Le Clerc’s Phoenix

[JazzieCazzie]

There is a bird named the phoenix, which dwells in India and is never found elsewhere. This bird is always alone and without companion, for its like cannot be found, and there is no other bird which resembles it in habits or appearance. At the end of five hundred years it feels that it has grown old, and loads itself with many rare and precious spices, and flies from the desert away to the city of Leopolis. There, by some sign or other, the coming of the bird is announced to a priest of that city, who causes fagots to be gathered and placed upon a beautiful altar, erected for the bird. And so, as I have said, the bird, laden with spices, comes to the altar, and smiting upon the hard stone with its beak, it causes the flame to leap forth and set fire to the wood and the spices. When the fire is burning brightly, the phoenix lays itself upon the altar and is burned to dust and ashes. Then comes the priest and finds the ashes piled up, and separating them softly he finds within a little worm, which gives forth an odor sweeter than that of roses or of any other flower. The next day and the next the priest comes again, and on the third day he finds that the worm has become a full-grown and full-fledged bird, which bows low before him and flies away, glad and joyous, nor returns again before five hundred years.

Assyrian cypress and cedar with cinnamon, black cardamom, cassia, Egyptian balsam, acanthus leaves, and frankincense.

This is one of the morphiest of morphy scents I've tried and I am so glad I waited it out.

IN THE IMP: Tart and ... well, odd. My first thought is slightly metallic but I think it's more herbal on second sniff.

WET: Whatever the predominant note is when wet, it's something unfamiliar to me. Maybe a cooking herb? Maybe the cassia? Because I should be familiar with everything else that's listed. It's not unpleasant but it's not necessarily what I would want to smell like.

DRY: Whatever that mystery note was, it dries down very quickly and takes its place at the back of the line, allowing all the other notes (which are all favorites of mine) to take their turns at the forefront. The initial drydown is woody, woodsy and very dry. Not quite dusty/musty, but like a closet full of secrets ... something I would want to search through. There is a sweetness lurking in the back but for the beginning of the drydown process it's definitely the resins and woods that take the lead.

LATER DRYDOWN: HELLO CINNAMON!!! As if it were a once-polite party guest that had a few drinks, put a lampshade on its head and started dancing on the table, the cinnamon has pushed everything else aside and taken over. And since I happen to LOVE BPAL cinnamon, this is a good thing.

OVERALL: In the end, this is like a throwback scent for me ... my box of BPAL treasures, including scents 10 years old, are very heavy on the "cinnamon-and-something resiny/woodsy" blends of yore, and when this dries down, that is what I get. In fact, this could very well be a big bottle buy because I suspect it will age as gloriously as those have.

If you love cinnamon, this is a must-buy!

[zankoku_zen]

Cinnamon, cassia, frankincense and cypress. I am getting a ton of cassia from this. In alot of ways, this sort of reminds me to Plunder. Loads of spices, frankincense and a whiff of wood. Good throw, good wear length.

 

To me, this overwhelmingly cassia though.

[Little Bird]

Le Clerc's is overwhelming, heavy cinnamon and cassia. Cassia always smells like a dark red, woody cinnamon to me. Tons of that here. It actually smells a lot like the original Red Phoenix, which was also amped up cinnamon. Too much for me to handle, and gives me a headache pretty quickly.

[Ethaisa]

Spicy cypress and cinnamon, high and fiery with a long, and almost but not quite smoky dry down. A little goes a loooong way. I suspect this will age well and look forward to trying it again in a few months.

[Roogna]

wow! this hits hard and strong with a very cinnamon spice. It's very black and red and very dry woody. it settles to cinnamon and something kind of woody, kind of black. I think it's the frankincense. it's a bit too much cinnamon spice with not enough to balance it out