Rahassanai

This fragrance is truly exceptional. During my testing in the hot climate of Bangkok, I found the initial spiciness unappealing. However, in our current climate, I appreciate it from the very start. I'm uncertain if the spicy element is derived from skunk, as it doesn't have a distinctly spicy scent when you smell it from a short distance. Instead, it presents a somewhat bitter aroma that, upon entering the nostrils, creates a ticklish sensation that can be perceived as spicy. It's fascinating and 3-dimensional. As it dries down, a subtle, high-quality incense note emerges on the skin. I can't quite articulate this perfume with words. After applying my really small sample, I relaxed in bed, experiencing the fragrance from the initial application to the dry down. It is incredibly beautiful and transcendent, featuring floral and animalic notes. For me, it's a really dark perfume, darker than Onthamara. As time progresses, it sometimes pops up a scent reminiscent of fermented Parmesan, despite the fact I will not say the oud is cheesy, along with a cooling camphor note and the warmth of an amber and floral waxy aroma, its uniquely balanced combination. I am curious to know which genre this perfume belongs to. This is a work of art! My only negative aspect is that it transforms to more subtle projection after 3 hours and stays on skin like veil, i feel like i need more time to stay inside and enjoy it more, maybe the reason is my sample was not enough to play it how it should play. But the overall style is very gentle. And now the poetic evocation: People are looking for expensive smell nowadays, they would like to smells like money, marble, diamonds or something shiny what pops in their mind as “contemporary expensive”. Rahassanai smells expensive to me, its almost like you have in the hand 1000 year old dried fragile origami incense from very rare distinct plant, which was made by secret buddhist temple somewhere in high altitudes of Himalaya, and you can’t burn it, because you will destroy it owns beauty. So you carry it in this glass display and time to time you look on it, open the door and smell it and then hide it again, its just for you, you dont understand why it ends up in your hands, but you feel thankful for it. This is expensive for me.

PRIN is a house I follow, along with Strangers Perfumerie. Prin Lomros is the Thai master perfumer behind both labels. They put out scents that really stretch the limits of perfume. Rahassanai is like wind blowing first through a Thai Buddhist temple surrounded by a flower garden just beginning to bud and then through a market of spices and finally through a forest. When I first applied my sample, the myrrh and camphor were very strong, and I couldn't help but think it smelled like the ubiquitous Asian salve Tiger Balm. It made me wonder if I could like this. After half an hour though, the oud became pronounced. The floral notes are quite subtle. Underneath the whole thing, the skunk gives it bite marking this as animalic. I must add the oud is exquisite. This will definitely go on my want list Edit to add: I voted for moderate longevity for this scent. I've worn it all day today. The good projection lasted about an hour, for the next hour there was a bit of sillage e, and then it settled into a skin scent. It's 10 hours since I applied it, and I have a luscious faint remnant on my arm. A hint of myrrh and oud. It's very light, and I'm not sure anyone else would be able to pick it up even with their nose right on my skin.

Skunky in the realest and best of senses, Rahassanai's suggestion of a "hidden code" advocates for a prowling, free form vigor for life that's above and beyond designer-brand logo stamping, virtue signaling, and other loud messaging hell-bent on keeping appearances in 2022. The zesty greens in the fragrance are forward without being legible, complicated by the kitchen-sink note method of Prin, which ends up taking Rahassanai toward a compositional totality without being totalizing, i.e. you can't call any of Prin's work one thing. This is not just an animalic perfume, even though it's definitely so skunky that for the first time in my experience a perfume hits the cannabis note just right. This is holy incense burned by the youth in love who are covered in dirt, eating some fruits, and innervated by their ancestors who have passed on a precious vial of oud. The aroma of place: insert exotic location here.

I bought this because as an apprentice perfumer, I'm interested in using skunk (*not* skunk cabbage ...) in my own perfumes. This is the first perfume I've found to do it - and it's fantastic! But it is also just a great perfume for all the other reasons ... nicely balanced, great substantivity, pretty good diffusion, and most of all *original*. You immediately do *not* smell like everyone wearing Creed, Explorer, Le Male etc. and also not Lattafa/Swiss Arabian and more. I got my 5ml from Scents Angel and am cross that I didn't pick up 30ml while I was at it - that's what I'm getting. No chance of ever finding a dup of this and no need to do so - Rahassanai is worth it.

This is just fantastic. Only ordinary fantastic. Had unrealistic hopes for something godlike out of this world fantastic after reading this note list from one of the greatest perfumers out there.