Kilian Angels' Share Perfume Review
Kilian Angels’ Share Eau de Parfum is rich, fruity cognac tempered by oak woodiness drenched in buttery sweetness and a hint of cinnamon spice. The opening gave me the impression spiced, caramel apple with a darker, boozy bent, and the sweetness tempered as the oak blended with the cognac. It’s a gourmand scent, through and through.
The brand listed the notes simply as “cognac, tonka bean, and oak wood,” but in its longer description, it noted it opened with “cognac oil, upon a blend of oak absolute, cinnamon essence, and tonka bean absolute” with “long-lasting notes of sandalwood, praline, and vanilla,” which I’ve broken down into a note structure:
- top notes: cognac
- heart notes: cinnamon, tonka bean, oak
- base notes: praline, vanilla, sandalwood
It opened with a boozy, caramel spice scent that was rich in fruity sweetness. The cinnamon spice gave me the illusion of my mom’s apple cake, which is drenched in liqueur and paired with spices like cinnamon, but the cognac’s fruitiness was deeper and broader than just apple. It was really cognac through and through for the first 15 minutes from application before the oak emerged, which tempered the sweetness by adding more nuance and depth to the fragrance.
Angels’ Share felt like it literally warmed up on me over time, and it got spicier and woodsier over the next hour of wear but still the cognac was the star. The drydown still had a fruity, slightly boozy element to it but was blended and smoothed out by buttery vanilla.
For testing, I had a 1ml dab vial sample, which was applied to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm using half of the vial. I use an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise. It was extremely long-lasting (over 12 hours and was still detectable as a skin-scent) with heavier sillage and projection for the first few hours; it was definitely a scent that wafted up as I walked, even just dabbed on my wrist.
Subjectively, I enjoyed it quite a bit, though I’m not sure it’s something I’d reach for and wear enough to justify purchasing a bottle of (I wish there were more petite sizes available directly from brands!). I think I have a fondness for cinnamon-apple kind of scents, even if Angels’ Share was fruitier and sweeter than just apple, and it put me in the crispness of fall (well, my winter, I guess, here in Phoenix) with its warm, cozy, and gourmand scent. It does make me more excited to try Apple Brandy at some point!
While I tend to prefer much darker, woodier scents on the whole for fragrance, I actually love a good gourmand scent for body wash, owing to a long love for philosophy’s many food-inspired options over the years. A lot of that is because it creates a lovely, gourmand scent in the shower but doesn’t linger at all, so it seems I am, generally, pleased by gourmand scents… in small, short doses, and Angels’ Share has significant sillage and projection compared to many perfumes I’ve tried in the last few months.
Available Sizes
- 50 ml for $195
- 250 ml for $700
- 50 ml (refill) for $155
I wanted to sample this so bad when I saw Sephora carrying it for the holidays, but my physical Sephora location never got it in so…. Yeah. I appreciate your review! I’m not afraid of a good gourmand (I just avoid the gross, cheap “all sugar and nothing else” versions that are so popular). I am however afraid of blind buys – especially expensive blind buys – because my success rate with perfume is so low, even among houses where I can find big winners.
Your reviews make me want to try new (to me) commercial fragrance so bad but it’s incredibly difficult to get samples. Some perfumers don’t offer them, force you to pay shipping, only offer sets with additional fragrances that are “hell nos” even without trying, etc… It’s tough for me to pay $5 (or more!) for a wee sample vial of a fragrance plus shipping. Especially, again, with such a low success rate.
I totally get you! Looking at the baby vials and knowing they’re $4-12 a pop, it feels so expensive… but then I remember how expensive buying scent-unsniffed and THAT is awful. Decanting sites like LuckyScent and ScentSplit have a good variety, though definitely not all brands.
I’ve only encountered a few fragrances that ended up being unpleasant to wear, thankfully, but if I had your success rate, it’d be more frustrating to buy samples and not have them work at all!
Yeah, I guess because my success rate is so low that at the end of buying samples I just feel like I’ve wasted that money, you know? Could’ve bought something I truly loved instead!
I don’t browse a lot of perfume blogs and skim indie reviews on reddit, but having these posts as part of my daily views I just might get a little more adventurous. Just like with makeup, having a solid baseline to draw conclusions from is just priceless. I know, more or less, what you like and how it compares to me and my likes; and that’s a great place to start!
This sounds more like a delectable, scrumptious dessert than a fragrance! And yet, I do believe that I would love it on me, especiallly if I ever get to live back in NJ. There, with the colder, wetter winters, this would make me feel warm, cozy and yummy.
Given the notes and your description, I think I would like this one. As I mentioned yesterday, I am not a perfume connoisseur but I do know what I like and this seems like it would suit me. I have started a list of perfumes to test when next I go to Seattle as I would like to find a couple of new ones and that is all related to your posting on fragrances and my daughter’s love of perfume. I doubt I would have been interested without your coverage. So, my pocket book is not likely to look favorably on you in the future but that is okay!!
LOL! Even though I am buying small samples for $4-12 typically, full-size bottles do wind up on the way…
Thank you, Deborah!
Everytime I wear this, I feel like a very expensive cinnamon roll.
Nice to see you branching out more from make up only. Self care body care lotions oils hair masks.. all are apart of beauty. I am a niche perfume lover! I tried this and it was to “smoky/boozy” for me so I bought Apple Brandy and I love it! The problem that I have with Kilian is that it does not last long to really justify the price for me. The fragrances are nice.. actually my favorite is Rolling in Love, but I get angry- yep I said angry – spending that much money on a bottle of perfume that evaporates in about 2 hours .. I have 3 bottles and I am not sure I will buy another from them.
What fragrances last longer for you, Latika?
Thanks for reviewing Christine ..I was curious about this one and it sounds like a perfect cold weather gourmand scent.
Killian makes one of my favorite scents I wear in the Summer ,.so Im always interested in their releases.
My pleasure, Mary! 🙂 What scent is it that you love for summer?
This was mad passion love for me when I first smelt it in my local House Of Fraser, who have a Kilian counter. It was Christmas Eve 2020, and they had the tester for it, the SA even went up to the store room in case they had any but no. He made me a sample from the tester. We started lockdown from that day until after Easter 2021. Nowhere seemed to have it in the UK, and I found out the US as well. Went to the Kilian UK website and put my name on the wait list. Lucky Kilian UK got store in January 2021, so I ordered direct from them.
Kilian does lipsticks, which smell faintly of Love
Yay! I am so glad you were able to finally get it, Donna. Do you still love it?
Looking forward to a comparison to Apple Brandy on the Rocks! I totally agree with you on brands needing to offer petite sizes, especially roller balls. It’s really at a loss because I think a lot of people struggle to justify the price for something they aren’t claiming to be their holy grail scent. I feel like fragrance, with all the variety, especially w/ gourmands is meant to be fun. I want to be able to buy such fragrances and use them depending on my mood like maybe some days I want to smell like a straight-up marshmallow/etc. but I sure as hell ain’t going to chuck out $150.+ for those days. Instead, I constantly feel the need to restrain myself, like, I don’t ABSOLUTELY need it…
Exactly, Niki! There are a lot of fragrances I’ve enjoyed and would wear more than once, but nowhere near enough to justify the price of a large bottle. I want more than a 1-2ml sample but far less than 50ml!
Thanks for all you do! Excited to start following your scent recommendations.
I’m glad so many of you are enjoying them! It is fun for me (at least right now, lol!) to explore fragrance.