Description
“Known to the Ancient Sumerians as “the joy plant”, poppy symbolized nocturnal oblivion, specifically sleep, night, and death in the pre-Christian world. “Soma” is a Vedic word that means “moon” and refers to the sweet milky sap that when oozing from the poppy bulbs would glow in the moonlight, and which was processed into raw opium to be smoked. Ours captures the before-and-after of the experience from sweet, milky sap to pungent smoke.” – a note from the brand.
Parfums Quartana has won the FIFI for Poppy Soma in the category of Parfum Extraordinaire.
Poppy Soma by Parfums Quartana is a Oriental Floral fragrance for women. This is a new fragrance. Poppy Soma was launched in 2016. The nose behind this fragrance is Emilie (Bevierre) Coppermann. The fragrance features sichuan pepper, curry tree, red pepper, gardenia, jasmine sambac, red rose, incense, labdanum, tuberose, styrax and musk.
Asterix – :
I received a lovely discovery set of 9 samples from Joseph Quartana of Parfums Quartana. The series is called “Les Potions Fatales” and explores the treacherous beauty and intriguing lore behind nine of the world’s most poisonous flowers. Joseph got the idea from an episode of Breaking Bad where Walter White whips up some poison made from lily of the valley. Intrigued yet? It certainly got my attention.
I decided to try the 2017 Winner of the Fragrance Foundation’s Parfum Extraordinaire of the Year Award – Poppy Soma. Good place to start, right? Poppy Soma features sichuan pepper, curry tree, red pepper, gardenia, jasmine sambac, red rose, incense, labdanum, tuberose, styrax and musk. Shew! And let me tell you, it packs a punch. While an EDP, it fully comes across as extrait. But louder. It’s dense and rich and full. And immediately grabbed hold of my senses. This is no wall flower that’s for certain. Poppy Soma is original and quite brilliant, a dark and spicy resinous floral, musky, smoky and almost drug like, it’s quite extraordinary and almost hypnotic. Sensual, leaning femme but completely unisex.
Why are people not talking about this entrancing fragrance? It’s HUGE and wicked as the night, luxurious and intriguing. Like sleepily lying in a bed of poppies at 3am.
Parfums Quartana has my full attention. This is a fantastic fragrance. Original and like nothing else.
Phoenix966 – :
I got a decant of this from Portland’s Fumerie Parfumerie (go if you’re local!); I really loved it on paper but on me….I’m still deciding..but leaning “No”.
It is an interesting and alluring combination of vegetal and floral…definitely unique.
It starts a bit sharp then settles on my skin into a chili pepper infused tuberose honey….which should absolutely delight my senses since I am a professed pepper head and love anything pepper/spicy. Alas…I don’t seem to like to smell like them.
Also…it reminds of me of a 70’s perfume called Babe by Faberge, which I loathed with a passion…they also had a deodorant all the girls wore…blech. Kill it. Kill it with fire.
So…I am torn. I can certainly see the appeal, and kudos to the perfumer for trying something new, I respect that. So far…it is just not doing it for me.
Sillage on me is medium. YMMV.
EDIT: Later in the day, it settled into musk which I found more tolerable…but it just presented itself as too vegetal on me. Again, kudos to the perfumer for trying something different but it’s a pass for me.
Акеш – :
I am really digging Poppy Soma. I can’t even put my finger on exactly why because it is so unique. I can’t compare to anything else, and that’s a good thing once you’ve sampled thousands of perfumes because they all start to smell the same….
First I will say it’s very well-balanced on my skin. You’d expect peppery spices and white florals to overwhelm a fragrance, but that’s not the case here. I love the scent of gardenia and tuberose in and of themselves, but I don’t tend to actually wear them. The white florals here smell very natural, therefore not headache-inducing.
In the top notes, I noticed a sweetness that seemed fruity, yet unrecognizable. Fruit mixed with vanilla? This caught me off-guard because there is no fruit listed. But this sweetness lasts the whole time, gradually becoming more subtle.
After about 20 minutes, I noticed a vegetal spiciness that was incredibly pleasant. My car window was cracked, and I looked outside to see if someone was trimming shrubbery or something as, coincidentally, I was driving past the botanical gardens. But not close enough to smell the gardens! It was Poppy Soma. It was like herbs with just a hint of green bell pepper, crisp, aromatic, and fresh.
The spice blend develops more thoroughly as the perfume dries down, as if each individual spice is slowly harmonizing with the others. It’s a fantastic spice blend coupled with a smooth ambery, resinous base.
The drydown is mysteriously sexy. Delicately Oriental in nature. I envision a gorgeous Asian woman with long black hair who has just bathed and wrapped herself in a silk kimono. Maybe reminiscent of a Geisha? Sexy but not sexual.
I think Poppy Soma is beautiful.
2151708 – :
Opening not really impressive to me because it is soapy…but the drydown is a nice warm woodsy smell which I enjoy. I don’t get chilli, but the note does say red pepper and that’s more vegetal.
Iruska_www – :
right…i read the reviews before sampling this one and honestly was expecting a show-stopper. I don’t like my perfumes too spicy (yeah, looking at you clove and cumin), nonetheless with Poppysoma i feel massively underwhelmed, no oomph. I admit, the only reason I reached out for this was the chili note which i love and adore in my PG Coze.
Sadly, on me the floral notes are much stronger than the pepper, chili or incense or even the amber altogether. Which is fine, Poppy soma would still be a quality floral in my book BUT alas I wasn’t looking for a sweetened floral. Right, time to stop moping, wipe my tears and thank for the experience.
P.S. The sales assistant said it was so spicy/chilli driven on her that she found it hard to tolerate.
IrriniIncandy – :
Did anyone order the SPICY FLORAL CHURCH INCENSE HAND SOAP? Cause that’s what I get here. Definitely nice and worth trying but guys… IT’S FEMININE!!! I just had to try this one based on the note breakdown but even though it’s women’s, i enjoy this one quite a bit… but no doubt more suited for the wife!! Total BEAST MODE PROJECTION AND LONGEVITY!!
duke nukem – :
Poppy Soma smells like you’ve taken some white flower nectar and reduced it to a thick, gloopy syrup, added some warm spices and resins, and then using the compound as incense.
It’s sweet, spicy, smokey and with a gorgeous, sensual, heady floral note that truly feels both toxic and intoxicating at the same time.
In the opening I can detect something that feels a bit green and fruity, that lifts the scent and gives it an almost edible quality. But overall this fragrance doesn’t develop that much. It smells pretty much the same from the opening until the end, it just gets softer and a bit smoother along the way. And the flower notes fades a little.
I already own and love YSL Opium (which is built around the same idea as Poppy Soma), and I must say that Poppy Soma smells more like opium than Opium. Opium is basically a spice bomb with nuclear strength, and Poppy Soma has a hot, spicy feeling as well. But, as I’ve said, it also has a lot more pronounced floral, syrupy and incensy nuances that kind of takes it to a whole ‘nother level when it comes to smelling like poppies and opium. And it feels a little sheerer and a tad more airy than YSL Opium, which makes it stand out as a more true incense smoke, floating in the air, type of smell. It’s simply stunning!
Poppy Soma definitely takes me to a 19th century opium den, but because of its spicy, incensy quality I’m also getting associations to old temples , with priestesses guarding a holy flame and burning incense as an oblation to the gods. Or maybe even to the oracle of Delphi, who got her visions of the future from inhaling sacred fumes in the heart of the temple.
This scent has won a price, as far as I know. And I have no problem understanding why. It’s a fantastic creation.
Longevity is strong, on my skin I can faintly smell it after 10-11 hours. Sillage starts strong and dries down to a solid medium.
milananata – :
Where’s the grit? As always, my chemistry amplifies one note to an obnoxiously loud volume (in this case, that candy-like tuberose) while burying any intrigue the composition might have had. Styrax? Chili? Labdanum or incense? Nope. Its final death throes merely hint at depth; the chili’s vegetal edge pokes up from under the flower bed but briefly, never fully registering.
About half my lifetime ago, when I was around 16 and before my perfume tastes had developed, I essentially replaced my personality with huge doses of Givenchy Amarige. How anyone else could comfortably exist within forty feet of me (or how I evaded a brain tumor) is an unsolved mystery. This perfume is very much like a modern Amarige; it’s a hefty tuberose grenade, albeit a much smoother, higher-quality one that registers as an operatic high C rather than a slasher movie shriek. This is absolutely not for me but I’d be happy to try the other scents in this line.
Tuberose lovers, you’re in for a treat. Everyone else would be wise to keep this away from the over-spraying teenager in their life.
GarikMerosyan9 – :
This is quite hot pepper and chillies white flora!
It is quite a weird combination! It has that chili hot peppers, sichuan pepper, and few of white floral specially the magnolia, gardenias, and tuberose. I detect incense, styrax, & lapdanum. I can’t detect any musk or roses.
This quite unusual, and I feel like boiling while wearing this and a bit sweaty. It’s not the usual spices and not the white floral dominant, it is spicy hot chilies blend.
Kind of overly chili hot, and I don’t think I’d wear it. I can’t deny that I was pleased when I first applied it on my skin but the colder it goes the hotter it become and then turns chili hot.
It’s just too much.
Gunalase – :
O god, I can not belive I forgot to review this one…
This is a masterpiece, not for everyone, but unbelievable. It is intense, hypnotic, alluring & smooth. Very smokey & very poppy/opium. It is the ultimate evenig-night perfume. It is perfectly blended and it has a smokiness that is completely different from what you can usually find, it is sweet, but in an modern, milky way. It it not to be considered a sweet perfume, but there is a warming sensation to it. Longevity is beast mode, but the silage is just right. Moderate and clear, if it was more it would have been overwhelming I feel, as it really lasts forever… On scarfs you can smell it for weeks.
Poppy Soma has a story to tell and I love that in perfumes. Whenever I smell it I can find a twist to it. I find this to be the perfume for the contemporary femme fatale. Having said that it is completely unisex. Can not really say there are any clear flowers in here for me, it’s a bouquet drenched in ecstasy, high on opium. It is more of a milky incense dance that evolves and lure you into the unknown.
Probably not a safe blind buy. Although if you love dark, misterious orientals this should be for you and if you know Slumberhouse than give this definetely a go. Warning: Your nose has to be very well accustomed to incense for this one.
EDIT: I have been using this for more than 6 months now. I love it, it doesn’t have a season I feel. Also because for me this is my night choice, but with the colder months ahead I might try it as a day perfume as well. Truly unique. I would love to smell it on a man.
KatrinPopec – :
A sticky, spicy gourmand unlike much I have smelled before. It’s almost chocolate. Seems like a really fun night out fragrance.
awableDob – :
Poppy Soma is rich and dark. If it were a color it would be in the hot pink to deep sunset orange range. It is likely to be a polarizing scent because it is so unique. I’ve never smelled anything in the market like it.
This is one of those intense fragrances that I think really shine in extreme cold or heat. It will get you noticed, but I still go with four or so sprays on my skin. Even though it has a muscular oriental vibe, it still smells remarkably modern and linear.
I can see why a good chunk of the population would not be drawn to something designed this way. I mean, the whole Fatales line is based on flowers that kill. I don’t wear it very often and therefore the small bottle is perfectly sized, but when I want an edge during an intense day or night, I’m happy to have it within reach. Everything about this line is well-designed including the presentation. I’ll be checking out the others.