Opoponax Intense
Ava Luxe

I get a strangely powdery, almost orange blossomscent that reminds me of sunscreen. It's nice and smooth with a tiny bit of incense, but overall just very reminiscent of sunscreen. On my sister, this is pure opoponax and is gorgeous.

Have a sample of this. If you want to smell like an 84 year old grandma, this is for you. When I sniffed the sample bottle, I unknowingly must have gotten a trace on my mustache. I went to the store and kept smelling this and attributed it to an old woman who I kept encountering in the aisles. I felt it must have been her perfume because it smelled like something an old lady would wear. When I eventually applied this the next day, I realized what had happened. Way,way too sweet for my taste. In my opinion, this is for women; no way is this unisex. Awful stuff.

I first tried this one on a June day, & wasn't that impressed with it. I could immediately sense the deep, spicy resins, but in the opening phase these were overlaid with sharply citrussy, hesperidic notes, along with a toffee or chocolate-like accord, possibly from the amber/benzoin. For me this combination conjured up the taste of those dark chocolates with lime-flavoured soft centres, a combination which sets my teeth on edge, & this was not enjoyable for me. On subsequent wearings in colder weather however, this phase is thankfully much less apparent, & it settles straight into the comfortingly rich, smoky opoponax & nutty labdanum that I previously had to wait forty minutes for. This is more like it, & it all lasts a good eight hours before fading.
I would recommend this one, with the caveat that you wear it in warm weather at your peril! I have found it especially nice sprayed on my bedlinen on cold winter nights, & it lasts softly there for days on end.

Clean and gentle, pure with a light spicy and woody open; settles into Opoponax. A good scent for the Gentleman Doctor.

I am very much prejudiced in favor of anything with a strong opoponax note: opoponax is one of the few notes that can pretty much stand alone to make a complete fragrance IMHO. Ava Luxe's Opoponax Intense is not pure opoponax, but it feels like it could be. It is combined with myrrh and frankincense, which gives the opoponax a richly resinous feel. And there is amber and benzoin and balsam to sweeten the mixture. The result is a rich, sensuous, resinous opoponax that is contemplative, sophisticated, comforting, and just plain delicious. It is linear; which is great as far as I'm concerned. It's sillage begins moderate and soon becomes a skin scent; and it lasts forever. This is truly one of my top three versions of opoponax that I have experienced: It's a bit more wearable than Diptyque's Eau Lente; a lot more casual than Les Nereides Imperial Opoponax. And deserves its place in the same fragrance library as those other two excellent fragrances.

Opoponax Intense is primarily a wood scent, yet I get a strong leather vibe from this, probably because of the benzoin. It's smooth, warm, and redolent in balsamic sweetness. There are ambery and incense undertones. This is rich and opulent, and would good layered as well as on its own.