Selperniku

AHAHAHAHAAHAHA!! You guys are killin me! Oh my gawd...! “Bleu cheese”! “Buttered popcorn Jelly Bellies”! (that one was swirling on the coconut the first time I inhaled as well) “Box of crayons”! I usually stay far away from reviews when I’m feeling a bit ambivalent about a fragrance, but Selperniku is such a hands-down win for me, I can take everything in stride. I love it, and I don’t care who doesn’t. So, with that mindset firmly in place, I can approach these comments with humour instead of trepidation. That’s one of the marvellous aspects of this fragrance, though, as well as it is with Smolderose. This, and indeed most of John’s fragrances hum with Happy; you cannot feel bad wearing such laughing fragrances—Selperniku is like a big, pink, laughing Buddha in shimmery, flowing, apricot and turquoise robes. It’s one of THE finest representations of umami in a fragrance, and I love it dearly. Dearly! I was banging on about another lovely fragrance find that I’d purchased recently, Amongst the Waves by Olivine Atelier, and remarking on the wonderfully executed umami, or “sea salt” accord it proffers, when I thought of this big, banana jade & twinkling rose-gold elixir. I LOVE salty, savoury accords when done well with the right accompaniments, but when they don’t mesh, one can end up wearing Eau de Nachos/Fritos or La Sunday Roast. Selperniku is buttery but not oily, fruity but not sweet, and it’s about as close to being bloody perfect as a fragrance can get. The thing about those associative accords, is that Selperniku DOES smell of ALL of those things, but in the best way. Actually, there’s nothing negative about any of them...who doesn’t like jelly bellies, bleu cheese or crayons?? I also get....READY?... IKEA. I’m NOT kidding. I used to live for what I called (or, rather, Sandra Tsing Lo called), “IKEA Moments” in the late 80s–early 90s. I would visit IKEA just to huff that perfectly-cut-veneer-and-blonde-wood-drying-paint-cheap-cotton-plastic-shower-curtain-amazing-ness mixed with chilled concrete, a few hectares of tea lights, and whatever was going on in their cafe (coffee and Swedish meatballs, broken gingersnaps?). IKEA smelled electric blue and fire engine red and school bus yellow, it smelled like unabashed joy, and felt like hope in the guise of the possibilities of ending up with a flat that looked and felt exactly like one of their display rooms. Likelihood: 0, but that never seemed to matter as long as you remained lost in the maze of it. I flipping LOVED IKEA. I love Selperniku as well. I’m telling you, I’m convinced that THIS is what Christopher Chong was attempting when he was blue-skying Amouage’s Sunshine, he imagined YELLOW ORANGE, warmth without big punches of citrus, brevity without mint, choosing instead to utilise the shimmer of juniper and cypress. But where Sunshine is a big, discordant, sticky mess (I own it, so I’m allowed to bag on it) Selperniku is a big, buttery bear hug of apricoty osmanthus; you’ve got to admire John for taking on that notoriously difficult floral accord for one of his initial releases, and succeeding marvellously with it to boot. Both Sunshine and Journey Woman share many accords with Selperniku, and neither are half as good or intriguing. While I can appreciate the art of most fragrance creations, what matters, in the end, is whether or not it smells good. It’s a bonus if it’s interesting, and this most assuredly is. Selperniku, like most of John’s creations, is “cult”-worthy. And NO, I don’t LOVE ALL of JSP’s offerings, and I’m NOT some sycophantic fangirl, looking for those blasted balloons (don’t know about you all, but I haven’t cared about balloons since I was five), or John’s approval because he writes snappy, articulate essays. No, his fragrances are DAMN good, and the only bad thing about them, is that I’m having the most difficult time choosing just one full-sized bottle to purchase. Can I just state that I SO appreciate indie brands that offer great discounts and sampling packages? I have no time for those who charge astronomical prices for their tiny bottles, and don’t even have the courtesy to offer a single sample for purchase! I don’t know about you, but if I’m forced to purchase “blind”, and I hate what I’ve ended up with, I’ll never return. Didn’t these guys take Business 101? Spend more in the beginning, make up for it and then some in the end? I likely wouldn’t have given JSP a second glance if I hadn’t been able to purchase the three 30mls at such a great price, and his regular prices are very affordable as well. I wouldn’t be sitting here, writing this, smelling of John’s dreams, which in turn smell of bleu cheese, crayons, buttered popcorn jelly bellies, IKEA, and primary colours, joy, apricots, and laughing Buddhas.

My review was deleted ughh So @DSalmon below yes the 30ml did at one point come in a nice green box with some stuffing paper. I have the same bottle it's authentic. Being a niche house they have changed their bottles and boxes s few times. I believe they are doing something like that right at this moment.. So this fragrance man....it really is something special you can read some comments below and people are just going in on how amazing it is and how it invokes all these emotions and all kinds of stuff. It really is a unique a beautiful scent 😍 I was given a sample Nd I immediately was like NEED BOTTLE NOW lol and bought a bottle. I love love wearing this in this winter it just idk winter with Selperniku is perfection especially January lol I always wear it throughout January just because of the name and it's perfect for cold weather. How it smells ugh it's weird and unique in the best way possible it's a hard fragrance to describe and I garentee you've never smelled this smell before so unique. You get this kinda sharp but smooth green cypress or like a pine tree kinda bit not idk you get a green plant but it doesn't smell green just this pine like and circus that makes the sharpness of the cypress fresh and smooth there's plants in here but they don't smell like one thing or another I do pick up the immortelle but the main Star of this fragrance is the butter and laconic Apricots holy crap it's good!! Like not butter like popcorn this real raw butter like amish butter soft sitting out that type of butter and there this laconic type smell and Apricots cardamom sandlewood and tobacco like I said it's weird as heck and harder to describe just know it smells absolutely addictive 😅 I've gotten a ton of compliments do people know what their smelling no lol but it's good!!! If any of yall smelled playalinda it has a similar smell but instead of sex on the beach w shell you get Christmas and snow cabin in the woods idk lol they have similar smell to them but I prefer Selperniku if you have tried Selperniku and liked it try playalinda and vise versa . Just give it a try you probably love Selperniku it's hard unisex as well. I know this review was all over the place my previous review was better and it's gone so... once you smell this you'll understand wtf I mean it's impossible to describe Just so you know dont spray on coat or hoodie unless you wanna smell like laconic buttery Apricots goodness FOREVER! This this just last on skin last until you wash it off and on clothes sometimes even after I wash them still smell it! It's just amazing quality juice.

One of the things I love about perfuming as a hobby is the sheer unpredictability of it all. I never know what I'm going to love or hate. Just last week I decided, that after buying countless sample sets and trying probably a hundred plus perfumes without ever once going back for a bottle purchase, that American Indie perfumers just aren't for me. Yeah, we all know where this is going. Then Selperniku happened and I can honestly say that here is all the promise of American indie perfumery realized. It's incredibly odd, weirdly beautiful, boldly unique but more impressively, it's meticulously well put together from beginning to end. I've worn it three times and each time it smelled different but each time it smelled good all the way through without a discordant note or disquieting whiff of an aromachemical. Great perfumers both have something interesting to say and the technical skills to say it, all while fulfilling the rule that perfume must above all else, smell good. John Biebel is such a perfumer and Selperniku is a masterpeice. The first time I put it on, I froze, torn between admiration and disgust. It smelled exactly like butter and was so unexpected my olfactory apparatus didn't know quite how to process it. The just butter moment was brief and quickly the other notes come in turning it into a creamy and fresh "your skin but better" scent. This is one of those fragrances that you can identify all the notes but still has a definite and cohesive trail that smells only like itself. I would characterize it as a savory/sweet milky fragrance with a trail of forest and herbs running through it. Texturewise it's not a million miles from Bottega Venata, though scentwise they are very different. The contrast provided by the forest and herbs is what makes this so compelling and unique. I don't really know what else to say about this. It fills me with a sense of wonder as I contemplate how all the different facets of human skin are captured in this scent salty, milky, fruity, sweet. It's feral and warm and deeply human and alive. Yeah, it's that good.

Selperniku was released in 2017 and was my first experience with John Biebel's creations for his own brand of fragrances. The official text says as follows: "salty, milky and fruity". And truth be told, such a description could not be more correct. The fragrance has notes of apricots, immortelle, butter, cardamom, petitgrain, lemon, chamomile, milk, cypress, juniper, tobacco and sandalwood. On the skin, it behaves like a floral and fruity scent full of woody, milky and salty nuances. I must confess that at the very moment when I sprayed it on my skin, I found the output hideous! The salty content is really very present, although there is no salt note, which would not be something new in the perfumery. However, almost immediately, the output softens and a floral-green scent begins to emerge. And the unexpected happens, when you realize that a totally strange perfume makes you curious to see how far the evolution goes. And one of the most intriguing characteristics of this scent is, precisely, to understand from where that salty content comes that remains for all time. As time passes by, Selperniku gains personality and begins to show me an apricot full of facets that remind me of peaches. This apricot is dipped in a bitterness typical of petitgrain, which here was enhanced by chamomile. At the same time, a camphorated smell insists on being noticed, but is muffled by the creaminess that the milk note imparts, along with the sandalwood and tobacco. Don’t be surprised if you think about figs, even for seconds. Selperniku is an example of innovation and of what perfume addicts expect to find from independent perfumers, who risk and create fragrances at the edge of pleasure and pain, outside the commercial realm. It is such an incredible and dubious perfume that I still do not know if I love or hate it. I feel myself amid the quicksand: the more I struggle to leave, the deeper I go.

I was searching for a truly lactonic perfume for some time and came across this one. It smells as if you bathed in warm, salty, herby milk. I wanted to smell like a savory snack, this is it. A long time friend once told me I smell like noodles. Only the type of appraisal a genuine friend can give without taking offense. And it's true, that's just what my skin chemistry smells like. I think that's why this is a very skin-like scent on me. In general I love unique gourmand scents that aren't just vanilla. At first the apricot adds a light sweetness that is't overwhelming at all, and the buttery dry down is quite literally my favorite part of this scent. I smell it on myself through out the day, it's very cozy and inviting on my skin. It is eternaaaaal, I sprayed some on a t shirt and I could still smell it after it was sitting in the laundry bin for days. Not something that will grant you very many compliments I think, it really just is something for yourself to enjoy all day.