The Silk Road

Sampling d’Annam The Silk Road, part of the Chapter 3 collection, Majestic China, released toward the end of 2025. It’s a spicy, earthy, woody blend made up of tobacco leaf, ginseng, leather, vetiver, and spices, and is unsurprisingly a bit sharp and dark, with the tobacco/leather blend at the centered, modified by the earthy, ashy aspects of vetiver, raw sharpness of ginseng, and spicy notes that, to me, seem like a vague amalgamation of cumin, coriander, and even a bit of castoreum, perhaps the result of the dry leather/tobacco blend. It’s powerful, and from what I recall, there’s nothing quite like it in the d’Annam catalogue to date. As far as evolution, the opening moments after application lean toward a savory/sweet/spicy mix and the experience becomes drier and more leathery, more resinous over time. Overall, this is a great experience with great performance. As with the rest of the house, this is EDP concentration and priced currently at $160 for 50ml, sold in the US via the house website and great boutiques like Perfumology. I find this pricing reasonable in the current market for niche perfume with clear care and thought put into its conception and execution. I’d say this and Chinese Calligraphy are my two favorites of Chapter 3. 8 out of 10

The Silk Road smells like an ancient Chinese shrine or temple. It has a lot of exotic spices and for me, it’s also almost a bit boozy and smoky/incense like as well. The vetiver is very strong in this, I get hints of the warming tobacco and ginseng too and those three notes together with the spices, give this fragrance an almost Chinese medicinal scent, which is magical and truly reminds me of The Far East and Asia. I would say The Silk Road leans toward a more masculine scent profile, and it is long lasting, especially on clothes compared to other fragrances from d’Annam, which typically has a more mid and moderate longevity. If you have a love for East Asia, or are looking for something that smells exotic or like a temple hidden in the Chinese mountains – get this!

I really love this scent. You get rich, dense, almost chocolaty tobacco mixing with a variety of warming spices. I don’t get much of the leather or vetiver, and I’m not entirely sure what ginseng is supposed to smell like, but the scent rounds out to be very warm and spicy...there’s still complexity here because I’m not entirely sure what spices are being used, and I think there might be honey and a touch of ash lurking somewhere in it. I like to wear this on brisk evenings out, casually, but I suppose it would also work during the day. It lasts a solid 6 hours on my skin and projects at about an arms length within the first two hours. It’s masculine-leaning, but still unisex...I think it would be a bold scent to smell on a woman. 9.1/10

I did not expect to like this at all but it's really good! More spicy than tobacco though just in case you like smelling like cigarettes. It's also quite masculine

IT'S SOUR PLUM DRINK Smoky + sour + plum. Literally smells like suanmeitang.