Smoke for the Soul

There may be just a touch of canabis here, but I really have to look hard for it. So shall we stop with the canabis already? Honestly, there are guys on Youtube who ONLY get the canabis, and they're projecting their skewed views on the world, which really does this fragrance no justice at all. So can we move on to what it is, rather than what it's not? It is green, it is smoky, thyme, woody, with a touch of vetiver, it's bittersweet, smoky and fresh at the same time. The green herbs and eucalyptus in the opening and in the heart does give it a smell that's a little medicinal to me. This goes away after 15-20 mins and then it becomes just smoky and green, and actually really fresh. The smoke goes away completely after maybe 2 hours on my skin, but sadly so does its projection, too. However, I am still testing this very conservatively. Read on... Now wearing it for about 5 hours (3 sprays, shoulders and abdomen), I still do get a whiff here and there, and I love it. It is definitely still on me, just not sure how well it projects at this stage. This brings me to the topic of value for money, with respect to performance and projection. Lots of folks complained about it, but for me, I actually like the subtleness of this one after a few hours. I don't want to be smelled from 20 feet away, I don't need to be recognized, I just need to smell pleasant for myself and my close surrounding, and most importantly my partner. So just occasionally giving out a whiff of this goes a long way - for ME! I appreciate there are people who like Kilian's beast-mode projecting frags and that's fine, there are plenty of those, so this one may not be for them. So if you have the opportunity, by all means try this. Take a sample away, try it on yourself a day or two. To me, it is a 9/10 overall, I can see myself wearing this every day, I love it for being so dry, green and fresh, not offensive at all like some others by Kilian (Black Phantom comes to mind, although I love the scent of that one as well). If the price of the full presentation offends you, a refill can be had for about twice as less, which is in fact what I opted for. As ever, take this with a grain of salt, as I am a guy who adores the whole "Addicted state of mind line" - where some folks hated Vodka on the rocks, I actually love it. Intoxicated? Like it a lot. Light my fire? An absolute favorite next to SFTS! I sampled 11 of the Kilians, the only one that I feel is better than any of the aforementioned is Back to Black.

Unfortunately as the Kilian range expands it really exposes them for not being all that exclusive or original. Creations like Back to Black and Straight to heaven really impressed with their flare and spark of creativity. Sure you're going to get similar perfume from different brands and I accept that fact but this should perhaps be reflected in the price point here? Perhaps putting it in a less expensive bottle or not having ornate boxes which require a key to get into! I do appreciate that the atomizer travel spray is beautiful and I do in fact own one, the refills are a great idea and a cheaper option. Right enough of that what about this juice? Smoke for the soul is excellent! Truly a wonderful scent heady, earthy, green and smoky. All true but one thing instantly came to mind... KINSKI. Yep I interrupted the girl at the By Kilian counter as she was about to tell me how original it was... "This is very reminiscent of KINSKI." and it is but again there's subtle differences. The smoke smells slightly different here as if a different wood is burning. I actually tried them against each other when I got home and the likeness is significant but not absolute. The opening is one of bright eucalyptus and a citrus note but not as fresh or prominent as it is in Kinski. As for the 'Cannabis' note I was a habitual, massive pothead for years and although I can see how this might be construed as a ganja note, I've smelled more convincing ones. Very woody base of birch tar, I don't know what mate is to be honest but there's a vetiver type smell in here. For all intents and purposes this base is covered in my collection, without saying this is a copycat because the subtle differences (lack of animalic quality for example) are enough to make it worth a sniff and perhaps some will prefer it? The longevity is okay and it has moderate projection to begin with.

I had an unopened refill and left it in its box for close to a year, wondering how it smelled. I was even thinking of selling it to fund another purchase. What a loss that would have been as I have completely fallen for this scent. It's such an intriguing and refreshing take on the smoky vetiver genre. The scent opens with grapefruit and green cannabis funk, an intricate construction of vegetal notes, camphor and smoke. Rather than myrrh or frankincense, this is a scent I associate with meditation and relaxation. The presence of smoky vetiver is there from the opener, thick textured smoke just like in Dark Lord. Here the smoke is complemented with a fresh twist from the grapefruit. As different parts of the cannabis accord recede, it vacillates between funk and freshness before receding all together. At 1 hour, there is no projection, leaving a smoky, dark vetiver with faint remnants of grapefruit. The scent continues as a skin scent for 2 more hours before vanishing like smoke. Whilst normally I'd complain about the performance, the strength of the scent is more than enough to make up for it. Smoke for the Soul does feel like a Dark Lord flanker, but its such a refreshing, fun and versatile take that I could see myself wearing this a lot.

Someone said down in the reviews that it smells like a new car. And that is 100% the best description of this. Yes it has the weed note but it mixes with leather which magically pulls off that new car smell. Initial spray straight smells like weed. The dry down smells like bud, imagine sticking your nose in a your stash. The leather takes a back seat while weed and aromatic notes take over making that dry down smell. The dry down is nauseating to me, Smelling weed for a long period of time does to me and I kinda be feeling tired of smelling like that after awhile. Weed has come along way from its polarizing feelings but to me it still feel degenerate like because of the negative views society had about it while I was growing up. So it's not often I wear it but this is another well crafted scent Kilian has made. I appreciate things that are well made and is thankful to own such things. I'd recommend it if you love cannabis aroma, both men and women

@Gustave First of all, I own Black Afgano and I don't think it smells like weed. It actually smells a lot more like hash. Not necessarily like lit hash, but more like the hash smell that you'd get from a big chunk of hash just sitting on your table. I remember when I was young, my friends and I used to smoke hash out of plastic bottles. We'd burn a hole in the side of the bottle, put a piece of hash on a cigarette and hold it in the bottle until the bottle filled with smoke, then take the cap off and inhale. This doesn't necessarily smell like that. Smoke for the Soul smells like high quality bud mixed with some nice citrus and eucalyptus. It's very light and the performance isn't great, but it does smell like weed. I like it a lot for the limited time that it does last.