Knot Eau Absolue

Knot What I Expected (haha had to do it:) Ms. Andrier decided to flanker the original Knot with an oriental floral. I guess I was just expecting a boosted version of the original, with maybe a smidgen of resin instead of the musk, what with the "Absolue" monkier, but that's not the case. Actually this perfume is downright weirdly retro in a great way. I'll tell ya right now, KA has shades of Shalimar and Revlon's Ciara, of all things. For an hour or so there is a distinct note of motor oil, and the perfume is primarily a opopanox, incense stick, and handmade candle and soap scent. The orange blossom is still there, it surrounds the motor oil, resins, and incense...after it dries down the heliotrope and jasmine join the orange blossom and it's quite a sweet, heady bouquet. Really though this is mostly an opopanox perfume, thick and sweet and almost dirty opopanox, that reminds me greatly of Ciara. I only imagine that Ms. Andrier was wearing vintage Shalimar perfume one day and she went shopping at a hippie store to buy incense sticks and resins to burn at home. Her cloud of Shalimar mixes with the scented air, and BOOM inspired she goes to work and whips up Knot Absolue. I don't think this has anything in common with the original and could have been its own stand alone scent. I love this--it took a few tries but I ended up falling for this--but it's definitely a weird perfume that I'm not sure would appeal to most. Oh, and a user note: This is very strong and lasts forever. I only need at most 2 sprays at a time, this will last 8+ hours...any more than that is overwhelming.

Ive been searching for the "perfect scent" for eons, and unexpectedly, this might very well be it. Ive always been drawn to incense and Ive collected a few incense heavy scents (most recently Rien Intense Incense by Etat Libre d'Orange) but always wished I could tweek the notes a bit to my liking. Being a fan of the original Knot, I sampled this and was instantly intrigued. It's very different from the the original and I feel this should be the signature and the original should have been the flanker (L'eau Knot maybe). Knot Absolue reminds me of how a head shop on a rainy day in Seattle would smell. Full of Nag Champa sticks, Tarot cards and lavender soaps. This is so mysterious yet inviting, clean but complex. Maybe its the opoponax, but this isn't really flowery, woody or sweet, its more like a glowing resin with a hint of soapiness. I always felt the original was more masculine than feminine, and Absolue is even more so to my nose and chemistry (both get me tons of compliments). However, everyone should give them a try, they are absolutely beautiful creations, but Absolue is in my top 5 scents ever created. I am completely smitten.

This is absolutely gorgeous and such a shame it was discontinued. The base reminds me of Delhi (can't remember the brand sorry) but the top, and heart are different. Instead of tropical champaca this has the freshness of neroli and lavender mingling with jasmine. Makes it a fresher and more unisex style without the very tropical and feminine champaca. This is a myrrh bomb in the dry down. Ancient, churches, mushroomy, overgrown mossy, gravesites. The sweet almost deathly smells of places of worship or Holy sites. The smell of life mingling with death. A cleanly animalic aroma. A fragrance filled with reverence, contemplation. For those that feel a bit tied up in knots if you will. For a person searching for answers in a world so full of information but little truth. If you are seeking something very vintage but something dark and a bit melancholy. Something with some soul give it a try. I find it quite darkly captivating.

My first fragrance from Bottega Veneta and my favourite neroli fragrance in my collection. Smells so expensive and refined. Done different than other neroli on market these days. Old money luxury that doesn’t scream. Knot Eau Absolue is a wonderful, thick and luxurious floral: neroli, jasmine, heliotrope and lavender layered on a sweet, warm, resinous base consisting of opoponax and myrhh. The contrasting composition makes this underrated gem very versatile. I think that the base notes makes Knot Absolue great for fall but not too thick for summer. The florals from top and middle notes gives it freshness and make it perfect for spring and summer wear. A floral amber scent that can be worn all year round! The performance is great. Lingers for hours and hours on skin with a strong sillage. Hope this beauty never gets discontinued!

This smells like vintage (1980s not 1920s) Emeraude. My mom wore it as her going out perfume, just a spritz or two, and I remember the entire house smelling like it as she and my dad went out the door, leaving me with the babysitter. Emeraude was an absolute balsamic powerhouse in those days and I loved it beyond reason. It’s basically a skeleton of itself now, and I’ve mourning it since, God, 1993? So when I blind-bought Knot Eau Absolue based on my love of the airy, pretty Knot and got...1980s Emeraude?!?!? I was both surprised and delighted. The Knot DNA is there, but everyone saying this smelled like their grandma in the 80s? Yes and yes. 😂 I would say it’s not a safe blind buy unless, you know, you’re trying to create your 1980s perfume memories. I love, love, love this and am so excited it got made.

Got this because I LOVE the OG Knot, but more out of curiosity than anything because resinous incense fragrances don't tend to work for me - I want to like them but they usually just don't sit right on my skin. But Knot Absolue is unexpectedly gorgeous. The florals offset any harshness from the incense and it's beautifully deep and smooth. It's reminding me of something vintage and I couldn't figure out what until I saw the review below referencing Emeraude - that's probably it. This doesn't necessarily smell exactly like things like Emeraude and Shalimar, but it's that kind of scent and if you enjoy those, you'll love this. Go figure that this would be my ideal incense fragrance - OG Knot is my ideal neroli. I guess now I have to try the Florale version...

SAUDADE is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one cares for and/or loves. This is what this fragrance means for me because of my lola (grandmother) who smells of neroli and lavender. Everyone has mentioned about the beauty of this fragrance, unpretentious yet distinct. Special but also familiar. Well blended floral notes with resin and incense. For me this smells of my lola's embrace and I am lucky to have found a fragrance that brings back memories of someone I loved and inspired me deeply. She was a quiet woman who was not afraid to love and who had character. Personally, this fragrance is extremely special. Love in a bottle.

Perfection! This is the Scent I‘ve been looking for: calm, full of character, multidimensional, warm and chill at the same time, mysterious and sensual, yin&yang... Complete. It starts with a burst of fresh white flowers, heliotrope and lavender embraced by myrrh and opoponax vapours with a nice touch of leather (yes, it had to be there, it‘s a Bottega). Then lavender takes over really strong almost as a soliflore for about an hour. Heliotrope appears again shily in a tender dance with neroli for another hour or so. In drydown jasmine with myrrh and maybe a hint of sweet amber play the main role for 2-3 hours. Lavender is still noticeable but faint. Transcendental beauty... to colder seasons

I own 200+ fragrances. If I was ever forced to choose and use only 5 of them for the rest of my life, this would be one of the first picks. It's rich, but not stuffy, powerful and long-lasting, but never unpleasant, pretentious or over-the-top. It's masterfully done, top to base, using great quality ingredients, every single one singing beautifully and in perfect harmony with the others. Everything, the scent, the bottle, the cap and the box, is an object lesson on what a luxury item should be like, be it main-stream or niche. A masterpiece and imho the best oriental take on neroli one can get their hands on nowadays. Get it! Something tells me it's just too good to stay with us for long.

According to a reviewer below (@Bee-young-ka), Knot Eau Absolue is "mothballs" in the best way possible and I completely agree. This is one of the most unique perfumes I've come across in a while and I have to steel myself to not get backups. Knot Absolue cannot really be compared to any other perfume that I've come across. It is signature worthy and so very elegant but aloof. Knot is a little bit of a "snob" actually. She smells expensive and is not really interested in you. Wearable in all seasons and conditions. Not resinuous but balsamic and spicy. Dry, in the way that Cartier Baiser du Dragon does that "dry" accord. Just gorgeous. Not sweet and could fit in any time period really.

So, I bought a sample of this online, only I thought I was getting Knot. When I smelled this I was like, "What?" because it was so distinctly an incense smell, and the notes for Knot were all wrong. So... then I realized there in the fine print it said "Eau Absolute" and everything made sense. I loved this. It reminded me of shopping in Toronto's "Little India," where the smell of myrrh and spices is everywhere. Very pleasant associations. To me the dominant scent in this is the incense-like myrrh, but beautifully blended in with the other notes to create a warm, musky, and slightly feminine fragrance. Probably not good for a blind buy though. You'd be safer to sample first.

I suspected I would love this. Oppopanax and I have a bit of a love/hate thing going on. I can just find it cloying if not handled well. This oppopanax has been lifted and brightened by the neroli. A little magical smokiness from the myrrh. It's warm and enveloping like a velvet clock. A teeny nudge from the lavender and a lovely little bit of sweetness from heliotrope. There is something about it that makes me think of Christmas. A holy oil to anoint the baby Jesus with. Perfect for cold weather wear. It's a fragrance and yet it's not. It's more like a magical invisible cloak of warm golden light around you. I get good longevity and at the most average sillage.

Super elegant and sophisticated! My husband said wow what is that, this is the first time he has mentioned that I smell good in a while. This is an interesting fragrance and very unisex to boot. I really get the heliotrope and myrrh in this, not getting any neroli on me at all. Longevity is beast mode and sillage yes it’s there if my husband mentioned it! Drydown is beautiful and soft not as sharp as the opening and when I say sharp not in a bad way. I’m glad I purchased this. You don’t need the OG and this one. One of them will do. Not sure how this will work for summer but it sure is beautiful for spring! Recommended 8/10

This is one of my favorite scents of all time and I have been wearing perfume for well over 50 years. Bottega Veneta is a vastly underrated house, I have also had their Knot OG, this is their flanker Knot Absolue, that deserves to be in a class by itself. It is a lush, full blown scent full of the resinous mystery of myrrh, balanced by floral hues of neroli and lavender, effused with balsamic and incense notes. Warm, spicy, opulent and luxurious, it has moderate sillage and longevity. Bottega Veneta Knot Absolue is a fragrance that I will always wear, it is elegance bottled in a work of art.

A heavily perfumed resinous old fashioned soap bar- I love it! This will be nostalgic for those with older loved ones I agree. It reminds me of a well put together, wise, patient, loving human being who was young in the 40’s. Unpretentious but deep. It also reminds me of a Sophisticated elegant modern women. This smells of clean just out the shower but amber/ resin sprinkled all over. The bottle is 10/10 - my second favourite bottle ever after the private lancome line. It looks like a extremely expensive work of art and the cap is solid

I totally agree with Tillywave in terms of similarity to the original, this one’s longevity and also a nod to Shalimar! To me, the original is buttery tuberose, whereas this is a mildly oriental warm and spicy beauty...my husband wanted to know if I was wearing an Oud tonight, as this does verge into that territory without going full blast Arabian. This is a mature and elegant composition with a resinous depth, I have to admit I really love it to the point that I may need to buy a back up! Blind buy for me and it’s a 9.5 out of 10!

Blind buy based on reviews on YT. I loved this fragrance so much at first whiff I immediately got a back up bottle. Many of the other reviewers have already said what I get from this fragrance--a sensual, rich amber in the same family as Prada Amber but with a slight mothball like quality that I find quite familiar and comforting. Classy, sophisticated and cozy that is probably best for the fall winter but I love it so much I will wear it in spring and summer too.

I could swear is a cinnamon note in there but as I see isn't.Well crafted perfume,really different,lovely for winter time,is in my want list from this minute! (a swap pal heared my wish and we arranged to have this beauty on my hands now.Thank you,N.so much!) I insist about cinammon and to me,according to the performance on my skin,turns more on the resinous side than floral. If you search for that aspect,give it a try,is a special pefume in any case.

Lucky blind buy. I adore this fragrance. The resinous, balsamic and incense notes envelop you in a warm, cosy yet mysterious, serious and sophisticated aura. A 'mature', classy, nostalgic and sensual fragrance, better suited to cold weather and remains for ages on clothes...so, maybe, spray sparingly! It has instantly become one of my top 3 favourites in my collection.

At first sniff I thought this was a little bit too mature for me (and I tend to wear pretty hefty scents for a 29-year old). At second sniff, I was sold. This is so luxuriously, velvety smooth. The myrhh is delightfully gentle and makes this such a comforting fragrance. I'm very happy to have this in my collection and I can see this becoming a colder weather fave!