Initio Parfums Prives are a fairly new French luxury niche perfume house that are making waves in the fragrance community. Absolute Aphrodisiac is more suited for the mature 25-up crowd and best worn in cool weather: fall & winter (avoid use in the high heat). Be careful not to overspray this one. You only need 1–2 sprays MAX or this could become annoying to others around you (it will fill a room!). It is believed that a specific "smoked" aspect of castoreum could be obtained after drying it above the open fire or after "aging". For perfume purposes, alcoholic tinctures, resinoids and absolutes are prepared from sacs dried and crushed into small pieces.

The Absolutes focus on high quality raw natural ingredients that have been blended to create super unique fragrances. The Magnetic Blends Collection Castoreum is a specific fragrant secretion from the castor sacs of the beaver, one of the biggest rodents who live in Europe, Asia and North America. A little goes a LONG way… so, be careful not to overspray… 2 sprays MAX and you’re set for about 6–8 plus hours! Castoreum is mainly produced for perfumery. It has a strong animalic, warm and sweet smell, with leathery nuances, and is mainly used in leather, animalic and chypre perfumes. Canadian beavers do not mind eating coniferous trees. Partly for this reason, castoreum from Russia always has a tar-creosote aspect, and castoreum from Canada has galbanum-coniferous nuances.Now, the star of the show is the rose, and as it dries down it’s joined with a hint of vanilla that leaves you with a beautiful fresh sweet peppery citrusy rose. Later, we can also find it in much more modest quantities in Cabochar Gres, Aramis, Knize Ten, YSL Kouros, YSL Opium, Caron Yatagan, Paloma Picasso, Chanel Antaeus. Very often castoreum is blended with styrax, guaiacol, Peruvian balsam, and cedar essential oil. A usual companion is also isobutyl quinoline (a leather smell).

Side Effect is a sophisticated mature scent more suited for the 25-up crowd and best worn in the cooler weather: fall/winter (avoid use in the high heat). OfG is a mature scent more suited for the 25-up. Listed as unisex (but leans masculine) and best for fall, winter and cool spring nights. Rehab is part of Initio’s Hedonist collection (white bottles). This was a project to source super high quality natural ingredients to create a nearly all natural luxurious blend. Castoreum has some anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects due to salicylic acid and its derivatives, but aspirin, paracetamol or ibuprofen cope much better with these problems. This is super long lasting! Atomic Rose is an EDP and jumps off your skin for the first few hours (up to 6 feet) leaving a gorgeous scent trail.As the name suggests, this is a (unisex) rose based scent and contains a blend of natural Bulgarian rose and natural Turkish rose. Psychedelic Love is more suited for the mature 20-up crowd and performs great all year (except in the high summer heat and/or humid locations).