Silence The Sea

Absolutely gorgeous – easily one of the best perfumes I’ve ever smelled. I can understand why this is polarizing for folks. I first tried it at Hollywood Scent Bar, and I got to witness it evolve on my hand for the next few hours driving around in the canyons; they were generous enough to send me home with a sample which I'm returning to now. Vibe: a golden sunset walk along the Pacific shore. Notes: opens with a sweet, almost urinal / indolic floral note which is piercing at first, but quickly settles down. Once it relaxes, the massive ambergris accord is revealed, and it’s stunning. It is a blend of both clean and animalic ambergris notes, and I’m sure it’s supported by many of the other notes listed in the pyramid, but I don’t detect any specific voices, as it’s a well-blended mixture. The blend truly creates a supporting accord which is all about the natural oceanic vibe of the ambergris. It’s leathery like animal skin, highly mineralic like a bottle of sparkling mineral water, deeply salty like the Pacific ocean, sparkling in texture like champagne, and beautifully multifaceted. It has strong elements of gasoline, rubber, and plastic which are highly naturalistic. Bitter green herbal oils shimmer in and out of the accord. For a few years now I’ve been searching for perfumes that have a true oceanic saltwater note to them; the word “salty” gets tossed around in discussions of many calone-heavy blue shower-gel themed fragrances, and while I do like plenty of those, none of them ever truly smelled like salt to me. Neither do the tart herbal-woody concoctions like Acqua di Sale and its procession of copycats – those are pleasant too, but they don’t smell like literal salt or sea water. Ocean salt: metallic, watery, biting, acrid, fishy, dank, bracing, invigorating, piercing. Anyone who has surfed the California coast knows this smell, taste, and sensation of saltwater in the sinuses, in the ears, total immersion in stinging beautiful cold. I’ve smelled hundreds of fragrances and the only one that – for me – truly comes close to replicating this piercingly sour-bitter effect of ocean water is Tom Ford’s Oud Minérale, which I’ve accordingly supplied myself heavily with. Silence the Sea beats Oud Minérale. Silence the Sea has this beautiful saltiness, but rather than the cloudy and gloomy shroud of darkness in OM, STS has an aura of shimmering golden light. It’s the Pacific shore at golden hour after a long and beautiful day in the water. It hints at the white florals of “sunscreen” fragrances, but they are whispered in the background behind the raw oceanic ambergris accord. It is difficult to know what else to say about Silence the Sea. It’s gorgeous. It’s not mass appealing at all: an uncompromising work of art composed for the seekers of something beyond the ordinary. 100%

I’d say it’s pretty much silent. This isn’t a roaring ocean pelting tropical saltwater and whale vomit into your face as many full-force ambergris perfumes are wont to do, like Mallo’s Cubalibre I fairly recently had the pleasure of acquiring, insomuch as this feels like a very calm, cool sea in the cooler months of the year, walking the shoreline and occasionally picking up and smelling the stones and driftwood that have been continuously lapped with sea water. Oud’s high notes of animalics give the ambergris’s own animalic and ozonic high notes some oomph in the beginning. They smell gaseous and biological, a fair amount of rot with saltiness and muskiness, but they are largely neutered by jasmine indoles and tuberose. The jasmine indoles add a metallic and parching feeling that helps the ambergris and oud smell and feel a lot less like slick rot and vomit, and more like an exotic soap. Likewise for the tuberose, its sharp green edges are absent, and its sweet floral headiness toned way down so that it is in a supporting role that is helping the whole feel more well rounded. Throughout the majority of the rest of silencethesea’s life there is a very pleasant and very pretty undulation between the white florals, a fruity aspect that is a bit hard to pin down, and woods, while never leaving the gentle ambergris plinth that they rest on. At the time silencethesea goes to a skin scent the ambergris is largely what remains with some woody touches and slivers of the sourness from Strangelove’s favorite oud material common to the majority of their perfumes. Seaside tranquility. This is a very well done ambergris centric perfume. It keeps the accord naturalistic whilst giving it several well-judged and proportionate supporting materials that allow its beauty and serenity to come forward, rather than its digested marine animal carcass facets dominating the experience. If you don’t like ambergris, or you do not know what the real thing smells like, odds are you will not care for this, or you will think it’s challenging and it’s going to take some time for you to come around to it. But if you really like or love ambergris - like I do - you will find silencethesea to be an easy, pretty, and very pleasant presentation of ambergris shown a lot of love at Laudamiel’s talented hands.

SilencetheSea takes you on a dark and brooding voyage, exploring everything strange and terrifying about the depths of the ocean. It opens with a green, bitter note of Angelica which paves the way towards a dense and unforgiving oud. Frankincense adds a silhouette of smoky darkness, whilst narcissus elevates the green, animalic edge of the opening. Before long, the star of the show makes itself known - the pure, unadulterated ambergris. This is the truest ambergris I’ve ever smelled, with nothing taken away just to better suit it to western tastes - this is complete animalic glory in all of its challenging facets. This genuinely smells like what I imagine the inside of a whale would smell like; it’s fishy yes, but not how you would expect, the fishiness is fleshy and meaty, thick and tough. The truffle adds to this fleshy accord, giving you fungal hints like the flesh of a mushroom. This fragrance is incredibly hard to wear, and will probably get negative reactions from those around you. I agree with what others have said that this shouldn’t even be classed as a fragrance: but instead as a work of art, an olfactory experience encased in a beautifully modest bottle. This will test your mind and push your senses to the limit, making you question how much you really understand about the art behind perfume. Smelling this up close is almost nauseating. My nose is overpowered by the fleshy, fishy accords and struggles to find enjoyment from it. However, in the air I pick up the most incredible sillage - a dense and salty marine breeze whisking me away to a cloudy thunder-stricken coast with every breath I take. I would advise not wearing this perfume around the neck is it can become overbearing, but instead on the arms and legs, you will better appreciate this scent from afar. I’m still undecided whether to keep my bottle. On the one hand I do think it’s an incredibly creative and masterful work of art, with fantastic quality of ingredients. However, the scent is so challenging to wear I do wonder if it will actually get used - I mean what situation could this possibly be worn in? I’ll most likely just spray on my arm here and there when alone, and ponder what lies in the depths of the ocean...

From the depths of the Ocean, Silence the Sea from Strangelove NYC. I'd say this is the most polarizing perfume I own. Not for me, I love it, but to anyone else. I like sharing it with people only to observe their reactions. There's 10% of the population who loves it, and the remainder. It's a natural Ambergris perfume that smells vividly of the Ocean. The reason why it's so polarizing is because of how accurately it captures that smell. Too accurately. It's not intended to be pretty but rather evocative. I think it's a marvelous achievement. It is daunting, sometimes too much, yet it has a sexual power to it that can't be denied. A mischievous scent. It's a composition blended so well that it creates an overall sensorial experience rather than an easy-to-break-down structure. The ambergris, I'd say brown or black, is always present right from the get-go. Earthy, aromatic, and floral elements orbit around it. The truffle helps with the earthy-like facets, the angelica and chamomile provide a slightly aromatic touch, while at times, tuberose and mimosa spark faint floral nuances. There's also a seaweed smell and an undeniable metallic facet to it. It almost makes me think of fresh blood. And it can be too much at times. However, the longer it blends with your skin, the warmer and silkier it becomes. Even though people hate it if they get a close whiff, they seem rather curious about what you're wearing whenever they catch your trail. It is one of those perfumes that when you smell close up the skin, it can be too much, yet it radiates beautifully in the air. With that being said, after it calms down, the strong oceanic smell lingers on. Imagine swimming around a wooden platform out in the open waters, resting on the wooden pillars occasionally to catch your breath, or swimming around a boat at sea. You get that smell of damp wood, iodine, seaweed, crustaceans, and much more. That's how Silence the Sea comes across, especially if you inhale too close. Brutally accurate, raw, unapologetic. A bold perfume, a call from the depths, for the Sea Wolf inside you. IG:@memory.of.scents

Strangelove's whole schtick is the top-quality oud used in their perfumes, and I have been very impressed so far with their compositions. Silence the Sea can be described as "Strangelove does a marine scent". Dark and opaque, in contrast to the typical aquatic marine scent, STS is the least approachable Strangelove I've tried so far. Bolstered by salty ambergris, the oud is animalic here, dense and pungent, yet somehow with a sterile metallic edge. STS is animalic from initial spray, with salty ambergris dominant from the beginning. I have yet to smell pure, genuine ambergris in isolation, but here it feels realistic. The oud follows, skanky and animalic, more amber-y than woody here. The truffle note follows closely, adding a fleshiness that is almost grotesque. I adore edible fungi, but here, its inclusion feels subversive, even provocative. Glancing at reviews below, I agree with many of the comparisons - new doll, inside of a whale, dead sea matter at high tide, the Dead Sea, fish, seaweed, a fisherman's old coat, the ocean in general. The narcissus gives a hay-like nuance as it develops, alleviating the dense oceanic quality with its pollen-y floral edge. The angelica gives a herbal nuance, resembling seaweed here alongside the oceanic notes. It dries down to a mineralic, slightly metallic musky skin scent, unfortunately resembling window cleaner during its final stages - the one drawback of this scent, and a common pitfall of marine scents. Sillage is moderate and longevity is long-lasting. I can't pinpoint an appropriate occasion to wear this, but, to parrot @Gileshowe below, it would be revolting in the heat. It is unisex. An olfactory artwork that I admire greatly for its evocative rendering of a dark ocean, STS is one of the least commercial scents I've tried. A dark ocean in a bottle. I wouldn't wear this, but I am impressed overall. 4/5.

strangelove nyc - silencethesea Scent of Poseidon 🔱🌊 Poseidon is God of the Seas. If there is such a signature scent for him, perhaps silencethesea is the only appropriate one and I will explain why. Firstly I want to suggest that this product is not for the faint hearted person thus only for true connoisseur to experience. It has a very animalic and ultra pungent fishy smell at the initial spray and probably a mistake to categorize this as a fragrance at all. I much prefer it to be called an olfactive wonder just because if one can get pass the initial spray, it's when the magic happens. Wearing silencethesea I am instantly transported to the deepest ocean level where there is almost no sunlight coming through. The visual is so vividly real as if I can feel the enermous pressure and underwater current all over the body. The scent somehow capture the power of the ocean in stillness. By experiencing myself I can truly get where's the name for this scent coming from. Wearing this always make me feel confident and powerful as if all the forces of the ocean are carried with me. Beyond that there is also the feel of calm and serenity deep down. Smell of the ocean is very abstract to be described yet very distinctive and familiar to us. To be able to translate this universal form so lively and accurately is an amazing work of art. I'm very grateful to have it in my collection although probably won't get that many wearing because it's not entirely pleasing to the nose. But when I do wear it, it feed my mind and soul far beyond smelling sensory only. I wear it when I want to be one with mother nature and feel empowered like Poseidon God himself. Thanks for reading and may the force be with you 🌊. #vscentorientreview

Rugged lighthouse worker takes you on a date to a shipwreck site on their day off. They have put on a brand new cashmere sweater that has inevitably picked up the smell of sea water even if it was unworn up until that day, overpowering the smell of their usual sunscreen and medicinal hair oil. You end up kissing resting agaisnt the remains of a oriental ship, perhaps working yourself up way more than you wanted before having to go home. No perfume has ever made me feel this attached to it. Perhaps because its disproportionate pricepoint and my tendency to long for things that I can't possibly have. I probably wouldn't want to smell like this every single day, as I normally gravitate towards woods, leathers and spices but... I feel excited everytime I decide to reach for the 2ml sample i was gifted. I planned a whole sea cliff lookout date with one of my partners just because I wanted to wear this in our outing to match the vibe. I really felt like I smelled like a million bucks (probably because the price tag is too far off), and I even received a compliment on how good I smelled, but not enough to justify the 900 euro tag. (she's a untrained nose, altough accustomed to me wearing weird-ish perfumes, so this isn't that weird or extreme as some people make it out to be, as usual with these type of fragances). Don't be discouraged to go out and try this if you have the chance. If anyone knows about ANYTHING that smells similar, please, let me know. Also if someone is willing to let go of their bottle at a more reasonable price, we can discuss it.

I just got my Strange Love NYC sample kit in the mail early this morning and I wanted to live w/ Silence the Sea for a while and not smell any of the other perfumes at all until I got my thoughts together on this perfume. I can understand why this scent is so polarizing. My husband hates it w/ a passion and I actually love it. When I first smelled Silence the Sea, I got hit w/ a lot of high-quality Oud and an herbal chamomile. Then a green seaweed like smell comes through, an earthiness that is wet and dry at the same time takes over. Musty, musky, salty, sweaty, herbal, woody and mineral facets overwhelm your senses. It does smell like the beach, but it also smells like a forest by the beach. If you have ever been to the Cape May area of NJ and Bombay Hook Park in Delaware, you know what I am talking about. Some of the best bird watching in the world in those areas. This perfume reminds me of those birding vacations my husband and I took there. This fragrance would smell dynamite on a man. Alas my husband will not go near it. I will keep my sample and enjoy it from time to time. If you are looking for a unique scent that will smell like you live outside this is the one for you. So intriguing, sexy and uber natural. You have to be a child of nature (and I am) to really appreciate this.

I think this is a well-crafted fragrance. It’s long-lasting, has great projection, is completely unisex, and has a great natural quality. It’s like the smell of fresh rainfall on a hot summer day, but take the first few seconds of that rainfall... It captures a part of that, and that’s beautiful. I don’t get much, if not any oud out of this, maybe some hint in combination with the florals. There is nothing off-putting or fecal here; it’s safe to wear anywhere. It’s smooth, and there is nothing sharp or harsh about it. I also get the effect of fresh ocean mist carried by the wind. This effect does not mean the fragrance is light, but it has an ethereal quality and wears lighter than the sum of its parts. It's a well-refined fragrance blended to the point where the bulk of the fragrance sits behind the overall oceanic effect. It might seem a little strange, but this reminds me of the smell of fresh dollar bills (in the best possible way), which you will need a decent chunk of to purchase a bottle of this potent juice. For some, this will be well worth the cost. Overall, I enjoyed sampling this one! 8/10

This is a wonderful perfume. I now luckily own the oil version, which is very powerful, so the tiniest amount will get you far. I smell indolic, aquatic, tarry notes mixed with a classical ambergris interpretation and some white flowers. They all work wonderfully together. The scent, luckily, is unsweet and very complex, but soothing. In my opinion, this is one of the best compositions I have smelled in a long time. To me, it is by far the most appealing of the strangelove trio.

theres something that's strangely addicting to it. i feel like i shouldnt like this but my god i love it more every single time i smell it. theres just something about it, the weird whale-iness to it and extremely deep salty ocean smell. it smells high quality and it is. its stupidly hard to wear and i do not care if i can pull it off. i love it. its an addiction. dear strangelovenyc please make your perfumes slightly cheaper i want to buy all of them so bad

This is the 1st perfume that embodies the true smell of Ambergris. It has a wavy aquatic base behind the Ambergris. The dry-down is just awesome. The only take-on is that it has little or minimal amount of Oud. Wish they added more!!

Sophisticated floral for a vernisage or cocktail party where you don' t want to smell pretty but slightly aloof and make a statement. I think that it's the narcissus that is the most prominent. Springtime.

Not for everyone. I like it, but it’s fishy.

As far as fascinating pieces of olfactory art go, this is up there with the most unsettling and yet triumphant I've ever encountered. If I wanted to make a list of materials or describe a vibe of perfumery I HATE it would be this. It reminds of that episode of Curb your enthusiasm where Larry has a sandwich named after him and it's white fish, sable, capers, onions and cream cheese. Salty, jizzy, gelatinous, condomery, waxy indolic white florals and real oud, animalic ambergris, seaweed, etc... etc... but it's so visceral and the materials so good, that I can't help but be intrigued. I really can't help it. I relished the challenge of wearing Antoine Lie's horrifying, blood and jizz-fest, Secretions magnifique a fragrance which has a similarly morbid fascination, that sensation of not being able to look away, but as much of an olfactory explorer as I am, I really begin to feel ill after 3 hours of that thing and have to tap out. This is where Silence the sea by comparison really isn't that bad and actually improves with wearing, even though I'll be honest, it's pretty much unwearable for me. The Open is truly atrocious and if someone sprayed it in a room with me, it's especially nasty at a distance, at least when you close in on it you can smell different facets. I guess the overarching vibe is of skanky, seaside, the seaside really isn't this fresh cool, breezy place, it smells of fish and foam, and rotten things. Silence the sea is floral, with a bitter, weird chamomile, salty jasmine and fleshy tuberose and narcissus. The mystical tone of ambergris is perfectly pitched in this perfume along side that unrelenting truffle and seaweed skank. The more you smell it the more strange but familiar it becomes, this is a perfect storm (forgive the pun, actually don't) of accords and materials coming together to create a vibe many perfumers have attempted but few of them with such naturalism, by that I mean the true meaning of art, to glimpse and somewhat replicate the beauty of nature. And if you are into this strange salinated BS and have other similar scents I can guarantee you now that this one is the holy grail, the doozy, the GOAT. I think it needs to be given a chance this perfume, certainly not dismissed off hand as I am guilty of doing, sure I don't really ever see myself wearing it but I have to give it credit for enrapturing me and making me think that even the most abhorrent concept (to my personal sensibilities) can be something I rate very highly.

I was probably six or seven years old the first time I saw the ocean, during a family trip to Cannon Beach in Oregon. My father took me to the edge of the water, hands under my armpits, and began to walk me into the surf. As soon as the ground beneath my feet gave way to the icy chill lapping at my ankles and I could feel the pull of the tide in my body, I screamed bloody murder. My father didn’t say a word but instead hoisted me onto his shoulders and began to walk slowly up and down the shoreline, humming softly as my fingers clung to his hair, thick and black and wild, like the mane of a pony to my little-kid brain. Maybe it was my father’s reassuring bulk and unhurried stride, or maybe it was my natural tendency to please, but eventually the chaos of that alien world ordered itself into normalcy. I pulled up on my grip, reining in my ride, and yelled, “Do it again, daddy, do it again.” That’s what Silence the Sea smells like to me, not just “marine," like bilge and water-soaked driftwood and how after a day at the beach your skin smells salty and warm but also slightly disgusting, like spit and hot metal, but most importantly an encapsulation of the ocean as a force both terrifying and exhilarating, essential and primal, and ultimately as inscrutable as anything on Earth. It's very wearable for the first couple hours. Beautiful and strange. Not Like Other Girls. But in the dry down it becomes slightly abrasive and claustrophobic, more shuttered adolescent boy's bedroom than expansive day at the shore, and I find myself needing to either respray or scrub. But overall, an incredible achievement.

After reading all the reviews and watching videos about silencethesea I expected something disgusting to say at least. this one on my skin smells like a marine cave with delicate - almost sweet - amber. I smell the fishiness now and then but is something really really hidden to my nose. This smells mysterious, it really reminds me of an extremely precious amber found at the bottom of the sea. I can't smell any rancid, secretion or other outrageous things, on my skin is only vaguely animalic in the opening, after 30 minutes it becomes really pleasant to me. I am not a fan of the marine fragrances, but this one might be for sure top3 marine fragrances that I've ever tried, even though silencethesea is not only about oceanic/marine. I have the impression that silencethesea can change A LOT according to the skin type, so I would always recommend to try it properly on skin, even multiple times, before purchasing the full bottle.

A warm, salty ambergris backed by a sour but soft woody oud. The jasmine and oud give it an uplifting character, however there's also a dry earthy-green undertone. Not so much aquatic, IMO, as marine in the sense of a mossy pier with some seaweed and whale vomit washed up on it. Moderately soft projection for 2-3hr, longevity 8-10hr. Very interesting and evocative of an abandoned beach. It's dilapidated, the pier is rotting and accumulating sea byproducts, but there's still an undeniable natural freshness about the ocean breeze blowing across the sand. It highlights well the natural characteristics of real ambergris and oud without being too offensive. But if you want quality real ambergris, you're probably better off spending 1/6 the money on Escale En Indonésie by Les Indemodables... *ahem*

Silence The Sea is unlike anything I've ever smelled. A majestic ocean built around ambergris and white truffle, it feels simultaneously gorgeous and repulsive. I get dark seawater, metallic salt, damp rocks, seaweed, and a slightly greasy, almost decaying quality that somehow becomes mesmerizing. It's bold, artistic, and full of contrasts rather than conventionally beautiful. I admire it far more than I enjoy wearing it. This is a fragrance to experience, not necessarily to own. If you're curious about challenging artistic perfumery, sample before you buy. 🌊

The most realistic aquatic fragrance I have ever smelled to date. I can just smell the fishy brine in the air. Great use of truffles in a perfume, in my humble opinion. If I were to wear this out on the town, I bet people would be wondering if I was a mermaid, just like Daryl Hannah in "Splash"... or maybe I was just wrestling one until I decided to get dressed and go out. Maybe I sell sea shells by the sea shore. Maybe i swim often but don't bathe as much as I should...? If you love the beach obsessively, this may be your new favorite perfume.