Brood

Gourmand meets creosote. I have just dropped my cardamom gelato waffle cone onto the tarry railroad tracks in the switching yard. I'm so bummed, but the smell is so transfixing I just stand there. Until a guy wearing a leather jacket comes along and asks me to move. Sooo good!

Brood goes on with a little coffee-liqueur brown sweetness, and then settles into being a pleasantly stinky, bitter oakmoss-leather chypre. It’s even greener and bitterer than Bandit, completely uncompromising, with an interesting herbal accord taking the place of Bandit’s galbanum and wormwood. Maybe it’s the spikenard. There’s also a little bit of spice keeping the leather company. This is an Eau de Parfum with good solid concentration; I get maybe five hours of hardcore leather before it wears away, leaving a sweet brown base of vanilla-and-wood, lasting maybe three more hours. This is the bitterest perfume I’ve ever smelled, bar none. Enough to make the words “too bitter?” enter my mind before being rejected, which has never happened to me before. If you’re not into bitterness, go elsewhere. I’m a fan of leather chypres generally, and as I’ve mentioned before, the classics are very similar to each other – Bandit, Azuree, and Cabochard have only very subtle differences between them. If Brood doesn’t belong in that cluster, it’s only because I’m not an educated enough nose to notice its flaws. It smells pretty damn good to me.

Testing blind I got an initial peach cobbler that hung around for a while to cool off, slowly morphing into a more musky and airy scent with a bit of a darker green aromatic. It's a little gourmand in the opening and for the first 20-30 minutes, but for most of the day it is more of a warm dark green and seasoned fruity essence. Looking at the notes it's mostly the apricot and cardamom blending well together. Everything else does their part in keeping the recipe in good taste. I don't get the rose though. What I like is the balance between the two main notes. While the fruity side of the apricot dwindles, it warms up a bit more. While never really feminine in the opening, it never really leans masculine in the ending, but things do shift, which can be concerning regarding consistency. But in this case its sweeter, lighter opening, moving to warm and fuzzy, throughout the day can be appetizing.

Capsule - Brood It’s nice, sometimes reminds me of different things, incense, spaghetti? Sometimes almost skunky. It’s OK, it’s interesting, but I don’t love it

I wasn’t expecting this one to be my favorite when I samples the Capsule line. It was such an interesting fragrance, I soon breezes through my sample vial because I could it stop spraying and sniffing my wrist or sample paper. At first spray the fruits are most noticeable, but they seem like dried fruits- giving it almost a sweet raisin/ or flavored tobacco leaf nuance.Then for on the dry down and thereafter I get mostly tobacco, leather, and saffron carried by slight sweetness of dried fruits. It is unisex but leans a tad masculine. It is strong and lasts about 12 hours on clothes, so I go light on the sprays. This fragrance is perfect for a night out or a visit to an art museum. Very contemplative and addicting.