Kafka

I am reviewing the reformulated version i.e. Kafka '22. I never tried the earlier one, so I can't speak to that. But Kafka '22 is a stunning fragrance. It took me a couple of wears to understand the complexity of the fragrance, because it's so well blended. To me, it's a patchouli centric fragrance. The patchouli is of the highest quality. Some perfumes featuring the note come off to me a little rubbery and overpowering. Not at all the case here. It's so natural smelling it's almost as if it sits at home within all the other floral notes that come to play in this perfume. The middle stage has one of the most incredible 'lifts' of any patchouli centric fragrance. It lifts itself from my skin and creates this amazing bubble around me for everyone to enjoy. But the fragrance still retains its integrity and structure even with this amazing lift. Pushing the champaca forward in this moment. I truly do not know how Teone does this without the use if any synthetics. That is the mark of a master perfumer. The fragrance settles on a lovely bed of oakmoss presenting a little bit more of the earthiness. In all honesty I wish there was a little more of an undercurrent of animalic danger, but that's just my filthy side coming out. I also don't get any of the leather quality, but my nose is very difficult with leather. I get no leather from Knize Ten and many other heavy leather perfumes. However, the perfume is beautiful, alluring, and full of mystery. The scent of a true romantic with a dark side - some stories untold. And I am excited to keep peaking a little more and more into the darkness and beauty each time I wear this amazing composition. It wears so gorgeously in hot weather as well as cold. I think my preference is in warm weather, just because I am thrilled to finally have a dark patchouli chypre that sings in the warmth and light.

It starts out really nice—sweet, resinous, and floral, but morphs into a more dry, spicy, and bitter interplay between narcissus, herbs, and vegetal leather. Smells vintage (and that's never a bad thing) but falls apart towards the end.

Despite the highly evocative notes list on LuckyScent, this wasn't what I expected. Kafka carries the uniquely sour vintage scent that many perfumes from around the 1920s have (think Chanel No 5) that makes one think of civet, amber or even aldehydes. Overall not a bad scent, but also not quite as nuanced as I expected. It's quite linear in nature and never goes very deep or very light, staying just-so throughout its wear time. Copy from LuckyScent: "KAFKA eau de parfum is an intense, floral woody leather wrestling with cruelty, despondency, Sumatran patchouli, inertia, suffering, champaca, narcissus, dark shadows, loneliness, Virginian cedarwood, styrax, labdanum and the flickering flame of hope."

WOW! I didn't get pee or vintage sour or anything like the previous reviewers. Admittedly, I did buy my sample based on the hilarious scent notes on LuckyScent. I couldn't resist. In reality, what I get is a lovely light floral resin type scent with some nice woods and labdanum base. It's not actually all that remarkable on me, but it's very wearable, and my sister really loves the resinous woody labdanum base with that flirt of florals over the top, so I let her have the sample.

Smells like incense, quiet yellow floral and pee.