Anubis
Papillon Artisan Perfumes (2014)

Dry and harsh, smells like burnt clutch initially before the nuances show up.
Artistic to say the least, this is not about pleasing the senses with fluff but rather with jarring materials.
I cannot say that I love this, but it is worth a sniff.

This excellent fragrance has nothing at all to do with Guerlain's Songe d'Un Bois d'Ete which I own and love. That is Wasser's attempt at a provocative oud, Anubis is a marvelously dry, dusty, leather incense that lasts all day. It is genuinely surprising, if not particularly difficult. At worst it has a gothic, ren faire, costume-y vibe. At best it is my favorite fragrance, textured and endless.

Suede, incense resins, creamy woods, saffron and immortelle (aka cumin flower), with other supporting florals. The base will unleash some more florals and immortelle.
To my nose stands in between the creamy/saffrony myrrh of Guerlain BM/Songe (as others have noted) and the incens-y suede of the less popular Edward Bess Genre (that I casually received a couple of days before this one, and it struck my mind as soon as I tried Anubis).

While it made sense when it was released in 2014 as a 'twist' on Songe d'Un Bois d'Ete (released 2 years earlier), the price tag is now improper in views of the alternative options available in particular given Bois Mysterieux's honest price tag. To each his own, but as far as I'm concerned I'll stick with Guerlain's and Bess's, that I found both more satisfactory for my tastes, independently of the price. Thumbs down, due to lack of originality - inexcusable at that price point.
⁝

This is a simple subtle honey and chocolaty woody scent, good longevity but stays quite close to the skin. If you like this kind of thing then it is outstanding. Not for me though.

Scent: 7/10
Projection: 6/10
Longevity: 7.5/10

A high quality artistic scent. Perfection.

This is my go to scent when searching for something otherworldly or ethereal. Rich and thick beginning with ideal leather notes sweetened with immortel, labdanum and frankincense... Incredibly pleasing from start to finish for those of us who like high quality, artistic and unique perfumes.

Asian acquaintances mention I smell like temple. Mission accomplished!

Good work from this house!

Note: I noticed that the liquid does evaporate in the bottle. Perhaps some tweaking in design is needed

Edit: I'm not sure what happened. After I used my sample and bought a spray decant, Anubis became less lovely, less floral, more harsh. The great floral at the heart didn't hang together, and the harsher elements prevailed. I've had this experience several times when switching from dabbing a fragrance to a spray, of liking the fragrance less. The experience shows, I suppose, that there is a perfect concentration and application-style for some perfumes. Unfortunately when I opened the decant and dabbed from it, it still wasn't the exquisite creation I remember. So is there another variable? Air perhaps? My nose? I'm leaving the review below intact for the time being, though I may need to change it.

I thought this might be yet another incense, wood and leather fragrance, which I love in principle but can be a derivative genre. Or loud. Or clumsy. Or lacking vision. Or not my cup of tea. I wasn't prepared for its big, beautifully blended jasmine/immortelle component which made it smashing. The magic dance of its floral and earthy accords gives Anubis mystery, depth and richness. It's as if this was an alchemy I was always longing to happen with this type of fragrance, but didn't know it. When the topnotes started unfolding, I instinctively said “Yes”. There's a roundedness that's satisfying and balanced, which you don't always get with all those earthy elements, and feels fleshed out and whole.

The part I liked best was it's leather - simply beautiful. The florals gave such grace and beauty to the leather, and the leather gave such human, earthy resonance to the florals.

Anubis has a somewhat close but strong sillage for two hours, turning into more of a skin scent after three hours, though it's still quite smellable from 6-8 inches away. And when I moved I could smell its light sillage. It stayed at this level the rest of the day, becoming enjoyable in its soft resin, wood, incense, leather and floral drydown, because it didn't become simplified or stripped down. In particular, I'm pleased it didn't devolve into oud, or it would have made it less. Anubis feels like somewhat of a classic to me.

big thumbs up on this one...for me, this lies somewhere between the smell of resins coming from an ancient tomb or sitting in a wooden cathedral with huge billowing clouds of incense...thick, rich and opulent...can almost feel a physical presence of a wall of fragrance...for me this is incense, resins , suede and some woodiness...and that's all it takes to make me very happy...and a nice smoldering smoky overall effect...full bottle worthy to me...The only minor complaint I have is that I wish it had more of a powerhouse projection and a longer shelf life....otherwise, excellent...

Massive suede & frankincense shows up first. Big sandalwood and labdanum follows. Primarily, I get leather. I smell a tiny bit of flower; not much. Lots of saffron appears. This sweetens up a bit later on, on the skin, with jasmine and immortelle. Anubis is a dark, brooding, masculine, furry animal.

Anubis is the second perfume I'm trying from Papillon, after Tobacco Rose, and like Tobacco Rose, Anubis is very provocative and strong.

Certainly the main players here are the olibanum and myrrh, as the incense aspect is perhaps the most dominant, but the olibanum is subdued in part by being combined with the animalic suede, lovely floral immortelle, and mysterious saffron. I'm not intimately familiar with pink lotus.

This certainly strikes me as a fragrance that could work well for both men and women in the cold weather. Incense, myrrh, suede, and the slightly sweet immortelle.

At 50ml for $160, the price tag matches the quality, so this largely comes down to whether you love it or not, and I'm not quite sure if I do. I much prefer the myrrh combined with vanilla in, say, Imaginary Authors Memoirs of a Trespasser than this, though the immortelle has the added effect of keeping Anubis rather unisex. Certainly one to be worn in the cold weather, as well.

7 out of 10

The genre of woody/smoky perfumes is having a moment these days. Unfortunately, many of these perfumes start with a disadvantage. A glut of aromachemicals hastily produced to fill the oud-gap that manufacturers are trying to convince us exists has lead to perfumes overdosed with ear-splitting synth-oud bases. Characteristics of these perfumes include density, a lack of topnotes, longevity and minimal evolution. Their motto is a variation on the advice, “walk softly and carry a big stick.” They urge you to carry a big stick and bludgeon everyone in your wake. It's a genre that conceptually and olfactorily turns me off.

My mistake was to lump too many perfumes into this category, the case in point being Anubis. I bundled the fumes made principally of synth-oud base and the ones smartly calibrated to achieve a smoky darkness into the same category. Based on my dislike for many of the perfumes that comprise the genre I neglected to distinguish good from bad. I threw the baby out with the bathwater.

This all happened in own head, of course. I have written about the traps of mistaking opinion for consideration and I should take my own advice. Fortunately, with the exception of Hard Leather, I kept my thoughts to myself. I lumped Anubis in with Orto Parisi Stercus, Naomi Goodsir Bois d'Ascèse, Masque Milano Montecristo and LM Parfums Hard Leather, four perfumes, two of which are dense but balanced, two of which I find grossly out of whack and make my ears ring. I will leave it for you to decide which is which.

It's Salome that made me see Anubis in a different light. That and a long hike on a warm day.

If you heat up the bad examples of the Grim Genre (or The Heavy Smokers, my two nicknames for the genre) you'll burn off the lighter materials and be left with the synth-oud skeleton in short order. I've tried them on some hot, sweaty days and in the end I was left smelling like shit. Literally. I recently basted myself in Anubis and went for a hike in the desert. The gasoline-jasmine bloomed, the incense was shot through with a smoky breeze and the drydown made me want to lick myself. While dense and smoky, Anubis is also ambery, leathery and nuanced. Quite the opposite of the grim synth-ouds, Anubis is built for skin. The floral connection to Salome helped me see Anubis in a different light and I did another Anubis-hike the next day. A little Anubis goes a long way and a less concentrated dose (ie. sprayed from a distance) helps the layers unfold more evenly. It's less smoky but more resinous this way. The gasoline-floral quality, my favorite aspect of Anubis, rises more clearly to the surface.

Whether I was right or wrong in my initial take on Anubis is something for me to keep in mind, but the bigger point is that a well considered perfume can make you work for your pleasure. Taking a risk, targeting a small audience, polarizing your audience. Ambiguity. Marketing theory might tell you that these are guidelines for failure. I disagree entirely and apparently, thank god, so does Liz Moores.

Moores took the risk of making a perfume that polarizes her potential buyers. But she also created a perfume that I came back to over the period of a year or so. In the end, she won me over.

The opening blast introduces the core of this creation in the first moments: leather and incense.
The leather is that if a freshly polished shoe - I sampled is after applying Saphir to my shoes and the scent was a seamless continuation of my morning activity. The incense is darkish but not brooding or somber. I can see the similarity with Cuir Ottoman; Knize 10 has much more gasoline, TF's Tuscan Leather is heavier and a bit sweeter and Anubis has a dark lavender undertones that singles it out amongst the leather crowd.

The other component that develops in the drydown is a fairly well done saffron - unusually dark with a touch of rooty earthiness - just a touch; this is not a brighter saffron à la Sultan Safran. Flowery hints - immortelle mainly - come and go, but the leather remains until the end.

And this end does not come soon: moderate sillage, very good projection and the longevity - sixteen long hours - this is truly tremendous staying power!

Indeed a nice and powerful olfactory winter warmer, well executed albeit not a beacon of creativity. Still - a good scent. 3.25/5.

I give Anubis a thumbs-up because it smells so wonderful to me, but wow, does it fade fast on my skin. I only get 2 hours of glorious leather, smoke and incense before it turns into a faint hand lotion-y nothing. Anubis is not known for its longevity, especially compared to Papillon's most recent release (the powerhouse Salome), but even so, most reviewers seem to get several hours from it - which is another reason for my positive rating: I think my experience is unusual. If Anubis lasted as long as Salome does for me, it would be one of my favorite fragrances - it's rich, mysterious and dense while it lasts. Sigh.