Dzongkha

Bertrand is a well-traveled man. After Timbuktu in Mali for L'Artisan Parfumeur, we get his journal entry for Dzongkha in Bhutan. The opening of the perfume is certainly attention grabbing: a lychee note that seems to be bursting with juiciness, dusted with plenty of dry cardamom and flecked with florals. Underneath the top notes you pull ample notes of spicy chai and incense. As the top notes dry down the chai tea is steeping and blooming, and the incense throwing tendrils of rich resinous smoke into the air. The heart of this fragrance is unbelievably rich: spicy and a bit lactonic; dry and sweet; compelling and soothing. As the steeping tea finally cools and the incense has diffused into the air, warming leather, vetiver, and cypress wrap around you like a blanket. This perfume will not be for everyone. To use the description of exotic would be an understatement, as it does a photorealistic job of pulling notes from far-flung Eastern spices and incenses that are not common to Western noses. This could make it difficult for some to wear, but I think that might be a bit of the point. The way this perfume pulls all of its accords together and presents them in complex, multifaceted, evolving manners is supposed to be a reflection of spirituality in the culture of Dzongkha. It's an ancient, complicated, and mystical type of spirituality that is supposed to be inseparable from your person. Nothing about that should strike someone as being easy, as if you could walk into a Bhutan temple, receive a blessing, and suddenly grasp all there is to know and also be inseparable from the belief system the people of Bhutan have passed down for millennia. LAP's Dzongkha describes this journey very well: the quest for spirituality will not be easy, it will be challenging and defy what you think you know and are comfortable with, but take the journey in stride and you will find a captivating, soothing, yet arresting experience that is impossible to forget. It's a marvelous perfume that I doubt I will wear all that often, but it will be a special moment when I do.

Dzongkha starts out deliciously. Immediately I get the iris and incense surrounded by all these resinous and spicy notes. Please see my update at the bottom on how Dzongkha went from "like" to "love". I find all the listed notes (i.e. leather, vetiver, cardamom, tea, iris, peony, cedar and lychee) loveable. I smell some more than others. So no dislike here. However, there is this one note, which I deduct must come from the catch-all "spices" bucket, that gives Dzongkha a little vegetable vibe. I wish Dzongkha had a little less of it. I can understand how some reviewers here get a "soup" or "tomato" scent out of this composition. However, this scent tones down after 1 hour or so and what remains is heavenly to me. In the dry down I smell a little vetiver which gives Dzongkha a woody character. A little cedar and papyrus also join the vetiver to give Dzongkha a soft woody backdrop. Dzongkha is exotic, unique and attractive. It shares certain DNA with Timbuktu (they both created by the same parfumeur who gave them a similar dry down of vetiver and incense). However, while Timbuktu is fully blessed with unblemished beauty from birth its sister Dzongkha's beauty is partly blemished by this one vegetable scent. I may have to try Dzongkha a couple of times more to figure if this is one of those cases where love develops over time...but definitely is a "like" ********************** UPDATE: I now adore this fragrance, so much that I decided to buy a bottle. I'd love to have it in my collection permanently. I don't know if it was a matter of first impression or the original sample I had, but the vegetable vibe is no more and I can enjoy much better the gamut of delicious and exotic scents in this composition. I decided to keep the original impression as written originally above followed by this UPDATE to send the message of "retry it, give it a second chance" to those who experience a similar first impression like mine.

Today it is cold. Very cold. Perhaps it is the coldest day of the year; perhaps it is the coldest day of the decade. There is only the lightest wind to kiss the trees that stand naked and resolute with vulnerable limbs stretched outward and upward forver reaching towards a monochrome sky. A sky blanketed in low lying cloud that spans the horizon with the same uniformity of cold stainless steel. My nostrils are stiff with metamorphosing moisture which begins to turn to ice. I pull the collar of my thick coat higher to shield my face and it is then that I inhale the heavenly scent that is Dzongkha. Instantly my mind is filled with images of small outdoor fires that crackle and pop and hiss from damp and resinous woods. For a few moments I can believe that I am high in the Himalayas with my cold hands yearning for a little clay pot of sweet and spicy chai tea to cradle so that my face can receive the warm and aromatic vapours. I love Dzongkha very much. It is a love that gently grows stronger with every occasion that I wear it. Although in some ways it reminds me of Timbuktu, it is very much its own creature. Despite it being more complex in composition, I find it a little more accessible than Timbuktu. That is not to say that it is a fragrance for every day. For the vast majority of people this would not work as an office scent as it takes a certain aesthetic to appreciate its mysterious beauty. Weekend solitary walks in the woods and days alone at home are what I mostly save it for. A good book, a hot drink, a sleeping cat and a mystical fragrance are all I could ever ask for on days that are cold and calm and silent.

Strong,sharp,shocking opening to this fragrance.been looking forward to wearing this for some time but my reaction to doing so is repulsion.the herbs cum spices combination makes this hard for me to enjoy. I have no idea where and when to wear this one.And there's an ambivalence to this for me:it's listed as unisex and yes, I can see women with balls-and yes,there are a few in my enclave-pulling this off.the top notes give you the impression,only men should dare but then as it dies down time it reveals a softness that makes you think it's not suited for a man but more for a woman so I guess it's up to the disposition of the wearer.I think given the overall appeal it will be more suited to an older woman.Grannies should find this appealing.Youngsters will be repelled so will make for some uniqueness. It's very long lasting,linear and can induce headaches easily when over-applied and when worn in the wrong season.yes,the incense and spices do mellow with time but still remain the bitter focus of this mix. Will never recommend this to be bought blind.try first and braze yourself for an olfactory overload. I always love challenges and will wear a fragrance for a long time to get used to it and with time love it.this one will be an exception.Thank you L'Artisan but no,thanks.

Gorgeous!!! Dry, rich and rooty. I understand the association with carrots and celery (less so pickles). Incense and exotic spices. Comforting, smoky, savoury and entirely unisex, in the sense of being neither male nor female. Strong sillage which calms down to a gentle radiance. Thanks to @Kellai for the explanation of the name; would love an update on whether this is an accurate representation (fragrance-wise) of Bhutan..? Update: after falling in love with my sample I bought a FB and was disappoined when it arrived in the dour new packaging. There seem to be some changes to the fragrance too; it seems watered down with less of the interesting vegetal accords and very quiet sillage (I spray this far more liberally than most of my other perfumes). This now seems to me to be a fairly straightforward dry incense with a touch of sweetness which I suppose must be the lychee? Instead of the powerful dose of pepper, I pick up more of the cardamom. While before it seemed staunchly unisex, this now seems to me to lean more feminine. I was disappointed at first by the changes, but still need to do a side-by-side test of the sample v. bottle. I have forgiven Dzongkha for changing and have been wearing her nearly every day for the past month... It might be true love :)