Phoenix Steamworks

[starfish327]

I worried a little about this one, metal often turns to screaming and headaches on me

 

In the imp: high pitched citrus

 

Wet: sage, citrus, and amber. Not navel orange, maybe orange and lemon?

 

Dry: the amber pulls back and is just the citrus and the sage. The sage starts fading and I get a nice sweet citrus.

 

I rather like it.

[Aveya]

Source: Forum Trade

Preconceptions: Figured it'd be too weird to wear, but thought what the heck.

 

Bottle Sniff: Leather, and oiled bronze. Huh.

Initial Skin: Mostly leathery cologne.

Drydown: The "cologne leather" accord jumps to "dazzling floral" and back again. Kind of confusing for my nose. But ultimately it settles into an ozone-smoke. Which isn't something you run across every day.

 

Verdict: Fits the namesake. Ozone Smoke over-top gently leathered vanilla skin. Unisex, medium-far throw.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Sweet metal, and a little sage. A little soapy smelling.

 

Dry: Full-blown soapy cologne. Bah!

[Niniel0205]

Initial notes surprise me, it smells almost like urine, like a festival restroom (yuck...). Sort of in the same way that Jasmine can sometimes do this.

I will have to wait a little for the dry-down, but 10 mins after applying the scent has not changed.

 

Edit to add: after about 2 hours, some of the sharpness of the scent has faded which makes it a lot better. However, there is still a hint of the wet scent left and I am not really a fan. Maybe sage is not for me. Also, I don't get metal notes at all as I read in others' descriptions. 

Edited August 19, 2019 by Niniel0205

[SmellsPrettyGood2Me]

Glowing liquid passes through the fogged retorts of ancient alembics, sparks fly from behind a massive workbench, and a cloud of thick incense smoke hangs low, all casting strange and surreal flashes of light and shadow on tall bolted-steel walls. The chug and hum of gargantuan machines echo through the chamber.

Burnished gold and oiled bronze notes with Abramelin incense and sage.

 

"Burnished" is exactly the right way to describe this scent! There is a warm metal aroma that envelops your senses as soon as the bottle is opened, amidst a backdrop of beautiful incense. Unlike actual historical steamworks buildings I have been in, this smells like well-maintained equipment and pipes in actual use; there is no sticky, thick, dirty, old burned-on industrial oil component here at all. The sage, which may have been more prominent when the fragrance was first blended, is fresh here but not overwhelmingly potent. Applied to skin, it gets slightly more metallic, and the sage perks up a bit, but as others have said never runs cold. I had to look up Abramelin incense (the composition of which seems to vary) and get a really nice whiff of some cassia, one of my favorite notes. During dry down, the only note that takes a step back is the sage after a couple of hours. I would consider this to have medium projection, but the longevity is where it really knocks it out of the park; I could still smell both the burnished notes and the incense on my skin the next morning. 

 

Something about it just hits my brain in all the right ways - I love it. The balance between the lighter and heavier notes is perfection. I've become enamored of many of the Steamworks scents since discovering BPAL, and I hope this particular scent can be considered for resurrection someday!