After applying, there is a long olfactory silence: no water, no spice, no flower.... nothing. I search with my nose the sprayed spot on my arm, but no scent rises.
After about 30 minutes, something glimmers up: it lightly haunts me sweetly. Maybe it's floral? Maybe green? In any case, it's quite pleasant. Hopeful, I direct my nose to the spot I sprayed and sniff. Again, I smell nothing!
For me, this delicate scent cannot be located at the sprayed spot, it does not intensify when I smell at that spot. The scent behaves nothing like I am used to with perfumes. Instead, I feel as if I have to painstakingly feel my way through a pitch-black cellar and have completely lost the ground beneath my feet olfactorily.
I cannot identify any of the individual components: fenugreek? I take my jar of fenugreek from the spice rack and sniff: No, that is much sweeter and spicier and not so anemic and just different.
Texas cedar? Well, maybe the cedars smell like that in Texas. I have been there once, but unfortunately missed the chance to take a close olfactory look at a cedar. Oh no, wrong track, 'Texas cedar' is probably the essential oil of the so-called alligator juniper. Do I smell juniper? Hmm, that might fit, at least I don't want to completely deny it.
After an hour and a half, suddenly a sweet-fruity wave emerges, liqueur-like rum pot scent, and I think, okay, now it's finally starting! But no, after a few minutes the wave collapses in on itself and leaves the weak Texas cedar alias alligator juniper in the field again. The dry cedar has probably gotten engaged to the Peru balsam, because now it at least glimmers a little warmer and more incense-like.
But where is the vanilla? It still hasn't arrived in my nose after 4 hours.
Instead, I get a dry throat. And the spot where I sprayed the scent burns a little for a moment.
Conclusion: Actually, it could be a nice, spicy, slightly bitter scent that I might like. What I perceive evokes faint associations with the Badedas bubble bath from my childhood. But flower? Well, not really. Or if so, then really very well hidden.
Because I cannot locate the scent on my body and because it thus gives the impression that it is actually not there, this perfume truly lives up to the attribute 'caché'. It feels to me as if I am walking in the dark on thin ice. Everything about this scent feels very synthetic to me. Nothing is tangible, the scent is irritatingly oscillating and simultaneously leaves a burning and dry feeling.
Even though I find this perfume rather unpleasant overall, it was still a very interesting experience to sniff after its wave-like appearance, and I thank Knopfnase for the sample.
Interesting experience report. I've noticed that quite a few fragrances that seem shy and don't want to be located at the sprayed spot actually project much more than you'd expect. Fragrances with a lot of ISO often tease their wearers with this kind of hide-and-seek. Nomen est...
Exciting and finely detailed scent progression scenario. (Maybe it should be made into a film... but with real alligators, not synthetic simulacra! :))
(Maybe it should be made into a film... but with real alligators, not synthetic simulacra! :))