Angels' Share

I LOVE this fragrance. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get a sample of both Angel's Share and Roses on Ice. When I returned home, I sprayed my right hand with Angel's Share and my left with Roses on Ice. Roses on Ice is beautiful but I feel as though it leans more feminine but Angel's Share just blew me away. I could not stop smelling my right hand. After about 30 minutes, my mind was made up. I e-mailed the By Kilian specialist at my local Holt Renfrew to put aside a bottle for me as I would only be able to return to the store the next weekend. He replied back and with pleasure, said he would save me a bottle. But it was the last one in stock at any of the Holt Renfrews. He was getting e-mails and calls from other Holt's around Canada, asking him for the bottle he had in stock and he refused, as he had already promised his last bottle to me. Seeing how this is sold out everywhere you look, I'm very thankful and appreciative to him for hiding away the bottle for me. When I went to the store last Saturday to pick up the bottle, he had literally hidden it in the bottom of one of the cupboards of his booth, at the bottom of a shopping bag in which he was storing tester cards, so that no one would find it and sell it when he wasn't at work. He went above and beyond to make sure that bottle was mine and I am thrilled and feel extremely blessed to own it. It is my first By Kilian and to date, the most expensive fragrance in my collection. Now, on to the performance. On my skin, this stuff is a beast. It radiates a good 5-6 feet away. It leaves an intoxicating scent trail as I walk and it lasts FOREVER. It was my scent of the day yesterday (Friday) and this morning as I am typing this, I am STILL catching wafts of it, although much fainter, over 24 hours after spraying it. In fact, it is actually 27 hours since I first sprayed it on. So, even though it is by far the most expensive perfume in my collection, ($300 CAD for 50ml), a little goes a LONG way, which makes this a much better value than some other perfumes that were much less expensive but last a fraction of the time. I am in love with this fragrance. Boozy, woody, sweet, sexy. It is just absolutely perfect for this time of year. I don't think you could pull this off in the warmer months because the sweetness might get cloying but during the colder parts of fall, spring and definitely throughout the winter, this fragrance will cut through the cold and make a huge impression on everyone around you. In my opinion, this is an absolute masterpiece. 10/10 fragrance.

I originally wrote two long-winded reviews for Angels' Share, but I think it's best to be concise. Angels' Share is a wonderful, enchanting gourmand; it's boozy, beautifully sweet, and smells like warm, spiced cinnamon rolls doused in thick, cognac-laced syrup. Somehow, it manages to be sweet and heavy without being cloying or nauseating. There is a quality to it that lends to some versatility (possibly the woodiness); crazy as it may be, I love this fragrance too much to wear it only in the cold. It is addictive and impossible not to reach for. The performance from Angels' Share is also incredible - it lasts forever on clothes (beyond 24 hours - the scent remains on my clothes a week after washing them), 12+ hours on skin, projects very well, and leaves a wonderful scent trail. All this without being too strong or too commanding; it doesn't fill the room obnoxiously, but remains noticeable. There is something about this fragrance that I just cannot get enough of. I haven't smelled a single other fragrance that comes close to being as captivating, compelling, and intoxicating as this fragrance. The more I wear it, the more I want to smell like Angels' Share 24/7. Update: I've been wearing this fragrance constantly, even when I sleep. I put it on after I shower before work, reapply on my lunch break, reapply when I come back home at the end of the day, and often reapply in the mid-evening, even if I'm alone and staying home. I spray it on my shirt and skin after I shower at night, and before bed I apply it to my sheets and pillow. I decided to purchase a 100ml bottle online last night since I use AS so much. It's an expensive addiction ($500 worth of AS in the last 5 weeks), but one I'm happy to sustain. I do hope I get over this infatuation at some point - both for my wallet, and because I literally don't wear any of my other fragrances. Even worse, when I sample new fragrances (which I do daily; I buy tons of decants), I am often disappointed because I'm unconsciously comparing them to Angels Share. I don't know what they put in this fragrance or why it so compels me. I guess it's good that I found a favorite scent, but I do wish I were more attracted to "versatile" fragrances, as opposed to a $300, warm, sweet, boozy scent that most would classify as a "winter fragrance." Still, I plan to wear this all summer long. However, I decided to purchase one of the only fresh fragrances I like, Gentle Fluidity Silver by MFK, to see if forcing myself to wear that instead of Angels' Share can break the spell.

I have never written a review before. But after 350ml of this, I couldn’t resist. I have been using Angels’ Share for a while now. I cried the first time I smelled it. It smells nostalgic. It smells like that perfect day from your childhood. It is winter break and life is good. School is over and it is snowing outside. You wake up in the morning to the smell of your grandma’s warm cinnamon buns. Straight out of oven. You can’t resist and take a bite, although your mom is telling you that you should finish breakfast first. Everything is perfect. The gifts are under the tree. Your granddad sitting on his wooden rocking chair smoking a pipe. Your little sister watching old Disney Christmas animated films (Chip and Dale to be accurate). Your father preparing your sled as your mother is helping you wear your winter clothes. Life is good. You go out at the usual time to play with your friends. You play till the warm lights come on. From building a snowman to sledging down a hill. Nostalgia has a way of incorporating weeks of activities in a single memory of a single day. You come back to a warm home as the ice melts off your gloves. Your dad and grandpa are having a cognac by the fireplace while they talk about topics you couldn’t care less about, nevertheless, you’re still happy to be there. Your grandma is knitting and your sister is asleep on the couch. Your mother helps you put on your pyjamas — the ones with letters and numbers and you sit by your dad and eat the last cinnamon left. Later you get carried to bed as you fell asleep watching Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Life will never be as good as it is right in this moment. You just don’t know it yet.

I smelled this perfume at Sephora and didn’t expect it to transport me so completely, as if space and time had briefly unraveled around me. I almost had to grab the display counter to catch my balance! I rarely experience this when testing a new fragrance, and I am always surprised when it happens. Suddenly, I am an 18-year-old free spirit again, back in the days before social media domination. It’s summertime, which means I have all the time in the world. On a hot afternoon, I wander through my favorite dim little bohemian shop in the city, crowded with treasures from the past and distant places. A handwritten sign warns that stealing will affect my karma, but I have never even heard the word before and have no idea what it means. And anyway, I was not planning on stealing anything. The air inside is thick with incense smoke, both freshly burning and long absorbed into every fiber of the vintage clothes, leaving behind a soft aroma that reminds me a little of cinnamon. I pick out a classic houndstooth mod jacket that I will later destroy beautifully with holes and safety pins. That evening, I joined my friends. I am sitting in an dark bar, talking to an older boy while slowly sipping cognac on ice. I choose the drink because I want to seem more mature than I really am, but at the same time I really like it. The wooden floors are sticky beneath our shoes, and outside by the smoking terrace, the summer air is heavy with heat, smoke, and possibilities. Thank you, Angel's Share, for bringing back such vivid memories of my youth.

Angel's Share doesn't smell like booze. It smells like the lie we tell ourselves about booze. Not the burn going down, but the story you tell afterward. The version where every bad decision becomes a great anecdote because enough cinnamon and vanilla have been poured over the memory. This is what luxury does. It caramelizes regret. The opening is all cognac soaked oak and sugared spice, loud enough to make you think you're getting something dangerous. Then the sweetness settles in. Praline. Tonka. Sandalwood. The edges are sanded smooth until what's left is comfort wearing the costume of excess. It's beautiful. Almost too beautiful. Angel's Share is the fragrance equivalent of inherited wealth pretending it built itself from nothing. It wants credit for surviving hardships it only ever read about. You wear it because it makes you feel older, richer, wiser than you actually are. Because confidence, like fragrance, only has to convince people for a few feet. The trick is that it works. It isn't rebellious. It isn't challenging. It's a cashmere blanket stitched to a flask of expensive cognac. It wraps indulgence in elegance until nobody remembers they're the same thing. That's the angel's share. Not the whiskey that evaporates from the barrel, but the part of yourself you're willing to lose if it means smelling this good.