Silk
Andrea Maack (2011)

Silk opens with a pleasant, peculiar, linear and angular accord of airy and fresh floral notes, crystalline and transparent violet leaves, a sort of impalpable sugar base, aldehydes, something resinous almost resembling to honey, white musks, lavender, labdanum and perhaps other flowers I can not identify better. All of this is "encapsulated" in an ultra clean and soothing ambiance, like watching things behind a frosted satin glass, with a bold silky and sharp feel. Clean cotton on pale skin. Subtle chemical-rubbery aftertaste. After approximately one hour it emerges better the calone heart, with a range of nuances from metallic to green-fruity and floral, talcum (so dry and austere it almost resembles to chalk), and from earthy notes to what Darvant correctly refers to as "pollen", which I also smell clearly. Quite fascinating, to smell with calm and attention, as it can be mistaken for a generic "minimal" scent while instead it is better crafted and with more peculiar and "new" components if compared to many other scents in this family. A slight sinister and shady side emerges on the very drydown. A bit close to Chamarré by Mona di Orio, especially for the "chalky" note. Interesting!

7,5/10

The more I test the Andrea Maack's creations the more I genuinely appreciate this wonderful brand with its conceptual, minimalist, aldehydic, abstract, assertive, translucent, suspended in time, "muffled" and almost "hyperbaric" experiments (based over the scheme of the opposites juxtapositions). After Dark (a sinister aldehydic "dark/diaphanous" rose), Craft (a meditative aldehydic take on frankincense) and Sharp (a weirdly smoky, dissonant, mineral orange blossoms potion) finally I test Silk namely an incredibly earth/papyrus centered floral experiment in which the initial dazzling (aldehydic) violet/freesia/magnolia almost otherworldly connection (more ethereal realistic freesia than violet) is joined by a prickly/earthy, papery and woody smooth powder encapsulating a vegetal/floral feeling of nectar. Soft amber and a distant lime undertone complete the painting. What does finally Silk smell like? It smells about an avant-gard mixture of milk, nectar, pollen, dry wood, vegetal lymph and light (almost sinister) floral patterns as the aroma you can probably catch in front of the Heaven's Doors.

P.S: the dry down becomes more properly floral with a creamy, slightly powdery/dusty and still slightly earthy sort of jasmine/freesia/mimosa aroma (with more than vague Lancome Poeme's olfactory conjurations).

Silk is a fitting name for this soft, creamy-powdery spring floral. It's decidedly sprinlike, but in a softly dew-cool way - there's nothing bright or sparkly or sharply green about it. In fact, it's almost a little nauseatingly flat or stale compared to Diptyque Ofresia, which is otherwise the closest resemblance I can think of. The freesia seems to dominate rather than the violet, at least on my skin. There's a slight earthiness about it that reinforces the springlike feel, but it's very clean and refined - it doesn't actually smell like moist dirt, like some patchouli-heavy perfumes. Already having - and preferring - Ofresia, I don't need this, but it's a pleasant scent nonetheless.