Falkar

One of my favorite fragrances that you might find in a nice mall, especially from a well known designer house like this. I see that many disagree with the other who have said this, but even before I looked at the "reminds me of" section I immediately remembered The Voice of the Snake by Gucci. This fragrance is a little more dry and a little more oud forward, and as such I actually prefer this to voice of the Snake. But the character of the oud in these two fragrances is similar. Voice of the Snake certainly had a louder and larger accompaniment, something sweet hiding in it and floral. Falkar is more oud forward and I would say maybe a bit smoother which may be in part because of the frankincense. The dark musk combination in this fragrance sits nicely underneath the fuzzy warmth of the spices and the oud, the smokey cypriol with the frankincense which make a pseudo incense accord that leans creamy rather than smokey, and saffron. I absolutely love this fragrance, being somebody who loves a true oud and doesn't like traditional blue fragrances, this is a nice find for me that I was able to smell out on display at Dillard's. I rarely find fragrances like this that I really enjoy in stores like that. In summary if you like dark, smokey creamy incense, oud, and spices, and if you like to smell masculine and strong and mature, elevated, wise, etc, this may be a good fragrance for you. It's probably not going to be a blind buy kind of scent, unless you know you love oud.

One of the best dark musk fragrances ever, regardless of cost or using synthetics or naturals. There's cinnamon and nutmeg listed as topnotes, but they're not topnotes in the conventional sense, they're around for the duration, like everything. It's not linear, but the changes are subtle. Frankincense, Jasmine and Saffron make up the heart and leather, oud and musk base. Like many Le Gemmes, the saffron and leather notes are mostly from a high dose of safraleine, and the dark musk accord that's prominent in Falkar is ubiquitous throughout the lineup to some degree. Frankincense is another common thread in the Le Gemmes, and is also used here in a moderate amount, in some Le Gemmes it's a main note. The oud has some Borneo brightness and also some rubbery facets. The musk is probably the best synthetic deer musk accord I've experienced, up there with or better than Puredistance. The whole comes together in a complex, spicy, woody black musk fragrance with little to no sweetness. The closest comparisons are Morillas' Gucci Guilty Absolute and Kilian Dark Lord. If you like those, Falkar is a similar in character but even better.

This is by far one of the longest lasting and projecting fragrances I own. I sprayed both this and Amouage Epic Man on seperate cards in my bedroom and left them. For the first few days, Epic was still dominant and could be smelled when I walked in. However, they eventually faded but even 4 days later or more, Falkar's sillage still lingers in my bedroom from being sprayed once on a card and left on the dressor. And the dresser is in the opposite corner of the door, so It wasn't just when walking by the dresser that I smelled it. My only warning is that this does have a fairly strong animal musk edge to it. So, for people who aren't accustomed to the old style fragrances that used a lot of it, it will be an acquired taste. And by animal musk, I mean more in the category of a civet type scent, but darker and done incredibly well (compared to others that just smell like animal urine - as my co-workers said about Vetiver Guerlain - sorry Guerlain).

Damn this is another absolute banger from the Le Gemme line, Cavallier is just flexing his master perfumer status now. Falkar opens sweet and hot spicy with a realistic pairing of nutmeg, cinnamon and some unlisted citrus giving it a textured sharpness, the opening is slightly unusual and very enigmatic, it doesn't provide any clue about the direction the fragrance will take, it can be polarizing but it effectively captures the attention of anyone who experiences it. The drydown is a stark contrast to the open, the sweet spicy sharpness is replaced with billowing clouds of incomparable smoothness and refinement. Layers after layer of creamy musks, the fluffiest suede leather and velvety woods unfurl to compliment and soften each other further, leaving an aethereal yet substantial masculine composition which is highly intriguing and very very pleasant.

After wearing for a few days, I decided to re-review it. Just like it says of itself, you have two notes here: Dark woods and black musk. The dark woodsI would describe as agarwood/oud, but with more of a focus on the wood itself (and slightly charred by fire), not the oud sap. That is the picture I get in my mind. And for black musk, I would describe it as a type of dark smelling civet (a good civet scent). However, everything mixed together also produces a leathery smell. Not a black leather, but more of a tan-colored leather that's gotten extremely hot in the sun. So in the end, very interesting and sophisticated. The musk and oud will make it smell more mature, but also rich. And the scent profile itself does not smell old/outdated despite the use of civet/musk and oud. Definitely strong and long lasting.