Closed Gate

Closed Gate is as unique as the bottle suggests. To my nose, it's all about labdanum—a favorite note of mine. Here, it’s paired with green notes, sichuan pepper, and a little vanilla to create a singular, captivating experience. It’s resinous at first, but sweetens slightly as the vanilla emerges during the drydown. It's so very compelling. I wouldn’t have ever thought to blend these particular notes, but they work nicely here. Closed Gate is full of formidable intrigue and a bit of darkness. It lasts for most of the day on me. The sillage is moderate to moderately strong. Feminine-leaning unisex. Closed Gate is an excellent example of what every hardcore fragrance lover knows and what every person who is just starting their fragrance journey should keep in mind: testing on paper tells you very little about a fragrance. Granted, when I blind buy or get samples I will often do the paper test, but I know I’m getting only a small part of the story any given fragrance has to tell. When I paper tested Closed Gate, it was...not great. It’s like it was missing 3⁄4 of its notes. If I had stopped there, I wouldn’t not have learned how special this scent is!

Sichuan pepper and sandalwood, generously sprinkled with vanilla extract. This perfume is both spicy hot and sweet, very interesting for the first few hours. But the dry down is just vanilla cream with very distant echoes of sichuan pepper. It's like desserts with chili, that have 1% chili and 99% sugar. This perfume is about the same - sweet and warm, with very distant echoes of something spicy and hot.

Yea a good unique fragrance The smokiness is there from the labdanum which id not mind in the slightest as well as the worst part of the scent... it’s the two kinds of pepper Pepper is one the harshest thing to wear at least to my nose when it’s overdone and it’s the case here The labdanum in the beginning of the fragrance is very good but when the peppers get a piece of the action it ruins the smell for me Performance is good Projection for a little while is very good Not my style and I won’t recommend it

This smells like all the notes listed, and also a cloud of mystery. It smells peppery, green, woody, vanillac, resinous, leathery and a touch smokey. The woodiness smells warm like in a sauna, I assume the pepper and sandalwood coming together. It’s quite strong, especially up close, and lasts long. It smells better on skin than paper. It is strange, when I put my nose to the cap and sniff “strange” is the first word that came to mind, but not bad, it’s uncommon, unique, especially in a world of sweet precious gourmands. She has vanilla, but she’s not like the others. It wouldn’t work properly in athleisure, or something very girly or pastel... it demands something either vampy, quirky, sexy, hippy, or dark. It’s not well suited for mornings or daytime, it’s more midday to nighttime style. Overspray it and it’s a lot more peppery and leathery, a few sprays and it’s much more tame and wearable, vanilla, green, pepper.

I really cannot explain but it's a perfect name for this scent. an ultimate seducer. melancholic, dark, mysterious. although the pepper-vanilla duo is not new, the way they are blended here is very peculiar. dusty warm woods, a bit alcoholic, with dry bitter herbs...strong on pepper all the way through. a smoky vanilla quiet at first comes forward in the drydown. in hot weather settles with a monotonous heavy resin, so better be worn in winter as it really only shines in cold...