booonbooon

I absolutely love this fragrance. Luxury portrayed through darkness like a black geode or velvet curtain. You pick an orchid through the earth first - the truffle meets you initially and remains in the scent but evolves into an almost koji-like sweetness when the fragrance finally sheds to its base notes of vanilla and resinous patchouli. The opening has just enough citrus like bergamot to lift it up and give it a glistening sheen, like a humid mist condensing into droplets on the petals of the orchid. I've never smelled an actual black orchid, so I don't know if the heart note is reminiscent, but it's definitely floral, layered, and luxurious. I like the rum aroma that comes through occasionally. In worse hands, the fragrance could feel messy, like four different things wrestling for the top: Earthy mushroom and bitter citrus and rich florals and sweet vanilla and licorice and rum. However, rather than feeling like a mess, it's a lot more like a flower with many facets and parts: the nectar, the petals, the leaves, the roots, the earth, and the dewdrops.

To me this aroma is a little too one note. Effervescent but really mild, almost like a body spray type smell of citrus and bright and fresh and clean. Feels like a fragrance for people who aren't into fragrance but just want to smell "nice." I inherited this bottle from a friend so I can't speak to its value for money but it's not something I'd buy myself.

Anti-modern. Not sweet at all, fresh in a way but with a weirdly stinging/bitter opening. The sillage is really strong initially but it mellows out a little more into a woody, resinous smell. The fragrance is really specific - whatever memories you have when you smell this will come back when you smell it again the next time. For me, it's my parents putting on their finishing touches in their room before they went on a date night when I was a kid. I can almost feel the fabric of a tie or a charcoal suit jacket. Interestingly, my mom, a woman in her 60s who got divorced from my dad over a decade ago and can barely stand to think of him without feeling terrible, still loves this smell. I think perhaps it takes her back to those date nights when she felt classy, attractive, fun, and safe with a man she loved at the time. On the contrary, when my wife first smelled it, she said "It smells like jalapeños." I think that range of reactions are understandable and valid with this scent. For me, I'm somewhere in the middle, not loving the opening but I do enjoy the drydown, and I enjoy the more mature smell and associations it has. Perhaps when hanging with the lads they may enjoy the bitter foresty smell more than woman in her 20s would.

EDIT: After some time, starting to appreciate it more. Here's what I learned:
Don't overspray. Spray from a bit of a distance so you can spread the aroma out more. Don't spray it on your neck/near your nose. Now I'll do 1-2 sprays on each wrist (only a second if I miss terribly on the first spray, which I do often for some reason) and kind of rub my arms together to spread it out a bit. I find this aroma benefits highly from diffusing through the air before it hits your nose, otherwise the bitter, resinous quality is just overpowering. Now, the poetics of it start to come out. It's that brightness of the bug spray you put on before trudging through a Missouri forest to find blackberries in July. It's grinding minced lemongrass and galangal in a stone mortar and pestle before sizzling it in coconut oil for a Thai curry. It's crushing spruce tips in your hand and getting that resin all over your fingers. It's your dad going on a date night in your mom, but he's different, they both are. He's less narcissistic, she's more understanding, and they love each other more selflessly.

Getting into fragrances and trying not to spend a ton of money on bottles but this was the first one I bought for myself after trying a good amount of different fragrances at the mall. There's a few things I think I initially liked about it, some conscious and some un-. The gentle, floral (to me) scent felt kind, sweet, and not bro-y, and I think that was something I wanted to reflect about myself in a scent I chose. Additionally, the sea salt kind of minerality reminds me of my origins in Miami, so it told a story. Ginger notes connect to my interest in food, particularly Asian food. Beyond the overly personal associations and that it dried on my skin nicely, it's also an easy to love smell - not challenging at all. While someone who's been into fragrance for longer than I may dislike its sweet mass appeal, I find it to be a good everyday fragrance choice to smell nice for myself, my wife, and my friends. And isn't that all you could ask for?