Apocalypstick

Apocalypstick – clever name, stresses out our Spellcheck – is a unisex scent that crushes a handful of red rose petals into hot, grainy tarmacadam for a floral that is anything but ordinary. It starts with a rose note that’s more lipstick than flower, specifically, the waxy rosewater aroma of a brand new Chanel lipstick. The lipstick is set to melt slowly over a pool of freshly-poured tarmacadam, which is when the magic of alchemy happens – the first contact with heat causes the rose lipstick to bloom suddenly into a technicolor explosion of Turkish rose extract, where it rapidly drops all pretence at girlish innocence and radiates with the blood red, sharp, lushness of real rose oil.

The sudden sourness and soaring pitch of the rose note is countered very effectively with the rubbery darkness of the melted tar. The tarmacadam takes the rose down a few notches in much the same way as oud might, acting as a sobering presence in the trajectory of that fizzing, electric rose. The industrial accents in Apocalypstick make the scent feel very modern, even avant-garde, but the rose is no slouch either. In fact, we love the way it brushes past all the old-fashioned nuances associated with the flower and shoots for neon green flashing lights instead. Apocalypstick is slang for going out with your girlfriends to a bar and talking about everything that’s currently the end of the world – but men can definitely wear this urban, non-floral take on rose too. There’s nothing really girlish or feminine about the scent, apart from the lokhoum lipstick topnote and that’s brief. The notes list for Apocalypstick is minimal, but we can safely say that there’s much more going on here than meets the eye, especially in the drydown where a lot of dry, earthy patchouli turns up. Fans of ‘industrial’ scents such as Gosha Rubchinskiy by Comme des Garcons or Asphalt Rainbow by Charenton Macerations might want to take note of this one.

tarmacadam, rosa damascena