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Violin rosin and honeyed tobacco with an aromatic twist
My opinion of this fragrance has evolved dramatically from when I first tested it to now.
When I first smelled it on paper, I thought I didn’t like it. I smelled exclusively wood varnish, nothing else. This is typically how I perceive resinous or woody fragrances at first, so I did make a note to myself that “wood varnish scents often become beautiful on skin”. Then, even on paper, the scent began to evolve, becoming fresher and lighter. I still wasn’t completely sold, however. How would this behave on skin? Would the rather overwhelming, harsh opening be softer?
Well, Rhino has now skyrocketed to the top of my wishlist. On my skin, it starts off intensely resinous but in a beautiful way, exactly like violin rosin, with a touch of pepper (this is the first time I’ve smelled “pink pepper” that actually smells like real pink pepper), basil adding a dark herbal aromatic note, and a bit of whiskey. The dark aromatic/resinous mixture reminds me quite a bit of the heart of Ambre Sultan - a sticky cistus/amber. As the scent develops, something faintly smoky, incensey and church-like enters the mix: a very subtle frankincense. To me, this is the only “smokiness” in Rhino. There is no cigarette smoke here, only a little incense. The tobacco is dry tobacco leaf, not burning tobacco.
During the “violin rosin” phase, the scent is very strong, but this is relatively short-lived: the sillage drops right down along with the resinous notes, and a gorgeous fresh, sweet tobacco with a kind of floral honey-ish facet (probably from ylang-ylang) emerges, along with a dry grassiness. I would describe this next stage as shockingly fresh, given the heavy resins that came before it. There is still a slight resinous and incense note, but it’s softer and in the background. The whiskey remains, but it never feels dominant.
Then, curiously, in the drydown there is a return to the sticky aromatic resin scent. Freshness - gone! Twas a fleeting breeze carrying the smell of dry grass and leaves, and now the air is still again. As much as I love resins and incense, I wish the fresh breeze phase had lasted longer; this could have been my perfect tobacco if only it had stuck around.
I find this scent both confidence-boosting and comforting. It is strong, it is masculine, it is assertive, but there’s also this warm familiarity to it - at least for me - that feels like a cosy blanket. Regarding the sillage, I found that this fragrance didn’t begin to consistently project at rest until about an hour after applying it, but from that point onward it is very strong.
I actually rather agree with a reviewer who said this is a “hot weather scent but not traditionally”. Often a scent with this kind of profile is considered autumnal, but in this case, it feels like the setting of the scent is warm and dry, like the natural environment of the rhino, and it lacks the particular kind of sweet spiciness I associate with autumn scents.
When I first smelled it on paper, I thought I didn’t like it. I smelled exclusively wood varnish, nothing else. This is typically how I perceive resinous or woody fragrances at first, so I did make a note to myself that “wood varnish scents often become beautiful on skin”. Then, even on paper, the scent began to evolve, becoming fresher and lighter. I still wasn’t completely sold, however. How would this behave on skin? Would the rather overwhelming, harsh opening be softer?
Well, Rhino has now skyrocketed to the top of my wishlist. On my skin, it starts off intensely resinous but in a beautiful way, exactly like violin rosin, with a touch of pepper (this is the first time I’ve smelled “pink pepper” that actually smells like real pink pepper), basil adding a dark herbal aromatic note, and a bit of whiskey. The dark aromatic/resinous mixture reminds me quite a bit of the heart of Ambre Sultan - a sticky cistus/amber. As the scent develops, something faintly smoky, incensey and church-like enters the mix: a very subtle frankincense. To me, this is the only “smokiness” in Rhino. There is no cigarette smoke here, only a little incense. The tobacco is dry tobacco leaf, not burning tobacco.
During the “violin rosin” phase, the scent is very strong, but this is relatively short-lived: the sillage drops right down along with the resinous notes, and a gorgeous fresh, sweet tobacco with a kind of floral honey-ish facet (probably from ylang-ylang) emerges, along with a dry grassiness. I would describe this next stage as shockingly fresh, given the heavy resins that came before it. There is still a slight resinous and incense note, but it’s softer and in the background. The whiskey remains, but it never feels dominant.
Then, curiously, in the drydown there is a return to the sticky aromatic resin scent. Freshness - gone! Twas a fleeting breeze carrying the smell of dry grass and leaves, and now the air is still again. As much as I love resins and incense, I wish the fresh breeze phase had lasted longer; this could have been my perfect tobacco if only it had stuck around.
I find this scent both confidence-boosting and comforting. It is strong, it is masculine, it is assertive, but there’s also this warm familiarity to it - at least for me - that feels like a cosy blanket. Regarding the sillage, I found that this fragrance didn’t begin to consistently project at rest until about an hour after applying it, but from that point onward it is very strong.
I actually rather agree with a reviewer who said this is a “hot weather scent but not traditionally”. Often a scent with this kind of profile is considered autumnal, but in this case, it feels like the setting of the scent is warm and dry, like the natural environment of the rhino, and it lacks the particular kind of sweet spiciness I associate with autumn scents.