Notes: petitgrain, cypress, lemon, apricot, immortelle, butter, cardamom, chamomile, juniper berries, sandalwood, milk, salt, and tobacco leaf.

Selperniku was the first sample I sprayed when I got my January Scent Project sample kit. Even on the JSP paper test strip, it smelled so strange at first sniff! I was both put off and intrigued at the same time. Just looking at the list of notes, you can tell this is not your typical crowd-pleasing scent. It would never be a mainstream designer release. Scents like Selperniku make me so happy and grateful for the indie perfume scene, because smelling Selperniku is really an experience.

I get that dairy/butter smell right away in the opening. This is not buttery as in creamy (like the way we would describe a buttery Chardonnay). This is real butter. To me, it smells like Kerrygold butter. It’s salty as well, and I can actually visualize the sea salt sitting atop a pat of perfectly yellow butter. I have to say, wearing butter as a scent is extremely odd. It’s distinctly different from wearing a scent with a creamy or milky note (I have Jo Malone’s Sweet Milk cologne, for example). Selperniku is not almondy or powdery, which is the route many milky scents take.

The composition begins to develop on my skin after about an hour into wear time. This is where I feel I can actually wear this scent, rather than feeling as though butter is wearing me! All of a sudden, Selperniku is aromatic. I sense green cypress, zingy cardamom, and a slightly bitter petitgrain. This is where Selperniku radiates a little bit off my skin and I get some projection. This part of the composition really balances out the butter opening, which is rather dense. I appreciate the balance.

The apricot note appears around 3 hours into wear and anchors the composition for the rest of wear time. I also have a sample of Vaporocindro from January Scent Project, and I smell a bit of Vaporocindro here, right at the mid way point. The tipping point from the aromatic green cypress over into the apricot smells like Vaporocindro to me. I’m not sure exactly why, because those notes don’t overlap between the two scents, but I’ve gotten that sensation multiple times now. The main thing is that like picking out connections between different scents from the same perfumer and the same brand. It makes the brand feel cohesive.

Selperniku lasts around 6 hours on my skin. I’ve discovered that it lasts much longer on my clothes and my PJs in particular. Luckily my PJs don’t smell like butter! Rather, the last vestiges of Selperniku smell like faintly sweet apricot and something slightly herbal. Perhaps the chamomile note? It’s strangely comforting. On my skin, a milky dairy note comes back during the dry down, however, it’s not butter. It’s much more like a typical creamy milk note. I have a milky serum from Kypris that I use on my face. The texture of Selperniku’s base is exactly like this serum: milky, substantial, but not too dense. And even though the apricot note is still there, it’s not gourmand at all. It’s such a fascinating composition.

I wouldn’t wear Selperniku every day. I don’t think it’s intended to be that type of eminently wearable scent that you can find at any Macy’s counter. Selperniku is something else. And yet, it is also wearable! With notes of butter and salt, it’s remarkably wearable on the skin. Like haute couture, Selperniku is a piece of art that you can wear. I will say, this scent more than any other scent I’ve tried recently, absolutely must be sampled. Do *not* blind buy! I can imagine the butter note coming across very differently according to skin chemistry. Luckily, John Biebel makes it easy with the sample kit.

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As I’ve stated, my Selperniku sample is part of the JSP sample kit that I ordered a couple of months ago.

The list of notes is via Fragrantica.

The photo of my sample and John Biebel’s Selperniku mini art poster was taken by me.