Threat Level Midnight Ladder (ROUND 2)
scent of the day: Of Wolves and Men: Kamboche
First day wear. Figured I would wear this ridiculously expensive perfume on Christmas
This is an animalic polis with very high medicinality—or at least, that’s clearly the intent (more later on that). There is absolutely no clean-laundry, mall-grade white musk anywhere here. What we get instead is a serious musk assemblage, anchored by Tonkin musk, the gold standard of musks (to musk what kinam is to oud): intensely pheromonic, warm, brown-smelling. It picks up a clove edge that pushes the composition further into medicinal territory, adding honeyed, syrupy facets that feel almost like a dark, herbal cough medicine.
Alongside it is Tibetan musk, the most vibrant of the musks here. It has that almost floral-animalic quality—high projection, lots of lift—and it always gives me a faint Lagerfeld-cologne impression. Its cooling aspect contributes directly to the medicinal feel, sharpening and aerating the composition. Mongolian musk, perhaps my favorite, is earthier and more rugged: chocolatey, with a dark leather undertone that bridges the animalics beautifully into the woods. Kashmiri musk rounds things out (creamy yet funky, silky yet unmistakably animalic), adding a velvety texture that’s more felt than clearly isolated.
Of course, there are ouds. Cambodian oud (Kamboche) brings what Ensar describes as a red profile: fermented berries, dried plums, medicinal cherry--think: Robitussin. Vietnamese oud leans bitter-sweet and herbal-incense-like while Indonesian oud contributes clovey cola notes and forest floor dampness. Ensar’s signature berries reinforce that slightly tart medicinal-fruit axis while cedar adds radiance.
Black tea plays a crucial role here. It adds tannins—dry, bitter, astringent—that I strongly associate with medicinality. Along with black pepper (and rosy pink pepper), it provides a dry counterpoint to the sweetness of the fruit and musk. Blackberry shows up tart, dark, and slightly acidic, reinforcing the red tone. Rose softens the animalic edges with a lush, honeyed floralcy that helps cough syrup impression. Jssmine, on the other hand, boosts the creamy animalism with suggestions of female taint: ‘t’aint ass, ‘t’aint pussy—this pheromonic hum synergizing with the musks to make something deserving of the wolf in the title.
While jasmine enhances the animalic pull, mysore sandalwood deepens the sensual feel in a different register: warm milk, butter, sweet cream. It doesn’t sweeten so much as it rounds—adding body and warmth beneath the sharper medicinal facets. Clove is everywhere (and not too far from the Tobacco Vanille I thought about wearing for Christmas). It threads through the musks and ouds, reinforcing the medicinal-spicy axis. There’s also a peppery, almost medicinal snap that makes me wonder about tuberose, mint, or even patchouli hovering in the background, though nothing asserts itself cleanly enough to be named with certainty.
Here’s the thing, though: the untouchable aphrodisiac quality of the musk is not—at least right now—in real tension with the medicinal qualities. And I want that tension. I want the medicinal side to push harder, louder--indeed, to the point of negating the pheromonic glow. If the medicinality were strong enough to truly wrestle the musk into submission, this would probably be perfect for me--in the sense that ot would capture my character.
That said, caveats matter. My nose might be off ( cleaned with bleach this morning). And the bottle is likely still travel-shocked (it came from Jordan). Presence is low right now. I can barely smell anything. I wish it were louder.
I know some explanation is to be had. I’m not just saying that to justify the insane price. The base chassis of this scent almost a decade ago was shown to Dimitri bortnikov and he literally was floored. he kowtowed metaphorically to Ensar after smelling this and could not believe what was done here. That’s the private blend chassis.
So between travel shock and the fact that I cleaned with bleach today, I’m not blaming the scent. A few lot of people I know are more so addicted to buying and selling than fragrance enjoyment. If they had this experience, the one that I’m having right now, they would sell it right away--in a panic. there’s so many factors that need to be taken into account. This thing needs to sit and my sinus pallet needs to be aerated. I think it’s mostly the travel shock thing though. many in the ensar groups talk about that so I’m hoping that’s what we have here.
TL;DR: at this stage, it’s reading to me like Areej’s History of Indonesian oud (cola clove) crossed with Siberian Extreme (cumin musk). I strongly suspect time, air, and a rested nose may see this fragrance as having a mich bigger presence. it is hard to see it, however, shifting the balance toward the medicinal-musky confrontation I’m craving. But i hope for that too.
Threat Level Midnight Ladder
Fuck that age when the neighbor dad cockblocks our window strokery—brown budlet
just starting to plump those raw-kneed Dora shorts and then bam, in a blink, dribbling
her soccer ball up and down the sidewalk in eye-mesh burqa like a black Pac-Man ghost.
“We need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”—Kafka (against the safe-space cancel culture pushed by anti-art bullies, left and right)
