Maruyama

This is lovely but weird. Normies will be very confused as to why anyone would want to smell like this. But I think for people who don’t like perfume bc it’s too chemically perfumey and smells the same they will be pleasantly surprised and intrigued by how u smell. Those are the kinds of people I usually find love the smells I wear. People who are moderately into perfume tend to clash with me because they have some experience and are into perfume because of the designer stuff. It’s easy for them to find what they like bc it’s the popular vanilla ambers or clean citruses. Stuff to make themselves more attractive to the average man/woman. This is for someone that loves the smells of the world around them but has been repulsed by perfume bc they think it’s only sauvage and no 5 etc. now onto the scent it’s very similar to Bogue’s OE. Pretty much identical but with the citrus muzzled. Which is what hurt OE to my nose. Though that scent becomes beautiful over time this one jumps straight to that heart note stage to my delight. Very raw herbs bitterness lovers only can appreciate this. Though there is a soft spicy furriness here too. Like ur sniffing Tarzan’s handmade leopard fur loincloth after he’s been swinging through the trees and foraging. Well that imagery was a lot sexier than I thought it would be when I started that sentence. But obviously I could inhale this all day Edit: the longevity and sillage really disappoint me. Might try selling this bc at 30ml the amount I have to spray to smell it a few hours later is crazy Edit 2: okay I was buggin it ended up lasting forever on me and I mixed it with something else and it completely dominated that scent can’t even remember what it was it got swallowed up by this thing instantly and it was hitting my nose all day. For a minute I thought this was the only blind buy mistake I’ve ever made but nope it’s kinda the shit lol

a splendid camphor green scent. angelica gives an almost musky sweetness, marjoram an almost spicy spiciness, mugwort is very bitter and strong, after camphor is the main protagonist. the rest is a mix of resins and well orchestrated herbs, very powerful is the Amyris that gives a touch of pine smell. otherwise fantastic scent. 9/10 super performance.

Defiantly strange, utterly unique herbal extremity. Even by the barnstorming standard of eccentricity that Prissana can set - which is, in itself, fantastically weird just on average - this one is an oddball in a league of its own. A wise witch's brew of tangy, bitter, acerbic, almost-acrid leaves, buds, roots and seeds: it has a bracingly medicinal, no-compromise tang of long-steeped potions that you might flinch at drinking, or even wince before you dare to rub on skin. And there's definitely a sense of some sort of liniment - or even some kind of nearly-creosotey wood stain? - to it as well. There's real sharpness and earthiness lying beneath the (slightly) mellower aura of angelica and camomile up at the top; it might be the first scent ever to make me appreciate the deeply dark, almost sweaty kick of strongly present ambrette, smelling nearly like burnt coffee beans, right down at the bottom end. (Yet more proof of the house's skillset, because ambrette often ruins scents I otherwise love, whereas here, it all just adds to the character.) Marjoram and artemisia kick seriously hard here, conjuring yet more herbal-medicine-teabag vibes - even shades of the kitchen cupboard. So, while deeply green, it is not lush or gentle at all; for me, if it conjures a colour it's a no-messing-around khaki, even yellowish-green, the shade of long-dried bunches of stuff hung up in a herbalist's shed. (And while speaking of colour: don't buy it just for the startling blue of the liquid in the bottle, as it'll fade: my small, aged sample in a plastic 2ml sprayer was just standard perfume yellow). This may all sound way too much like hard work, far too no-compromise hardcore organic style to be fun, and way too austere to be entertaining; but like all Prin Lomros's products, Maruyama does have a magic of its own. It all hangs together, certainly; nothing clashes or cloys; and it brings the outside in, in a most fascinating way. If you really wish to smell like a wild woodsman or woodswoman, who knows where all the best stuff grows in the forest, it'll work like a charm. For me, just a little too bracing to get truly comfortable with, but like Olympic Orchids' Arizona or Durga's El Cosmico (it doesn't smell like either in any way, but the effect is similar) - it gets you back to nature and opens your nose to real, deeply rooted things.

Folk medicine brew. A mediaeval pantry with hanging bundles of spikenard and chamomile, lovage roots as both medicine and broth flavouring, and camphor to deter the beasties.... Lovely muskiness, with an only slightly sweaty ambrette. It’s fresh and uplifting in a green, herbal way. I have a few Shoyeido incenses, and I can smell the earthy, turmeric-like base of one of them here... Maruyama's incense has the same clean and subtle quality of Japanese incense. I received this sample, and bottles of Haxan and Mal-Aime all in one day and it’s making me batshit craaaaaazy :)

A bitter and herbal scent with surprisingly smooth camphor. I struggle with camphor, and usually it is too medicinal for me, but here it ties everything together in a very pleasant way. The rose with a bit of incense comes through in the dry-down. I actually quite enjoy this fragrance, much more than I expected. Even marjoram in the opening did not put me off, and I normally do not go for kitchen herbs in perfumes. This smell is unusual in the best way possible.