Vagabond

Sacred Scarab opens with a luxurious aldehydic veil, taking us back to much more elegant days: charmingly spicy with a touch of civet and bitter green galbanum, yet quite comforting with sweet pink and blue florals with a refreshing watery aspect. At once rich and gossamer.

Soon (Egyptian) incense emerges and the florals are joined by a dark plum. It is now quite rich and spicy, but still with that fascinating aquarelle element. If we were to follow the Egyptian theme, one could easily imagine here a beautiful garden by a stream in ancient Egypt, with the scent of many spices and rich flowers in the air, as well as an inviting sweetness from dark ripe fruits on the trees (dates and plums). The skin of the queen is clean, yet still musky.

Later, the scent smells warm, resinous and comforting, but with a half-slumbering feline alertness. Later still, the perfume slowly fades with a beautiful toffeed myrrh incense.

Exit the Chinese restaurant, up the moka and saffron stairs, and into an elegant boudoir laden with magnificent roses.
The air swirls with pungent, spicy woods... eyes start to close... and, as you go deeper, the narcotic dance of bitter green and jasmine sweet sends you off into a golden, Elysian slumber...

Dewaniya is so gloriously rich that you can smell it before you have pulled the stopper.

On application, we meet a dark, handsome prince of an attar, supremely confident and bold… defiant amongst ancient carved walls and intricately patterned carpets.

It evokes dark amber, black and red colours.

Layer open layer of rich smells: tobacco, honey, smoke, saffron, black tea, oud, rose and labdanum... twinkling with ambergris and uplifted by frankincense and myrrh.

Dark, sexy, complex and confident… Those who love Ame Sombre, Tabac Grande or Ambrecuir, amongst others, will no doubt love this masterful blend.

***Fine-boned, pale rose swooning in a sensuous golden haze, sublimed by a heady, yet supremely graceful, oud. Exquisite, and very sexy**

Spicy yellow and red earth. Reminiscent of the remains of my Shoyeido incense, but this one is less floral and seductive than what I use. Nankun proposes an extremely contemplative route which is not the norm in perfumery where the aim is usually to seduce. Far from the world of scented gloves and boudoirs, this takes one back to sweet pungent trees and seeds of the earth. For monks and samurai.