SEA OTTER
SEA OTTER
Sea otters fall asleep holding hands so they don’t drift apart during the night; this is my imagining of how they smell in their environment, done as something you might actually want to wear. The immediate opening is slightly animalic-seaweed-funky but after seconds on skin begins to radiate a bracing freshness, similar to standing on the Oregon coast on a cool day. Not a beast in terms of performance but certainly frisky. Unisex, leaning feminine - and on skin up close it has a seriously sexy musky-woody character that lasts for ages.
Notes include lemon, water mint, juniper, seaweed, rose, carnation, jasmine, cedar Atlas, tuberose, mimosa, Cambodian oud, Chinese vetiver, ambergris, castoreum, white musks.
Higher price is because the natural oud oil makes this an expensive fragrance to produce. Because it’s both diffusive and very light-bodied, it can become imperceptible to the wearer, due to anosmia, unless worn far away from the head. Worn on the wrists it can last 24 hours as a skin scent.
There are few fragrances that at once manage to be both linear and have depth, with all parts being on equal footing and visible in both the opening and later stages; but also capable of flipping through each other and "developing" if observed with intent (or a long inhale), only to in a sense go through the dry down in every sniff. Some classic Guerlains can do this, particularly the plunging neckline of the venerable Jicky by Guerlain (1889), which has a dry down likened to the shape of the Eiffel Tower itself, and now so does this scent by Clandestine Laboratories. Of course, this one like Assam by Clandestine Laboratories (2022), comes and goes from availability and also comes at a further up-charge, so it may only be desirable by the hardcore fans with deep enough pockets to go in. At very least you should get a sample to experience the salty fruit rose tuberose oud woody cocktail drink kaleidoscope that is Sea Otter, because there isn't anything else on the Clandestine Laboratories menu like it. Thumbs up.
Varanis Ridari / Scented Devil, Basenotes review
