Venom of Angel

Venom of Angel is my first try of Piotr Czarnecki's sophomore trio of releases some four years after releasing Sensei and She Sensei, since renamed Shihan and She Shihan, the former particularly making waves (I still owe it a thorough review). Venom of Angel is a sweet scent dominated by coconut but featuring an elaborate array of sweet and boozy notes, ranging from the extremely sweet sugar cane to resins, rum, and white chocolate. Again, it's sweet, but it's not overwhelmingly sweet, as there's some bass and depth to it. It's a very nice fragrance and easily lovable for a fan of sweeter fragrances like myself. I'd classify it as a mostly-gourmand, dominated by food notes but nevertheless modified importantly but non-food notes: in this case, olibanum and cedar. Performance is strong, albeit not as strong as Sensei/Shihan. Pricing is $175 for 100ml, a slight uptick from the Shihan pricing of $160 for 100ml. 8 out of 10

This opens for me with a brisk, sharp, green note that is fresh, bright and a bit piercing. Immediately following the brusque slap of green, comes a wall of creamy sweetness that just washes over me and leaves me smiling. For maybe an hour or two the fresh green half is dance-fighting with the creamy sweet half, until finally they settle together in a strange, yet amicable accord. As it further develops the boozy qualities emerge along with the white chocolate. Delicious! It reminds me of a white chocolate cordial that turns out to be a bit stronger than you thought it was, so it goes right to your head. All in all it is a strange, yet delightful, mix of fun and coziness. The first half is a big party of pure energetic fun and frolic, the second half is the cozy drinks by a fireplace during the after-party. Bizarre yet completely addictive!

Sorry for being too dramatic but holy Moly it's an olfactory experience and a half. Don't be scared about the white chocolate, sugar and coconut. Yep, it's a sweet opening but it settles to such a creamy and wonderful fragrance. The ivy and aloe are very important notes in this lovely. They stop it being too heavy and cloying. The pepper is the perfect accent. The dry down is just dreamy. It's a posh, much improved, classy version of Britney Spiers Naughty Remix. Oh so naughty but gosh so NICE! Good longevity and sillage. Love It!

Ok ok ok. Scratch my old review. Before I said this was only alright but ACTUALLY I have been getting to know this one more and as it turns out I really really like it! Its not your typical fragrance. Its ...hard to explain. It starts like slightly spicey,piney leaves and turns into sweet, powdery, sugared chocolate covered ivy. I am not very good at explaining but I tried lol. It becomes a lovely lovely soft skin scent and Im addicted.

I finally got a bottle after sniffing my small sample for many years, and the new bottle smells differently, a lot like men's cologne. My sample was pretty old and had this sweet intense unisex base. I'm going to put my bottle away for a year or two and see if it deepens some, which has happened with some of my other fragrances. Fingers crossed! Edit: A couple months later and it's getting closer to the fragrance I knew.. Yay!