Irae

Right off the bat: Intense woods and peppery notes, really sharp opening. Give it a little time to mellow, and this is a fantastic spicy scent. As it matures, the spices chill out, and the smooth richness of the chocolate, oak, and amber become the stars of the show, and blend really nicely with the spice. Becomes closer to a skin scent the more it ages, about four hours in I can only get a strong waft of it less than a foot from my arm, where I sprayed it. It's warm and rich, but not super heavy, and it gets lighter as it ages. The Sichuan pepper comes off more as a traditional black pepper note, but that's really more at the opening. There's a barely detectable herbal tanginess to it as well that becomes more pronounced at the middle phase of wear, an hour or two in, but it's not unpleasant, and actually blends in really well. Really solid winter scent that feels totally unisex, I could see this being a staple scent for someone who loves genderless spice fragrances. It's also super wearable, far more than a lot of other punchy spice scents on the market. It's not a headache trigger for me, and contains just the right blend to keep all the sharper notes balanced and sultry rather than chokingly dense. The ending is a really lovely, elegant combo of tonka, chocolate, and spicy woods that borders on edible, but doesn't have the cloying tootsie-roll sweetness of a hardline cocoa gourmand like Choco Musk. The cocoa note in Irae smells like a tablet of mild milk chocolate, not a cheap confectioner's flavoring.

Overall: Sultry, expensive-smelling, and likely to be a crowd-pleaser. Sweetens up well when layered with vanilla if you want to mix up how you wear it. Beautiful, balanced blend, definitely a rich and appealing scent, best for the colder months. Gets better on the drydown, as the opening is a pretty confronting blast of spices. Longevity and performance are nice, I would wear this again.