Black Calamus
Carner Barcelona (2016)

I've been looking forward to sampling some of the Carner range, with Black Calamus and Drakon being top of the list. For the first time in a while, I'm genuinely excited to try some specific scents. And I have gone a little out of my way to do this - Carner being one of the fragrance companies who make it very clear that the obstacles they meet in providing samples are due to B**xit. SOme companies won't post to the UK, some are obliged to make it prohibitively expensive. These are simple facts. Thankfully, there are some ways of getting around some of this, not least thanks to West London's wonderful Bloom boutique, which has a good range and excellent sampling propositions.

Black Calamus lives up to my expectations. In many ways this is an Occidentalised oud-rose combination, but with all manner of detailing and ornaments. There is discernible vanilla, resins, labdanum, a papery / papyrus note, subtle spicing and perhaps the merest hint of leather. It starts off with an assault of many accords that quickly gives way to the rubbery, plastecine accord of fresh resin notes, and then dries down to a comforting and smooth conclusion that lasts all of the day. Various notes bob and weave in and out the mix and the "development" is more of a vortex - but you do, as I say, arrive at a highly sniffable blend of accessible oud, hardly-there florals and spice, and vanilla in just the right amounts. Very good, sadly very expensive, but there are answers here to the question, "what am I getting for the money?"

A dark, cozy, alluring shadow of a scent, Black Calamus sits somewhere on the spectrum between Tom Ford Tobacco Oud and Serge Lutens La Couche du Diable.

If the singed labdanum of La Couche mingled with the what-remains-after-the-embers-have-burned-out effect of the dry cistus in Tobacco Oud, you'd be close to this.

Peppery spice adds bite while florals add a creamy undertone to its otherwise very dry aroma. Together, the cistus and papyrus together created a parched effect, like burnt wood left in the sun. The frankincense adds a mystical, alluring sparkle, while the labdanum and subtle vanilla hang loosely together like a deconstructed amber accord. The rounded, nutty oud in the base anchors it all in dark, dry woodiness.

All in all, one of the best from Carner Barcelona.