Patchouli
Bergamot
Vetiver
Amber
Carrot seed
Opoponax
Pepper
Peru balsam
06/03/2025
ClaireV
731 Reviews
ClaireV
1
E noi stiamo gia ballando
Questo e l'ombelico del mondo! Anyone remember that Jovanotti song? It's what I start singing whenever I see this tiny bagged sample that I was excited to receive in 2014 and then never fished out of my patchouli sample box, distracted as I was by other shiny things to smell and think about. Seems it was enough for me to see its name to be fond of it, this huge bellybutton that is the bellybutton of the world.
But its time has finally come. The beginning caused me some mild excitement, with its silky burp of gripe water - cushioned cottony musk, lavender, the plush dillwater billow of sweet, laundered air, a hint of sticky booze. Kind of like Helmut Lang EDP or Annick Goutal's Musc Nomade but less carnal. But the sweet, cozy-powdery mastic incense scent soon slides into something a little earthier and rotty-smelling, like orange peels left to decay on a wet log. The patchouli doesn't smell at all like Angel, but there is something of Mugler's famous 'moldy dishrag' accord that lingers here. Possibly, it is the slightly dirty 'orange and clove pomander' aspect of opoponax that is producing and urging along this unfortunate effect. Perhaps it is the old age of my sample that is at fault.
I do sense a teeny, tiny bit of the intense, aftershavey lavender-and-clove spiciness that opoponax always brings (a wee drop of Old Spice) and a midge of sweat, but none of its golden, baby-powder-ish Shalimar-ness, which is a pity because that's the part of opoponax that I really love. Anyway, the upshot of all this is that Nombril Immense turned out to be infinitely more enticing to me while it was still trapped in its sample and swimming around aimlessly in my sample box than on my skin.
But its time has finally come. The beginning caused me some mild excitement, with its silky burp of gripe water - cushioned cottony musk, lavender, the plush dillwater billow of sweet, laundered air, a hint of sticky booze. Kind of like Helmut Lang EDP or Annick Goutal's Musc Nomade but less carnal. But the sweet, cozy-powdery mastic incense scent soon slides into something a little earthier and rotty-smelling, like orange peels left to decay on a wet log. The patchouli doesn't smell at all like Angel, but there is something of Mugler's famous 'moldy dishrag' accord that lingers here. Possibly, it is the slightly dirty 'orange and clove pomander' aspect of opoponax that is producing and urging along this unfortunate effect. Perhaps it is the old age of my sample that is at fault.
I do sense a teeny, tiny bit of the intense, aftershavey lavender-and-clove spiciness that opoponax always brings (a wee drop of Old Spice) and a midge of sweat, but none of its golden, baby-powder-ish Shalimar-ness, which is a pity because that's the part of opoponax that I really love. Anyway, the upshot of all this is that Nombril Immense turned out to be infinitely more enticing to me while it was still trapped in its sample and swimming around aimlessly in my sample box than on my skin.
