As Dark Things Are Meant to be Loved Alkemia 2015

As Dark Things Are Meant to be Loved by Alkemia

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7.7 / 10 18 Ratings

A popular perfume by Alkemia for women, released in 2015. The scent is gourmand-sweet. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Gourmand

Sweet

Resinous

Smoky

Leathery

Fragrance Notes

Labdanum

Coconut

Temple incense Bakhoor

Bakhoor

Black amber

Breuzinho

Coffee

Opium

Oud

Tonka bean

Patchouli

Russian leather Tobacco

Tobacco

Lapsang Souchong tea

Ratings

Scent

7.718 Ratings

Longevity

7.812 Ratings

Sillage

6.513 Ratings

Bottle

4.715 Ratings

Submitted by ExUser, last update on 06/13/2025.

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Reviews

3 in-depth fragrance descriptions

06/13/2025

6
Sillage 8
Longevity 10
Scent

ScentNebula
52 Reviews

ScentNebula

2

A complex, dark, enigmatic gourmand

This is a unique, complex fragrance that’s hard to pin down. Honestly, I don’t know what a lot of the notes in this are meant to smell like, so I’m just enjoying the enigmatic end result: slightly boozy, a little fruity, sweet, decidedly dark, gourmand but more than JUST gourmand. When I smelled this for the first time, I couldn’t pinpoint what I was smelling at all, and it’s only with repeated wearings and comparing to the notes lists that I’ve been able to figure out what I THINK is going on here.

I believe I smell coconut, a dark rich spiced fruitcake, a hint of coffee, and a pretty strong incense note. The type of incense used here gives it a faintly soapy quality, but it’s not the overbearing, harsh laundry detergent soapiness that many Alkemia scents have - it’s more floral-smoky, and I really love it. In the drydown this scent takes on a bit of the dusty vanillic quality of old books.

For such a dense scent profile, it’s surprisingly light and easy to wear, while having some of the better performance of the Alkemia scents I’ve tried. I also think it can be unisex, although it’s probably more traditionally feminine in a dark, sexy, femme fatale way. I’d recommend it for the cooler months of the year.

05/30/2025

ClaireV
958 Reviews

ClaireV

1

But a bit difficult to love nonetheless

As Dark Things Are Meant to be Loved is a somewhat frustrating scent, mainly because of the difference between how you expect it to smell - based on the evocative description - and how it actually smells. Instead of a rich, smoky brew of tea, leather, and incense, for instance, there is the brusque astringency of coffee, tobacco, and coconut husk.

I wish I knew what caramelized opium was supposed to smell like so that I could comment on authenticity. Either way, nothing spicy or dangerous seems to show up. It smells of dusty brown disappointment. As Dark Things Are Meant to be Loved is a somber, slim-hipped whippet of a scent that lends itself well to moody introspection and lonely walks in the rain, therefore meeting one hundred percent of the goal expressed in the name of the perfume but zero percent of the expectations raised by its list of notes.

02/07/2020

6
Bottle 6
Sillage 8
Longevity 8
Scent

Shaking
20 Reviews

Translated Show original

Shaking

Very helpful Review 8

Fragrances as a guideline ? Pfff, who needs it...

Sometimes in life, expectations and actual reality are very different diverge.

I don't want to say anything, but let your gaze linger for a moment on the fragrances...take the words: Lapsang-Souchong tea, Russian leather, oud, black amber, patchouli, breuzinho, bakhoor, labdanum, TEMPLE CHRISTMAS very deeply into your consciousness !

What do you think the scent will give you ?

Right, the smoke will drive the PIPI into your eyes,
"Vi Et Armis", on the other hand, is a joke, for a cosy "cuddle evening" with your girlfriend.
You put on "Cardinal" to "make love"
Well...........*NOPE*
If the scent had been called "Dip chocolate cookies in warm tea with honey and orange and lemon in the sauna area", then....... "sigh* well..... then I would have known what I was getting.

But the saying: "What you see is what you get" has never been so far removed from any perfume as it is from this one!

So what do you get ?
A gourmand bomb of the very first order with "orange blossoms", somewhere a slight smoky note has "hidden" itself (but not a normal smoky note, it is somehow like the smell in a sauna land in the relaxation room).......where it comes from is a mystery to me *wink*

The durability is extremely good ( 10 hours + )
The Sillage, on the other hand, is "pleasantly" at one meter without filling rooms.