In the bottle: Holy anise, Batman! As a person who loves both anise and Absinthe, even I was taken aback by this, a little. The first scent is strong anise, followed by the wormwood. To be honest, I don't smell anything but those two things at first sniff.
Application: Anise is still very strong, but the wormwood is making itself more known.
5 minutes after application: Hot damn, but that does smell nice. The anise mellows a lot, and the cardamom and mint lightly come to the surface. The fragrance is very crisp and green, much like the liquor itself. It smells very clean.
1 hour after application: The same as 5 minutes after, which is just amazing. I have very acidic skin, meaning a lot of scents morph and get weird on me. This is the same as when I applied and it just smells so clean. The anise is still present, but very light and doesn't scream "black licorice."
I was pretty skeptical of this fragrance when I first smelled it, but it is now one of my favorites. It's one of the very few fragrances that has both staying power on me, but I don't feel like I'm swimming in a cloud of fragrance. I've also gotten several compliments on it, which is great! <3