u/Proof-Mess-6578

So I just got my next .3 fluid ounce sample of "Holy Mountain" and the immediate opening notes was straight up residual ammonia and stale mineral porcelain. If "Kouros" smelled like a urinal cake to me, this was the urinal without the deodorant. And the most UNEXPECTED TWIST was that the heart notes read like osmanthus, powdery and floral and pleasant. I don't know what to make of this. WTF.

Kogen = Listerine / mouthwash
Karasu = dirty crow’s nest / animalic
The Holy Mountain = men’s urinal

Which probably means this house’s way of doing smoke, woods, incense, animalic earth, medicinal aromatics, and resin is just not translating beautifully to my nose. Even when the notes look perfect on paper, the execution seems to land in war zones: bathroom, body, mouthwash, nest, medicinal, urinal.

Still, I'm shocked that it went from utterly OFFENSIVE to pleasant. Maybe it's just my nose that's weird. The thing about Kogen and Karasu is that it smelled the same on paper as it did on my skin. But I didn't bother spraying "The Holy Mountain" on paper, I sprayed it on my arm directly.

Kogen: no evolution; mouthwash from start to finish. (on paper and skin)
Karasu: no evolution; animalic nest from start to finish. (on paper and skin)
The Holy Mountain: horrific opening, surprisingly tolerable/interesting heart. (just skin)

I think I should give them away to someone who ENJOYS this brand. It's too unpredictable for me.

I really can’t, for the life of me, figure out why certain notes are delicious in one fragrance and a hard, resounding NOPE in another.

On paper, some of these should have been perfect for me. I like woods, incense, smoke, vetiver, moss, petrichor, orris, amber, tobacco, sandalwood, weird atmospherics, and dark florals. And yet. Some of these betrayed me.

Starting with the misses:

Apoteker Tepe — Kogen
Composition: Yuzu, pear, ginger root, sweet birch, hinoki, peat, vetiver, incense, smoke, hiba cedar, pine needle, green oakmoss, kuromoji/spicebush.

My opinion: This smells like straight mouthwash to me. Based on the description, I should have loved it. Yuzu? Hinoki? Peat? Vetiver? Incense? Smoke? Sounds incredible. But no. My nose said Listerine. The scent is very strong and lasts for HOURS, possibly an entire day. Thankfully, I sprayed it on paper and not on my skin.

Apoteker Tepe — Karasu
Composition: Costus root, Siam wood, hinoki, smoldering paper, cardamom.

My opinion: This smells like what I imagine a dirty crow’s nest would smell like. Just overwhelmingly animalic and nest-like to me. Another hard nope. I will say this for Apoteker Tepe: these perfumes have lasting power.

Space Fluid — Narcis Nocturne
Described as mysterious, immersive, and unconventional.

Composition: Narcissus, oakmoss, leather, styrax, raspberry, tobacco, patchouli, sandalwood, caramel, rhubarb, mandarin orange, black elder, cedar, osmanthus, vanilla.

My opinion: This was the worst one by far for me. The top notes smelled like someone pissed in a drawer full of spices. The heart notes made me imagine sitting in a Ford Pinto hotboxed with weed while someone decided to show me their cracked, dry heels. The base notes were barely there, more like vague hot skin. Also a nope.

Now for the YES, MORE, PLEASE category:

D.S. & Durga — Black Magenta
Composition: Pink pineapple, galbanum, black pepper; orris concrete, magenta dianthus, orange flower; black amber, Balkan tobacco, sandalwood.

This smells pleasantly edible to me, but not in a juvenile candy way. More like dark fruit, black amber, tobacco, sandalwood, and something velvety. It’s weird, but delicious-weird. I keep wanting to smell it.

Confessions of a Rebel — Rebel Jasmine
The brand describes it as sensual jasmine with sparkling ginger, orange blossom, velvet tuberose, and emerald moss.

This is one of my favorite jasmine scents. It is strong, but I love it. It gives me lush, humid, night-blooming jasmine rather than polite shampoo jasmine. It feels alive, warm, floral, and carnal.

I also have Heretic — Jasmine Smoke, which I do enjoy, especially layered with vanilla. But Rebel Jasmine is the one that really hits my jasmine pleasure center. To me, Rebel Jasmine is jasmine as the main event: lush, full-bodied, sensual, and blooming at full volume. Jasmine Smoke is jasmine seen through smoke: pretty, resinous, tobacco-tinged, and more atmospheric, but the jasmine feels more veiled.

So I like both, but for different reasons. Jasmine Smoke is more ritual/incense jasmine. Rebel Jasmine is more hot, living, narcotic jasmine.

Heretic — Nosferatu
Composition: Lilac, ambrette; petrichor, violet absolute, orris concrete, cypriol; vegan ambergris, oud, labdanum.

This one is gorgeous to me. Cold, damp, stony, violet, ghostly, and atmospheric. It smells like rain on old stone with a pale purple floral edge.

The magic combo for me is:

Black Magenta + Rebel Jasmine + Nosferatu

They are beautiful by themselves and somehow just as gorgeous all together. Rebel Jasmine gives the lush white floral body, Black Magenta gives dark edible amber/fruit/tobacco warmth, and Nosferatu adds rain, wet stone, violet, and atmosphere.

The only frustrating thing is that when I wear them all together, the scent doesn’t seem to last as long as I expect. Maybe I’m going nose-blind, maybe they’re diffusing differently together, or maybe the combination is just more atmospheric than forceful. Either way, I can’t stop sniffing it.

Because D.S. & Durga seems to do “weird but delicious” really well for my nose, I’m now curious about Jazmin Yucatan. I was initially nervous it might go wrong in the same way Narcis Nocturne did, but D.S. & Durga’s style seems to work better for me. Even Coriander, which I worried might be too sharp or spice-drawer-ish, ended up smelling delicious to me — only slightly less than Black Magenta.

So Jazmin Yucatan is next on my list. I’m hoping for humid jasmine, green heat, limestone, jungle air, and temple ruins rather than sweaty plant water or body-funk disaster. Anyone here have experience with it? Also let me know if your experience of any of these scents are different than mine. I'm super curious about the differences between my olfactory sensitivities and another person's. Love, hate, indifferent?

Perfume is wild. The same note can be heavenly in one bottle and an absolute biohazard in another.