LicoriceRain

Enchanted Forest opening is very similar to an old cheapie, Spark for Men by Liz Claiborne. I loved Spark when it first came out, but soon that honey and rum accord got old, and I couldn’t tolerate it anymore. Enchanted Forest isn’t any different, it smells nice enough at first application, but soon, those honey and rum notes are overwhelming. I actually like the smell of chili peppers, but the rum seems to drown all the other notes to the point that it becomes heavy, stuffy, and choking. The opening of green, buttery leaves (yes, buttery) is very nice, but then, in a short while, I smell like an alcoholic. For $200.00 per bottle, I expect more. PLEASE, give me some air!

Black Vines by Kerosene certainly isn’t the first fragrance featuring licorice/anise blended with something else; there is licorice with lavender (Hermèssence Brin de Réglisse), licorice with rose and amber (Aoud Black Candy by Mancera), licorice with mint (Reglisse Noire by 1000 Flowers), and licorice with lemon (Caron Eau de Reglisse), to name a few. But this licorice with fir/balsam/cypress blend is, by far, the most intriguing and powerful of them all. (The drydown reminds me very much of Eau des Baux by L’Occitane, but Black Vines is much deeper, and richer, than Eau des Baux.) Black Vines is licorice and wintergreen on steroids! But of course, most people don’t like the smell of wintergreen, that familiar medicinal scent from muscle rub creams and Pepto Bismal, but this is exactly the reason I find it therapeutic.