Hatria
Angela Ciampagna (2015)

A rich dark fruity-flora, like red wine in a goblet the morning after.
It has the power of synthetic materials - but the theme is archaic, an earthy witches brew full of magic potency.
Hatria is dense and very powerful – and only sold in extrait. Perhaps doing an EdT would be a good idea, I find this gets a bit too much, like Kenzo World - although not quite as bonkers as that.
Even so, it sticks in the nose; handle with care!

If you know me you probably know that I'm not a fan of rose. I have a few samples from this house and just randomly picked out one without even looking at the name and sprayed it on my hand and it's a rosy scent! there is an old proverb (in my country) that it says: “Snake doesn't like oregano but it grows right in front of his house!”. the story of my life! anyway lets talk about the fragrance.

This fragrance opens of with a fresh, semi sweet musky rose mixed with saffron and a little bit of spices completely in the background. I can smell both rose and saffron but rose in definitely stronger and it has a soft powdery aura and they both are fresh but not watery and transparent. they are mellow sweet and warm because of musk and slightly peppery because of some spices that make this fragrance a spring and fall type of fragrance. I'm not getting any oud or woody smell at the start.

In the mid I can smell almost the same thing but now saffron is trying to outgo rose and they are kind of in a side by side race. sometimes I can smell saffron more and sometimes more rose. also scent gets a little warmer and a little sweeter but still very smooth. that spicy/peppery note at the beginning now gets stronger and creates a bitter peppery and kind of woodsy scent beside sweet rose and saffron. Is it oud? I don't know … but it just smells more peppery and spicy rather than woody.

In the base that spicy/woody scent fades away while everything is very smooth and calm. even though now spices are gone I can still feel a bitter smell in the background but now it has an aromatic kind of feel instead of peppery and woody. It's not earthy at all but I think it's patchouli that creates this aroma.

It does smell fine and very simple, safe and pretty but does it smell different from tons of musky sweet rosy and woodsy fragrances for women out there? NO! it just smells very familiar but good thing about it is that it's very well balanced.
Projection for the first hour in good and above average but after that it gets close to the skin but surprisingly longevity is very good and I got around 9 hours out of it.

Hatria takes a traditional rose-patchouli-woods combination and spins it off into an airy and diffusive, almost aquatic direction. A neat trick, as the rose is dripping syrup and is the main player here, the spices (can't really smell the saffron mentioned) a mere murmur, and the woods are likewise subdued. So somehow, despite the bombast of that rose and the density of ingredients, one's nose is still tricked into perceiving this as lighter than it actually is.
But such shadow-dancing aside, what is left? I find the presentation of the rose to be so two-bit and of the cheapo attar variety, and the breath of oud so utterly devoid of mystery, that I offer praise that there's a halfway decent sandal note lurking in the mix. All in all, a ho-hum offering which slightly tweaks the overfamiliar.

Hatria is the line's token soapy rose, but it starts off with dizzying combination of (what smells to me like) grapefruit, berries, spices, burned chocolate, oud, and coniferous items. It's bombastic and overwhelming. Part of what makes it so overwhelming is not just the volume (it is very, very loud), but the discord of bitter rose alongside soap and charred semi-gourmand items that, although they smell edible, I can't imagine anyone wanting to put in their mouths. The degree of discord is akin to A*Men (although this smells nothing like A*Men) in that has a similar visceral effect on me, and it's not a good one.

After fifteen minutes or so, Hatria calms down a notch, but it's still a foghorn of a fragrance; the syrupy rose and the weirdly savory-sweet undercurrent remain intact throughout much of this stretch. It's an dextrous effect, clearly one that's well thought out, but I personally find it too burdensome and too over the top to handle. After thirty minutes or so, it's mainly bitter rose in which the soapier facets surface more and more – and that's where it ends up and stays for quite some time with boozy moments popping up here and there. Once the clattery opening has died off, I find that it's a bit easier to take, but at that point I'm exhausted by it.

This is so far beyond my comfort zone as I generally dislike prominent rose notes, soapy perfumes, and scents that smell like an avant-garde meal. I'd say that it's accomplished and give it credit for being as bold as it is, but it's only going to appeal to a specific audience. There's nothing subtle here; it's screaming from start to finish. Although it doesn't smell modern, it has none of the old-world charm that others in the line convey. If you like screechy Montales, the complexity of older Amouage, and are okay with cavalcade of concepts, it's worth a sniff. Although it ends up as fairly linear soapy rose, that opening is total insanity, which, I'm sure would map onto someone's personality quite well.

Hatria goes on with a light airy rose and watery synthetic Oud duo with just a hint of jasmine support before quickly moving to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the rose turns significantly powdery as the synthetic smelling watery Oud remains as co-star adding lightly sweetened saffron spice support. During the late dry-down the rose and synthetic Oud recede, revealing slightly sweet, moderately creamy sandalwood in the base, turning into the late star through the finish. Projection is average, as is longevity at about 8 hours on skin.

Hatria is one of the most familiar offerings from the artisanal house Angela Ciampagna and one of the easiest to like. As soon as the composition is sprayed on skin the wearer immediately notices the seemingly ubiquitous rose and synthetic Oud combination. The composition distinguishes itself a bit in its mid-section as the rose turns quite powdery, adding in saffron spice not so unlike Aramis' superior Perfume Calligraphy Saffron flanker, but swapping in the powder for the honeyed facet found in the Aramis. To the powder averse like me, this stage was a bit unnerving, though the powder never quite reaches an intolerable level, staying *just* under the bar. The relatively dry, slightly creamy sandalwood late dry-down is a bit mundane, though certainly competent. In some respects that kind of sums up my opinion of the composition is general... Hatria is certainly appealing on some level, but one can't shake the feeling of "been there, done that," and I'll add "done better." The bottom line is Hatria is an easy enough composition to like, but it really is just too similar to other less expensive superior offerings in the crowded rose/synthetic Oud genre, earning it a "good" 3 stars out of 5, but a mild avoid recommendation. If one is looking for a superior rose/Oud composition, I recommend sampling the far superior Thirty-Three by Ex Idolo, or the two "Rose" and "Saffron" Perfume Calligraphy flankers by Aramis before opening your wallet for Hatria.

Hatria represents my first approach with this new quite interesting italian brand. First of all I'd like to underline the immense (carefree and bright) politeness of Angela Ciampagna which is a young talented creative and furthermore a really likeable (and joyful) person. Hatria is a moderately caramellous (especially in its top part) hyper delicate but complex accord of saffron (the note which I first of all detect), rose and oud, overall surrounded by a plenty of aromatic, floral, balmy-spicy and musky nuances (progressively detectable along the gradually evolving articulated process). The central stage of the evolution is still hallmarked by a rosey spicy agarwood presence before a more balmy (somewhat yummy/honeyed/fruity/chocolatey/floral) and sublime light creaminess starts mastering the stage with irresistible delicacy. The dry down is indeed less soapy-vegetal and more subtle, balmy, mild and restrained, something absolutely elegant, discreet, sensual and delightful in its floral-spicy-creamy afforded subtleness. I've in my experience yet tested dozens oud-rose spicy combos around (Montale, Dueto Parfums, By Kilian etc) and I can say that, in spite of many (probably the most part) basically (anyway longly) medicinal, "gassy" or straightforward woody-rosey experiments, Hatria is finally driven (at the end of its evolution) to evolve towards a superbly balmy and spicy state of olfactory sublimation concretized in to "an ostensible agarwood resin effect disappearance". Beautiful for real.