one of Gardoni's best fragrances
T. Rex opens intensely caramelized and deep brown, then smoky, then waxy-balmy with delicious ornate florals, and then smoky again, like a bonfire among flowers. Strong Indian-wedding vibes.
There's a *lot* of ylang-ylang, and it's lush, tropical, and quite rubbery. Golden and breathy, backed up with resins.
Then the smoke and resins strengthen, the color darkens from gold to toffee and copper, and we've got caramelized smoky flowers, or spicy floral incense. It's very strong, but I find it beautiful. It's like Gardoni's other incense scent, Lita, with a heavy dose of floral nectar mixed in. Lots of champaca and ylang, lots of humid, heavy, tropical floralcy. Basically this is the most epic nag champa incense ever.
Over the first hour the florals recede slightly and the smokiness strengthens. The tangy, bright-brown incense also turns a bit sharper, more pine-sappy and resinous. By the 1-hour mark, T-Rex is distinctly a conifer-resin and smoke scent; still very strong and fierce, reddish-brown and the perfect balance of sweet and bracingly turpentiney.
By 1.5-2 hours, T. Rex is finally starting to dry out and calm down a little; less reddish amber-resin, more crackly golden incense and woods. (Sandalwood?) It's still quite rich and warm, though, with a lovely golden radiance. And sometimes the pine-sap note comes back and makes it glow red-gold.
I think T. Rex is one of Gardoni's best fragrances, and one of my all-time faves; there are simply no other floral/incense scents this bold and epic. True to Gardoni's usual style, it's an aggro tour de force, merging the complexity of classical perfume with a punchy intensity of flavor the vintage classics never had. Sure, it's too much for some people, but for me it's rollicking feel-good fun.
