Absolutely, utterly addictive vanilla.

Absolute Aphrodisiac is smooth, comfy & cozy vanilla with fruity, floral and slighty smokey facets that’s utterly addictive.

It opens as a sweet woody vanilla with a slightly medicinal aspect to it that dissipates quickly.

As it starts to dry down into the heart the vanilla becomes a little floral and the wood a little powdery. The castoreum appears here to my nose as a lovely hint of boozy dried fruit, like those soaking in a bowl before making a Christmas cake, and the creamy amber starts to pull from the base.

As it settles into the dry down it develops into a gorgeous ambery, vanilla musk that has a hint of fruity floral. The castoreum also brings a beautiful woody and smoky facet to the scent with its slightly sour boozy dried fruit accord, but there’s zero pure funk for me.

I don’t get any leather at all, maybe the slightest hint of suede if my nose goes looking it.

The projection is warm and intimate. It stays on my skin for hours but I have to wave my wrist at my face to catch a waft of it. But it does an interesting dance in the dry down. At times it’s a soft, smooth creamy vanilla with a hint of wood, then sometimes it’s a sweet fruity vanilla with a smoky wood and sometimes the softest lick of incense tickles my nose. Very nice indeed.

The vanilla in the dry down triggered a scent memory that teased at my brain for days until I finally got it. When I was young, my parents vanilla ice-cream of choice, for a treat after Sunday dinner, came pre-cut in a rectangular slab wrapped in a waxed cardboard. The ice-cream would be dished out and the cardboard wrapper left at the side of the sink to be put into the bin at a later time. Little bits of vanilla ice-cream left on the wrapper would dry up, still clinging to the damp cardboard..and this is what it smelt like. It sounds weird, but I love it!

And is it an Absolute Aphrodisiac?

We all have our own scent memories, developed as we live life, visit places, see people, do things. Things that fire off and excite the amygdala. It’s why our perfume preferences are thankfully so varied, the world would be a boring place if we were all the same.

And for me, initially, I didn’t find anything sensual in smelling or wearing this scent…. Here’s my initial thoughts that took a curve ball a few months later; “I find it very cozy, snuggly and comforting. Perfect for a Sunday on the sofa. And I’ve been wearing it for two days now and the other half is yet to jump the bones of me, so I do feel a slight pang of disappointment that this didn’t provoke some carnal desire. Who knows, maybe we both got the same Sunday ice-cream when we were kids. Absolute Aphrodisiac is a beautiful vanilla and perfect for the cold weather and snow, but it doesn’t get me excited like I want to bathe it in. I will defo enjoy using up the decant but my nose isn’t telling me I need this in my life. Vanilla’s tend to not be my jam, but a perfume that makes my eyes roll to the back of my head might be a yuck to another person, and that’s ok. But I will say it is one of the nicest vanilla forwards I’ve worn so far.”

So what changed? - Well, it was Absolute Aphrodisiac that set me on my path to become a RVH (Reformed Vanilla Hater). I set that little first decant out to use up as a bedtime scent and it became utterly addictive. The scent that was once ‘nice, cozy & well made’ started giving me the eyes roll to the back of my head moments each time I sniffed it and I knew it wasn’t just the smooth sweet vanilla, it was the quiet hint of beaver butt, with its warm ambery, slightly sour dried fruits that got me hooked. A bigger decant was ordered, and when I branched out to retry other vanillas, and new ones, I kept wanting them to smell like this. And so Absolute Aphrodisiac has taken its crown as my favourite vanilla.

And a favourite bedtime scent too. My number one bedtime, Naxos, is for sleeping. Absolute Aphrodisiac is … well… 😬