Sanae Intoxicants Nightcap© Sanae Barber

Sanae Barber is a perfumer, nomad, and a storyteller. She was born in Japan and has traveled the world. She settled in Los Angeles and started creating her scents, inspired by her experiences and the California vibe. Sanae Intoxicants are hand-blended, small batch, artisanal scents – manifestations of her thoughts, experiences and feelings.  Her website explains that the scents are “created using only all-natural botanic oils, resins and absolutes, fixed with the finest organic grain alcohol, “Intoxicants” are the result of slow exploration…a highly creative, nearly meditative, process.”

Sanae Barber, courtesy of Sanae

Perfume making started as a hobby for Sanae, but she quickly realized this was her “calling”. Sanae then took classic perfumery classes. “I was introduced to a wide palette of scents that I had never experienced before,” Barber remembers, “and that’s probably what draws me most to this process, that craving for the unfamiliar. Because every scent, brings a new feeling, much like a song or a story.”

Each of her scents tells an intimate tale of her adventures, taken from her memories, emotions, experiences and passions.  Her stories told in scent, woven of the finest natural oils from all over the world, are transcendent experiences, imprinting an indelible mark on your psyche.  These unforgettable impressions harness the power of emotion to transport you to magical places in Sanae’s memory and what your own imagination dares to conjure, through these scented potions.

 Night desert sky via unsplash 

Each wearer has a different, personal experience wearing Sanae’s scents, and that is what Sanae intends – that each wearer, with the help of these elixirs of passion, taps into their own memories, passions and desires as they experience her creations. Sanae Intoxicants Nightcap is one such creation. An intense, transportive experience is to be had with one sip of this daring elixir. One of Sanae’s clients likened Nightcap to “lying naked on a bearskin rug, in front of a fire, drinking whisky and smoking”. Yes, SO MUCH YES! I can see that too.

Fire Splash embers, image via Unsplash

Sanae Intoxicants Nightcap conjures up for me more of an outdoor, adventurous, daring aspect too. Nightcap transports me to an exotic, majestic desert landscape. It is night – the sky is absolutely clear, moonless, and awash with a spectacle of infinite stars.  The air and sand are cool, but in the air is the smell of sunbaked rocks lingering from the day.  I look across the sand dunes and see the faint light of a fire in the distance. I start to walk over to the fire, and as I approach, the smell of burning wood, ash, smoke and ancient resins fill my nose.  It is dry, rich, atmospheric, heady and intoxicating.  I reach the fire – it is intensely hot and welcoming against this cool night air, and it is roaring with gold, orange, red and amber-colored flames reaching into the night sky, and sending shimmering sparks like glitter high into the air to meet the twinkling stars.  I am transfixed.

Cognac, image via Unsplash

A voice pulls me out of my transfixed-by-the-fire state. I look across the fire, and there stands a piercingly handsome man.  He smiles, his white teeth starkly contrasted by his dark, glossy beard.  He is dressed very ruggedly with a leather jacket and has a fur draped across his shoulders – I can tell he spends many nights like this out in the desert under the stars. He comes to me and presses his cheek to my cheek in greeting. His cheek is arrestingly warm, and I can smell him – he is a heady mix of resins, smoke, fire, amber, leather, musk, fur, desert air and shrubbery (perhaps he slept in labdanum bushes last night?). I am transfixed again, this time by his entrancing smell and the fire dancing in his dark eyes.  “I’ve been waiting for you”, he almost whispers, and has two drinks in his hands. He hands one glass to me – I take a sip – its warmed, golden cognac, as deep, honeyed and rich as his seductive eyes.

He takes the fur from his shoulders and lays it on the sand in front of the fire and says “sit”. I sit down onto the soft plush fur; I press my fingers into it – it’s thick and warm in my hands. He sits down next to me. He places a small plate of fleshy figs on the fur. I look at the firelight dance on his intensely handsome face, out at the starry sky and wonder if I am dreaming. Whatever the night holds, this is already turning out to be one very delicious, exciting Nightcap indeed!

Notes:  Firewood, smoke, figs, leather, fur, Benzoin, Labdanum, Vetiver, Musk

~ Cynthia Hunter, Contributor

Many Thanks to Sanae for my truly “intoxicating” bottle of Nightcap; the opinions are my own

photo courtesy of Sanae©

Thanks to the generosity of Sanae Intoxicants, we have a draw for a 30 ml bottle of Nightcap for one registered reader Worldwide (excluding Russia and Italy). You must register or your comment will not count. To be eligible please leave a comment on what you enjoyed about Cynthia’s review of Sanae Intoxicants Nightcap and where you live. Draw closes 2/7/2022

Sanae Intoxicants Night Cap was released in 2019 and was recently featured in our Holiday Gift Guide “True Gifts here

Sanae is pronounces as SAH-NIGH

Please read Sanae Barber’s Profiles in American Perfumery here

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