Perfume-L'Artisan-Passage D'Enfer

Passage d’Enfer by L'Artisan Perfumeur, it literarily means Passage of Hell. I think I have this weird curiosity which drives me to get my hands on a sample of this and secretly wishing I might be able to pull it off.

Incense with a bit quite sun-bleached woody undertone makes the core of Passage d’Enfer. The scent is totally different from what I anticipated, I was more thinking about something heavy on patchouli mixed with something soaked in this sweaty dirty musky rose accord like many of Francis Kurkdjian ‘s masterpieces. Nevertheless, Passage d’Enfer is a wonderful surprise, which makes me think if hell did exist and smelt like this, I wouldn’t mind to go there and have a visit.

The incense scent lingered around in a quiet, linear fashion, which does grow on me. Somehow, this perfume smells rather spiritual, spiritual as in it actually quiets my mind, it doesn’t smell like a typical commercial perfume, it doesn’t smell of something targeting a specific gender, it doesn’t have any fruits, flowers or spices like cinnamon or vanilla which are, most of time, engineered to seduce; it doesn’t smell of a niche with huge glamorous personality which a bound to sell (like Black Orchid, which to me is somewhat overhyped, anyway).

Passage d’Enfer has its own universe, it’s neutral, and somewhat omniscient in a peculiar way; it has this emptiness in it which is so hauntingly beautiful, it is more a being than a perfumey perfume to me. It feels like listening to Marilyn Manson’s Putting Holes In Happiness while reading Milan Kundera’s novel (and please don’t take me wrong, actually I find this rather soothing sometimes rather than negative or emo).

It’s one of the perfumes I would suggest people to give it a try, simply because it’s different.
However, will I happily wear it to uni or work? I guess the answer for now is no (as the world out there isn’t as friendly to all types of scent), and somehow I find this perfume may wear me, if not applied with extreme caution.

A decant-worth hidden gem. :)

A photo of a burning candle with a dark background, the atmosphere here somehow conveys what Passage D'Enfer makes me feel sometimes. 

(On a side note, this incense perfume might be similar to any one from the Comme des Garson’s incense series, which will be something of my interest and I’ll surely try them in the future)