L'Alliance Stellar

#1360 in my "Tour de Fragrance" One of the most traumatizing experiences of my childhood was when I asked for strawberry pie for my birthday and dad brought home a rhubarb pie by mistake. I remember the gag reflex it triggered like it was yesterday. Yet at the same time I walk by fresh rhubarb at the grocery store and I love the smell. Rhubarb is the main feature of this scent and it's nuclear for the first few minutes. Then it's pretty much just some background greeness, which is too bad, because that powerful opening kind of set me up for disappointment with what quickly became a pleasant but not particularly robust scent. I would say the opening was almost too much, the dry down too little (not much silage). You just can't make some people happy, and I guess I'm one of them. If anything justifies dropping the price of a car payment for a scent, Marc-Antoine Barrois' consistent potency across all their fragrances might motivate a rhubarb fan to deal with the cost of a bottle of "Encelade." But if you're a fan of rhubarb and want to keep your out-of-pocket under control, Afnan's "Portrait Abstract", which is closer to this notewise than Encelade, is worth the extra $15 it costs compared to this $20 scent for the better longevity and sillage it provides. That said, this is carpool, elevator and small office safe. Anyone close enough to smell it will find it pleasant, but you'll get about 3-4 hours before you'll want to reapply.

Supposedly this is a clone of Encelade, I don't know if it really is but the smell is pretty unusual, at first it's warm with a prominent rhubarb then it gets colder then it smells a bit like plastic mixed with leather then like amber and vetiver with a touch of rhubard. I don't really understand if I like this fragrance or not, I can't express an opinion, only thing I know is that I keep sniffing myself because the smell itself is weirdly addictive.

I didn't like it at first -- the oud did not mesh together with the other notes. After a few days of smelling it, It grew on me. The fresh rhubarb contrasts the oud with enough freshness and sweetness to cut through the oud without smelling unbalanced. The rose note is not very prominent and just linger together with the sweeter notes, which is a positive to me. Comforting scent, great for autumn.

Unfortunately, it is not similar to Encelade...