe. It remember me a bit to douleur by bogue perfume without the sweet cotton Candy note. So what i ve found hete is a perfume where although i find the opening a bit difficult,when It dries down becomes very pleasant and i cant stop smelling It... For night in summer and winter daytime... Scent: 8 Longevity: 8 Sillage: 8 Quality price: 7 Versatility: 7 Originality: 9 Global: 8

A Gothic fairy tale: deep, dark, sour, eerie ... and fascinating. To me this is the smell of a cabinet of specimens in a Victorian medical school ... or even the inside of a venerably ancient, expensive, shadow-shrouded box... Dracula's travelling coffin, perhaps? It's almost repellent, smells creepily old, scarily gloomy - and I can hardly get enough of it. Can't keep away. If I'm so repelled, then why do I have my nose glued to my wrist? Never been so surprised by a pyramid/note listing as by the one given on here! From the pictures you may somehow imagine Nox to be an outdoorsy marine floral. Not a bit of it - for me it's absolutely dominated by dark, sour (but somehow beautiful) patchouli, which I'd usually loathe, and an exceptionally austere and forbidding hinoki cedar - which I nearly always love, but is particularly sharp and demanding here. Artemisia makes it even spikier, with a strongly medicinal-herbal edge conjuring bitter magic potions. And it doesn't smell of forest or air, but rather of dusty, archaic, not just indoor but subterranean or long-locked-up human-built spaces. Couldn't have imagined, sniffing blind, that this would have so many floral notes, (vanilla? you've got to be kidding!) but I guess they are the ones humming around the edges making the central darkness bearable - sketching some lovely curves of intrigue into the night, I guess. But it's CREEPY! Like any dark side melodrama it has dramatic highs and lows on my skin. For the first hour or so there's a welcome strain of something warmer - gaiac perhaps - which softens it just a bit and makes it easier to settle into. (Bela Lugosi's Nosferatu shows his gentler side and whispers seductively?) It's a memorably shocking character, so distinctive, an aesthetic all its own. BUT. It's also so short-lived ... (so in that respect the vampiric comparisons must stop - this is an evanescent wisp, not eternal or undead); after a couple of hours of crazy-dark-woody adventure the fug diffuses, Drac waves his cape, and there are only a couple more hours of sour-bruised-purple tinge of patchouli left behind, before the scary thrills end for good. Frighteningly expensive, indifferent performance, and a borderline disturbing smell. So I sort of hate it and yet I sort of love it too. Nox is weird and wonderful. But like a light silk cape, black on the outside, scarlet on the inside, it's kind of ... dramatic, but impractical. Wonderful to play with, and for those who are fanatics for the DARK, particularly patchouli & cedar, it could be devilishly good. If you want to go gloomy, ultra-niche (gender is irrelevant with this one), spiky and challenging, then toughen up and tangle with it. If you want to "just smell nice" ... or have a scent comfort you ... this might well horrify. Do ya dare?

Nox is one I tried ages ago but have revisited because it’s taken time to make my mind up about. It opens with a ozonic blast of bitter, herbal notes and a hint of minty, eucalyptus which I attribute to the combination of hinoki, cedar and wormwood. As it settles the salty sea breeze accord comes into full effect, almost but not quite rendering Nox a washout, Nox isn’t short for noxious as many of the salty sea accords can be. There was the softer sweeter surprise of vanilla in the drydown. This was surprisingly subdued and short lived considering the evident quality. I thought it was okay, bracing start made me think...granted mainly think ‘this isn’t my cup of tea’ salty sea vibes are tonally correct for the composition, with other nice stuff peeking through but not enough to excite me I’m afraid.

I had a small sample of Nox. A really nice, unique fragrance. I kind of see what trabuquera is saying about the “gothic” aspect of this fragrance. The notes that stuck out to me the most upon opening are the mimosa and salt, yet there’s a dark aspect to this fragrance. Overall the hinoki seems the most dominant after the initial notes take over and after several hours I get a white musk and wood base. I’d definitely like to pick a bottle sometime in the future and would definitely recommend sampling some of this creator’s fragrances.

A better version of Fat Electrician. Opens flowery with strong backbone of cedar with hinoki. There is nothing sweet. Vanilla not there. This woody core makes it smell like floor polish or gasoline. Bold niche. Not for everybody. Interesting and fanky.

I had this perfume as a sample and decided to buy the big size. Unfortunately I didn't like it. I didn't live up to my requirements and has been sitting in my bedside table for the last two years. It smells like the Vatican in Rome if he's ever been exactly like the Vatican, which I guess has a nostalgic archaic feeling, but that's the best way to describe it. To be fair the perfumer is Italian and I did see her shop nearby the area, so I guess it makes sense that it may be inspired from looking to sell it if anyone's interested.

I love hinoki and often wear it as a solo note, but to me, it's like a dressed-up cedar. Nox places hinoki at the center of the composition, but blurs the focus in a way that neither transforms the note into something larger than itself, nor features it in the way that draws out its best points. The leads to a perfume that smells a bit Declaration-cumin to me — which isn’t a bad thing, but doesn’t strike me as the greatest treatment of hinoki. Essentially, what this scent does is to adds greenery to a note that’s best served dry. There’s a patchouli in there (earthy and green) and some coniferous / herbal items that are too subdued to register as anything specific. The result is almost like hinoki through a green filter — the image tinted into a slightly unrecognizable state. Fortunately, the scent is quite airy so you’re not getting clubbed down with heavy notes, but the overall effect isn’t holding my attention in the way I wish it would. It’s not as confident a composition as others in the line, and personally, I’d rather wear the hinoki by itself. Nox doesn’t smell bad, but it is a tad uninspired and a bit uninspiring.

Another aspect that's immediately noticeable while exploring this line, it's its diversity. Ciampagna's offerings cover several themes in perfumery and all of them with a very personal quote and style. Nox is what I would probably describe as a woody aromatic that relies on an original mix of notes. There's the hinoki's kind of cypress / dark green quality as the main player and it's paired to an ozonic mix of genderless white florals, other astringent / pungent green notes and a remarkable salty vibe (which is present in several other fragrances from this house). Other smooth woods and clean musky notes serve as a base. The overall result is pretty original and charming if not a tad *bizarre*. A light / transparent woody thing with a remarkably modern twist. Could easily be an hypothetical love child between an Hermessence and a Comme Des Garcons but with that certain italian / mediterranean je ne sais quoi which is typical of this firm. Nice but not amongst my favorites. Rating: 6,5-7/10

Testing this from a sample vial today (23rd August 20). Very challenging opening, it reminded me of a hospital disinfectant, followed by something similar to Camphor sting smell, with the development it turns slightly more pleasant. Obviously, a fragrance not for me, but yeah, I can see the concept behind. Try before you buy. p.s. In an hour time, it gets wearable and more pleasant, so yes, to all who could wait until the dry down starts there is chance to like/love this fragrance.

This impressed me immediately – Dry, woody, rooty and very different to anything that falls in this category. It has a lot more going on, some fragrant-floral parts, and they really complement the dry woods. I’ve smelt this before, true, but not this good. I like this and I need to try it again and live in it, even. Intrigued and interested.

Scent - sweet salted musk. Season/Time of Day - I prefer to use this one in the colder months, day or night. Projection - I didn't get noticed, I didn't get a compliment. Longevity - I get 8hrs consistently.

A less oily Acqua di sale. I get no flowers, no Hinoki. A little salty but not crazy.