Elixir pour Femme
Roja Parfums (2019)

Elixir kicks off with the panache of a classic, with hairspray aldehydes over flowers - mostly green muguet and lily at first, then replaced by peachy rose as the lilies fade into a green background hue.

At this point, Elixir kind of loses me. I was hopeful for a classic-smelling aldehydic chypre, but ended up with a typical peach/cassis fruity floral. Hours later, it gets soapy. I was hoping for a proper luxe Roja Dove base, but at this point, it's so deep in celebrity scent fruity floral shampoo territory that it would take a miracle to win me back. Oh well....

The opening reveals a garden of fragrant flowers, with a bright rose and lots of muguet. This is mixes with an ylang-ylang that is a bit creamy but not heavy and blends in well. A bit of a ripe peach impression adds transient fruity moments, assisted by a discrete raspberry. Whilst touches of tuberose and and geranium come and go, touches of heliotropes add hints of spice in an otherwise rather spice-free affair.

At a later stage a dark violet is added - mainly the leaves, but then woods gradually start to arrive and dominate to floral side increasingly. I get cedar mainly, some sandalwood with touches cashmere wood and whiffs of oak. An ambery orris root adds touches of spice - but this is the only spice I get, and a rather faint one it is indeed. Whilst the florals supplied the sweetness of this creation at an earlier stage, now a vanilla and faint note of cinnamon add their sweet share to the whole. Restrained white musks are detectable towards the end.

I get moderate sillage, good projection, and six hour of longevity on my skin.

A rich flora with a subsequent woody phase, made of good-quality ingredients, with a lively balance with a pleasant sweetnesss that is never cloying or intrusive. 3.5/5