Smoke

A contemplative, nuanced, and refined beauty - over the course of wearing, it is bright, creamy, a bit green, and woodsy. While not overtly smoky in the way we may be accustomed to, I find a comforting opaqueness, from the cedar and cade, mingling with the brightness of elemi and aldehydes that does offer me smokiness in a beautifully minimalist, Jil Sander way. This fragrance is unlike anything in my current collection, and I am so pleased to have recently added it. The brand’s reference to “[t]he smell of clothes drying near a fireplace” is a lovely, meditative, and apt description. Smoke takes me to a place of luxurious reverie.

This is mostly clean fresh laundry aldehydes with a smoky funky top note. It remains mostly like Byredo Blanche throughout

Starts out smokier than it ends, but it's nowhere near the oomph (and, arguably, difficulty) of Akro Smoke. I would say it's more of an incense smoke than a cigarette or campfire smoke. I don't think I agree with the Blanche comparisons - I don't have my sample of Blanche at hand to do a side by side comparison, but I was sniffing it just the other day, so it's relatively fresh in my mind, and Smoke didn't make me think of Blanche at all. Smoke really doesn't strike me as a soap or detergent smell at all. Perhaps a combination of detergent and smoke, like a clean shirt that you immediately wore next to an outdoor fire pit so that it absorbed some smokiness layered over the detergent? That's not really how it reads to me but that's the closest I can come to understanding the detergent descriptions. Overall, very unique and multi-faceted and I will be testing it further.

Much more green and resinous that it is smoky. The start is fizzy, sparkly because of the elemi and aldehydes combo. Later, it gets greener, it smells more and more piney, think of a pine forest, or a cabin, freshly varnished. Not bad, but definitely expensive for what it is, and could be deceptive if you expect an incense/smoky scent !

I figured this one would probably be my favorite. It's within that genre of ironically fresh smoked woods- both light and cleansing even if dusted in soot. As it dries down I get the scent of fresh incense with it's terpenic profile of pine and citrus elements. They're subdued initially though- not sharp but mellowed and formed into something smooth and rounder through the use of what I guess are waxy-fatty aldehydes, who's effect comes across like a snuffed out candle. It's honestly hard to describe. I think reading the marketing blurb makes a little more sense- there's some element of fresh laundry here that's connecting what I'm picking up as "soap" to the sparkly-citrus elemi note. But the form is still very abstract- like it's an aroma that exists at the edge of your perception. It's the water evaporating off your wet clothes next to a fire. I sense the glimmer of hot iron, the remnants of a fire extinguished, and a woody steam accord. All things that seem to be aromas on the sideline of an experience- all things that reinforce the brand's intention to "elevate the quotidian into aesthetic experiences". Giving it a full wear now and the oud facets mentioned on their website are more obvious, especially in the first few minutes. It's got a mild sweetness and a lacquered, burnt woody undertone to it that reminds me of the oud in Carved Oud by Thameen. It's gentle and very sterilized. It's actually here that I think it's more wearable and not as abstract as I initially thought, but it's still minimally focused and kinda interesting for that reason. Something in here also gives it a softness that I sense across the line and enjoy. Hours later it still comes across as an elemi scent with a stripped back, dark-woody character. For the record this is definitely not like Akro's Smoke, which is a personal favorite of mine. Where that one is sweet and full of ambered campfire smoke this is more austere and clinical, with a fresh elemi facet and smokiness that feels light and more adjacent to wood varnish.

Smoke is gentler than I expected. I was bracing for ashtray, scorched fabric, bonfire suffocation, you know. Smoke. But this barely burns at all. It isn’t cigarette smoke, nor blackened wood, nor that acrid, throat-catching dryness that makes a fragrance feel punitive. Instead, it has the impression of light incense, soft resin, and grey warmth, all blurred together into something more abstract than literal. The smokiness lingers close to the skin, almost like the temperature of warm cloth. One dusted with faint ash and giving off a resinous hush. There’s a slightly muddled quality to it, and oddly, that is where the beauty lives. Nothing is permitted to become too literal. The incense has been smudged into musk; the resins lend a soft balsamic density without turning sticky or ecclesiastical. Perhaps there are traces of olibanum’s peppery terpenes and labdanum’s leathery amber warmth, but they have been sanded down by clean, diffusive musks until the composition feels blurred at the edges. Intentional blur. It smells less like smoke than the skin of someone who has a smoky atmosphere. Imagine soft fabric, warm body. A dark room lit well enough to flatter everyone in it. Maybe a half-finished drink on the table. Maybe they speak quietly, so you have to lean closer. Smoke, even through association is still not especially me. But I admire the idea of it. A person entering the room after the smoke has cleared, carrying the best part with them.

Why call a fragrance “smoke” and then make a clean laundry scent. It has a WHISPER of frankincense, no smokiness at all. The entire lineup from this brand is terribly boring but this one annoys me because of the naming. More pretentious version of the margiela replica series, nothing new, nothing creative, they’re all really safe people pleasers with no risk taking or creativity. And yes I know jil sanders whole thing is minimalism. That’s no excuse, Byredo still makes great fragrances that fit the same demographic that jil should be targeting. Felt super weak and lowbrow for the way they communicated this release.

Stupid fucking name for scent that contains zero Smokey qualities. Opens up as a nice soapy aldehydic frankincense Elemi thing, and then gets progressively worse as it dries down. Where’s the Cade at? I do not smell it. I’ve been trying this on and off for a year trying to convince myself to like it and it’s just not happening, sorry jil.

Surprisingly not very smokey. More fresh/aromatic/coniferous with a bitter woody/marine quality (shades of the infamous Lord of Goathorn from Lush or Hotel Vesuvius from In Fieri). The strangest/most surprising from the line but still of a piece with Sander's minimal and wearable style (with a bit of an edge).

A little bit of spoke with a lot of laundry musk. The notes don't suggest this but it smells somewhat like Les Indemodables Ambre Supreme which is exponentially more evocative and full bodied.

The combination of elemi, aldehydes, and cedar makes me think of Andrea Mack’s Craft. If anyone has tried both, are they similar?

If you love Blanche byredo this one smells exactly the same because of the aldehydes.

Wow! The design of the flacon (?) is outstanding and quite bold for Sander!