Atlas Fever

Ex Nihilo - Atlas Fever, took me back to my childhood. First sniff was very nostalgic for me. The combination of the different ingredients seem so familiar to me but also so unique. Never smelled something like this before, at least for a while. Last time when I was seven or eight, I guess. I can't clearly tell but I think it's the Oak within the combination of the woody notes in addition to that creamy and clean vanilla note. It's not that penetrant and aggressive vanilla. It's just clean. It's subtle. Atlas Fever has been called "Lactonic" by few reviewers , which is understandable. The vanilla / tonka leans to have a milky side. On the other hand, I don't get bothered by the "overwhelming" vanilla note, as a lot of people mentioned before. It's way more than a simple basic vanilla bomb. In my personal opinion it's a well-blended unique work of art. Literally artistic. When I close my eyes and smell it, I immediately imagine myself in the middle of a forest, outside of a wooden house with a smoking chimney. It starts to drizzle and all the woody aromas fly around in the forest. There joins a bit of a vanilla from the inside of the house. Perfect picture. Appreciate Ex Nihilo for that remembrance. Thanks for reading.

For me, Atlas Fever is the best from Ex Nihlio’s collection and it’s apparently Drake’s signature scent, so I’m doing it for Toronto. It opens as a cross between a few other fragrances: it has the nutty, rubbery vanilla of This Is Her, with the lactonic sweet cinnamon of Milk+ mixed with the smoky, peppery caramel of By The Fireplace/Ameer Al Oudh Intense and Eternal Oud. Atlas Fever is what I wanted Blonde Amber to be. But Atlas Fever is sooo much better than any of the aforementioned - there’s just one down-side - it projects for 2 hours only, then I don’t notice it anymore as it’s gone. I’m sure it lasts longer on fabric, but on my skin at least, it declines very quickly. During those first 2 hours, I asked my Torontonian colleagues to “smell me to see what Drake smells like” and they weren’t expecting Drake to smell so sweet. In short, Atlas Fever is a creamy caramel fantasy of toasted nuts with frothy warm milk sprinkled with cinnamon and black pepper with a smoky praline base. It’s a rich, chewy-smooth gourmand unisex dream. The dry-down brings a gun-powdery, sooty amber. But it doesn’t last on skin for more than 2 hours, so that’s my deal breaker.

This is my favourite woody vanilla at the moment. Lots of woods, warmth, a bit sweetness and incence. Incence note is not too strong (i dont like too much incence) and I personally don't smell berries (i guess they are somewhere in the background to balance the scent). Overall a good cozy fragrance to wear, if you want something conforting and warm for the cold weather... sitting at home, whatching rain or snow through the window. For me it is unisex, perfecty wearable for women. But if you prefer very feminine scents, then i suggest you to try before buying a bottle. Strong, longlasting, i can smell it on myself many hours before it fades (and this is unique, because i tend to go noseblind to a lot of scents).

From start to finish, this is a beautiful beast. I find the vanilla very powerful, so those who are not fans should avoid this one.The sandalwood is high quality and wafts majestically throughout the many hours this one stays on the skin and in the air. The red berries might remind people of some other opening notes in some high end fragrances, but I find them subtle yet powerful, a breeze rather than a gust. I do not find the tonka to be all that powerful, but for me, in this particular case, this is good because the other notes are what makes this one stand out. I could wear this one throughout the year, but because of its sillage it might not be perfect for work. Ex Nihilo has earned my 5/5 fragrance.

I smelt this in harrods and it blew me away, my 2nd favourite fragrance ever. This opens with some smokeyness but drys down to a lactonic and creamy vanilla which is heavenly, there is also a realsitic wood note which adds a lot to the fragrance. Ex nihilo as a whole is an amazing brand as a whole with fragrances such as Blue Talisman, Brompton Immortals and Chandigarh express. Peformance is pretty good and is not an issue. Overall this is an extremely good and unique fragrance which I would reccomend to anyone. Smell: 9.9/10 Peformance: 8.5/10 Bottle: 9/10 Overall: 9.8/10