Welcome to the perfume. My scent of the day today is Molecule O1 plus cystus. This is the newest eccentric molecules fragrance, and it is generously gifted to me by the brand.

And if you are in Smell Club this month, you've already smelled it. Or if you were listening to

this on Tuesday when the episode first airs, you might be smelling it tonight. Cistus, which is also

the same thing as Labdanum. It is called Cistis Labdanum and it comes from the resin of the

rock rose is such an interesting note in

perfumery. I find it smells to be kind of stony and leathery, but there's something about it that

feels distinctly like alive, like breathing to me. It's a note that if I were creating a skin

accord, obviously I guess depending on like whose skin and what the vibe of the brief was, but if I were thinking about notes in perfumery that have skin-like smells, this is one that I would use because to me, leptanum kind of smells like clean skin, but at the end of the day.

It's the proverbial nape of the neck.

And to me, that skin smell specifically feels a little

bit masculine. In fact, I think the reason I like this note so much, I think Cistus is what my dad

smells like in heaven if he smells like something. You know how they say, like, once someone crosses

over to the other side, if they had illnesses or vices or scars or

anything like that that sort of plagued them on earth, when they get to the other side,

none of it exists anymore.

Cystus is like what I think my dad's smell like would be on the other side in that like,

if we removed all the stale cigarette smoke that plagued his apartment and his skin and his clothes,

if I boil it down to the things that, like, I loved about my dad, I feel like emotionally it would be like a cystus kind of smell.

Anyway, lucky for all of you, molecule one plus cystis does not smell like my dad.

This scent has such a sort of beautiful, incensey kind of warm pepperyness. It feels festive,

almost Christmassy even, but minimal and understated. And it's smoky, but in like a very distinct

kind of mescal way. There's a leatheriness in here, too, that feels animalic, like less purse leather and more animal hide.

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