Ennui v42

[Invidiana]

At last! A scent based on the Victorian notion of ennui as man's downfall!

 

Ennui is French for boredom, which was thought to be a one-way street to damnation in those days. Before my fascination with 19th century writers obsessed with decadence--Baudelaire, Mallarme, Huysmans et al--bores everyone to death here, this smells fantastic. It's like furniture made from the most expensive of aged exotic woods, which seem to be mahogany and teak to my nose, and well-worn brown leather alongside the finest of dark chocolates and a goodly shot of booze which I'm taking to be cognac. It isn't a booziness that clubs you over the head but it's present. There may even be a trace of cigar smoke in here. It's dominated by the woods in the wet stage, but as it dries down the chocolate and booze emerge, make themselves and settle comfortably on the woody background which warms up as it keeps drying down. It has a certain sweetness to it probably contributed most by the cognac and chocolate. The chocolate here must be a dark chocolate note because I get that really rich smoky type of cacao that goes perfectly with the wood notes. This is not really a foody chocolate blend; exotic cacao is just one aspect that contributes to the whole idea of rich Victorians who are up to their eyeballs in luxuries succumbing to boredom and turning to illicit pleasures to get a rise out of themselves.

 

In other words, I love it and can't wait to see its final iteration.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL bought on LJ.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I had to have this as soon as I saw the previous review. Heavy woods? Cognac? Dark chocolate? Cigar smoke? Yes, please! This sounds like an instant favorite. So excited I managed to snag a bottle.

 

First sniff:

 

Vetiver?! I suppose it could also be whatever type of myrrh is in Priala that smells like vetiver to me. In the bottle, this is dark and smoky/ashy. There are some deep, dark woods lurking in the background, too. I would guess mahogany or possibly even redwood, although redwood wouldn't make much sense in a blend like this. It's a bit like the original (non-LE) version of Capricorn. I happen to love Capricorn, so that's not a bad thing.

 

Wet on skin:

 

The vetiver (or myrrh or whatever it is) scales back quite a bit when it hits my skin and I get dark woods (I'm going to say that it's mahogany, it's not pulpy enough to be redwood) with a touch of what smells like tobacco.

 

Dry down:

 

Yum. Ennui evidently needs to settle on my skin to get the full effect. Once it dries, I'm left with a gorgeous scent that I absolutely love. Mahogany, tobacco, spice (clove, maybe cinnamon) and a touch of something similar to Dark Chocolate, Whiskey and Cognac Truffle wafting around in the background.

 

The bottom line:

 

I love this! It combines my favorite parts of several other scents into one awesome package.

 

ETA: The vetiver (or myrrh) has come back in full force now that it's had a few hours to sit and it's chased out everything but the mahogany. I like vetiver, but it's not a note I want to wear every day and Ennui is so much nicer without it. I still really like this, just not as much as I did without the in-your-face vetiver.

Edited May 5, 2011 by Penance

[zankoku_zen]

Ennui v42 is a very manly, woodsy scent. I get a lot of vetiver (on wet, its almost like smoky bacon) which thankfully recedes and there's definitely some myrrh and dark woods (and yes, it may be mahogany.

 

I agree with Penance that this smells alot like original Capricorn (except on me I get this amazing grapefruit pith from Capricorn which don't ask me WHY it just does).

[porcelina]

whoo, ennui is DARK and kind of bitter. there's definitely some vetiver going on here- a really strong, black vetiver. there's dark, dark chocolate- maybe like raw cacao beans; this is not at all a foody blend. unnnfortunately for me, as it fades, i'm left with mostly vetiver, which i amp like crazy and which is, sadly, not my favorite note. but i like this blend, and more than that i like the idea of it- so i think i'll hang onto it to see how it ages.

[Niniel0205]

Wow, this is really one of those scents that takes you on a journey. 

It starts off with a woody scent that I recognize from these old wooden boxes we have that used to belong to my husbands' great grandmother in Indonesia. Slightly bitter scent, aged. 

At the very start I really could smell the cigar smoke but 5 minutes in that is already sort of fading unfortunately, I like heavy smokiness. It is funny because cigar smoke does really make me thing of the morning after a party, where the fun is over, you are tired, headachy and you have a stinky apartment you need to air out and do lots of dishes and general cleaning. 'Sigh....was it al worth it?' that kind of sentiment. 

 

As I type the scent is changing, losing it's depth and becoming more sweet. I could smell dark chocolate before (not sweet, no food, mostly its bitterness) but now it is almost turning into a black licorice scent...fennel like maybe. I don't want it to stay like this because the woods and smokiness have disappeared.

 

20 minutes later, the licorice smell is less strong and the old wooden boxes scent is back. No cigar smoke really.

 

I really like this scent, but I almost like the story and journey even more. Though it smells great, this doesn't stand out for me because it smells so nice but because it is damn interesting.