aesop: 1 post

Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

A dark spicy oriental paired with a name evoking exotic and distant locales is an alluring combination. Marrakech speaks of the camel trails in the dessert, the noise of spice markets and the opulent scent of nightblooming jasmine hanging in the warm evening air. The romanticism of these images is distilled into the fragrances that comprise Serge Lutens range, however Aesop Marrakech is a raw take, a blast of hot dessert wind, rather than a delicate breeze carrying the scented secrets of the Middle Eastern palaces.

Marrakech, created by Australian company Aesop, is a fragrance composed solely of the non-synthetic ingredients. Spice and wood oils are combined into a linear fragrance that rather than developing from one stage into the next merely fades, its initial burning sensation becoming muted over time. It is a scent that might actually fill a place someplace in Morocco, rather than a dream-like vision of it. Thus, Marrakech is the heavy and pungent smell of the lane where medicinal wares are traded along with attars.

Continue reading →