We all know how addictive perfumes can be – that heady, giddying rush of instant love, or the febrile panic that sets in if you can’t get a hit of your favourite fragrance… Now, Clive Christian are actively encouraging you to give in to your cravings with their latest Addictive Arts duo of forbidden perfume pairs: A Separate Reality. Fusing uniquely disilled ‘mind enhancing narcotics’ including wormwood (more commonly known for its use in Absinth); coca leaf (which they daringly describe as ‘cocaine’) and opium poppy (think Dorothy getting drowsy in The Wizard of Oz mixed with a hint of velvet-draped opium den).
Well. We’re sure that description has grabbed your attention, but if you’re worrying you’ll be floating around the ceiling with eyes wide open, fear not, for apart from Manic, you’ve been given a safe landing with the woozy slumber of Soporific.
Describing what they refer to as the ‘AddictiveFusion™’ technology used for the fragrances, Clive Christian go on to explain they achieved the evocation by combining headspace technology, ‘capturing the elusive scents of mood and mind enhancing narcotics,’ with a molecular blend of ‘bespoke natural ingredients, honed to perfection, untraceable under analysis and impossible to imitate – each perfume’s heart is flagrantly dark and exotic and their profile enigmatic and unforgettable.’
Capturing ‘the craven rush and brazen thrill of twisted hedonism’ (gosh, hold on to your hats – it’s not even the weekend!) each Addictive Arts perfume promises to ‘…take perfume lovers on a unique trip to scent pharmacology, transcending all normality with a new fragrance genus.’ So if you’re ready, let’s dive on in to the magical mystery tour of excess and libertine pleasures…
For Manic, a substantial base of sandalwood is swathed in supple leather and smoke, but dew-sprinkled earthy moss is the first note to greet our noses, a sexy fougere that might induce running through the woods and whooping it up on bed of ferns. Reeled in by a seriously dark vanilla swirled with brazen musks we plunge into a surprisingly green heart of radint lentisque, surrounded by herbaceous coriander leaf and a subtle haze of incense infused red berries. With lavender perhps more expected of the twin to this fragrance, it makes sense when it’s the peppery, spiky-green kind and particularly peps you up when comibined with a subtle chill of mint.
Clive Christian Manic £525 for 75ml parfum
There’s something rather decadently déshabillé about Soporific, it’s the kind of scent to make you want to sprawl, scantily clad, on a chaise lounge while eating grapes and nonchalantly listening to an avid lover reciting bad poetry – you can practically smell the paper scrolls they’re written on. No in-your-face sensuality, the gauzy muskiness and soft stroke of fir balsam sighs against tendrils of smoky myrrh, lazily snaking their way around rose de mai, translucent jasmine and a plumptious amber base. Silky green lentisque smells a little like Champagne laced with hedione, flecked with saffron and a delicate scattering of Roman chamomile.
Clive Christian Soporific £525 for 75ml parfum
Exclusively at Harrods
Written by Suzy Nightingale
