Antiquity
Areej le Doré (2019)

Antiquity from Areej le Dore. To me, this is the pinnacle of Adam's work. Not only as a composition but also due to the nature of the materials used. Only vintage materials, decades old, impossible to source again, and it definitely shows when you smell it. This one is my favorite from the house, alongside War and Peace. They both smell old, Medieval, and Ancient, although in different ways.
I would classify Antiquity as a Leather perfume overall, but there is much more to it. It does hint at vintage chypres like Mitsouko to an extent, but only slightly, and if there would be any comparison to be made, it would be like if vintage Mitsouko from the 50s had a Medieval ancestor. There is a prominent Oud base, aged oud, old school style, deep and rich, therefore, it could also go as an oud perfume. One thing is for sure. It smells really old. There are supposedly aldehydes in the opening. I get none of that. They got lost in time. I get the peach accord. Almost spoiled peach that goes all the way through the heart where I believe it seamlessly morphs with the Cambodian Ouds' fruity facets to give the impression of an everlasting overripe fruit accord. The heart is dominated by carnation. What better choice than carnation for such a composition? Usually labeled as "old-fashioned", it comes across even more so here, as it is decades old. And finally, the base. Vintage Cambodian Oud, leather accord, lots of musk, and a gorgeous aged patchouli. The wood feels musty and rotten, the leather worn and beaten by the passing centuries, and the patchouli gives off a beautiful dusty-sweet-earthy aroma. The image I always get when spraying this perfume is of an old, Medieval library. With its old wooden furniture, the books with their yellow pages and leather cases, all worn out by the passing centuries.
A remarkable feat to be able to suggest such vivid imagery through smell. Old-world perfumery at its best.

IG:@memory.of.scents

Sorry but this to me was a huge let down. It smells like a corpse surrounded by flowers in a funeral home. I love Russian Adams work usually but this whole collection let me down. I sprayed this in the office , one using the sample set and reaction I got was an unanimous “wash it off now” I wear Hindi ouds to work and have never got such a reaction. Kudos to Adam for been creative but this to me
Is totally unwearable.

On me, Antiquity is a combination of vintage extraits of Poivre (Caron), Mitsouko and Shalimar with a big hit of smoky oud and a thick musky backbone.

On my skin, the hint of effervescent and slightly sweet peach aldehyde lifts up the eugenol and dark patchouli cloud fest to a higher plane for first few hours. The smoky oud, animalic and smoky leather and the chocolaty patchouli that are quite clear from the start, gets more intense after the aldehyde-inflected eugenol tones down. The floaty (but toned down) aldehyde, eugenol from carnation and a medicinal quality of Patchouli (that appears just before the chocolaty and ambery/resinous facet) together gives me an impression that Poivre's clove/eugenol and Mitsouko's peach notes are producing a smoky concoction that is also leathery. It is also slowly adding a Shalimar parfum-like animalic resinous/ambery flair. The overall leather is a beauty that many vintage perfume lovers' seek out. There are similarities with some shades of OEII (in terms of oud, 'amber' accord and musk), Grandenia (musky oud, and patchoulified ‘amber'). For me this is more Cuir de Russie than the ALD6 one.

After three sprays in, I smell like a walking museum.

It's like walking through room 61 to room 66 at the British Museum, where you feel like you are having chats with the mummies of Ancient Egypt.

It doesn't smell familiar, yet it doesn't smell offensive (unless you drench yourself with it). It just smell strange to my nose. It has Kouros like vibe but with an old school aroma.

Longevity and silage are strong.

I don't think it's safe for office, but I wear it anyways with max 3 sprays.

Le Dore – Antiquity (2019)

Antiquity begins with a quite rich, deep and bitter blast, almost as if one is experiencing pure oil concentration. There is no projection – I must inhale from my wrist. First impression is that of concentrated woods and resins, cedar and patchouli, though no cedar is present, so this must be the oud I am experiencing. An odd thing here, because I usually loathe oud (would much rather smell ammonia), but this is unlike any oud I have experienced and is very intensely attractive.

I'm taken back to my father's wood working shop, to the scent of a stain being rubbed into freshly sawn wood. Olfactory memory overload at work here. It is interesting to me that Le Dore uses two patchoulis, an older one from the 1940s for his heart note, and a new one for his base note.

Ten minutes on, the intensity has diminished, and it is fading to a lighter eau concentration. However, there has been no development or deepening in this progression. It remains linear.

The notes of bergamot, peach, carnation and angelica never reach my nose. Would that they had as my imagination, when wrapping these around what I am experiencing, may surely have improved the sensation.

Into the dry down nothing has changed. I get no oak moss, no leather accord, no musk, no amber, just the oud/patchouli concentration. So, a linear and simple impression, which is certainly pleasant and decidedly masculine. It would have benefited from more complexity in the middle notes, to my way of thinking, but judging it for what it is, not what it might have been, I find it to be an excellent linear impression of “woods.”

Certainly the quality of the materials used is stellar in today's perfume world. Recommended for men interested in the woods genre.

As a lover of all things deeply vintage and leathery, Antiquity should be my favorite scent of all time. And the only reason it isn't is because it tends to "vibrate" only in the lower portion of the octave scent-register. In this way it reminds me of Anubis by Papillon. The two frags smell nothing alike, but they both seem to consist primarily of base notes with very few top notes to add lift or a bright dissonance and contrast. The peach aldehyde and bergamot here, last mere seconds before drifting away, so what you are left smelling is a rich and oud-y oak moss that is intriguing in a dark and low-toned way. As the scent lingers on, I am most reminded of vintage Mitsouko (minus the everlasting peach) and Cuir de Russie (minus the florals). Since I adore both of these scents, I find Antiquity quite intriguing, but I am also willing to admit that I would love this fragrance even more if it contained a wider octave range--say one that included some notes above middle C.