It opens nice enough, lemony and green. I even smelled the cardamom. But quickly the black pepper and frankincense take over and ruin everything. Along with the saffron, they make the rose and cedar smell decayed, like they’ve been decomposing with the help of some old spicy licorice.
I see why they added benzoin — to sweeten it up. But that’s the wrong direction, IMHO. Sweeter dirt still smells like dirt. It brightens up the lemon which enhances the mothball vibe.
It’s a twist on the old chypre genre that doesn’t quite pan out. Rather than citrus over oak moss, its mothballs and dirt. My wife absolutelyhates it — “ says it smells like mothballs in a says it smells like mothballs in an old basement.” I’m still trying to understand it. There’s quite an evolution in the dry down — it’s not linear by a long shot. The licorice and pepper starts to come out more, but that doesn’t make it better. Just more mothballs.
I thought I’d wear this to the office but I think it’s too weird and distracting. People aren’t going to complement you, but they’re gonna react and scratch their heads for sure, which leads me to the name… I don’t think “Epiphany” is right. This doesn’t smell like the satisfaction you get when solving a complex puzzle. A better name would have been “Meh”, which is more apropos should someone ask you how this really strong smelling weird dirt thing smells. YMMV.
