Elaborate

This huge perfume is one of the most powerful scents in the Boadicea the Victorious portfolio. A keynote of gum cistus or labdanum as it more often referred to, reigns pungently supreme in Elaborate, creating a petrolic shimmer across the complex, tenacious perfume. Essentially a leathered green musk it is the aromatic equivalent of throwing a malachite stone into a black night lake.

Intriguingly Elaborate has no top notes, plunging straight into a maelstrom of animalic musks and oud, spiked through with the terpenic pine needles. One of the more unusual aspects of Elaborate is how it intensifies on skin, dramatically invading the senses with a ritualistic sensuality. As if that rippled lake suddenly caught fire in the night, a whoosh of perfumed flames illuminating the darkness.

There is a vastness to Elaborate, a radiating musky, intense smell of edgy assignation. The metallic tremors of it growl in and out of a mossy shadowed pine forest, animal trails and hints of smoky weather rise and fall. A lot of the heavy lifting is done by the gum cistus, the sticky resinous rockrose exudes Some of the oils in the plant are highly volatile and flammable, sometimes spontaneously combusting in the heat. It is a tenacious material in perfume, creating robust textured leathered effects. Also, a vital ingredient in amber accords, it is a stunning presence in Elaborate.

Oud is a powerful presence as with so many of the addictive Boadicea perfumes, here tempered by the ghostly saline wash of ambergris tincture. As well as bringing its own unique odour profile, ambergris is also a superb fixative, lengthening the fade of fragrances, something it does with pungent wonder in Elaborate.

If you are looking for a beautiful statement perfume, Elaborate is a sensational powerhouse of a perfume and will intoxicate you.