Arts&Scents
Arts&Scents
74 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A burst of honeyed amber and rosy sweetness arrives with ylang ylang's creamy undertone, deceptively romantic. Within two minutes, that cotton candy sweetness emerges sharp and artificial, immediately complicated by geranium's spiced green notes and an unmistakable metallic-mineral asphalt accord that feels almost jarring against the candy.
The geranium fades as sandalwood asserts itself—dry, woody, vaguely incense-like. The cotton candy persists but becomes less candy-shop confection and more abstract sweetness, whilst frankincense and benzoin build a resinous, temple-like atmosphere. This is the fragrance's most balanced moment: sweet yet spiced, creamy yet dry, oddly meditative.
The base settles into an unusual amber-patchouli-vanilla trinity, but stalebread dominates—creating a faintly musty, paper-aged quality that makes this phase feel almost archaeological. Tonkin musk provides subtle warmth, yet the overall impression is nostalgic and slightly melancholic, less gourmand dessert and more memory of sweets from years past.
The Golden Deer announces itself as a peculiar olfactory contradiction—a fragrance that refuses neat categorisation. It opens with an amber-rose embrace that feels almost classical, ylang ylang adding a slightly creamy, indolic richness that prevents any sense of predictability. But this is merely the prelude to something decidedly stranger.
Within minutes, that sweetness deepens into genuine cotton candy territory, a gourmand flourish that might feel frivolous were it not anchored by geranium's green spice and, most peculiarly, a prominent asphalt note. Yes: asphalt. It's here that The Golden Deer reveals its true temperament—a fragrance of contrasts, of wandering through a fairytale forest only to stumble upon an industrial clearing. The sandalwood refuses to smooth over this tension; instead, it lends a dry, almost woody quality that emphasises the discord.
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Estēe Lauder
4.0/5 (186)