Buzduganul Fermecat (Enchanted Mace)

“Buzduganul fermecat” (“Enchanted Mace”) is a hidden gem in the world of perfumery, with the most nuclear performances I’ve ever met. Try to imagine something more nuclear than the best performers from Orto Parisi. It is a complex composition, hard to describe; but if you really want to put it in a category, it would be amber woody (fruity in the opening phase, woody & smoky in the middle one and musky & ambery in the dry-down). “Buzduganul fermecat” opens with fruity sweet notes, with slight hints of pepper. There are some sweet, but dry spices in the background of these notes, maybe cinnamon and saffron. After the first 15-20 minutes, when incense and smoky notes start to shily develop, it shares some vibes with “12th of Oct. 1492” from Rundholz (another fragrance created by the same master perfumer, Arturetto Landi). The opening phase lasts for a very long time, maybe more than an hour. In the middle phase, “Buzduganul fermecat” becomes almost another fragrance. Keeping the Rundholz comparison, it evolves from “12th of Oct. 1492” to “20 Mars 2022”, but with much more magic and woods. Tones of woods. The middle notes (jasmine) on Fragrantica are a joke. In fact, most of the middle notes are woody, earthy and smoky. Cypriol, cedar, labdanum, resinous frankincense, vetiver. Freshness, woodiness, earthiness, and smokiness at their best, in the same time, heavily projecting. The great artistry in “Buzduganul fermecat” is the subdued and unobtrusive dirtiness that emerges in the background of the above-mentioned combo. In the middle phase, behind the fresh-woody, earthy and smoky notes, there is always a muted dirty / funky note, which is very sexual, but not animalic, dark and mysterious but not gothic. Try to imagine a whiff of the original Kouros within the woody – incensy aura resulted from Légendes du Cèdre by L'Artisan Parfumeur and the extinct (due to outrageous reformulation) Casbah by Robert Piguet, plus tones of cypriol. I think it might be the costus (unwashed hair smell), musk, and ambergris combo. The dry down phase can be considered the third fragrance. Musk becomes preeminent, the woody and earthy notes become very resinous, and the artistry of the middle notes turns into a common blend of amber – woods – incense, encompassed within musk. It is still very appealing and, considering that the first phase lasts more than an hour and the middle one lasts for about 6 to 8 hours, I think that no one can complain about it. On skin, the overall longevity of “Buzduganul fermecat” is more than 24 hours. It projects monstrously in the first 4 hours and heavily for another 4 hours. When my work mate wears it, I know that he is at the office when I enter the courtyard, if he works with the window open at the ground floor or the first floor. The aforesaid evolution of the fragrance is on skin. On clothes or paper, it is mainly linear: the middle notes and their transition to base notes. Its longevity on clothes or paper is more than two weeks and a half. Like the other fragrances in the B.A.S.M. line by Createur 5 D’Emotions, “Buzduganul fermecat” (“Enchanted Mace”) has been created by Arturetto Landi, whose portfolio is impressive, but inexplicably overlooked and underrated. If you haven’t heard about Landi, please consider that when Alessandro Gualtieri created Nasomatto, Arturetto Landi helped him as the master perfumer. Except his own brand and his contributions to the early Nasomattos, Arturetto Landi has created the Rundholz fragrances and many others from Profumi del Forte and Pantheon Roma. All these creations share the same DNA, so, if you haven’t heard about B.A.S.M., when you try to figure out how some notes in “Buzduganul fermecat” smell, just think about how the same notes smell in early Nasomattos, Rundholz, or Pantheon Roma. The incense, rhubarb, cedar, ambergris, amber, cypriol, musk, and labdanum notes are almost the same and blended in very similar patterns.

Exquisite, incredible. People sniff the air around me and ask intrigued what is this perfume that smells so unique. It does leave an impression, and the scent stays even if I left the room, for long. I can never go back to a commercial perfume.