Strong, Fiery, and Direct

Top Notes: Lemon, Bourbon, Black Pepper

Middle Notes: Vanilla Pods, Brushed Suede, Oakmoss

Base Notes: Damp Patchouli, Cedarwood, Amber

I'm trying out a new method for AWTA. I want to start spotlighting a single perfume first, before giving you guys layering options and descriptions. So today we're going to be to talking about the Just Juice Bourbon Smoke UNISEX fragrance, found on Amazon.

Please read What is Anosmia? How do I live with it? to get a full understanding of the concept of this blog and how I go about "smelling" as an anosmic.

Don't judge me, this is clearly tea in a shot glass 😭, but I didn't have any bourbon, and I also had to do a review on this fragrance for a campaign, and I waited until the last minute. So I had to make do with what I had 😭

Initial Dry Down:

You're immediately hit with a very strong, smoky, and spicy masculine fragrance. Think of a bonfire kind of smoky. The spice is like a peppery spice that can have a cinnamon-like smell to it, but it's peppery. As it begins to dry down, the sweet notes do appear, but it’s a very subtle after-scent. It's a soft, faint vanilla sweet scent that appears. When it comes to being a masculine fragrance, you don’t smell like a man; you just smell bold, empowering, and strong, instead of flowy and dainty. Think Miranda Hobbes in season 1 of SATC in her suits in the middle of autumn.

2 Hours In:

The fragrance is still giving a warm and toasty aroma. There's also that bourbon woody smell still lingering, but it's not as strong. It reminds me of cinnamon apples with that sweet, spicy combo, but there's more spice. This is something you can definitely wear to an apple orchard, pumpkin picking, a bonfire, etc., any sort of outdoor fall activity. It’s a spicy autumn day in a bottle.

5 Hours In:

It still smells warm and smoky. There's still that warm cinnamon apple smell, but let's talk about my experience with the fragrance outdoors. I learned something new about how noses work.

While outside, I couldn’t smell the fragrance at all! Which is new to me because typically, I could smell most of my fragrances outside. However, I have to acknowledge anytime I could smell my perfume outdoors, they were layered and not a single fragrance on it's own, so that could also make a difference. Despite all of that, I did learn that this is actually normal due to our brains adapting to scents and filtering them out. It’s called the olfactory adaptation. So it will mute out scents like our perfumes or lotions to adapt to the smells that are outdoors or in new environments we're in. Even though in those moments or settings we may not be able to smell our own perfume, a stranger will be able to smell it. For the same reason, we cannot. Olfactory Adaptation.

8 hours In & Final Thoughts:

Once the fragrance fully settles, it smells warm and spicy still, but it’s soft. It's not as bold as it was in the beginning. The spicy notes are the most noticeable of any other notes in the fragrance. It becomes more of a feminine fragrance now in the sense of energy, intensity, and impressions.

Final thoughts:

If you remember or still chew Big Red gum, that’s what this perfume is like. It takes you on a similar journey when it comes to experiencing this fragrance. The first 1-5 hours are like the first 5 minutes of chewing that gum. You’re hit with all the flavors: spicy, warm, strong, fiery. Then it mellows out in those areas the more time passes (just like the more you chew big red gum, the more the gum's flavor settles). Your nose adjusts and adapts with the fire & spice; it becomes comforting rather than intimidating.

Thank you all so much for reading. I will see you in my next blog post.

Signed,

The Anosmic Alchemist. 

Below, I have listed layering suggestions and lotion/body butter that would work well with layering this fragrance. I have layered this fragrance with some on the list, and a blog post will be coming soon with the wear and descriptions.

Potential Layering:

• KAYALI Fragrances:

Invite Only,

Lovefest Burning Cherry

Smokey Oud

• Zara:

Ebony Wood

• Forvr Mood:

She Was Here

NDA

• Mixbar:

Mixbar Vanilla Bourbon

• TPH

TPH Vanilla Body Mist

• Lotion:

TPH Vanilla Body Butter