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About This Scent
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Key Notes
-
Veilchenblatt
-
Weihrauch
-
Lavendel
- Carrot Seeds
- Top notes
- Veilchenblatt, Lavendel, Schwarzer Pfeffer
- Heart notes
- Weihrauch, Carrot Seeds, Muskatnuss
- Base notes
- Treemoss, Patschuli, Cypriol
- Longevity
- Long Lasting
- Sillage
- Strong
- Brand
- Carven
- Launch date
- 2019
Of all the city scents in this Carven collection, Carven Paris Alexandrie Eau de Parfum 125ml is the dry, dusty, slightly solemn one, and it is the furthest thing from the sweet florals the house sells elsewhere.
Violet leaf opens it, and that is leaf rather than flower: green, sharp, faintly cucumber cool and not sweet at all. Lavender follows with a herbal, clean, slightly soapy calm, and black pepper lifts the two of them with a dry sneeze of heat. Nothing about the opening is comforting, which is deliberate.
The heart is the heart of the matter. Incense brings a cool, resinous smoke, the kind that smells of a stone building rather than a bonfire. Carrot seed is the unusual material, earthy and rooty with a faint sweetness like raw vegetable peel, and nutmeg warms both with a dusty, slightly barky spice. It is an austere middle and a very good one. Treemoss, patchouli and cypriol finish it. Treemoss is dry and bitter and bark like, patchouli dark and earthy, and cypriol smoky and leathery with a faintly inky quality. The drydown is dry, smoky and serious, with no sweetness arriving to rescue it. It launched in 2019. At eau de parfum strength it is long lasting and moderate in projection, sitting close after the first hour, which suits a composition this dry. It reads as unisex, it is a cold weather and evening fragrance, and 125ml is a lot of bottle for a scent this distinctive, which makes it good value if it suits you.
The name belongs to a Paris couture house started in 1945 by Carmen de Tommaso, who traded as Marie-Louise Carven and died in 2015 at 105. Ma Griffe of 1946 is the scent it is remembered for, and fragrance returned to the house in 2013.
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