Brand: Alkemia
Scent Description: An intoxicating blend of deep eastern spices warmed with creamy vanilla & drops of golden frankincense.
A collection of indie perfume reviews
Brand: Alkemia
Scent Description: An intoxicating blend of deep eastern spices warmed with creamy vanilla & drops of golden frankincense.
This was a sample included in my last Alkemia order. Usually I run from anything with golden amber in the description. I sure wouldn’t have picked out Aphrodesia on my own. 98% of the time, golden amber turns to “doom powder” on me, which I can only describe as baby powder gone wrong. Think burnt plastic doll head and rancid baby powder stench… doom powder. Anyways, that never happens with Aphrodesia. There must not be very much golden amber in the blend. I’m getting a mix of a sweet Frankincense, creamy bourbon vanilla and eastern spices in the background. I’m not sure what the exact spices are in this but, I’m getting tinges of myrrh and cola. Maybe it’s my body chemistry? For sure there is definitely NO cinnamon in here. If you were thinking of Holiday and Christmas spices, Aphrodesia is not that. The end result of this smells similar to things that I already own. I’m not getting the dusty smell that other reviews have mentioned. This ends up as a sweet vanillic softly spiced Frankincense on my skin. I can’t smell it on my skin after about 3-4 hours but I smelled it on my blanket the next day. Sort of reminds me a bit of Shalimar or and old VS amber scent that I can’t recall the name of right now. I guess they something but I’m not really sure of what that is exactly. Like I mentioned before, I own too many scents already that are close to this to warrant a FS purchase right now but I do like this scent. Definitely not for everyone. You have to like resinous scents to appreciate Aphrodesia. One of the very few golden amber scents that actually gets along with my body chemistry. A part of me wants to grab a FS bottle just because it’s a golden amber that works but I really don’t need it at this time. Resinous, sweet, vanillic.
A question for the reviewer by the name of Feylinn… Have you noticed a change in how scents react with you since being on HRT? I’ve read several comments from others (on their period, pregnant, going through menopause, transitioning) mentioning hormones can majorly alter the smell of perfumes. Hormones can wreak havoc on everything else so I believe it. I swear I’ve noticed a few times where some of my perfume (oils specifically) may smell different on my skin depending on where I’m at in my monthly cycle. Thanks in advance and I hope you spot my question. Best to you!
Whew! Horrible! It’s like a dirty frankincense smell….
A lot of Alkemia’s scents sadly go very soapy on me. This one smells like a spiced soap shop with incense burning in the background
This may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Firstly, there’s something dusty about this. Maybe even a little bit dank–you’re in the basement of an antique store. It teeters on the edge of powdery. This is a scent I would want to have mysteriously hug me, and slowly blend with my own scent. I would not go full on EDP with this–oil would be perfect amount of sillage.
I wouldn’t say this is NOT sweet–but it’s hard to pinpoint. The tonka and vanilla must be contributing to that dry sweetness. The frankincense is present, for sure.
I love this personally–dusty scents are some of my favorites, and theres something very mysterious-crumbling-letter-written-in-swirling-Copperplate-fluttering-out-of-a-book quality about this.
It’s very frankincense-heavy, much more so than the description leads you to believe. It’s exotic and spicy.
I don’t quite know how to describe this, but I know that I am not a fan of it. I can mostly smell the frankincense and the vanilla, the latter of which is very creamy. It smells like a dusty antique store.