Palindrome II

Along the White Collection discovery set from Santi Burgas, you get two complementary samples of their choice. The two I got were Primal Waters - ADH: Aroma de Hormiguero and Palindrome II, and I was quite lucky to get the second iteration of the Palindrome collection as it looks to be the best of the three Palindromes. However, to my surprise, Palindrome II ended up as a slight improvement over another Santi Burgas fragrance, and no, it's not Palindrome I, but Eau Dadà, which is actually part of the White Collection. They both have a fairly similar structure, even if the notes pyramids might not make it look that way. A strong medicinal patchouli leads the opening on both fragrances, with Palindrome II featuring much more spicy support thanks to a slightly pungent black and white pepper combo. But that's not all. Cardamom joins in with a spicy-sweet addition, as well as bringing a minty, eucalyptus-like cooling sensation on the side. Some bergamot might also be hidden away somewhere in there, but it's hardly detectable after the first two minutes. Things slowly sweeten up as times passes, more so with herbaceous and earthy qualities that get enveloped in some cinnamon sweetness and gently-rising resins. The ginger warms things up without ever becoming pungent, while I also kind of get a distinct clove aroma, probably from the mix up of spices. That ultimately appends a mild smoky quality to the blend. But what is made clear during the drydown is that the labdanum and vanilla want to be in charge. And so, warm and almost sticky sweet resins become more prominent, with obvious vanilla and piney attributes. But luckily, they do not manage to completely turn the scent in an 80% sweet resinous fragrance as it was the case with Eau Dadà. The spices and earthy undertones here maintain an adequate amount of potency to impend that from happening. And to make things better, there's castoreum in here too, and while hardly strong, there's a detectable animalic tinge, mostly a musky leather, which awaits at the base. So, fair, it's not THAT similar to Eau Dadà, but they do share the medicinal patchouli and vanillic resins, only the composition is more complex and better overall with Palindrome II. Eau Dadà was hardly a show off when it came to performance (for me, at least), so I did not expect a large difference in numbers between it and Palindrome II. But I was proven wrong. Palindrome II lasted well over 12 hours on my skin, even though by that point it was a faint leather that refused to leave. Projection was more than satisfactory, with a very strong sillage in the first hour, taking its time to mellow down afterwards. Once the resins properly kicked in, it was almost louder than at the start. Four hours in, it was still projecting close to one foot, and it reached skin scent status somewhere around 5 hours in. An excellent showing. Clearly, this is not an everyday scent, not due to the fact that it's challenging, but simply because it's distinct, at least much more so compared to the basic designers most people wear. But just like with Eau Dadà, I'd wear Palindrome II once in a while to change the mood in my routine. But that will also depend on what you wear on a daily basis, because if you rock regular blue, safe, uninspiring fragrances on a daily basis, then changing to something like Palindrome II will certainly feel like an upgrade. However, if stuff like Amouage Silver Oud or Areej Le Doré make for your daily drivers, then Palindrome II will feel more like a break than a definite step up. So which one would I choose - Eau Dadà or Palindrome II? Very obviously, the latter. There's just a little more complexity here and more that impends it from turning into sweet vanillic resins, which was my main gripe with Eau Dadà. The castoreum, while not doing much heavy lifting, does add that mild animalic edge that I missed in Eau Dadà. Either that or some oud. So an overall improvement, in my opinion. Would I ever consider a bottle? Unlikely, because in the end, it's just a pleasant spicy, resinous, leathery composition that doesn't excite me enough to warrant a bottle. But for anyone concerned, it is definitely worth trying. Presentation: 8.5/10 Scent: 7.5/10 Longevity: 10/10 Projection: 8/10 Versatility: 8/10 Value for Money: 6/10 Overall: 8/10

got sample of Palindrome II at Esxence 2017 and I like this scent key words: spicy, warm, pepper, patchouli, incense, woody, a little powdery and a little little little sweet, leather in the end It is a quite warm woody scent, I can see a very sexy handsome man with beard wearing this scent walking in the streets of Paris, New York, London. and I wanna date with him and be hold by his arms. compared with Palindrome I, II is more masculine, heavy and woody, II is more for a mature men than woman o young boy. In my opinion, basically you may consider I and II are couple scents, I can image a succesful man wearing II and his girlfriend wearing I. I like both scents but to me, I prefer I more cuz it is more sweet and I like sweet tasty scent

Day 2 of my SANTI BURGAS journey, and Palindrome II. Holy smoke Batman!! I was expecting patchouli 🖤 but I got so much more! When I was little we lived in an area of The Netherlands that had been mostly coal mines. The mines were closed one by one, and other heavy industries came. When I sprayed Palindrome II I mostly smelled patchouli, but when I let it settle a bit... whoah!! INDUSTRIAL PATCHOULI! This is how my city smelled when the wind came from the factories, and how my dad smelled when he came home from working in the rubber factory! I love it! Palindrome I is pretty, Palindrome II is much more raw, and I might or might not have oversprayed 😁

Pepper, Castoreum overdose.. I really can't detect that much of patchouli as it is shown as a dominant note in the voting above! the conquering note here is the black pepper in its excellency. Then comes a smoke, then dusty sandy labdanum X cardamom but it is a very overdosed black pepper that it covered all other notes as i barely can detect some other notes but the black pepper is just overwhelming and too much to miss. After all, i don't see this blend as a balanced blend, it is just like pure black pepper somehow!

What if, at sunset in the fall, you put on a black leather biker jacket or coat and went to a rock concert in a smoky basement in a noire setting? Oh... and let’s finish by taking a black and white photo of the trip. It will perfectly capture the atmosphere of this scent. Light and darkness | spice and light sweetness | animalism and eroticism | smoke and wood | skin and body and a looooot of music. The scent sweetens over time. Cool work.