Perfume Review - Incendere

Incendere by Alkemia.

A late night, early morning post from me, because I just put on Incendere and felt it needed a review. I have read rave reviews about Smoke and Mirrors, Les Mysteres and Miel de Sauvage et Tabac (sorry, can´t be bothered to look them up right now, to late/early for that) but not even one word about Incendere. Yet it is one of three scents from Alkemia that I really have to get a full size bottle of (along with the aforementioned Smoke and Mirrors and Les Mysteres).

I bought this one because I had gotten it into my mind that carnation was a floral I would probably enjoy. You might have noticed that I really hate florals in general, but I had never sniffed a carnation perfume and they were always described as spicy and hot, and that appealed to me. So I thought, why not, it is only a sample. Thank the gods of perfumery that I did because this is gorgeous!!

In the bottle this smells of creamy cinnamon and floral, plus something boozy (the bay rum?). On wet it is strong at first, with hot spices and a sharp floral note that I suppose is the carnation. I believe I can smell black pepper and clove here, my absolute favorite spices, so I´m sold already! Soon the spices calm down and the carnation gets deliciously creamy and soft. For a while it is still definitely floral, but what a lovely spicy floral! Then it happens! When completly dry it turns into the most glorious chai tea! When I sniff this I remember the most delicious cup of chai I ever had. It was at a folk music/world music festival in nothern Sweden. In the festival area there was a cafe, on the outside it looked like a dingy party tent but on the inside everything was covered in oriental rugs. They only served two things in there, that most glorious chai and hookahs. I remember that the tobacco in the hookah was a superb blend of licorice and mint and in my memory the chai smells exactly like the drydown of this perfume. Every time I wear this perfume I´m brought back to that deliciously decadent, exotic place full of peace, licorice and mint smoke and creamy spicy chai...

Needless to say, that is one scent memory that I do not mind at all! I will be buying a full size bottle of this one! The sillage is medium and so is the longevity, about six hours on me. But damn this makes me long for that most awesome of chais. And now I know that carnation is something I enjoy, I´ll have to see to it that more carnation scents come my way! Do you have any favorite carnation perfumes that you can recommend?