20 MARS 2022

After having worn my sample of 20 Mars 2022 several times, I am rewriting most of my review. I am wearing this now, and I get unlit olibanum directly at the top, with cypriol, cedar, sandalwood, cinnamon, and pepper as the major accord. Next, I get vanilla, strawberry, and a little parsley. Any florality is completely trounced by the olibanum and wood, making florals a distant supporting note to smooth out any roughness. It’s complex and modern. It’s very strong, pressing your nose close immediately after application is not recommended. In this stage it’s herbal and medicinal smelling- but that isn’t the way it settles nor the way it carries. It’s amazing to me that cinnamon isn’t further up on votes. The drydown on this is like cinnamon on a cedar plank baking in the sun with some castoreum peeking from behind. 20 MARS is incense, wood, and spice. I’m totally sold on it as a winter frag, but here I am wearing it on a rainy spring day because I was in the mood for something spicy. The performance on this is SUPER STELLAR. I had a stale dabbing on a sweater, and after wearing it transferred to the ends of my hair that rubbed against it. It’s on my sweater now, which means I’ll be wearing it the rest of the day until I take my sweater off and then the sweater will be wearing it until I wash it again. It sticks on my nose after just sniffing the unopened sample, that’s how strong it is! The stylistic impression 20 Mars creates is difficult to pin down. Because of the unlit incense and dried herb notes, I’m vaguely reminded of a fortune tellers dark reading room or an occult shop. Just like the color of the juice, the composition is dark in tonality. It feels mysterious, and maybe that’s another interpretation of the name: the future is mysterious. It’s interesting considering this perfume is modern, and one of the oldest aromatic resins is the star note. Maybe a better name for it is ‘Fortold’. I can’t wait to invest in a full bottle of this! I love it so much, that while I should be thinking about buying my summer perfume i’m talking myself out of just buying a bottle of this. Update: I got a full bottle, and my boyfriend liked it so much he stole it from me.

My dudes: this is about our grandfathers. My next milestone is 60, and this reminds me of MY grandfather, at my age. My grandfather shepherded his family across war-torn Europe in 1945, keeping just ahead of the rapine and depravity of the advancing Red Army. They spent time as DP's in a camp for Displaced Persons, who organized their own church services and social life in the camps and had what sounds like a fine time as DP's. I imagine my grandfather as a young father getting into luxurious post-war pipe tobacco, making camp life fabulous in comparison to the War Year civilian life. From there they emigrated to Argentina, which in the Peron years had a very permissive immigration policy. They learned how to eat meat at that time. Europeans in the 20s-40's weren't exactly big beef eaters, but soak some entrena in chimmi churri and get back to me. By now my grandfather was smelling like an early 1950's Buenos Aires caballero,wearing the smells of the time. Then the Catholic Church fathers extended formal invitation and sponsorship for my grandfather to come to the United States around 1959, so he spent his 40's being a respected patriarch in a very ethnic South Side of Chicago, in the vicinity of Jake and Elwood's and Elijah's Marquette Park. He would have worn this. He smelled like this anyway, about the age when I wore the onesie pajamas and he had this plaid flannel ensemble from Sears. Everybody smoked cigarettes in those days, even out in the open at home. You had to have something that penetrated the olfactory din. Also there was more b.o. and less shame. So there is a tremendous air of masculine nostalgia, not outdoor middle-earth piney nostalgia like Slumberhouse Norne but more fireside gingerbread holiday not vampire goth (although not out of place with the Bela Lugosi Massive) very gentle and homey, wear some tweed with this FFS something in a Prince of Wales dress ya up for a change.

Here is a gothic gyre of aromas that bends my perception as I wear it. I smell Papier d'Arménie, smoldering in a dark room, then I am wandering the aisles of an occult shop in Salem. Now I am at fireside, a hearth festooned with boughs of cedar and fir, relishing a smattering of pinecone jam on bread. Further in, I am opening tins of tisanes with mulled spices while olibanum tears sizzle and the body heat of someone attractive entrances me. I decide on spruce-tips tea and inhale. I smell my spiritual side coming back to me when wearing this. It's the smell of not needing to know all the answers—to accept the darkness of the unknown. It is expansive on my skin, radiating like a luminous arc around my body. In other words, this is some trippy stuff. Do you know that smell that seems to come from steam, as from a bathtub or a sauna? That strangely cloudy sweetness—it is here. There is a bit of a smoke machine, too. I nuzzle into my arm and smell old pelts in abandoned closets of the long deceased—there's that, too. It's absolutely riveting.

This is a dream scent for me. Reminiscent of old, plant-herbalist apothecaries. The kind that sell licorice and spices as well. Bitter tinctures in the back, shelves and cabinets of old, dark, oiled and fragrant wood. Tea brewing, sweet scent of old fashioned candy. Warmth from a distant fireplace, dusty radiators and central heating. The musk lifts the pepper and cinnamon, giving the labdanum and vanilla a fuzzy texture. The incense lays dormant near a little altar devoted to an earthly deity. The evening before they lit a stick, but now only the whisper of smoke remains and the scent of fresh sticks. This scent is unique. It's perfect for those looking for something dramatic and dark without sadness or despair. It borders on being somber, but instead has the weight of age and history without losing depth of personality.

A Lethal Incense Masterpiece 🔥 If you are looking for a fragrance that enters the room like a true ninja—silent but deadly—Mars 2022 by Rundholz is the ultimate weapon. The incense here is an absolute powerhouse. It's incredibly distinct, wet, and vivid. It balances perfectly on a heart of rose and jasmine, cloaked in a subtle, sweet embrace of strawberry and sugary notes. The projection and longevity are insane; it holds its ground for hours. I highly recommend saving this for the cold winter months, as unleashing its power in the summer could be fatal to those around you. Designed exclusively for incense hardcores who strictly wear black. The code of the ninja approves.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so crazy about any scent that I’m about this one. Something truly mesmerising. It veers and dances between weird, brutal, commanding and delectably beguiling. One thing this it is not is banal. Or subtle. I am not sure if it’s office appropriate, but I could not care less, I love it to bits. I own so, so many incense fragrances, but nothing quite like it - weird whiff of medicinal old apothecary cabinet, full on assault of pepper, counterbalanced by jammy sweetness of strawberry and all of it smothered in monumentally generous amount of incense. This is thick, syrupy, opulent and takes no prisoners. Hypnotising beast of a fragrance.

As a stereotypical frag-head, I've been on a holy journey looking for my "churchy incense". Given everyone has it's own, I guess I found mine. Ladies & gentlemen, here we have bottled Eastern Orthodox Church. I imagine, that the brief for this perfume could include only few words and a ticket to Russia. That's it. It captures all elements of the experience perfectly. Only one spritz and you'll be grasping for air, as the unleashed darkenss from the bottle is claiming atmosphere around. Overwhelming burnt insence smokes, the warmth of candle wax and the aged wood behind the Holy Mother icon. I'm absolutely in love with it. Tremendous work.

If I don’t get dressed up enough, or say too many words throughout the night while wearing this, I feel like I’m letting her down. This was meant for dark, DARK clubs where your ears get too hot and you have to go stand out in the rain to calm down. I make the frequent mistake of wearing this to work, around mostly men and lots of fluorescent lights, hoping someone will say I smell good. No one has. Sigh. I’ll stick to wearing this to goth nights, probably smelling a handful of years older than I am. Maybe like a vampire? Or like a vampire’s best friend.

Mmm. Black shadows and sweet incense. Totally addictive. A dark gothic church with beautiful stained glass windows. Despite all the notes 20 Mars 2022 contains it has a very focused and linear presence, remaining essentially the same through its beginning on the skin all the way to the dry down which has a little less intensity of course but is still dark sweet incense. It lasts a long time on the skin, up to 12 hours, and has a pretty intense sillage for its first 5 hours.

Serge Lutens redux, and not bad. This reminds me of both Chypre Rouge and Fille en Aiguilles. It's more sweet, resinous stewed-fruit woods on me with a strong grassy component. I really don't get "STRAWBERRY." There's more of a winey-fruited quality. I like it, but I think it's been done, and I prefer the SL.

The opening of this perfume is for me all about pepper. There are many notes around, the saffron, the cinnamon ... But what i get the most is a very harsh and strong pepper. To the dry down the incense gets more and more strenght, becoming the dominant note. Around It some Woods and other balsámic notes which gives yo the fragrance a Smoky and dry character. The most It dries the sweeter It becomes, but with a very very slightly sweetness which, if It is there It is always very far, like a light at the end of a túnel. The nagarmothe goes hand by hand with the incense. 20mars2022 is for me a difficult to wear fragrance. I like It, It is very natural and I think It has a very good quality, but I am not sure when could I wear It. For cold weather and maybe for night, but not to very elegant events ir when you want to feel sexy, because It is not sexy at all. I find It unisex but maybe a bit more masculine. Goes a bit on the side if black afgano by nasomatto, but less sweet, or like some Come de Garçon perfumes. It is very nice as olfactive experience ir ti be includes in a collection since It is very different and original but not to use with some frequency, at least for me. Scent: 7 Longevity: 8 Sillage: 7 Quality/price: 5 Versatility: 5 Originality: 9 Global: 7.5

Interesting! I haven't been lucky with samples recently, but this, this is exciting. First 5-10 minutes after spaying I felt this was way too intense, a strong punch of incense, woodiness and animalistic smells. On the skin in soon gets closer, more intimate (or did I get used to it?). The paper is still intense and mainly animalistic for another couple hours. I can't distinguish much more, since I just get overwhelmed every time I get close to it. The drydown on the skin, however, starts faster and is much softer. On my skin it becomes enveloping like a blanket, smelling very nice and calming, very similar to what a Buddhist temple smells like: incense, wood, some earthy and animalistic notes in the background. I'd like to wear it for meditation, but it does last forever, so I guess I'd rather use it for complicated days, when I suspect my inner peace might need an external boost.

This is very single-note linear on me or for my nose. Reminds me of basically every CDG incense scent, and my ten year old memory of Black Afgano which probably isn't that perfect anymore. It's the scent of dried up wood with a little resin in it, heated by fire, rather than the resins themselves, oozed from the bark of the tree. I like it, it's nice. I think the bottles are beautiful. Love the visual aesthetic overall. But this one doesn't ring my bell. 03. Apr. 1968 Rundholz does ring my bell, and it is a lot weirder. This one is just... nice. And like all of the nice CDG scents, I could never throw down for something that smells, well, so basic.

Once owned this and had to sell it! I find they were just amping up notes to the max with this one! The licorice, immortelle, cinnamon, incense, along with a strong iodine blood like note were just too strong for me. I’d stick to Black by CDG. It is like a sister to this fragrance and it is much smoother and wearable.

This one kind of reminds me of when you go to a friend's house who rarely cooks and use a random expired seasoning, this one's maybe some old garam masala blend. But pretty much everything in this cupboard has taken on a similar aroma, so it could be anything. It's definitely niche!

You're at the city landfill picking for scraps, experiencing a sort of sour olfactory claustrophobia. You've found a styrofoam container filled with weeks-old Indian food and rotting strawberries, right next to some leaking bottles of nail polisher remover. 20 MARS 2022 by Rundholz.

Opens with heavy antiseptic and patchouli incense, like a psychic's sickbed. After it settles, you'll get the strong impression that you just snorted a line of ground pepper. Finishes out with a weak, rosy incense like your hippie aunt's favorite bath products.

floral style opening with strawberry. and something greasy and black pepper. then a mix of indistinguishable notes. definitely cypriol oil and animal notes. light incense. smell of an indefinite sweetish fat. another 0/0 good performance.

Horror. Nausea. Loss of social contacts to be feared.

This is an old school chypre but the citrus is replaced with smokey labdanum, cypriol and pepper. Someone said antiseptic and I can see that. Not super animalic (not that that's always a bad thing) but not something that I can wear, and not my personal taste. I have a very high tolerance for challenging fragrances but after 6-7 hours, I had to wash it off. This was challenging for me just because I didn't like it, not because it's skanky or anything. But, the quality of it seems reasonable and if you like this genre with lots of pepper and raw notes, this could be for you.

Ok so i immediately got hit with the animalics, I had no idea what notes were in this but I recognised the stinky animal bum (super sensitive to it with a STRONG hatred for them) BUT somehow, all the other notes distract from it so much that it doesn't bother me and I kinda of actually dig this? Don't get me wrong, I would NOT buy this BUT i wouldn't be ill if my partner loved this and wore it all the time. It's such a hard bizarre scent to describe, the only perfume type I can compare this to that i've tried is Pineward. I mean this in the way that Murkwood and Fanghorn (the two I own that I have the most experience with) is thick, syrupy and potent and has a kind of intensely overconcentrated smell which encompasses both the 'gross' and 'beautiful' aspects of nature. From afar I get like over ripened sweet rotting fruit in a dumpster with a raccoon family living in it that is also shared by a high-end perfume company that makes boutique smelling foresty/witchy/incensey candles and lotions. I am now highly interested in trying other fragrances from this house that don't have animalics in them 🤣

~sample/hand test/first impression 24 votes for Black CDG (lol!) and no single one for Tiger's Nest from Memo Paris, which will be much closer in terms of how the incense was highlighted in both scents. Black, besides the incense itself is more focused on pepper and licorice, also does not contain a single sweet note besides licorice and dries down to almost generic, but very sexy woody/spicy/masculine dna. 20 Mars 2020 is almost /gourmoundy/ when sniffed close to the skin - it's delicious and the balance between the fruity, creamy olibanum and woody, spicy notes is just right. I can also distinguish tonka bean, some synthetic, clean musk but apparently I don't get that much cypriol like for example in Oud Seven (which is a lot), but I definitely get black pepper too. I'm looking forward to wear it soon!

“¿Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” The devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns, he comes as everything you've ever wished for... AND HE PROBABLY SMELLS LIKE THIS. This perfume has been a perennial treat in my repertoire of scent sampling for years. I haven’t acquired a taste for it on myself yet, but I relish in savoring and appreciating it tremendously. It evokes deep thoughts, it’s strikingly beautiful, dark, gothic, rich. There’s a lot of notes but it’s exceptionally smooth and excruciatingly alluring and it warrants respect. If you want something similar but more wearable and less complex, try Aoud Black Candy by Mancera, it’s not as refined as 20Mars2022 but it delivers and gives the vibes.

At first sniff this comes very close to the first Rundholz perfume, 03 Apr. 1968. The first one says "frankincense", this says "olibanum" (really, I don't know the difference ). But, this is not so long-lasting - and not so complicated - which is a surprise as the first one has very few ingredients and this has plenty. Also this is... kind of black - which could be a little too much - too much trying to be different? (of course the tint doesn't last on your skin, but when you spray this on, this looks like water with soot... ). I'd love to love this, but at this moment I prefer the first Rundholz - which is no surprise as it is a great favourite :)

One of my favorite recent finds. Amazing. The cinnamon pops but not in a red hots candy way like the note tends to go in perfumes, it floats around perfectly within the incensey smokiness that comprises the brunt of this fragrance. Not quite like anything else I've ever smelled in the genre. Not a dark or forboding smelling thing to me despite it being smokey and a bit intense - those top notes really lighten it up and make it cheerful.

I was so interested in this one because I love February 14, 1912 so much and the notes on this one intrigued me. But I can’t pick out any notes, it’s just really, really potent incense. Like the kind you buy at a metaphysical shop with dragon’s blood and other resins in it. It’s so thick and syrupy and sweet and smoky. Not my style at all but some might appreciate it as an interesting gothic creation.

Super duper enjoyable. Powerful, yet warm scent, like a person who’s intimidating on the outside but kind and loving deep down. You get a blast of spices (lots of pepper) and burnt fruit. Dries down to a super comfy yet odd mix of woods, slight animal notes, and lots of super real incense. I don’t really care that it is a bit linear, as I can’t stop smelling myself. Love at first sniff. 10/10

Halloween as a fragrance. A darker, more gothic version of Le Participe Passé from Serge Lutens. A more whimsical CDG Black.

Love child of Fille en Aiguilles and Norma Kamali Incense. I don’t get any strawberry, thankfully. Great stuff!

This smells so much like Piotr Czarnecki’s original Sensei trio of edt/edp/extrait. PERIODT.