Police — Police Potion Absinthe For Him
Essence
Potion Absinthe For Him is a deliberately trashy novelty fragrance built around two attention-grabbing ideas: a cannabis “weed” accord and a sweet absinthe-anise facet, housed in a neon-green skull bottle. It is the masculine half of the 2023 Arsenic & Absinthe chapter of Police’s Potion line, made under the Italian licensee Mavive. Its real surprise is that, gimmick packaging and bargain price aside, the juice is genuinely interesting and more competent than expected. This is a fun-not-refined proposition: buy it for the weirdness, not the prestige.
Scent Profile
The opening is loud and strange. A sour, skunky synthetic cannabis note tangles with mandarin and black pepper, strong enough that several wearers call it shockingly potent. As it settles, the weed reads less like literal marijuana and more like a green, herbal, medicinal haze.
Within about twenty minutes the anise, star anise and artemisia bring a sweet, almost candy-like absinthe facet forward, with wearers reaching for “anise candies” and “licorice” to describe it. This sweet herbal middle is what softens the aggressive start.
The drydown is the part the fanbase loves: a soapy, clean, herbal “after-shower” character resting on cedar, vetiver and guaiac wood. A minority reads the later development as heavy or decaying, which is worth knowing given how polarizing the opening already is, but most find the woody-herbal close the best stage of the scent.
Performance
Performance is modest and in line with the price. As an eau de parfum it starts stronger than a typical citrus fresh and the opening genuinely projects, but the base is thinner, with longevity commonly reported around four to six hours and a soapy-woody remnant lingering toward the end. Sillage drops to lower-medium after the initial blast. At this price, reapplication is painless.
Wearing Context
It is more versatile than its edgy marketing suggests. The herbal-green character suits autumn, spring and summer, while the woody-anise warmth gives it some fall and winter wearability. It works best casually, as a barbershop-adjacent green for everyday, and the sweetness keeps it youthful rather than formal. It skews masculine, though the herbal and woody notes are comfortably unisex.
Comparisons & DNA
- L’Artisan Parfumeur Fou d’Absinthe (Olivia Giacobetti, 2006) is the standing reference: where Fou is the classy, green, shaving-cream-and-incense aromatic, Potion is the sweeter, rougher, tacky-bottle cousin at a fraction of the cost.
- Classic Ralph Lauren Polo green sits in the same green-aromatic ballpark for the opening.
- Proraso’s eucalyptus-menthol barbershop register is another touchstone for the clean herbal feel.
The cannabis-plus-anise pairing itself is genuinely uncommon, which is the fragrance’s real selling point.
Reception
For a designer cheapie this punches above expectations. Sentiment clusters around unusual, original and shockingly good for the money, with several wearers admitting the opening repelled them before it won them over. Recurring praise centers on its uniqueness, its herbal character and its clean after-shower drydown. Detractors cite the harsh, skunky opening and a synthetic feel. No major print critic has reviewed it, so evaluation is informal, but within that limit the verdict is unusually warm for a release at this price.
Versions & Reformulation
The fragrance is recent, from 2023, and sold in 30, 50 and 100 ml eau de parfum, with no reformulations of note. There is a published-pyramid discrepancy worth knowing: Police’s own marketing copy lists a heart of black salt, artemisia and orange blossom, while the crowdsourced pyramid used in the catalog gives artemisia, star anise and sage. The base is consistently cited as guaiac, vetiver and cedar. This is the normal gap between marketing copy and crowdsourced notes, not two different juices.
Acquisition Notes
This is a blind-buy-friendly impulse purchase, widely discounted online and often trading cheaply despite marketing that frames it as a collectible skull-flacon elixir. The bottle and box are part of the appeal. Given the polarizing opening, sampling first is ideal, but at this price many simply gamble. There are no vintage or batch concerns of consequence yet.
Notable Facts & Lore
- Although Pierre-Constantin Gueros is credited on the companion feminine Potion Arsenic, this masculine Absinthe was created by a different perfumer, Leslie Gauthier of Symrise.
- The Potion line leans on a forbidden-substances, alchemist-and-muse marketing fantasy, with parchment-style packaging.
- A green-glass optical trick makes the juice look colored when it is not.
- Mavive, the Venice-based licensee behind Police fragrances, was founded in 1986 by Massimo Vidal and is run today by the third and fourth generations of the Vidal family.
- The Potion collection began in 2021; the Arsenic and Absinthe pair arrived as the 2023 chapter.