Anabasis
Apoteker Tepe (2015)

BLUF: A style of fragrance that is usually a snooze-fest for me, but this I found exciting. A super clean, grassy, green, minty, clean, clean, clean woody offering, with a very, very light touch of something smoky/resinous (birch? incense?).

Expectations were not high here, but at first sniff I was hooked. In a handful of ways it is similar to another fragrance I also love - Tindrer (Baruti), but this is much more transparent and less compact, if that makes any sense. Anabasis is also much more natural smelling. The perfumer/proprietor of Apoteker Tepe, Holladay Saltz, purportedly makes a point of using some naturals in all her work and having smelled them all, I believe that. For me personally, having both Anabasis and Tindrer might be redundant, but I'm tempted to prove myself wrong. The initial sniff caught me off-guard, because the photo of the bottle on Basenotes has brownish/amber colored liquid (Pavlovian response) and incense and cedar are listed in the notes...but it smells completely bright and green. Turns out that's because it is the wrong photo (instead The Holy Mountain is pictured at the time of this review).

Certainly not a groundbreaking fragrance, but seems to be to be made with quality materials and by someone with a clear vision and skilled hand. Longevity in a vacuum is on the low side, but relative to this genre, pretty on par – about 4 to 5 hours before becoming a skin scent. I admit that the top notes are by far the most compelling part, but I think it's a solid structure from start to finish, the base losing some of that hyper-fresh minty feel and taking on a more familiar woody/musky one.

Recommended sampling if you are bored with the same old fresh fare like I am. Fairly priced at $110/50ml. Thumbs up.

A nice refreshing opening blast that is dominated by a yuzu-lemon fresh-wood combination with a grassy herbal undertone, leads into a drydown that is wood-dominated. The too notes are well done, but the middle phase is a bit less exciting. The base is, frankly speaking, a disappointment, as the standard synthetic musk is singularly average and uninspiring.

The performance is so-so, with soft sillage, adequate projection for the first half, and five hours of total longevity on my skin. A reasonably nice scent for summer if one reapplies it a lot, but nothing special overall; the top notes are the highlights of this composition. 2.75/5.

Just neutral on this. It should be much more than it is. The blurb on the AT website says, "Our Anabasis is adventurous and mysterious, bringing the scent of Eastern herbs wafting through a forest of cedar and pine." So I was expecting a garrigue style scent, lovely herbs mixed with coniferous notes.
This is an adequate and very restrained incense-wood scent. That's it. It unfolds in three distinct stages.
1. Citrus and very light herbs. Pleasant but astonishingly brief, 2-3 seconds. The citrus barely registers and the herbs are feeble.
2. Woody notes. These shift, at times pleasant and at other times like wet particleboard. A bit of mint gives a soapy, slightly fresh aspect here. Not like toothpaste, thankfully. No pine in sight.
3. Light musk and woody incense. The best part of a rather weak offering. This is incense for the timid and shy. Sits very close to the skin. Very faint, despite several applications.