Hey there Perfume Posse! How many Dune nerds are in the house? Spice Must Flow is part of a duet released 2019 and just in time for the holiday season spicy incense wearing perfumistas to get their Spicy Oriental glam on. Recently I reviewed True Lust on Perfume Posse and there are many other ELdO reviews sprinkled through this site if you search. My mate Bronwyn of Gascoigne & King is the Australian importer of ELdO and she gave me this sample to try.
I will be buying a bottle for the name alone. Spice Must Flow is part of one of my favourite books, Dune by Frank Herbert. Yes, I read the rest of them (ONCE!) but Dune is an evergreen re-read for me. I think I’m currently on my third edition because the last ones fell apart.
Spice Must Flow by Etat Libre d’Orange 2019
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cardamom
Heart: Ginger, Turkish rose
Base: Incense
Straight after spritzing a rush of 21st century niche bursts off my skin. Everything seems to happen at once and I’m given the impression of opening an oven and being engulfed in fragrance. You won’t need to put your nose to your wrist for this bad boy, it’s a bold, statement fragrance giving lovely nods towards the 80s mens designer highlights like the ginger zing of Gucci Envy man, the sexy spiciness of CK Obsession Man and the dark peppered clove of VC&A Zanzibar. There’s a woody one I’m missing but it reminds me of that too.
Spicy ginger, smooth herbaceousness and a deep, smoky wood with the coolest, unlit incense are all creating a dense ring of darkness around a blood red rose. I say Spice Must Flow veers masculine but it will smell killer on the girls. Can’t wait to give one of my girlfriends a spritz. I particularly like it through the heart and dry down. Once the initial fireworks subside there is a very pleasing smoothness to the fragrance. It calms in both projection and density after the first hour or so. Still fragrant but less intrusive and more work/life/food appropriate.
Spice Must Flow doesn’t bring anything groundbreakingly new to the table but does give the dark wood/incense/rose genre a new player that could easily become a firm favourite. Most hard baked perfumistas will probably already have something similar in their wardrobes. If this style is new to you then this will definitely be a good choice. Or you might particularly love the Spicy Oriental workings and like to collect them.
Surrender To Chance has a selection of Etat Libre d’Orange you can sample.
Portia XXX
Portia also writes for Australian Perfume Junkies
Oh, yum, Portia! Can’t wait to try this one as it ticks all the
boxes I love (except maybe the rose, but I’ll give in). Thanks! You and Jin have a wonderful holiday!
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A fellow Dune nerd! I carried that book everywhere with me for a year! The fragrance sounds yummy too.
Hi MaggieCat,
I did that with the book Shantaram. People would come up in cafes and on public transport and want to talk about it, where I was up to etc etc. It was amzing.
Portia xx
I prefer to believe that this fragrance will make me smell like Kyle McLachlan. Seriously, though, it sounds fantastic!
Hi HeidiC,
Without having seen it I’m thinking he must have been in the movie? Twin Peaks guy, right?
Portyia xx
Yep! He played Paul Atreites.
Dune!! I have not re-read in ages…
I remember when a few of us in high school were trying to explain to a friend who hadn’t read any of the books that the first one was the real dune and the next couple were kind of…meh. and she was like but what about the rest of them? And we were all in agreement that there were no more. None.
Anyways this scent sounds nice enough to try but not so unique to blind buy. Thanks!
Happy holidays all
Mim, You are so right. In fact, having read all the rest I sent everything except the original book to the goodwill. Mum was horrified.
Portia xx
omgosh! the name brought back BOOK MEMORIES! Love it!
xoxoxo
HA! So glad.
That is AWESOME. The second I saw the name I thought, Dune! What a fantastic book/world.
Heya March,
YAY! Another Dune fan. Yep, I read and reread that book so much.
Portia xx
Would love to have access to them but they are limited editions with no stockist in the US carrying them. You can order from UK at Selfridges or ELdO in France, but their US site doesn’t offer them. Shame, as they sound good, although at 200€ a bottle I’d want to sample first.
@Tara, the Perfume House in Portland sells ELO, but they might not sell samples. Also, I vaguely remember seeing a cute ELO sample set in Sephora once.
Hi there TaraC,
What a shame. Hopefully it gets a wider release later. Pretty sure it’s coming to Australia, so hopefully USA too.
Portia xx