Citadelle

Raw Spirit fragrances have my heart right now but this particular perfume is my true love. Citadelle has made me fall hard and I truly can't get enough. It is very dry, rooty, clean, and totally unsweet. The rind of the lemon seems almost abrasive because it has zero of the fruits pulp to sweeten. You can smell the rind being pulled back from the fruit with that slight citrus mist effervescing. The bergamot too is full of bitter rind blending seamlessly with the vetiver and cedarwood. Daisyvision hit the nail on the head about the rain smells. It does have this earth-laden dirtiness flitting about. I do not smell pear anywhere on me or my boyfriends skin but it is probably balancing out the severity of the dirty vetiver. Citadelle is dirt-root-citrus perfection and I hope to own it forever. It is so short-lived ... It might last 3-4 hours before I have to reapply. Raw Spirit is aptly named. Totally organic, nearing undone fragrances with such spirit.

Like all Raw Spirit fragrances, Citadelle will easily transport you to another place entirely. Much like with "Summer Rain", Citadelle has a gloomy, musty quality that smells like rain and petrichor. It's like being in the middle of the woods after a good rain - you can smell the trees, the rain, and the fresh crisp air. It smells less like a perfume/fragrance, and more like an environment, as strange as that is to say! Citadelle has got to be one of the best vetiver fragrances I've had the pleasure of smelling. The Raw Spirit line hasn't failed to impress me yet, and this is another unique and enticing fragrance in the line up. It really is "raw", and earthy and just.. refreshing. It really is refreshing. This is an utter beauty. I'd tell you to check it out, but do yourself a favor and check out the entire Raw Spirit line!

Raw Spirit favors vetiver-heavy fragrances, and this is the best of them. It's a treat for lovers of true vetiver, in all of its bitter, grassy, earthy glory. The floral and spice notes compliment the main star beautifully, and the whole composition is tart, green, and aromatic. Citadelle is unabashedly "natural" smelling - it foregrounds the scent of verdent earth and wild grass and flowers. But it also has the refinement of true perfumery, its notes combined to create more than the sum of its parts.

I much prefer the overall application of vetiver in this over Bijou Vert, Raw Spirit's other vetiver-centric offering. Here it's smoky and drier/airier. It holds it's own against the citruses a little better. The lemon dances on the edge of taking over on my skin but it remains a dance and the vetiver always reasserts itself. The scent maintains a nice sweetened woody musk undercurrent throughout the drydown. This holds pretty close to skin for sillage and remains noticeable for about 4 hours.

This is a beautiful combination of woody vertiver and citrus. While not totally unique, I personally don't come across this combo very often, but I really like it. Definitely unisex, it has decent lasting power and sillage. I'm not always into citrus or vertiver separately, but somehow the two together really works for me. I just have a sample, but a bottle may be in my future. Even if you are not always crazy about vertiver and/or citrus scents, this is worth a try.