Val619kt

This is my favourite fragrance in my collection. I smelt it off a sample and immediately oreder a full bottle, it was love at first sniff.

The civet is so thick and heavy, it almost feels ambery and resinous. It has the old chypre style due to the green oakmoss, and the indole jasmine and tuberose and then the yellow creamy ylang-ylang.

This thing lasts on me 12+ hours, even after a shower I can smell it without much effort. It is my holy grail, I adore it.

I tested this over the last 2 years and a few months ago I got a bottle from Souk. This is so so good.
It is way smokier than most ambers, the opening reminds me a lot of Ambra Aurea and Amber Absolute. It has that smokey labdanum/ incense smell.
The real beauty of this fragrance for me is the champagne, vodka and ambergris combo. It smells alcoholic from the vodka but it so fun and it does not smell like perfumers alcohol. The champagne and ambergris adds a certain pop and fizzle element and when you mix that with thr smokey aspects it is gorgeous.
Later in the base there is some sweetness but the sweetness never overtakes the smokey boozy elements, which is how I like my ambers.
One of my favourite ambers and this house is such a gem.

I shouldn't like this but damn it I do. Cucumber water from the get go and then slowly transitioning into green woodsy scent. Further into the scent you do pick up some florals and you start getting some yellow colour to the scent adding to the green. I can see this being a divisive scent but I love it, you get a cucumber aroma, not that common, mixing green woody freshness with some yellow florals and smokiness, very interesting and fun fragrance.

As with most Bortnikoff's, the beauty is in the balance and use of florals.
These florals are very beautiful, conjuring a yellow colour and feel. It does remind me a bit of Amber Cologne and even Musk Khabib, that yellow floral aspect. I do not get that much woodiness from this one, however, that is not a problem as the main attraction of this one is the beautiful sweet, fresh, lively florals. The jasmine is the most pronounced note on me and reminds me of picking fresh jasmine and smelling it in a garden, gorgeous.

An interesting take on a chypre but going very earthy, repulsed first time I tried it years ago but as I explored more and started venturing into indie, and natural niche, I have come around to really appreciate this fragrance.
There is the classic warmth that comes from chypres but the mint adds a beautiful piercing freshness that then leads into a symphony of earthiness and greenness. This really is a special and unique fragrance and I wouldn't be surprised if in the future this would be looked back on as a modern unique classic smell, well polished and well made.