WHAT I SMELL:  The Peradam opens with a buttery, thickened and plasticine lily.  There’s so much volume and weight to the perfume, but there’s an incredible smoothness about that it feels like a sheen of dense paint has been layered on my skin.  Lily can go horribly wrong on my skin and it has a tendency to overpower.  Here the lily, ever evident and deeply weighted, remains surprisingly subdued. After a slow progression, the jasmine, thick and bold, starts to bring an ever so slight ray of light to the perfume, but that’s not saying much as this is the most indolic jasmine that I have experienced in some time.  The perfume is heady, thick, earthy, bold and spicy but surprisingly close to the skin.  After another 20 minutes or so, the sandalwood makes it way in giving what I feel is like a layer of light sandpaper in which the perfume sits on.  After an hour, all the notes soften and converge to reside in blended and mysterious harmony that’s topped off with a radiant and buttery finish.  Where many fragrances leave their best for the beginning and then fade in beauty towards the end, The Peradam bucks that standard.  Because as interesting and unusual as this goes on, hours afterwards, the warm, light and radiant finish is the quiet and reverenced beauty that is the star.

From the Apoteker Tepe website:

The Peradam combines the most precious materials in perfumery for a fragrance of unusual character, depth, and rarity.

According to the French author René Daumal, a ‘peradam’ is an object that only appears to those who seek it. For those who have been seeking the most precious and rarely experienced raw ingredients in perfumery, The Peradam combines a rare SCO2 extraction of Jasmine grandiflorum, real orris butter, and sustainably harvested Mysore Sandalwood into a fragrance that is warm, enveloping, uniquely addictive, and impossible to find elsewhere.

Notes: Madonna lily, Jasmine, Orris butter, Sandalwood
Profile: Floral, Jasmine, Indolic, Woody

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME:  Unimaginable grief from the loss of a most beautiful of love.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE THE PERADAM: gothic, storied, evocative

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE PERADAM:  None to be found as of yet.

BOTTOM LINE:  The Peradam is a perfume with a story, as you can see from my description of what it smells like to me.  There’s passion, decay, beauty and a quiet intensity about the perfume that’s very haunting.  There’s a lot of emotion in this creation.  I can’t say that for many perfumes and that makes it distinctively unique and all that more special.

• Bone Rating:  4 out of possible 5 bones
• Scent:  Floral
• Classification: Unisex
• Expense: $130 for 50 ml Eau de Parfum

Sample courtesy of Twisted Lily Fragrance Boutique and Apothecary.