Outsider Parfums
The Sister House of Om

زي ريحة الفحم وإنت برّا في الصّحراء، وعم بتولّعه بالزبط قبل ما تسوّي مشاوي. أنا بتخيّل الرّيحة زي ذكرى منيحة من طفولتك، من ضمنها دفا الفحم ولونه الأخضر.

This smells of lava, tar, metal and notes of earthiness that you might find in the very depth of a bonfire or at the very edge of a volcano’s magma chamber. It is phenomenal, and the best iteration of this DNA I have ever seen. The closest thing I could name to this fragrance is Terroni by Orto Parisi, but this wipes the floor with it. This is incredible.

This is easily my second favorite, and also WOW. Despite that though, this description, too, is a placeholder and will be replaced by a more holistic version of it when I have a sample/bottle to take my time with.

Top

This smells like a very green fougère; but very naturally green; very much unlike Green Irish Tweed by Creed. It is a multifaceted green, in the sense that it is composite of notes and accords like florals and apples which results in it being quite intense (but not overwhelmingly so!) From the very top, you also have this undertone of complexity, which is followed through with in the Mid and Base.

Mid

In the middle, a very top-note leather character peeks its head through: light and gentle. There is also the smell of tobacco, watery notes (NOT AMBROCINIDE), frankincense and the top note complex green persists. I can also get some animalic notes. Castoreum or civet. I think civet.

Dry Down

is sweet and smooth. I sense mostly yellow florals, and I imagine some nondescript drink from Thailand made from Frangipani. It is likely that something like that doesn’t even exist, but from my first and brief impression, that is what it smells like.

Note

This perfume is so wonderfully smooth despite how complex it is. It is very interesting to see this quality emerge from blending that does just merge all the ingredients into a pulp of unrecognizable character (such as with Xerjoff or Jinx); or from the addition of one dominant milky and smooth ingredient like Iris butter or ylang-ylang.

Top

From the very beginning, this smells like one of the most refined chocolates I have smelled to date. It is Powdery yet very smooth! I feel it borrows its powdery character from the dark chocolates that are used for cooking, but the quality from artisan-made chocolates; something that was made with incredible formulation and high-end ingredients.

I would also interpret it as a rather sweet dark chocolate with like 60% ish cacao content (if I had to assign it a number), with some other facets being added to this. For a while I couldn’t decide whether I smelled orange, or cardamom, and honestly I don’t know even after all my deliberation.

^it is orange, I checked the note pyramid; but there is clove, which I am guessing I mistook for cardamom.

Mid-Dry Down 1

In the late top notes; it started turning more realistic, but it went away from realistic chocolate and became rather more complex and nuanced. It is around that time that it started smelling less like chocolate itself and rather the culinary result of using it. It took on a creamier, smoother and less fresh character. After a bit more time; it started smelling like some dessert that you might find in a local patisserie while travelling to Brussels. Maybe some cannoli or something (yes, I know that cannoli is not particularly Belgian but shush).

Dry Down 2

Late, this starts smelling like the resulting plate, on which there was dessert. It does not smell strongly of anything in particular, rather it smells like a vague remnant of something chocolatey that once was there. In non-pretentious English, I am saying that it smells like a dessert plate from which the dessert was eaten.

It is also here that I feel it would most vary with ones skin type. Prior to this stage, it had quite a strong character, and because of that, it would overwrite the skin’s effect for the most part; but now after it has calmed down a little, then it becomes something that would mesh nicely with one’s skin.

It is pleasant, there is some sharpness, but that is mostly from balsams, and quite difficult to assign to one particular element.

Saffron and airy. I need more time with this one.

realistic amaretto and coffee. Captures the sweetness of the almonds and alcohol parallel with the bitterness of a black coffee wonderfully. I can just imagine the bar: two strangers sitting there, each with a different life entirely prompting them to order two completely separate things: one buys a playful amaretto and the other a bitter black coffee.