Clive Christian
Clive Christian
90 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Apple skin's brightness collides immediately with galbanum's acrid greenness and violet leaf's peppery edge, creating an opening that's simultaneously fresh and vaguely toxic. The almond softens the blow momentarily, but mugwort's herbal sharpness and kaffir lime's citrusy bite ensure this fragrance refuses to coddle you—it's cerebral from the very first spray, almost challenging you to continue wearing it.
Opium and absinthe wormwood bloom into something genuinely intoxicating, their floral sweetness undercut by cinnamon and clove's anaesthetic spice and frankincense's liturgical smoke. The middle develops a hallucinatory quality—papyrus adds dusty papyrus libraries, cocoa leaf contributes an earthy bitterness, and suede creates an almost tactile, skin-like softness that makes the fragrance feel dangerously intimate rather than merely beautiful.
The base notes settle into a meditative, woody embrace that never quite abandons the fragrance's slightly unsettling character. Patchouli and cedar create a dark forest ambience whilst vetiver adds mineral earthiness and sandalwood provides creamy, almost narcotic warmth—the overall effect is grounding yet still somehow otherworldly, like returning to consciousness after vivid dreams.
Vision in a Dream Psychedelic announces itself as a deliberately unsettling olfactory experience—one that privileges conceptual boldness over conventional wearability. The opening salvo is deceptively bright: apple skin's crisp bite mingles with almond's creamy sweetness, whilst kaffir lime leaf introduces a citrusy sharpness that feels almost metallic against violet leaf's green, slightly peppery undertones. But this is merely the bait. Galbanum and mugwort immediately corrupt the freshness, introducing a herbal astringency that's vaguely medicinal, vaguely sinister—you're reminded of absinthe-soaked séances rather than morning juice bars.
The heart is where Clive Christian's provocation truly crystallises. Opium and absinthe wormwood create a narcotic, slightly bitter floral quality that sits uncomfortably against cinnamon and clove—spice notes that feel almost anaesthetic in their intensity. Frankincense adds ritualistic smoke; papyrus contributes a dusty, Egyptian aridity; cocoa leaf provides unexpected earthiness. There's suede here too, which lends an almost tactile, skin-like quality to proceedings. This is a fragrance that tastes the way it smells: herbal, slightly toxic, deeply introspective.
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3.8/5 (169)