Anubis

Liz Zorn explains, "with Anubis my aim was to bring new life to this ancient god, one whose duties included preparing the mummies for their eternal rest, as well as being a conduit to the afterlife . . ." I can't always smell what Zorn is invoking, but Anubis is indeed exactly my idea of ancient Egypt. If I were Cleopatra in a play or for Halloween, it would be my first costume element. As for my regular life, I'm undecided but intrigued.

This is a bit of a poser. If I had blind tested it I would have immediately guessed it was another Smell Bent parlor trick since the first thing you smell is an intense extremely accurate shovel of damp earth, worms and all. This is followed by clear agarwood and amber. The jasmine is there but I'm not getting any spice or carnation. After an hour the effect is smelling a soft amber perfume while sitting in a wet basement. No doubt about this truly being different but I'm trying to think of a setting (besides a zombie party) where smelling like a basement would be a good thing. Sillage: soft and close, maybe a foot Longevity: two hours and counting Fabulosity: cup o dirt Value to price ratio: too hard to call; poor for me 3/10, bonus points for being weird.

A busy combination of soil, florals, and oud with a ton of spices. This one throws a lot of ingredients at you but it still manages to feel relatively coherent at first. Peppery florals, a hefty dirt note, something that feels quite clove-like—all accompanied by a relatively tame oud. It’s a bit of a scent avalanche that smells perhaps like an unusually exotic garden center, but it’s clearly a scent that is looking to do “opulent,” “rich,” and it’s pretty successful at that, I suppose. Sadly, the volume never really picks up and the scent dies a quick, pitiful death leaving in its wake a trail of sketchy synthetic oakmoss. It performs a bit like your standard “all natural” only this one’s not all natural at all.

An interesting fragrance - the mix of all sorts of dried herbs and dirt. I've been to authentic Chinese herbalist a few times before, in a shop where he keeps his various herbs in many glass jars. This fragrance reminds me of that smell. It's way more refined, but still that smell.