Atkinsons
Atkinsons
171 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Lapsang Souchong smoke envelops immediately, its distinctive pine-tar character clashing with sharp clove in a deliberately dissonant overture. The effect is reminiscent of burning leather in a library—atmospheric, slightly unsettling, and entirely commanding of attention.
Cedar and leather emerge as the smoky haze settles, creating a drier, more structured core where sandalwood lends creamy backbone without softening the composition's inherent austerity. Clove's peppery bite persists as a persistent reminder that this fragrance refuses to become comfortable or inviting.
Vanilla and liquidambar take centre stage, the sweetness settling into a warm, slightly resinous skin-scent that retains the smoky-woody DNA of the opening. The oud becomes nearly imperceptible, functioning as invisible scaffolding beneath a fragrance that finishes considerably warmer than it began, though never surrendering its fundamental seriousness.
His Majesty The Oud arrives not as the honeyed, animalic oud that's become ubiquitous in contemporary perfumery, but rather as something altogether more austere and intellectually demanding. The Lapsang Souchong tea opening—that distinctive pine-smoke character—immediately establishes a cerebral framework, refusing sentimentality from the outset. Clove sharpens this smoky foundation into something almost medicinal, a quality that persists throughout the composition's trajectory.
What emerges is a fragrance built on friction rather than harmony. The heart reveals a leather-cedarwood axis that feels genuinely substantial, neither transparent nor maquette-like. These woody materials don't exist in peaceful coexistence; instead, they create a tense dialogue where the leather's animalic undertones push against cedarwood's cooler geometry. Sandalwood, that notorious softener, appears here not to smooth transitions but to add creamy weight to what could otherwise feel threadbare.
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Farmacia SS. Annunziata
4.0/5 (209)