Description
This was inspired by travelling in the Middle East and India where there is much to celebrate from these ancient cultures. The haunting smells of the spice markets, the Arab love affair with the rose, fragrant gardens, precious woods, resins and incense. Sandalwood, frankincense and Cedar of Lebanon are blended with balsams to provide a complex woody heart. Rose Maroc, jasmine, orris and neroli bring floral tributes from surrounding lands. Citrus fruits, herbs and oriental spices bring nuance from the market stalls and the ancient mysterious opoponax suggests incense with help from frankincense and sandalwood. Deep complex and beguiling – the beauty is in the mystery.
Malax – :
“Souk” is a delight…and deserves to be better-known, I think. It opens bone-dry and spicy, with an ‘airy’ quality rather than a strong or opulent feel. I liked it, but didn’t get excited about it until the middle notes began to come up; jasmine, rose, neroli (and yes, for me those are the middle notes—the scent pyramid above seems partially reversed on my wearing), a very pretty creamy wood, citrus peels for a subtle bitterness, and a fine opoponax note weaving everything together. As it warms up further, sillage becomes more definite and, to me, addictive. Nicely done! References to Andy Tauer’s L’air du Desert Maroccain and perhaps Serge Lutens’ style are unavoidable here; but I don’t know when Souk was released, so I can’t offer an opinion on whether the similarities are derivative or simply a result of the perfumery zeitgeist. In any event, I like Souk, think it well-done, and enjoy wearing it very much. I believe Essentially Me is a natural perfume house, and like most natural perfumes I’ve tested, the scents must be tested on the skin to form a true idea about them—in the vial/bottle, they tend to smell rather similar overall, whilst on skin, they bloom into their own proper, balanced, unique scents.
Sillage is application and temperature-dependent on me; I’d rate it as moderate sillage if applied fairly generously, or light if applied with a light hand. Longevity is pretty good, 3 to 4 hours easily on me, so probably longer on others. Recommended!
Many thanks to Lilybelle911 for her generous gift of samples that allowed me to try the Essentially Me line-up, along with numerous other perfumes!
12345gjkl – :
Lovely creation which starts with zesty top notes, followed by rose and spices and then settles down with woody notes and lingering spices…
I prefer the scent Classique to Souk bearing in mind that they have very similar notes; Classique also lasts on my skin a lot longer…
Big thumbs up…!!!