Dark, varied blend that smells great - sweet, spicy, resinous, boozy, maybe even animalic
Strangers Parfumerie Burning Ben is seemingly one of the house’s better-known entries that I neglected to sample my first time around with the line but am happy to try out now. It immediately smells of a combination of various dark and smoky elements, from leather to liquor to coffee, with affectations that range from sweet to animalic to spicy, really a sort of smoky multifaceted blend that’s especially fitting for cooler weather and/or nighttime situations. I mainly get a bit of leather varnish, espresso, chocolate, nuts, resins, and spices. It’s really fascinating and performs reasonably well, though it’s always difficult to make a full assessment off of a dabber sample.
As with much of the line, Burning Ben is EDP concentration, priced at $90 for 30ml, and sold in the US at boutiques like Luckyscent. I find the pricing to be very reasonable nowadays, even up slightly from $80 a few years ago, but $3 / ml is very fair for niche perfumery, and I feel I’m a bit overdue to retry some other entries and perhaps pick up a couple bottles from the line.
