Hoh Xil 可可西里

Proxied this and waiting for it to arrive for a review. Something interesting about it is that the marketing material emphasizes that it has a ghee note , not regular butter. I wonder if this means it'll have the nutty/toasty smell that's typical of clarified butter. edit: This is a super lactonic and earthy sandalwood incense scent. It's very close to the triloka sandalwood fire incense cones but less spicy and more cooling. The ghee note is probably what contributes to the really creamy milky aspect of the scent. It's not nutty like I was hoping but more like heavy cream or buttermilk. What makes it really interesting is the dust accord which is really reminiscent of old wood/books which goes well with the earthy and almost cacao like patchouli note. Not really a mass appealing scent, but I also can't see anyone being offended by this gourmand-adjacent incense. Anyone who likes warm bulb from clue or adorem from nez should definitely try to get their hands on this if possible. edit: The dry down on this is crazy , the musky notes in this come off as a vintage real dear musk (though it's most likely synthetic) and adds a fuzzy animalic warmth to the overall smell over time. Think vintage slightly animalic powdery perfume but with a light amount of lactonic sweetness.

opens up with a blast of sandalwood. i sought this out because of the ghee and incense notes, i have a thing for lactonics and incenses and i thought this could be very special —although incense perfumes created for incense lovers usually highlight spices and resinous notes so wasn’t expecting a masterpiece church incense. this is a lot more ambery and animalistic than i expected, a bit cloying and somehow the last thing i detect in a singular inhale is something that tickles the nose in the way too much dust sometimes does. i thing the ghee’s place in this is more to round up, enrich and soften the other notes. hoh xil is meant to be an hommage to the hoh xil plateau in tibet, which neighbours the himalayan range and is also the highest plateau in the world. since this is a chinese perfume, and that acquiring it needed a bit of finesse on my end, i do not consider myself the primary audience for this and am aware of the fact that perfume and the language deployed around it has often been used as a tool to assuage (racist) ideas about the exotic other. i also wonder about the political context of such frangrance being created in china given the political situation between tibet and china... that being said to me this scent conveys the idea of a lifestyle dependant on animal life. sustenance through milk and meat, warmth through fur and survival through transportation. there is something about this that screams fur coat, simplicity and directness all macerated in animal sweat. definitely has a vintage profile to me. different geographic region but i imagine this is what sayat-nova as depicted by parajanov in color of pomegranates could have smelled like in the later portion of his life.

Beautiful church incense/frankincense, patchouli (think incense sticks), powdery orris and amber. If you like Tom Ford’s Ebene Fume, you’ll like this. It leans masculine, but I’d definitely wear this (I’m a woman). This house is turning out some great stuff.

VERY unusual use of ingredients. Leans masculine. Smells like opening your great grandmothers trunk that has been in the attic for decades. Hard pass.

Sweet musk, it's quite nice! Reminds me of Tom Ford Grey Vetiver but sweeter.