DEV #1: Foreplay Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes 2012

This reminds me of a little gift shop my mother used to take me into around the holidays. Hand dipped candles, decorative cinnamon brooms, clay pottery, potpourri, wrapping paper and bows, wreaths... all displayed on antique wooden tables and shelves. This is the fragrance of the air inside that store. Campfire made of herbs and spices. The sillage is enormous and this will last on your skin until your shower it off.

Medicinal, bitter woods right from the start. In the opening, this leans more woodsy and forest-like than incense-forward, with a waxy quality that reminds me of old furniture coated in that harsh, pungent polishing wax. There are spicy, slightly mentholated nuances that cut through the density. The animalics are present but fairly restrained, reading mostly as hyraceum once things settle.

At first it feels a bit unbalanced and chaotic, but after about ten minutes it pulls itself together and becomes much more cohesive. The labdanum comes out to play. Still, it never quite crosses into fully wearable territory for me.

The drydown is warmer and smoother, mostly wood and labdanum with very light, fuzzy animalic warmth lingering in the background. The texture of this perfume is oily and thick, and it sits close to the skin. It is not a big projector, but it lasts a long time.

Overall, this is good, just not really my thing. I see the vision, though. I actually enjoy the medicinal woods, labdanum, and that mentholated oud impression.

Within the Dev series, my ranking is pretty clear. Dev 2 is my favorite, followed by Dev 4, then Dev 1. Dev 3 was truly horrid to my nose and lands firmly in last place.

When I was younger, my parents took me to a Buddhist temple. I remember a statue of Guanyu the general, free lunch with a donation box, a pond with koi, monks garbed in a subdued orange, rooms with hundreds of incense sticks, and a pervasive scent of something I can't remember anymore.

When I mentioned this trip to Taiwan, my parents had to correct me: the temple was actually in Los Angeles!

Sometime later, or maybe even before, I came upon some wooden prayer breads. I don't remember where they came from, but I do remember their scent. When I lost those beads, I resigned myself to the loss of that scent as well. After all, it is difficult to find something whose name you don't know.

Imagine my surprise when I tried Dev #1 for the first time! Maybe my memory is acting up again, but to me it's like I found my prayer beads again.

Cheers for the memories!

This one is quite good.
Still a little too spicy/smokey and thats a duo I'm not fond of but it comes out more pleasant. I really like the civet note so I'm in my element, and I also smell... cloves? I don't know why, but during its evolution it actually stops being too strong and becomes more autumnal with cloves and spices, leaving away the smokey part. Good one!

I neither know the author nor her novella, which serves as inspiration for the 5 concept fragrances of the Devil Scent series, and what I found online was not really satisfying.
However, I find the demon theme in fragrance form highly interesting, even though I have nothing to do with the devil and Satanism.

I kept my curiosity about the fragrances in check until they were listed here in the database, so I could also write comments right away. Those who know me can imagine how easy that was for me.

I have decided to test the fragrances in the correct order, as I assume this is how Ellen Covey intended it and it also makes sense.

Now, onto the olfactory prelude!

The pyramid makes no secret of the fact that this prelude is anything but light! On the contrary, it gets heavy right from the start!

Foreplay smokes, and it smokes heavily!

So, if it smells like this in purgatory, then it can't be that bad!

Foreplay starts off quite crackly, with all sorts of incense and a certain sharpness. Here, the scent reminds me of Incense by Kamali, and I must admit that I am somewhat skeptical about the wearability of the fragrance. My husband reinforced this when he came into the living room saying, "Is something burning here?"

After about an hour, the purgatory has burned down, and a lot of incense is now thrown onto the embers. Here, the fragrance takes on a somewhat sacred quality, a prelude in the church nave, so to speak. What began as hardly wearable now takes on acceptable scent forms, especially as woody and resinous notes slowly join the soft incense.

The base is truly wonderful! A subtle oud note is framed by balsamic and gently sweet accords, radiating a certain calm.
The intensity pleasantly decreases over the course of the fragrance, leaving a long-lasting skin scent by the end.

Foreplay is not a fragrance for every day or every occasion, and it is far from being mass-appealing. The person who wishes to wear this incense orgy needs the necessary self-confidence and the right look. Although, perhaps one could give such a plain exterior a shady touch? That would be worth a try.