Atman Xaman Eau de Toilette
Lorenzo Villoresi (2018)

Imagine an opulent, decadent soiree in one magnificent palaces, with the women dressed in opressive corsets and expensive jewelry while the men are dressed in their elaborate brocade outfits and their powdered wigs. Magnificent, opulent, decadent, in one word, an amazing perfume. Atman Xaman also has that resinous quality that hints that this is a world that has long been gone.

On that first spritz, you get slammed with spices, tobacco, and leather. The amber is held back and the leather and spices are front and center. It hangs around for a long time until it hits the mid. Now we get the amber which is soft, not overpowering, and still intermingled with the spices, tobacco and leather. The drydown is that beautiful amber with some incense to finish. Atman Xaman just makes you want to wear a smoking and party.

Atman Xaman is a modern tobacco done to perfection: it is a nod to leather tobaccos of the past, but it has an exuberant naturalism and agrestic quality that rivals many modern interpretations. I would go so far as to say that this exceeds so many others in the niche realm—my perfumer's nose detects a generous dose of tobacco absolute, perhaps of the Burley or Virginia variety, and even some liatrix or flouve absolute.

The leather harmonizes with this tobacco so that one can detect either a smoky leather or a leathery tobacco, one doesn't demand dominance over the other. A melange of dry spices lend an exoticism and lift, all balanced so that, say, nutmeg isn't competing with clove, peppers are sheered out with just the tiniest spikes. There is also a subtle aromatic green that runs through the composition.

As Atman Xaman dries down further into the heart, woods come to the fore (vetiver and patchouli supporting this effect), and there is mercifully no overdose of any woody amber aromachem or hackneyed base to disappoint. Villoresi has a true talent for incorporating naturals in a way so that they either run seamlessly within the composition or create an interesting contrast, and this creation surely is no exception. When compared to say, TF Tobacco Oud, we know that here, there was more attention to nuance to TF's tendency to overindulge with their compositions in the attempt to be made more accessible to more mainstream aspirational types dipping their toes into up scale niche.

Certainly one of the finest more recent fragrance releases that it is deserving than so much more attention.

Atman Xaman reinvents HdP 1740 as a sublime Italian aromatic. It's as close to my idea of perfection as fragrances get.

What I get is a blast of immortelle (aka everlasting flower), supported by a hint of mandarin. The immortelle will show a its delicate sandy/sweet-but-not-sweet facet, supported by Villoresi's signature spice blend (mostly cloves, black pepper and a bit of cumin probably, but gladly no crushing cinnamon!). Then, the tobacco absolute will create a royal blend, showing some leather-y undertones. In the base, a thin but very noticeable vetiver will give the fragrance a salty twist (nearly incensy) and, coupled with a hint of amber and musk, will have the tobacco lay on an old Florentine leather couch. The only downside of this EDT might be its modest performance, but it is my guess that the EDP might have corrected that (looking forward to try it).

This is a more masculine take on HdP 1740, that tones down the sweetness but results in being surprisingly moe wearable than 1740. This is the tobacco fragrance I was waiting for a whole fraghead's life, to finalize my 'holy grail triad' of tobacco fragrances, together with Eau d'Italie Bois d'Ombrie and Guerlain Vetiver.

Whaaaat a journeyyyyyy..... Grazie Lorenzo, grazie di cuore!
Cold seasons, 30+

If you like a well blended incense tobacco and liqueur scent then this is it. You can make out all the notes yet its subtle. You can just keep sniffing it.
It is in fact better than Extreme Incense by Montale which was a favourite up to now.
Very nice but its evening wear.

Fragrance: 7.75/10
Projection: 7.5/10
Longevity: 7.5/10

A blaze of dry and mellow spices, seasoned woods, soapy/resinous tobacco, wild herbs and genuine leather for a refined olfactory tribute to the Tuscany's atmosphere of rural chic farmhouses and cozy wood fires of the ancient country cottages on the hills. Musk and smoke compact the crazy elements (prickly spices, hesperides, roots and herbs) of the boisterous dry initial drama (vaguely a la L'Artisan Al Oudh) while a delicious ambery patchouli pairs balmy tobacco in a sort of final more pacified heavenly soapiness (sensual and enveloping). Precious resins provide a final remote wave of antiquity, a whiff of solid roots and childhood-memories of the coutryside's fall seasons. Over the initial Atman Xaman's super spicy (vaguely indie, slightly liquorous, "Slumberhousesque" and burnt sugary) opening (middle way between a spicy/agricole crude Slumberhouse's accord, a boozy/spicy more urban alchemy a la Idole de Lubin and a drier more "accomplished" dusty/spicy/woody twist a la Parfumerie Generale Coze 02 or L'Artisan Parfumeur Al Oudh) tobacco, cistus and amber/patchouli start to become prominent under my amateur mediterranean nose while leather is more evident in a central stage. Woods are everywhere (discreet and barely aged on the side of dry herbs and arcane roots). Resinous elements finally master over the drier ones for a final wisely oriental musky/tobacco-accord. A perfume smelling about agrestic left back traditions, genuine recipes, old roots, dusty books and stout souls of province, a musky smell of coziness and true ancient rituals from the master italian Perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi.