Labdanum Duftanker MGO Duftmanufaktur 2019

In my childhood in the 80s, and even later in my youth in the 90s, there were always product trends in the grocery aisles that didn’t last in intensity or even completely disappeared (does anyone still remember orange sauce???).

I can still remember that suddenly, in every supermarket, there were bright green, sometimes turquoise woodruff products.
There was woodruff lemonade, woodruff pudding and jelly, woodruff ice cream and woodruff ice pops, woodruff candies, and at various village, tent, and shooting festivals, there was also woodruff juice and woodruff cotton candy. There were also those strange, very slimy and sticky, individually wrapped woodruff gummy bears in large sizes and shaped like Smurfs. However, they tasted so overly sweet that you couldn’t tell if it was woodruff flavor or something else entirely.
At my grandma's (R.i.P.), there was definitely woodruff lemonade for months on end from that point. I didn’t really like it that much, but it was a nice change from mineral water; and hey, sweet drinks in almost any form were totally fine as a kid.

Labdanum opens resinous, herbal, almost medicinal and bitter. The immediate opening is quite demanding and not really tangible and a bit quirky. Somehow, though, it’s also great!
It has something mineral as well.
As it develops, amber becomes noticeably present, which significantly lightens and harmonizes the "toxic" scent profile.
I wouldn’t necessarily see labdanum as a crowd-pleaser, as the opening is quite unique. As it progresses, a still distinct, somewhat medicinal and resinous amber scent appears with a unique character.

Labdanum never becomes sweet on my skin.
Instead, the fragrance undergoes a metamorphosis for me, which catapults me back to my childhood and youth in the drydown. It took me a while to place what the scent reminded me of, and one evening it suddenly hit me. Woodruff!
Strongly depersonalized when I think of the taste, but still, this image comes back every time I wear the scent. Whether it’s due to my skin, my natural body odor, or the composition and interplay of the ingredients, I have no idea. It’s actually not that important because it smells great!
And there are far worse things than being transported back to a carefree time by a fragrance.
A bit like drinking woodruff lemonade at grandma's...