A very interesting saffron and coumarin hangover haze.

I’ve had this for 7 months, but the first sneaky sniff test on arrival gave me burnt arm hair accord. This can happen with new synthetics with me, as my olfactory system tries to process a new and unknown scent molecule. So a little nose training was required, which meant sniffing the top of the bottle every few weeks until it somewhat acclimatised.

So its first proper wear was last night. The good news, no burnt arm hair accord, but my, does this perfume announce itself!

It’s a loud & verry sweet synthetic on opening, saffron heavy and it hits your nose the same way as Baccarat Rouge 540 or Side Effect

As the alcohol lifts, warm spiciness comes through in buckets with fresh and bright nuances due to how the lemon and clove interacts with the saffron. And as it settles into the heart, a tease of smoky wood appears. The burnt arm hair accord makes an unwelcome reappearance and then it’s gone after 20 seconds. My nose is yet to find vanilla as the musk and cashmere appears with a good dose of couramin.

But the sweetness is unending. It’s not caramel to my nose, as listed in the notes. It’s a familiar non food sweetness that begins to wreck my brain. I get zero coconut water or hazelnuts, but I’m very much getting some nutty & tobacco nuances that comes with certain synthetic coumarin (tonka). Two hours in and as it settles, there’s hints of bourbon vanilla, but to my nose, this remains a saffron and coumarin cloud, rather than a vanilla haze, on a musky cashmere base. There’s a little something dirty about the musky sweetness, that sparks a little sexiness in the dry down.

I made the amateur mistake of wearing this to bed. This isn’t a loud perfume in terms of projection, it’s loud in terms of its molecular presence. My nose keeps being drawn to my skin as my olfactory system excites my amygdala trying to figure out just what is going on. It results in a very disturbed sleep. Because everytime I reposition in bed, my nose registers a sweet and pleasant yet alien scent and wakes my brain into full alert.

It’s the morning after when I finally have my ‘aha!’ moment and I’ve got to the bottom of the sweetness. This smells like the morning after partying too hard. And that’s where my years in the ED (ER) trenches registers the scent memory from. It’s a distinct sweet musk that dances of the skin of someone that’s been on the sauce and class A’s for 24hrs+. A well groomed and, possibly, usually well behaved college kid or corporate intern that’s got themselves into a spot of bother after trying to out party their peers - the remnants of last nights perfume mixed with a sweet concoction of ethanol and acetone oozing from their pores. Vanilla Haze is hangover brain fog in a bottle. And. I like it .. I think 🙈 it’s still very present on my skin even after my morning shower.

So I went for a second wear. And my interpretation is unwaivered, other than I notice the musk a little more. And dispite the sweetness of this perfume, the musk evokes a sense of masculinity to my nose.

So would I wear it? I don’t know. I enjoyed exploring this but I don’t think it’s for me. But I’m putting this away to test again on a night out in the cooler seasons, maybe. Its definitely an ‘out out’ perfume - its bold and there’s certainly something captivating about its presence, seductive, that I imagine would not go unnoticed on the wearer. But it also sits well on your skin after the first hour and that gives it a strange, musky intimate aspect to a complex sweet, synthetic, intriguing scent.