Sacre du Printemps

this is far and away the finest galbanum-based frag i've ever come across. it is almost austere in its green purity but absolutely wonderful in its refinement. there is some development towards an obscure vetiver-fruit accord but it remains essentially a glorious galbanum soliflore, vaguely recalling vintage No.19. to this nose, SdP is a 10/10 green scent. caveat: very very expensive :(

Extremely elegant, bracing smell. Deceptively simple, and highly verdant, yet quite dry. An incredibly absorbing scent. Restrained, herbal. A bracing and austere green fragrance.

I'm so grateful I got my hands on a small sample vial of this. For about 2 years I've been craving a truly leafy-green, bitter scent, completely free of sweetness, powder, flowers and musk, also not citrusy, acidic and fruity. This is finally it. I've never smelled real galbanum or angelica. For me this starts with more cut grass and a little fresh, quickly gets more bitter - like digging up dandelion roots and chewing blackcurrant leaves or brewing birch tea leaves. (If you didn't grow up putting bitter green plants in your face and mouth, I imagine it smells just plain off.) And now that I experienced it, I know I don't "need" a bottle of it (which would be about 2/3rds of my living expenses for a month, heh), because it's not necessarily that pleasant a smell when taken completely out of context, and it makes sense it's seldom bottled straight as perfume, niche or other. But it IS a nostalgic and dirt-fresh outdoor smell... and being able to produce it inside a stuffy apartment does feel a little magical. Edit: on their website, they talk a lot about it being "smoky". If so, it's in an extremely abstract sense - I get something that reminds me of olibanum/frankincense in drydown, but it's still just green and bitter to me, nothing is burning. Maybe the bitterness of wet ashes, like rain after a forest fire...

Opens with a cacophony of green, citric, and what I read as aldehydic facets, similar to sniffing the bubbles coming up from an artificial lemon-lime seltzer. The former come mostly from the galbanum, given a particular tart zest and herbal tang by the blackcurrant and angelica, while what I read as aldehydes soon reveals itself to be mostly the smokiness from gaiac, soon accompanied by a deep, noble woody and earthiness aided by the vetiver and angelica, the latter also providing a bit of an herbal musk and pepperiness. I feel like I’m also getting something else that’s familiar, but I just can’t place it... I must admit, while I find it to be very well blended and entirely original, this combination of materials and notes just isn’t quite for me. Like all of Mr. Micotti’s works, it’s a very artistic blend that requires an ardent spirit to attune to. The deep woody and smokiness makes this one a pretty serious class act. Sillage strong, longevity excellent. Bravo, good sir!

It's sour and quite earthy. Reminds me of "Corsica Furiosa" by Parfum d`Empire with it's sourness but with extra styrax, and earthy rooti notes. Mostly dirty vetiver and slight angelic and some galbanum, but there is something quite sour and dirty somehow, and i believe it's absolutely the styrax. Quite unique, strong, with powerful effect, besides, it's a limited edition flacon which makes it unique if you are into collective limited editions & into earthy dirty vetiver ones. BTW, this is dedicated to "Igor Stravinsky" and this fragrance is named after Stravinsky's piece "Sacre du Printemps" that he composed in Montreux where Vincent Micotti grew up. It is a good play with an amazing palette performance that created a revolution in music back then, but i can't relate this perfume to it somehow! it just requires to be more animalic with narcissus and some spring breeze of colorful floral rather than sourness of summer with earth doses.