Discovery sets: Anomalia Paris

I still remember my first encounter with Anomalia. I’d seen this beautiful, intriguing bottle on a photo by one of Parfumo’s best photographers: @RahulESJ
It was a bottle of Cérémonie . And it was accompanied by a glowing review. On my watchlist it went and it lived there for quite some time. Until I noticed that my local Skins store carried the brand. Excited to smell it, I sprayed it on a testing strip. And honestly, I was a bit disappointed at first. To me it smelled a bit like a smoked salami. I didn’t really take enough time with it and I didn’t even try any other perfumes from Anomalia.

Fast forward to present. A few years into the perfume game now, I understand very well that testing on strips doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot, as skin chemistry can change things quite a bit. I decided to give some other perfumes of the brand a try and yeah I’m very impressed. I believe it was Shaman with its incredible dry suede and Rock Rose that won me over. Now I’m here testing and enjoying the whole shebang. Let me share my thoughts on the whole lot.



First of all, kudos to the discovery set. It came delivered in a sturdy package with some fun props. Like a newspaper telling the news of their lineup and a foldable card with tips on layering. I’m not that much into the layering game but it couldn’t hurt to try. The sprayers came in a simple cardboard box that does the job, accompanied by a couple of mood-inducing lines. The sprayers are absolutely top notch by the way.

Now onto the perfumes. I’ve put them in reverse order of how much I like them at this moment.

14: Sabrage
Fruity stuff with queezy backbone. Pretty wearable, the queeziness even throwing in a bit of fun. But still a bit too common for my taste.

13: Karmacoma
If you like books and you want to smell like one: look no further. Very accurate dusty paper. Turns ambery later in the game but still, I'm a digital kind of guy so it's not really my thing to smell like books.

12: Umbra Oud
Rose overdose. I'm not a huge fan of rose-oud combos especially if the rose is too prominent. Which is unfortunately the case here.

11: Jardins Humanistes
Smelling like a flower boutique. Fresh, floral but ultimately a bit fleeting. It's wrist-sniffing addictive. Leans a bit too feminine for me due to the huge floral component.

10: Sahara 4800
A pretty wild set of notes (rubber, champagne, ink anyone?) but the saffron is a bit too much for me. But if sprayed with caution, it's very intoxicating.

9: Balle d'Argent
Coconut but fresh. Nice, creamy, summery. Even though it's at number 9 I'm sure I'll wear this sample until it's empty. Not sure why it's called "silver bullet", maybe there's a metallic vibe that's giving the cooling sensation.

8: Abed
The watery tuberose. I'm not usually a fan of tuberose, but this is held in check by great supporting notes like the balsamic vanilla on the one hand and the more salty marine notes on the other.

7: Samūm
Definitely reminds me of Deified Tony Iommi , so much so that I'm starting to think it's the same perfumer. It doesn't have that apple top or leathery base, but the DNA definitely is apparent. This one's got a praliné note which is apparent, but it falls out of place a littlebit. Nose to skin, the greener osmanthus component nicely balancing out the heavier roses, which is nice.

6: Shaman
This is the one I was wondering about if it was wearable at all. Sprayed on strip, it's nothing more than dry suede. But on skin, the thing takes a flight. Fizzy cola and black pepper match the leather very nicely and it's very wearable after all.

5: Entre-Acte
This one is very cool. It starts out with a vintage wind of what I took as anise, even though the note isn't in the list. A bit fresh and watery, but also powdery. Feels like a chypre. Later in the game, things seem to get even fresher and almost woody, which makes me think there's Akigalawood in the game. But it's not overpowering, I actually enjoyed it.

4: Aquatic Ozonic
I have a love/hate relation with aquatics. Sometimes they get too "green", smell like dirty water, kelp and stuff like that. But not here. Aquatic Ozonic smells like you're strutting on the boulevard somewhere in jetset Italy. Whiffs of mandarin fleet by. Great stuff.

3: Cérémonie
Smokey, leathery, almost edible. Starting out fruity, I thought it was plum at first. Then smokey woody components drop in and a bit of frankincense. It's almost like roasting the fruit on a bonfire barbecue. As I said in my introduction, don't smell this on a paper strip because you'll totally miss out how cool this is.

2: Rock Rose
Yeah it's floral. And yeah I'm smitten by it. It's thick and sirupy, and that rock rose note... man that's so great. I'm really enjoying this on myself but on a lady it blows my mind.

1: Narcotic Bohemic
Now this is my thing. The brief tells about the smells of Paris, especially in the night and the perfume captures this perfectly. There's party all night long, ashy, leathery, sweat. But there's also tranquillity in the form of a freshly ground latte macchiato in the morning with a spritz of cinnamon sugar on top. The most complex and intriguing one of the whole bunch.

I hope you enjoyed reading my concise thoughts about these. Actually, Anomalia has 15 perfumes in their whole lineup and I'm getting Club 70 very soon so I'm curious where it will fit in. Thanks for reading!