VTrancoso

Maderas de Oriente Oscuro is easily associated with dark burnt woods. For me it's a kind of return to olfactory memories linked to a Portuguese fireplace in the interior of the country.

It feels like I'm having breakfast with homemade honey in front of a fireplace in a village lost in the interior of Portugal. Outside there is cold, rain and the winter wind. Inside the house, we huddle by the fire and the smell of sweet smoke clings to our skin, hair and clothes. When we go to sleep, we take this smell from the fireplace into our blankets and our dreams.

On the skin, the perfume opens strong and with a complex, rather smoky aroma, as if we were really feeling burning woods close to us. But I don't feel the smoke like a liturgical accord. Rather like a burning of aromatic and resinous wood caught in a dark forest dotted with moss and mysterious mushrooms.
In the intermediate phase, the sweet notes of honey and cherry can be noticed, which comfort and tame the initial spiral of smoke. There's also a hint of blond tobacco and an earthy, spicy vibe.

It is not a creation for beginners but for those looking for something different and conceptual. A perfume that will not bring “compliments”. It is not an easily “wearable” aroma, but rather for those who dare to dive, probably alone, into a profound and radical almost meditative experience. An experience in which we don't care about exterior “compliments” but only about being sheltered in our interior landscape. Where we feel good.

It all starts in the kitchen of a house made with old wood and with the aroma of a mound of coffee beans in the center of a table illuminated by a beam of light.
There is a melancholic and introspective aura. The aroma is delicate and does not project with chemical bombs.
There are small dusty clouds in the air and in the background a huge door opens through which we enter a library. Shelves of books and stairs upon stairs lead to a distant dome. So far away that it is difficult to understand where the surreal space ends. A mystical scent of wood and parchment hangs in the air. A light, smooth and intimate fragrance. A place of solitude and sweet memories.
In the atmosphere remains the deep note of realistic coffee beans resting on rose petals with the color of nostalgia. This poetic courtship between coffee and rose gradually gives way to the growing heat of tobacco and woody and resinous tones. Someone walked by recently smoking a Cohiba.
Finally in the drydown walks a breeze of musk, labdanum and vetiver.
Everything is in semi-darkness with discreet alcoholic accords that invite you to a meditative and abstract state. It is cosy, earthy and silent.
We sat at a table in a dark and mysterious corner. On top is an old typewriter where a sheet of paper sleeps with a few lines written on it. Next to it is a projection machine. I light it up and on a distant screen comes the image of Nick Cave. Shortly after, the sound of one of his songs invites us to stay.
https://youtu.be/LnHoqHscTKE

Opulent, ambery, spicy, incense/woody. It is a chic and intriguing oriental.
A perfume with enormous quality and projection / sillage that leaves no one indifferent. It provides an opening with a fantastic personality made of black velvet and smoke - accompanied by juicy and spicy lemon. The rest of the perfume is an excellent blend of notes dominated by an equally spicy patchouli, incense and soft and dense amber.
Cedarwood, myrrh, saffron, tonka and eucalyptus then dance together before the perfume transitions again to a smoky, spicy and still amber environment in the dry-down where dark resins have turned into satin. All drizzled with honey and wrapped in musky woods on a very balsamic leather base.
Concentrated and rich, it is a very well-built, dark, powerful and mysterious charismatic fragrance. Mystical and comforting, it makes us feel good about ourselves even when we are isolated on top of a mountain while the winds of war blow in the distance. A black stone that gives us the power to find ourselves inside and to calm ourselves down.
We imagine ourselves dressed in a mammoth skin and riding a dragon from a lost episode of Game of Thrones through a stormy day.

This review is about the original (1978, EDT pre-reformulation) Karl Lagerfeld Cologne for Men “splash” (now called the “Karl Lagerfeld Classic”).
A comfortable leather jacket that opens leaving a trail of honey and incense. There is an aura of musky spice, nutmeg, tarragon and aniseed, and a sweetly scented tobacco from a pipe that comes from childhood memories.
Karl Lagerfeld for Men opens with lemon and orange blossom that fade to be replaced by notes of tarragon, anise, nutmeg and cinnamon on top of pure golden honey and amber.
Over time, the creamy leather accord and honey get stronger, but there begins to be a slight scent of powdery rose and a hint of jasmine, mixed with resins.
The leather (sandalwood + iris?) is a direct cousin of the Knize Ten and is warmed by the warmth of tonka bean, sandalwood and musk.
We feel powerful and capable of leading a fascinating and romantic adventure.
If Puredistance's M is compared to the interior lining of James Bond's car with Daniel Craig behind the wheel then this Lagerfeld will be the leather of Sean Connery's Aston Martin DB5 chasing Goldfinger.
Referred to by some as the male version of Shalimar, it differs from subsequent reformulations because these new versions only smell like “cheap synthetics” with a hint of synthetic Musk and because they have “Karl Lagerfeld Classic” written on the box and bottle.

After Nuit de Bakélite (masterpiece) this was the second good surprise I experienced from the Naomi Goodsir range. Essentially a woody incense that is generally associated with smoke from campfires. However there is much more. There is the aroma of a huge forest of ancient and imposing trees that surrounds us. The wood that burns doesn't have (IMHO) the characteristic of Birch Tar (birch tar) so well built in award winning Hyde (Hiram Green). Rather, I feel a fragrant wood that burns and reminds me of the bushfires in the countryside where we feel a breeze of aromatic plants. A slightly sweet smoke and a different incense. No monastic sensations. It is not “churchy” nor does it belong in a Buddhist temple. I didn't feel austerity or a feeling of asceticism (as the name suggests). Perhaps because it is tempered by a soft, blond tobacco that gives the arm the amber – giving it more richness, softness and a feeling of comfort.
I confess that I didn't smell whiskey or cinnamon, but the woody aroma with a leather and oak moss vibe is beautiful, very elegant, markedly masculine and “transparent”. It is not dense or opaque. A very pleasant scent despite being a bit linear. It lasts about 10 hours on the skin, has moderate projection and the sillage is smooth.
There is a sense of an environment that we have felt before. Maybe that's why it reminds me of the type of fragrances from the 1960s.