Wednesday, March 09, 2016

Musk Quest, Smooth Operator: Dark Horse by Dame Perfumery

Sometimes you want to kick yourself for not trying something sooner. Dark Horse by Dame Perfumery is definitely one of those scents that I should have tried awhile ago because it is definitely worth your perfume loving time. Dark Horse is a scent on par with Frederic Malle's Musc Ravegeur for across the board sex appeal, man or woman you will smell very alluring wearing this scent. Yet, Dark Horse is a bit more on the the tasteful side, easier to wear. You can wear this in the office and no one is going to accuse you of being showy.

Sometimes a good non-suffocating warm musky scent is hard to come by. Frequently they can veer into a heavy stifling zone with no complexity. They smell good the first hour and then hours later you realize there is no letup. It's a bit like if the Hans Zimmer's trombone section from the Inception music kept going on and on. Sure it sounds cool and then after awhile you are exhausted from the never ending drone. Thankfully, Dark Horse is not that. Nope instead what you get is a lovely woody cider of a musk.

Dark Horse has one of the loveliest clove notes I have smelled in awhile. In fact I would say Dark Horse has one of the loveliest use of spices I have smelled in awhile there is no veering into the medicinal esoteric territory nor into the cupcake land of fake spice. No this is spices with clarity and warmth. Clove is coupled with sweet tangy citrus with hints of cinnamon. All of it is wrapped in cozy wood and musk with hints of sweet vanilla.

You will get wafts of Dark Horse through out the day. At times you will catch hints of roses and carnation, others will hint at the entwining of musky golden amber and lemon. Frequently you will get a spiced woods note that will leave you feeling embraced.

I will say this now if you are a fan of Fendi's now legendary and long discontinued Theorema then I must implore you to try Dark Horse. Is it a dupe no, but they are clearly of the same family of delicious easy going wooded musk scents.

Try Dark Horse if you like Frederic Malle's Musc Ravegeur, Lolita Lempicka's L de Lolita Lempicka, Fendi's Theorema, and Nicolai's Ambre Cashmere Intense. 

First image from Dameperfumery.com
Second image: Viggo Mortensen by Norman Jean Roy

4 comments:

marzipan said...

I have purchased four full bottles of Dark Horse in the past five months...one for my college age daughter, one for my best friend of 48 years (female) one for my mother and one for my father (both in their late 70s) and every single one of them LOVES Dark Horse....it is extremely versatile!

Unknown said...

Very very versatile indeed. It's a great warm spicy woody musk for anyone.

Anonymous said...

Oh, sounds very authentic and cozy - it made me imagine drinking it in a tree-house.

Unknown said...

That would be an appropriate venue for this scent.