Celtic Fire by Anastasia Brozler for Union 2012

Hello Fragrance Buffs,

This crew started up last year and they are getting quite a following. Unfortunately I can’t get into their site to get more info.

EDIT: From the Union Fragrance site thanks to Val the Cookie Queen: Anastasia Brozler is Union’s gifted and passionate Creative Perfumer. Anastasia’s background is in bespoke perfumery, creating personal scents for a coterie of international clients from princes to ballerina’s, actors and politicians. She has established a reputation as the woman that can achieve the impossible from re-creating the scent of your favourite car to that of your grandmother’s handbag!

Celtic Fire by Union 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accord:
Top: Oak, balsam fir and pine needles
Heart: Marmite (unnamed on Fragrantica)
Base: Birch, myrtle and peat

Righto! Before we start to talk about the fragrance the bottle looks AH MAY ZING in the photo and I am tempted to lash out and grab myself one before I’ve even tested how good the juice is. I KNOW!! Outrageous.

Sometimes when a fragrance arrives, and I grabbed this decant from SurrenderToChance in a Weekly Chance Special, like Celtic Fire did today I am unreasonably excited. Having read loads of reviews when the brand launched last year and most of the scentbloggosphere was going completely SpazLaLa for them and falling over themselves to add platitudes to praise, I now am at a fever pitch. Honestly, this is not a good way to start a fragrance experience.

Photo Stolen pbase

How did it smell and make me feel? Smokey, like, bonfire BarBQ and charred meat: Birch-tar-y like freshly treated leather hides awaiting stitching, The pine needles pass me by but there is a mulchy, freshly turned earth, sexy gardener sweat accord at the start that has a curious sweetness and the heart is almost pretty and not nearly so aggressively manly. Marmite? Like Vegemite? Really? A salty, tangy, sweetness that I suppose, with auto-suggestion on, you could call Marmite. It makes me feel interesting and alluring, not because it’s sexy but because it is so far removed from what people smell like, so to smell like this is enticing. I do get slight reminders of Interlude Man but not the moaning ecstasy that it engenders. I would be extremely comfortable wearing Celtic Fire and have enjoyed wearing it over two days, before and again after getting ready for work. My decant is dry.

Celtic Fire softens considerably after the first 2 hours and becomes a smell of bushfire or bonfire night on your clothes. It is murky, sweet, smoky, animalic and still very beautiful. Staying like this for hours and hours and I can’t pinpoint its leaving because it has become me so slowly. I am surprised that no one has commented on Celtic Fire over my two days of wear, maybe it doesn’t project as far as I thought?

So even though I was in a fluster of over-excitement it didn’t diminish my enjoyment, Celtic Fire has passed with flying colours.

Further reading TheBlackNarcissus and TheCandyPerfumeBoy
Available online at Selfridges (100ml/£125) and HenriBendel (100ml/$185)
SurrenderToChance starts at $5/ml

Did you try this line yet? And??

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx