Diesel
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Star anise explodes with an almost pharmaceutical intensity, that distinctive fennel-like sharpness cutting through everything like a blade. Mandarin attempts to soften the blow with its citrus sweetness, but this opening is all about that anisic punch—polarising, attention-grabbing, and undeniably bold.
The liquorice doubles down as jasmine sambac and gardenia weave through, their indolic richness adding a fleshy, almost sweaty dimension to the sweetness. It's here that Loverdose reveals its true gourmand nature—less pastry shop, more sticky cocktail bar where someone's spilt Sambuca on the flowers.
Vanilla and ambroxan create that familiar laundry-soft blur, whilst liquorice liqueur persists as a syrupy ghost note that refuses to quit. The woods remain abstract and yielding, serving mainly to prevent the sweetness from becoming completely two-dimensional as the scent settles into a warm, synthetic skin-scent cocoon.
Loverdose is Olivier Cresp's unabashed love letter to anisic gourmandise, a fragrance that smells like seduction filtered through a sweet shop's neon-lit window. The opening salvo of star anise hits with proper swagger—not the delicate whisper you'd find in a refined oriental, but a bold, almost medicinal blast that mingles with mandarin's zesty sweetness. This is where Cresp shows his hand: he's building a gourmand that refuses to play coy. The liquorice accord runs through the composition like a scarlet thread, appearing in the heart as both raw root and sticky liqueur in the base, creating an almost syrupy intensity that divides opinion sharply. Jasmine sambac and gardenia provide white floral punctuation, but they're nearly overwhelmed by the anise-liquorice duo, serving more as textural elements than stars in their own right. The base settles into a territory that's unapologetically synthetic—ambroxan provides that laundry-musk glow whilst vanilla and vague "woods" soften the edges just enough to keep it wearable. This is a fragrance for those who enjoy their scents loud, sweet, and polarising. It's Saturday night in a tight dress and heels, not Sunday brunch in cashmere. The sort of scent that announces itself before you enter the room and lingers after you've left, leaving a trail of "what was that?" in your wake. Not sophisticated, not subtle, but utterly committed to its own brazenly gourmand vision.
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4.0/5 (340)