Kit

[Lucchesa]

Immersed in his (eternal) life’s work, holding on to his memories, suffused with a love of life and literature, Kit’s scent is soft and dry as bone: Mysore sandalwood, a tattered and patched 16th century waistcoat, inkstained, still scented with the marjoram and benzoin dry perfumes of his youth.

 

My imp of Kit 2014, generously decanted for me by another forumite, is quite stratified, with brown stuff at the bottom. I turned it upside down for a minute then rolled it gently until the brown globs got smaller and smaller and the overall color more uniform. Then I put it on my wrist. In the opening, there's something about the sandalwood and benzoin combination that almost reads as marzipan to my nose. Looking at the above reviews, I see it compared to Al Azif, and that is exactly my impression as well, though Kit is more complex on my skin.

 

The nuttiness burns off within about half an hour, and the drydown has a warmth and sweetness but also the tiniest hint of something bittersweet -- the marjoram? -- that makes it infinitely more interesting to me. Kit has a little throw (which is a lot for me) and good staying power but still feels airy -- not in the sense of faint, but in the sense of not feeling grounded; it evokes air and fire, not earth or water. The life of the mind. Beautiful.