#gallivant

gallivant:

verb

Gallivant Gdansk

Nose: Julia Rodriguez

notes: plum, honey, saffron, cardamom; sandalwood, labdanum, incense, leather, patchouli, rose; ambergris, vanilla, tobacco, cypriol, musk, styrax

Gdańsk, inspired by the Polish city, is a modern dark oriental, boozy and heavy on the labdanum, conventionally “sexy” in a unisex, velvety way. You are on a date in a bar, sipping $18 cocktails.

There’s a lot going on here. Dark-ominous labdanum, a slug of spice, and a salty-animalic synthetic ambergris note. Then, a few minutes in, the “plum”, in this spice-and-honey context, is reading exactly like a wine-soaked raisin.

at this point, I had a realization: my god, I’m wearing Sexy Charoset.

(If you’ve never had charoset, it’s a traditional Passover dish made of chopped apples, nuts, raisins, honey, cinnamon, cloves, and wine. Surprisingly addictive.)

do I want to smell like Sexy Charoset? Not really, no. Gdańsk is an insistent fragrance: spice AND amber AND booze AND raisins AND salt-sweat. If you thought Musc Ravageur was too over-the-top, give Gdańsk a pass.