Absinthe Headspace

This is not a powerhouse in terms of performance. Yet, I added it as one of my favorites. I have no experience with real absinthe or wormwood. However, this seemed interesting enough for me to get a sample. Glad I did. This is not challenging at all. For me, this is invigorating and uplifting. I find it bright and it adds a spring to my step when I wear it. Not from confidence, but from happiness. Really enjoyable. Not sure how it stacks up to other absinthe concoctions. I hope to compare one day.

This was love at first sniff. I attempted to smell every fragrance at Dover Street Market that I have never smelled, which left me with about 50ish things to smell. Absinthe was the favorite. I was impressed by multiple scents in this line like Tubereuse and Myrrhe, but this is just the best absinthe scent I've ever smelled (and I've smelled many). Heady wormwood, green violet leaf, with something soft and round and soapy. It's somehow green but so warm and enveloping (like a wormwood hug).

It is breathtaking just how cynical niche perfumery has become. The "headspace" of absinthe this is not. Take an oft-visited trope of absinthe, done palpably in fragrances such as Nasomatto Absinth, Serge Lutens Douce Amere, L'Artisan Fou d'Absinthe, with the levels turned down to tepid, designer-ready ennui. Be sure there is next to no bitter to be detected, and filter it through one big sugar cube so that the louche is sweet enough for the gourmand palate. Wash it down with a Memo-style limpid leather and a grafted amorphous vetiver-patchouli "I have smelled this many times before" base. This is far more safe than I even feared it would be. I really hoped this would maybe highlight some of the sharper, herbal, aromatic facets that have only been hinted at in the aforementioned scents, since the concept house touts that their fragrances are "based on the results of headspace technology that allows to capture the scent of an object or situation and accurately reconstruct it." This is acceptable enough wallpaper to my nose, that is all.

Doesn't smell anything like absinthe, it smells like a 90s men's aquatic.

Updating my review now that I have a small bottle. I have to preface with the point that the packaging was a let down. I don't usually care for packaging at all, but if the bottle and cap are loose in the box in an evident failure of cardboard manufacturing, that's something to be noted. I also dislike the bottle for the 30 ml version. Gigantic cap on an unlabled bottle that looks nothing like the full size version. Anyways I DO like this besides all that. The full-size bottles are supposed to be modeled after what perfumers store their ingredients in, and surprisingly that's my impression of this particular release- it comes across as an herbal, mildly sweet plant extract of some kind. I’m imagining the sticky, tart nectar of some bready fruit perhaps. I get a subtle boozy association from the wormwood but it’s not super bitter. Instead it reminds me of the sugar cube you set above the absinthe, and the dense, aromatic syrup of muddled herbs that it becomes. The balance of fresh ozonic greenery created around violet leaf is set against a dark, damp base that feels smooth like butter. I want to say I pick out narcissus doing the most there, but it’s a good blend of earthy, grassy notes that’s hard to pick apart. Altogether it feels like leather in the way that Ambergris Showers by Rasasi does (which itself is supposedly an imitator of Memo Paris’ Irish Leather). To me it’s addicting, although also a bit simple and muted. I would like some more sharpness or more points of interest, but every time I spray it I enjoy what it’s doing. Not sure there's a lot of sillage but I can smell it on me throughout the work day and I've gotten some compliments from it.