Ellis Brooklyn APRÈS Eau de Parfum

Most Helpful Positive Review

Like wearing your boyfriend's jeans with your favorite boots

The opening to this is crazy - I've never smelled a perfume that actually smells like a tree before. I have to assume that's the juniper berry, but there's definitely a wood in this smell that actually smells like wood, sharp and natural. My partner is a woodworker and this is the first wood smell t...hat actually reminds me of him planing huge slabs in the garage. There's a definite spice that I'm assuming is the cardamom - a complicated spice, that a lot of people don't like in baking, but I tend to love the type of complex bitterness it adds to something. Or perhaps it's the saffron - I don't have that one in my spice rack so I'm less sensitive to it. A hint of sweet comes in the dry-down, but man this scent is just so complex. A few hours in, I can really distinctly make out the leather, but the resinous labdanum must be present there as well, just a little creamy. All the while, that spice persists. The nose-tickle of patchoulli starts to present, and I can distinctly smell the cedar in waves, then the sandalwood. God, what a beautiful perfume. It's really like a dance performance. In the evening dry down, a nice, sweet musk, with a hint of patchouli and just the suggestion of vanilla. I can't pretend this isn't masculine, and yet it doesn't smell like a cologne. It's masculine in the way that your boyfriend's jeans are masculine - if you're feminine, then the men's jeans just become fashionable and cool. If you're masculine, then the jeans are comforting and cozy. It's like they vacuumed the gender out of a forest scent, and you and the perfume work to amplify what you want it to be. Overall, a complex evergreen forest scent. Unisex, but defiantly so. This scent has me really excited for what EB has in store for 2022 - each new launch is more unusual than the last.