WHAT I SMELL:  Hatchi-matchi…Cinabre opens with a dirty peppered gingered-rose.  The ginger really stands out  in center stage while the rose sits quietly in the back.  It’s loud and it’s strong and smells like a heavy petroleum.  I know this sounds bad, but it’s not.   The rose starts to come to the forefront after a short while.  It’s a dirty rose, one that isn’t fresh but one that’s thick and ready to mold off of the vine, almost as if it’s liquifying.  I can’t say that I like it and there’s something almost repulsive about it;  but it keeps drawing me back in.  After a bit Cinabre bring forth a resinous sweetness which radiates and cuts out some of the dirt, but the fragrance continues to retain its earthy living state and still remains shockingly large.  Finally, the dirt get whisked away and Cinabre moves into a phase that is slightly powdered and very sweetened rose of which the sweetness is sickening if you bring your arm to your nose.  In other words, at this point Cinabre is best from a distance.  Finally, the fragrance mellows into a lightly sweet vanilla rose, tinged with a hint of opoponax.

Cinabre Notes:

Ginger, black pepper, rose baies, Splendens rose, Morroccan rose, benzoin, vanilla, opoponax.

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME:  A working mexican village.  So what does that mean?  The combination of and smells of food, dirt, and flowers in the hot sun.  It’s alive and earthy and the smells are sometimes beautiful and yet sometimes can be too thick with real life.  After the heat of the day settles down, the sweeter smells of the town make their appearance.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE CINABRE:  thick, gothish, sweetened

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT CINABRE:  Scent for Thought, Perfume Shrine, Make Perfume Not War

BOTTOM LINE:  Cinabre is one of the more interesting fragrances that I have sniffed in a long time.  I can say that I actually quite like it but a little goes a long way and if they offered it in a 10ml offering I would probably pick up a bottle.

• Bone Rating: 3.5 out of 5 possible bones
• Scent: Oriental
• Classification: Unisex more at the opening – more feminine in the drydown.
• Expense: $185 for 100ml EdP, currently offered as a May 2013 Olfactif offering