Deserta Vapormundum 2024

Vapormundum is a small niche brand, where personal messages from Joschka, the owner, are still included with the orders. I wanted to get to know this brand and took a chance on a blind buy.
Here is the latest fragrance from Vapormundum: Deserta, an homage to the desert at night.
And that’s exactly how the scent unfolds on the skin. It is dark, earthy, and dry from the very first moment. Occasionally, it almost feels like burnt earth. Smoky and brittle. Strangely enough, this is coherent and interesting. There are no hints of biting smoke. It remains truly dark and dry - and piece by piece, the burnt earth transforms into smoldering wood.
For me, after some time, softer notes of cedarwood emerge, as if the burnt wood is being scraped away to give space to the pure wood aroma. At the same time, the fragrance becomes a bit more reserved, which I really like.
Later on, there are occasional hints of dark bittersweet chocolate, which I can really only perceive sporadically.
Overall, Deserta is on a peaceful path. The longer it stays on my skin, the sweeter and more pleasant it becomes. Even though the woody notes never completely disappear, the vanilla and a very gentle patchouli express themselves a bit more clearly.
Just like an extinguished, nighttime fire that gives way to the new day.
Conclusion:
Deserta is definitely one of my "niche-iest" fragrances and it is also definitely not "everybody’s darling." But I don’t think it wants to be. It has edges and corners and can perhaps feel too extreme in the first moments. But if you engage with it and give it the necessary time - then it is an exciting companion that consistently carves its own path.
Deserta definitely deserves a chance.