Baque Slumberhouse 2012
3
Justice was Done
After trying the latest iteration, I can finally put BAQUE from Sulmberhouse in my top favorite tobacco-based compositions.
I have long abandoned the Slumberhouse train for many reasons. Mostly because I felt the house had lost its magic and the charisma that got me hooked many years ago. I only kept one perfume, KISTE, my favorite from the house. BAQUE, to me, always felt like a diamond in the rough. A tobacco perfume of great potential which was never fulfilled. The opening part and the heart were brilliant, only to fall apart in the base with a generic vanilla and ambergris combination, a major departure from the theme and the initial boozy-moist tobacco affair. It felt like Josh decided to create an amazing and unique tobacco-based perfume but got lazy in the process and left it unfinished. But now, justice has been done. A fellow enthusiast contacted me, asking if I was interested in acquiring a bottle of this new version of BAQUE. I have to admit, I was intrigued when I heard that a new version came up. Could it be? Final redemption?
I decided to try for myself.
After receiving it, I first applied it to the blotter. It reminded me of the older version immediately. So far so good, as I always loved the first half of this perfume. The same brilliant opening blast where dried fruits, whiskey, and moist tobacco leaves dance together to your sense's delight. Unique and captivating. I think the use of davana in this perfume is really smart as it coaxes all of that dried fruit, booziness, and edges of the tobacco accord, cementing them together. Such an amazing ingredient when properly used. In the mid, it still went as I remembered it, with the drunken fruits slowly backing down to allow more of the moist tobacco to come forth. Finally, it had reached the point where the previous version turned for the worst. But now, surprisingly, it continued in the direction it should have from the beginning. Yes, the vanilla and the ambergris are still there, yet I feel the ambergris is toned down, and what dominates now in the dry down for me is an amped-up woody quality as well as a prolonged leafiness and the tobacco accord that has been stretched to last forever until the perfume consumes completely on the skin. No more cracks in the flow of the composition, and finally, it feels like a finished product. The leafiness and the woodiness now overtake the vanilla-ambergris combo that follows just as a supporting player. I decided to wear it on the skin, hoping for the same experience as on the paper strip, yet still bracing for that uneventful dry-down I knew well and had me scrub it off mid-way. Only that this time, it never came. Pure delight from start to finish. I wore it over and over again with the same result. I am happy that BAQUE got redeemed at last, and I will be keeping this bottle even though I was skeptical at first. I can finally say that BAQUE is one of my favorite tobacco-based perfumes and most certainly one of the most unique. Moist tobacco leaves from start to finish, adorned with dried fruits drunken on whisky, and supported by vanilla, woods, and patchouli in the base. There is nothing quite like it out there.
IG:@memory.of.scents
I have long abandoned the Slumberhouse train for many reasons. Mostly because I felt the house had lost its magic and the charisma that got me hooked many years ago. I only kept one perfume, KISTE, my favorite from the house. BAQUE, to me, always felt like a diamond in the rough. A tobacco perfume of great potential which was never fulfilled. The opening part and the heart were brilliant, only to fall apart in the base with a generic vanilla and ambergris combination, a major departure from the theme and the initial boozy-moist tobacco affair. It felt like Josh decided to create an amazing and unique tobacco-based perfume but got lazy in the process and left it unfinished. But now, justice has been done. A fellow enthusiast contacted me, asking if I was interested in acquiring a bottle of this new version of BAQUE. I have to admit, I was intrigued when I heard that a new version came up. Could it be? Final redemption?
I decided to try for myself.
After receiving it, I first applied it to the blotter. It reminded me of the older version immediately. So far so good, as I always loved the first half of this perfume. The same brilliant opening blast where dried fruits, whiskey, and moist tobacco leaves dance together to your sense's delight. Unique and captivating. I think the use of davana in this perfume is really smart as it coaxes all of that dried fruit, booziness, and edges of the tobacco accord, cementing them together. Such an amazing ingredient when properly used. In the mid, it still went as I remembered it, with the drunken fruits slowly backing down to allow more of the moist tobacco to come forth. Finally, it had reached the point where the previous version turned for the worst. But now, surprisingly, it continued in the direction it should have from the beginning. Yes, the vanilla and the ambergris are still there, yet I feel the ambergris is toned down, and what dominates now in the dry down for me is an amped-up woody quality as well as a prolonged leafiness and the tobacco accord that has been stretched to last forever until the perfume consumes completely on the skin. No more cracks in the flow of the composition, and finally, it feels like a finished product. The leafiness and the woodiness now overtake the vanilla-ambergris combo that follows just as a supporting player. I decided to wear it on the skin, hoping for the same experience as on the paper strip, yet still bracing for that uneventful dry-down I knew well and had me scrub it off mid-way. Only that this time, it never came. Pure delight from start to finish. I wore it over and over again with the same result. I am happy that BAQUE got redeemed at last, and I will be keeping this bottle even though I was skeptical at first. I can finally say that BAQUE is one of my favorite tobacco-based perfumes and most certainly one of the most unique. Moist tobacco leaves from start to finish, adorned with dried fruits drunken on whisky, and supported by vanilla, woods, and patchouli in the base. There is nothing quite like it out there.
IG:@memory.of.scents