Top Notes 
Bergamot
Bitter orange
Rose
Heart Notes 
Opoponax
Myrrh
Orris butter
Base Notes 
Labdanum
Patchouli absolute
Castoreum
Mysore sandalwood
Musk
Vanilla absolute03/11/2025
Saturnalis
36 Reviews
Saturnalis
1
citrus amber of the non-sweet variety
big citrus opening. i feel the bitter orange particularly strongly with only a touch of bergamot at first, and the opoponax also makes itself immediately apparent. if there is rose, it's blended seamlessly into the mix such that i do not detect it readily - to me, nothing reads particularly floral here. the bergamot is highlighted more as the scent settles onto the skin, leading into the myrrh, which i feel here reads as spicy and medicinal, but only slightly the latter.
the orris butter is used more as a fixative for the other notes. i don't detect it explicitly but there is a powdery, silvery, earthy 'something' flowing between everything else that links into the labdanum in the base, where it joins a equally earthy, musky patchouli.
i don't detect anything animalic throughout; perhaps a touch leathery as is typical of these more resinous or balsamic scents, especially featuring castoreum. this retains its sharp bergamot edge for quite some time, rendering it lighter & more open instead of becoming a dense, sweet & sticky amber, perhaps also helped by a healthy dose of musk. the vanilla is not noticeable on my skin.
as the sharper edge fades, the castoreum does come out more, giving a deeper, more leathery feel to the far dry down. overall it's nice; classical yet polite, delicate even, if not particularly novel.
the orris butter is used more as a fixative for the other notes. i don't detect it explicitly but there is a powdery, silvery, earthy 'something' flowing between everything else that links into the labdanum in the base, where it joins a equally earthy, musky patchouli.
i don't detect anything animalic throughout; perhaps a touch leathery as is typical of these more resinous or balsamic scents, especially featuring castoreum. this retains its sharp bergamot edge for quite some time, rendering it lighter & more open instead of becoming a dense, sweet & sticky amber, perhaps also helped by a healthy dose of musk. the vanilla is not noticeable on my skin.
as the sharper edge fades, the castoreum does come out more, giving a deeper, more leathery feel to the far dry down. overall it's nice; classical yet polite, delicate even, if not particularly novel.
