Sikkim

This is a perfect leather for spring. Most of my spring choices are green or flowery, but it is also around april/may, I start wearing my beloved leather jacket and crave a leather based scent to match. The options for april this year were either Cardin’s Paradoxe or this. I love the inexpensive gem that is Paradoxe and it’s been a stable since I discovered it a couple of years ago. Paradoxe is a softer and sweeter leather chypre than Cabochard, Bandit and Azuree, but I also tend to prefer my leathers smooth(er) around the edges. Sikkim, which I discovered only a few weeks ago, has the same subtly soapy, but also slightly spicy quality as Paradoxe and will be a perfect flowery leather for late spring and early autumn. It opens up with a gorgeously green galbanum that is soon followed up by the same bergamot-iris-jasmine accord as Paradoxe. However, Sikkim is also born with a beatiful warmer rose and that special retro flowery spicyness you mostly get from carnations. The dry down is beautiful too with a cosy patchouli, a dry oakmoss and just a tiny bit of coconut, making it creamier as it gently fades out. It’s refined, elegant and classic and I love everything about it from the first spritz to the last lingering traces on my skin 10 hours later. I haven’t forgotten about good, old Paradoxe with its beautiful mild accentuating wafts of tuberose and ylang, but this will be my leathery spring treat this year.

This is unbelievably good. I have a tester from c2006. If the older version is any better I feel like I would just die. I don't know if it's still being produced and what that is like. It does remind me a lot of Miss Balmain, which is also amazing. I think this is a bit brighter, but then all of my Miss Balmain is very old and most of them have lost some of the top notes. The opening of this was so sharp at first I was worried it would be too much. It was airy and almost peppery! Perhaps that was the caraway. But it settled down slowly into this gorgeous, oakmoss oily leather scent. I really can't pick out any single floral accord. The florals are there, but they aren't the star. They support the gorgeous leathery moss. I can't remember the last time I smelled Bandit to compare, but I don't think this is too sharp or intense. It's just bodacious. I would love to smell this on a man. I think it's truly unisex. It would just smell lovely on anyone who likes this style. I really want to find more of this if it's still being produced to try it and find out if it's been altered any further. This is a must try if you like Miss Balmain, Cabochard, anything like that.

With some help from the highly informative blog Cleopatra's Boudoir, the EDP version of Sikkim I have in my possession is in fact a relaunch from 1991, with the original having been released in 1971 and discontinued just a few years later. The version I have is, however, quite sensational: rose-tinted aldehydes and biting galbanum, with the impression of black pepper and caraway soon thereafter. Then it is all lovely verdant textures and florals, particularly that of a gardenia (styrallyl acetate/alcohol?) and of narcissus. This is all buttressed by inky moss, vegetal vetiver elements, and IBQ-inflected leather, but the lactonic-green nature of the gardenia at the heart of Sikkim is what renders this dry down unique. The juxtaposition is stimulating, intriguing even, while an amber deeper within stirs up some sensuality. Its non-linearity is noteworthy, presenting itself as delightfully raspy and acerbic to start and softening into an enchanting garden in the woods. Good God, it is sheer perfection.

I am overwhelmed by the beauty of this floral chypre! The beginning bitter green opening seems to go through a slightly soapy phase before the leather and florals begin to emerge. I have just tried it for the first time, and have yet to reach the dry down. So far, it has a decent, arms length projection and slight sillage. It is very complex, and the layers reveal themselves over time. So far it seems that both the oak moss and galbanum remain constant, providing a dark, inky, base, along with a touch of bitterness (in a good way). This one is special. I will update with more impressions as it reaches dry down. I have 2 mini daubbers, and I am glad I took the chance and grabbed both, as this definitely ranks among my favorite chypres of all time! Stay tuned for updates! 5/13/2020 - Oh no! Tragedy! I just spilled about 3/4 of one of my small bottles!! Well, my closet is going to smell fantastic for quite a while!

This beautiful green chypre is springtime in a bottle. It evokes snowmelt and new leaves and daffodils wafting across damp March winds. The composition is somewhat thin due to lack of moss, but if this were what "modern" chypres had evolved to, I'd be happy. The galbanum is exquisite, but turned to varnish rather soon after purchase. I left it in the car on a hot day, which probably didn't help. I wear it anyway. Why Lancôme doesn't continue to sell this is unfathomable. Nobody wouldn't love this... I'd happily pay "exclusive" prices for it and Cuir. Unfathomable. FYI to Fragranticians mourning its loss: layering a very small spritz of Chloe's Narcisse (a current formulation) with the current (and extremely well-done) JL Scherrer (the green one, EDT or EDP would work) approximates Sikkim nicely. Just don't overdose the Narcisse.