Biscuit

Bisquit

Arte Profumi 2021

I simply love chocolate in perfumes.
Whenever I see a fragrance with chocolate or cocoa, I feel the urge to smell it.
And Biscuit actually doesn’t smell like "biscuit" at all, but much more like chocolate.

Right from the opening, you get a full blast of brandy, bitter orange, and chocolate.
For some, it might be way too boozy, as the alcoholic note is just too present.
I find that the brandy here almost smells like glue in the opening; if it weren't for the bitter orange and chocolate, it would be a nightmare.

The fragrance doesn’t change drastically; the boozy note becomes a bit more pleasant, and I still perceive the ganache/chocolate in the dry down, just like the bitter orange.
So, almost everything remains the same as in the opening, only that the brandy relaxes a bit.
There’s not the slightest trace of biscuit or the listed coffee note, which I find unfortunate, as chocolate & coffee would have been very interesting in this combination.

Sillage is not particularly strong, considering it’s a sweet, boozy fragrance.
But Biscuit isn’t weak either; I would say it’s somewhere in between.

Definitely unisex (W55%/45%M) and of course not a scent for the warm season; it’s more suited for winter.

My conclusion: Not a bad fragrance, but would I spend €145.99 on it? Definitely not!
It’s one you have to test before buying; anything but a mass-pleaser.
And many thanks to the lovely "Peppermint" who made it possible for me to test this interesting fragrance.

Now I have finally mustered the courage to write a complete review. Simply because I want to save one or two people from a colossal mistake.

The first spray smells unbelievably delicious. I am immediately catapulted into an elegant pâtisserie. Before me lie the most beautiful pralines. It smells delightful of chocolate and cocoa. Before me lies a particularly beautiful specimen. I take a bite and the chocolate slowly melts on my tongue. A delicious orange liqueur flows from the praline, fine and not sweet. So far, so good. The alcoholic note initially makes the scent seem rather masculine, which, due to its deliciousness, is completely secondary for me - I can always pass it off to my boyfriend. ;) To my delight, the alcohol soon fades away. Now I can clearly perceive the scent of orange refreshment sticks. Even though I find the sweetness really disgusting, the scent is still very nice up to this point and now also unisex. While I continue to happily sniff at my forearm, I slowly notice something biting. Aukai lovingly described it in her review as "baby vomit." This association wouldn't have occurred to me, but I feel transported back to a chocolate factory. We are now far removed from the elegant pâtisserie. Rancid milk is in old kettles, cheap chocolate hangs in the air, enveloped by a piercing, artificial orange... The dream of delicious, chocolate gourmand is now shattered. Now I unfortunately have to wash you off...

I am a lover of sensual powdery scents, but I also enjoy sweet fragrances. Consequently, I set out in search of a delicious gourmand. Generally, I really like dessert notes, especially the scent of chocolate and/or cocoa, which is one of my favorites. So, every morning while brewing coffee, I always add a good teaspoon of cocoa powder to my French press alongside the coffee grounds, usually with a bit of cinnamon as well. The taste is great, but even more, I love the smell. A mix of coffee aroma, underlined by a warm chocolate-cinnamon note. It warms my heart.

I have struggled with gourmand fragrances so far, which is usually not due to the scents themselves, but because a smell often develops in combination with my skin chemistry that resembles sour milk. My brother's exact words, two hours after I had "refreshed" myself with a chocolate shower gel: "You smell like baby vomit!" I had already noticed it at that point, but somehow I had tried to suppress it. Admittedly, that's not easy. It’s just not pleasant at all.

When I read the scent notes for Bisquit at ALzD, I had to order a sample. On paper, it immediately convinced me with a spritz. The paper strip sat here for 3 days, and the scent was still quite noticeable. Most fragrances don't manage that. So, it was time to try it on my skin - homeopathically dosed.

The opening: I don't drink alcohol and can't say how brandy smells. I smell spirits (and I don't mean that in a derogatory way) and orange, a bit like orange liqueur. But what I smell is not a sticky-sweet liqueur, nothing gooey, rather a warm-golden-brown, highly viscous liquid. The alcoholic note fades after a few minutes, and the chocolate unfolds its delicious and melting splendor, with the coffee gently creeping in. The scent reminds me of a fine, not overly sweet tiramisu. Simply irresistible.

The fragrance evolves further - slowly, the tiramisu scent transforms. Another scent memory kicks in: I spent a few weeks in the USA, where they have Coffee Mate. This is a coffee creamer, a counterpart to our coffee whitener, and it comes in various (and for me sometimes strange - I would never think of drinking my coffee with blueberry flavor) flavors. Hazelnut is one of them. A good coffee with Coffee Mate Hazelnut, that's how the scent develops in the heart note. Creamy, nutty, warm. Also very delicious, it brings back many memories for me.

After about 3 hours, the development takes its course. I catch a whiff of the slightly sour note on my arm for the first time. I suppress it. Time moves on, and after three and a half hours, I have to acknowledge what is. I smell like baby vomit. Not good.

My conclusion: Bisquit is a beautiful, warm, gourmand fragrance. It has something noble about it. The sweetness is present but always remains pleasantly in the background - no sticky-overbearing cloying sweetness like, for example, in Volumna. The scent notes are wonderfully intertwined, and the fragrance is unobtrusively present. I never feel like it's too much, that I smell excessively of spirits or tiramisu or coffee. Great execution of the notes, highly recommended for any gourmand fan. I perceive the spirit note in the first minutes as rather masculine, but in the development, it definitely becomes unisex.
For me, unfortunately, it doesn't fit for the reasons stated. The search continues!