Aksum Pryn Parfum 2017
2
Helpful Review
The Prin Summit
This review is long due, but it needs to be done, as this is one of the most perplexing, unique, and mind-bending perfume compositions that I have ever smelled, and I have smelled many. If I want Prin Lomros to be remembered for only one creation, it would be the original AKSUM. If there will ever be a Prin Lomros section at an Olfaction museum, I want this to be the only piece in that collection. If there is one Prin that set the bar, it was this. Whenever people ask me, what's the Prin to try, I always put this one as a first, although I realize most people will never get to experience it. I never use the word masterpiece, but this is a masterwork perfume to me.
But first things first, I'm talking here about the OG AKSUM that came out in 2017 and was only sold through Bon's shop, in Thailand, as a limited edition. I think there were like 60 bottles made, and they went fast. Not the re-released, the reformulated version that Prin made due to high requests and sold afterward to people asking for it. That's a shadow of what this beast was created to be. The original, was at the time, an absolute madness, a real experiment. He managed to source some really amazing absolutes, as well as an amazing Wild, 60-year-old Indian Oud oil with a unique profile, and he decided to put it all on the table with AKSUM. At the time, it was unheard of, even today, it smells unlike anything out there. The OG was almost entirely natural and was compounded at around 45-50% concentration. This stuff is so viscous that if not sprayed for a long time, it clogs the pump and the atomizer. It doesn't spray, it rather squirts perfume. In terms of ingredients used, the oud used, and the concentration, the second version of AKSUM is quite a letdown if you ever tried the OG. It is much lighter and feels like an EDT by comparison, the oud is much inferior, I believe it is a Trat Oud, and I think there are more synthetics used. Telling them apart is quite easy though, especially if you ever smelled the OG.
The OG came with the classic Pryn Parfum cardboard box and had the batch code LT010617, which was only available to purchase from the Pryn Parfum website for about 550 USD, the atomizer is a black color like all old Pryn Parfum bottles, the perfume is very dark, can't see through, and incredibly viscous, almost like an attar. The reformulated one was sold privately by Prin himself, I think for around 350 USD, it is much lighter in color and less concentrated, and most of them, or the ones I've seen, have a silver-grey atomizer. But of course, the smell is rather different, and the most striking difference is in the profile of the Oud used. I never got the HOMA and AKSUM comparison, to me they smell very different, but I think the new AKSUM does smell much like HOMA, whereas the OG smells nothing alike.
Now that I got that part out of the way, what does AKSUM smell like?
This is one of those perfumes where the individual notes work together to create a flume, an overall accord, and it all comes together as a whole. Trying to pinpoint notes in this one is futile, and unnecessary. I'll never forget the first time I smelled this. I could have never imagined myself wearing something like this. It didn't smell like perfume, it smelled alive. The first thing that came to mind smelling it, was a cave. A dark, wet, soil-like, earthy, cave smell. Inside, a bunch of natives are preparing animals for a sacrificial ritual, burning all sorts of incense, while the smell of goats that are about to be slaughtered is discernible in the air. Nice picture, I know. It still makes me picture that, even today, but I came to accept it. I'm part of the ritual now. It is a primal, raw, animalic smell. It's not animalic in the sense that it's dirty, like some of his work. Quite the contrary, it's not that dirty. It's animalic in the sense that it smells like nature. Unfiltered, raw nature. Old world smell. And by that, I don't mean the 19's, or the Dark Age, I mean freaking prehistoric times. I'd imagine that smells like these would be encountered in Ancient Greece. Rocky terrain, goats roaming around, incense burned for the Gods. That sort of Old World smell. The Oud that he used here is truly exceptional, and the absolute ENGINE/CORE of the perfume. It is an Indian Oud that has this most exceptional earthy-mineral and chocolaty aroma, together with the more common leathery profile of those ouds, but no fermentation or cheesy aspects whatsoever. Another note that is easily identifiable is the goat hair tincture, and then some spices, mostly the tumeric, the cumin, and the immortelle, hay, and olibanum. I'd call this an Oud perfume, as the Oud is the star of the show, and it really helps to build the entire composition around it. But again, here, the notes are not important, but rather the outcome of it all.
Truly one of the most exceptional, boundary-pushing, and experimental perfumes that have ever been created, and the one I believe Prin should be remembered for.
But first things first, I'm talking here about the OG AKSUM that came out in 2017 and was only sold through Bon's shop, in Thailand, as a limited edition. I think there were like 60 bottles made, and they went fast. Not the re-released, the reformulated version that Prin made due to high requests and sold afterward to people asking for it. That's a shadow of what this beast was created to be. The original, was at the time, an absolute madness, a real experiment. He managed to source some really amazing absolutes, as well as an amazing Wild, 60-year-old Indian Oud oil with a unique profile, and he decided to put it all on the table with AKSUM. At the time, it was unheard of, even today, it smells unlike anything out there. The OG was almost entirely natural and was compounded at around 45-50% concentration. This stuff is so viscous that if not sprayed for a long time, it clogs the pump and the atomizer. It doesn't spray, it rather squirts perfume. In terms of ingredients used, the oud used, and the concentration, the second version of AKSUM is quite a letdown if you ever tried the OG. It is much lighter and feels like an EDT by comparison, the oud is much inferior, I believe it is a Trat Oud, and I think there are more synthetics used. Telling them apart is quite easy though, especially if you ever smelled the OG.
The OG came with the classic Pryn Parfum cardboard box and had the batch code LT010617, which was only available to purchase from the Pryn Parfum website for about 550 USD, the atomizer is a black color like all old Pryn Parfum bottles, the perfume is very dark, can't see through, and incredibly viscous, almost like an attar. The reformulated one was sold privately by Prin himself, I think for around 350 USD, it is much lighter in color and less concentrated, and most of them, or the ones I've seen, have a silver-grey atomizer. But of course, the smell is rather different, and the most striking difference is in the profile of the Oud used. I never got the HOMA and AKSUM comparison, to me they smell very different, but I think the new AKSUM does smell much like HOMA, whereas the OG smells nothing alike.
Now that I got that part out of the way, what does AKSUM smell like?
This is one of those perfumes where the individual notes work together to create a flume, an overall accord, and it all comes together as a whole. Trying to pinpoint notes in this one is futile, and unnecessary. I'll never forget the first time I smelled this. I could have never imagined myself wearing something like this. It didn't smell like perfume, it smelled alive. The first thing that came to mind smelling it, was a cave. A dark, wet, soil-like, earthy, cave smell. Inside, a bunch of natives are preparing animals for a sacrificial ritual, burning all sorts of incense, while the smell of goats that are about to be slaughtered is discernible in the air. Nice picture, I know. It still makes me picture that, even today, but I came to accept it. I'm part of the ritual now. It is a primal, raw, animalic smell. It's not animalic in the sense that it's dirty, like some of his work. Quite the contrary, it's not that dirty. It's animalic in the sense that it smells like nature. Unfiltered, raw nature. Old world smell. And by that, I don't mean the 19's, or the Dark Age, I mean freaking prehistoric times. I'd imagine that smells like these would be encountered in Ancient Greece. Rocky terrain, goats roaming around, incense burned for the Gods. That sort of Old World smell. The Oud that he used here is truly exceptional, and the absolute ENGINE/CORE of the perfume. It is an Indian Oud that has this most exceptional earthy-mineral and chocolaty aroma, together with the more common leathery profile of those ouds, but no fermentation or cheesy aspects whatsoever. Another note that is easily identifiable is the goat hair tincture, and then some spices, mostly the tumeric, the cumin, and the immortelle, hay, and olibanum. I'd call this an Oud perfume, as the Oud is the star of the show, and it really helps to build the entire composition around it. But again, here, the notes are not important, but rather the outcome of it all.
Truly one of the most exceptional, boundary-pushing, and experimental perfumes that have ever been created, and the one I believe Prin should be remembered for.
DrB1414
