Byredo Green (Happy St. Patrick's Day!)

Green Milk

Byredo is a Swedish fragrance house, founded in 2006 by Ben Gorham. Byredo manufactures all its perfumes in Sweden and has a vision based on craftsmanship and fine materials. The noses of the house are Olivia Giacobetti and Jerôme Epinette, who did Green.

Even though Byredo just became available in Toronto in February, at Holt Renfrew, there was a previous Canadian connection. Ben's dad was Canadian and he lived in Oakville and Toronto. Green was inspired by Ben's memories of his father's scent, an "overdose of green notes," a combination of green beans and Geoffry Beene Grey Flannel.

Green is an unusual combination of bitter green notes and sweet, milky-powdery notes.  It opens with a blast of bitter green and orange blossom. After a couple of minutes this becomes the smell of green stems and fresh cut flowers. The smell is much like walking into the cold room of a florist - the damp, sweet and green smells of freesia and cut stems. As Green develops on my skin, a soapy aspect becomes noticeable. It's half creamy, half powdery-sweet.

The effect reminds me of milkweed and the sticky, milky-white sap that seeps out when you break its leaves or stems. The smell and feel of milkweed are vivid memories from my childhood, from early pinkish flowers, through fat green pods, to dried husks filled with downy fluff and seeds. As a result, I find the wearing Green very innocent and comforting.

House: Byredo
Nose: Jerôme Epinette
Notes: Orange petitgrain, sage, jasmine, rose, honeysuckle, violet, tonka, almond, musk

Parfumerie Generale - Papyrus de Ciane

Falling Hard

I first tried Papyrus de Ciane in 2010 and was unimpressed. Oh what a difference a year makes. Papyrus de Ciane is my new obsession. It is everything. It is all I am wearing and all I want to smell. It is perfect on men and women; the anti-pink perfume.

The Ciane

The Ciane is a river in southern Sicily where the only wild papyrus flourishes. The area is the largest wild growth of papyrus in EuropeNo one knows who brought the plants there. Were they presents from Ptolemy II to King Hiero of Syracuse or were they brought later by Greeks, Romans or Arabs?

Mythology has it that it was on this spot that Pluto opened a passage to Hades and kidnapped poor Persephone down into the underworld. Her bereft playmate, the nymph Cyane, mourned her so much that she literally cried herself a river. In the 19th century, it was as de rigueur for young Europeans to take a boat to the source of the Ciane on their Grand Tour as it was to visit Il Duomo or any Roman ruin.  They would float in wooden rowboats among the reeds that rose six feet tall, just like on the Nile, and contemplate romantic stories of the Greek gods.


Pierre Guillaume has created an intense green perfume to celebrate these intense green plumes. He also create it to be a modern interpretation of the legendary perfume base "Mousse de Saxe."

Mousse de Saxe

Mousse de Saxe is a dark, sweet mossy-woody accord with green freshness and a deep powdery drydown. According to Octavian Coifan, the original was created by Marie Thérèse de Laire in the early 20th century. It was meant to provide a moss or chypre base note to perfumes. On Bois de Jasmine I learn that Ernest Daltroff of Caron used a dark mossy base accord of geranium, licorice, leather, iodine, and vanillin that was called Mousse de Saxe. Whatever it's origin, Mousse de Saxe was used in or referenced by such great perfumes as Nuit de Noel, Habanita, Bois des Iles and Chanel No. 19. And now the name Mousse de Saxe belongs to Pierre Guillaume, because it lapsed into the public domain and was bought by Parfumerie Generale.

So What's It Smell Like?

In Papyrus de Ciane, Pierre Guillame has taken out the sweetness and turned up the green. It opens with a bright, bitter green note. Gods, it is so bitter; I adore it. If you love the biting galbanum of vintage Bandit or Chanel No. 19, wait till you get a load of this.

With the green, sinking down to dark depths like the pool surrounding the reeds, are grassy vetiver-like notes, sheer woody notes and smoky incense-like notes. A soft mossy base cushions your landing.

Like the vintage perfumes, Papyrus de Ciane has personality and real depth but it contemplates the historic base but from a thoroughly modern perspective. They layers are sheer, the colours distinct. It's close to the skin and very wearable.

According to a Grain de musc interview, Pierre Guillaume composes his perfumes to be loved. Baby, it's working.

House: Parfumerie Generale
Nose: Pierre Guillaume
Notes: Galbanum, Broom, Mild Plant Note, Creamy Wood, Mousse de Saxe

Puredistance - Antonia

Green lady

The Puredistance company prefers not to release lists of notes for its perfumes, preferring that we experience the scents as a whole rather than focusing on the individual pieces. This was a challenge for me.

Normally, part of my enjoyment of a perfume is the aromatic sleuthing I do - the teasing out of individual notes of a perfume, so that I understand the story it is trying to tell me. I love the "aha" moment when I recognize a particular note and appreciate how it's been used in this perfumes as compared to others that I've smelled. But that's just the "perfume nerd" in me.

Most people enjoy a perfume as a complete experience, not as an analytical exercise. And maybe they're right. Perfume as art isn't about the brush strokes, it's about the personality of the perfume and if it speaks to you or not. Here's what Antonia had to say to me:

Antonia is a green floral of great beauty. Wearing Antonia is like walking through an orchard in bloom on a warm afternoon. The trees are buzzing with bees and the sun turns the leaves and flowers into a dance of green and gold.

This green floral is not dry, like the chypres I've reviewed lately, but warm and sweet. It more like a seamless blend of green and floral and oriental. It's soft, never loud, but it's also quite strong with good sillage. The perfume contains 25% perfume oils. It's expensive and difficult to find in Canada, but if you fall in love you can order it online.

If Antonia was a season, she would be late spring becoming early summer. If she was a person, she would be a young woman. Antonia is kind and pretty. That's how I experienced it. (But, nerd that I am, I couldn't resist trying to list out some notes below.)

House: Puredistance
Perfumer: Annie Buzantian.
Notes: green notes, galbanum, flowers, vetiver, vanilla

Image: detail from Botticelli, Spring 1482, via Bob Swain

Atelier Cologne - Trèfle Pur

The luck of the Irish all day long

To celebrate March, the green month, and the upcoming hootenanny that is St. Patrick's day, I am wearing Atelier Cologne's Trèfle Pur today. I feel the need for green to get me through what is usually a not-so green month in Ontario. And a little four-leaf clover luck wouldn't hurt either.

A burst of freshness perked me up right away when I dabbed on Trèfle Pur. A "cologne absolute," Trèfle Pur contains 18% essential oils, which makes is much longer lasting than traditional colognes and it has better sillage. It was love at first sniff. Trèfle Pur is amazing and I only wish that I hadn't waited almost a year to try my sample.

Atelier Cologne only just started in 2010. Trèfle Pur is one of 6 perfumes they offer. To me, Trèfle Pur is an example of the best of modern perfumery. High quality, an interesting composition, and a sheer touch that lets all the notes shine individually yet also combine into a harmonious whole, are some of the hallmarks of the great modern perfume. I love being able to pick out the individual smells of bitter orange, violet leaf, and  neroli, even as they work together like voices in a choir.

Trèfle Pur starts like a sunrise over green fields and winds up in the soft grey dusk, The opening notes combine a bright bitter orange with a green grassy note. The gorgeous green of the cologne comes from clover absolute, and the spicy greeness of violet leaves and basil. As it warms on the skin, wafts of aromatic cardamom and and a lovely floral neroli lift the green off my skin and swirl around me, like an afternoon in a garden. In the dry down, a cuddly musk and a grey mossy feeling comfort me.

Trèfle Pur is almost a combination of two of my favourite Frederic Malle perfumes, Bigarade Concentrée and Angéliques sous le pluie. It has the beautiful bitter orange opening of Bigarade and the spicy, musky, greeness of Angéliques. It is perfect for men and women who are looking for something fresh and green.

I also appreciate the way Trèfle Pur seems to tell a story and set a mood. It creates an olfactory image, a character, that each person can make their own. The marketing images created for each cologne in the collection reflect this story-telling aspect of the perfume. You can see the example for Trèfle Pur, above. I love them; I think they are some of the best perfume ads I've ever seen.

House: Atelier Cologne
Nose: Jerome Epinette
Notes: Top notes: Bitter orange, cardamon, basil
Heart notes: Clover absolute, violet leaves, Tunisian neroli
Base notes: Patchouli, moss, musk

Jacomo - Silences

A meditation garden

I received a bottle of vintage Jacomo Silences for Christmas this year from my brother-in-law, bless him. He picked it up at the magic Fritsch Pharmacy which I mentioned in my last post. I suppose I should call it Fritsch Fragrances, which is the name on the sign, but it says Pharmacy on the business card and that's the way I always think of it.

Anyway, back to Silences. Silences is a holy grail for green chypres. It is so lovely, I highly recommend it to both men and women.

Perfectly unisex, Silences has a calm, meditative quality that makes me think of Japanese gardens. It starts with a very green, bitter galbanum note, only lightly touched by citrus. As it warms up on my skin, spring flowers join the green, but Silences remains composed and serene, never sweet or romantic. A soapy rose, a green lily of the valley and a touch of spicy hyacinth drift in, smooth as silk. As a whole, the colour of Silences in my mind is the cool grey-green of sage. Even the texture of sage leaves, like soft, little green bunny ears, seems appropriate for Silences, with it's cool, grey, pussy willow feeling. The base (at least in my vintage) is wonderfully dry, mossy woods.

Like all green chypres, Silences makes me feel effortlessly chic and elegant; poised, adult. As a green chypre, it treads a middle ground for me between the headstrong Bandit and the cold-hearted Chanel N^o19. Although it reminds me of spring, I can't get enough of it right now; in the heart of winter, I've found a peaceful green oasis.

House: Jacomo
Nose: Gerard Coupy and Jean-Claude Niel
Notes: Top notes: orange blossom, galbanum, bergamot and lemon; middle notes: hiacynth, lily-of-the-valley and rose; base notes: sandalwood, musk, oakmoss and cedar.

P.S. For all those interested in Fritsch Pharmacy:
Fritsch Fragrances Inc.
201 King Street West
Kitchener, Ontario
519 742-1895


Photo: Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC by A Hermida
Photo: My bottle of Silences, by me, all rights reserved.
Photo: Frisch Pharmacy, by me, all rights reserved.

Parfumerie Generale - Drama Nuii

Dry jasmine and herbs morphs into a pale green lily of the valley

Pierre Guillaume likes bitter green. I've only tried two Parfumerie General perfumes, Drama Nuii and Papyrus de Ciane, and both star a bitter green accord.

Drama Nuii starts with a lemony jasmine, and a green rose. The rose is soapy. As it develops a herbalness with a spicy edge comes out, that made me think of clary sage maybe. It's a little like hay, or dry grasses,  not sweet, but bitter and a little tannic like tea. The notes say absinthe, a story for the herbal green bitterness of the perfume.

The green floral smell becomes a light lily of the valley. After a while that's all I can smell, green lily, a little bitter and a little soapy. Then after a while, a little musky.

The whole is a dry, light green take on jasmine and lily. Not too sweet, it would suit a man or woman.

House: Parfumerie Generale
Nose: Pierre Guillaume
Notes: petitgrain, absinthe, jasmine, spices, guaiac wood, sandalwood, musk

Photo: sektordua

Bvlgari - Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert

A refreshing glass of clear green tea with lemon and jasmine petals

Launched in 1992, Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert was Bvlgari's first eau de cologne. It was created by  Jean-Claude Ellena, who is now the in-house nose for Hermes. (See also my review of Un Jardin sur le Nil.)

Chandler Burr has a great story New York Times Magazine about the creation of EPTV. Bvlgari wanted a fragrance to sell in their stores to promote their brand but never envisioned the huge success that EPTV would have. With EPTV, Ellena created one of the first real "tea" notes in perfume. Bvlgari now has an entire line of perfumes that include tea notes.

Ellena is the master of sheer in perfumes. Throughout EPTV, you have the feeling of clear, green-tinged liquid, something sparkling and refreshing. It seems to glow from within with a cool, pale green light, like a piece of jade.

EPTV starts with lemon and gentle spices and then the smell of green tea. It's quite dry, refreshing and light and the tea carries that slight edge of bitterness that tea leaves have. As the heart notes open up, gentle florals appear like having flower petals dropped onto the top of your tea. I catch the smell of orange blossoms briefly and then a sheer white floral scent, like jasmine but not heavy or indolic at all, floats above the green tea. The drydown is a pleasant clean musk and sheer woods.

EPTV is a real unisex scent and the perfect refreshment for a summer day.


House: Bvlgari
Nose: Jean-Claude Ellena
Notes: Top notes are coriander, orange blossom, mandarin orange, bergamot, cardamom and lemon; middle notes are jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and bulgarian rose; base notes are sandalwood, amber, musk, green tea, precious woods and cedar.(Fragrantica) pepper (bulgari.com)


Photo: Doctor Swan

Ormonde Jayne - Tiare

A lush tropical flower blooms in a classic chypre structure

Tiare, by Ormonde Jayne, is my "desert island" perfume. By that, I mean that if I had to take only one bottle of perfume with me to a deserted island, I would choose my bottle of Tiare.

I spent my honeymoon in Bora Bora in French Polynesia - a beautiful volcanic island with a hallucinogenically perfect lagoon. The tiare flower is the national flower of French Polynesia and related to the gardenia. Visitors to Bora Bora are greeted with chains of tiare flowers and each evening the bed in our bungalow was perfumed with scattered tiare flowers. Tiare is the perfume I often choose to sleep in - the one which gives me good dreams.

Funny thing, even though Tiare, the perfume, features the native Polynesian tiare flower, the fragrance actually smells nothing like what one would imagine a "South Pacific" perfume would smell like. There's no coconut, no vanilla, no sparkling ocean, nothing in the perfume to evoke the place the flower came from. Instead, creator Linda Pilkington chose to take the precious tiare oil she sourced for the perfume and put it into a composition that highlights the lush flower itself and pays tribute to the classic chypre stucture of perfumery.

A chypre is a perfume that begins with citrus notes, ends with a mossy/woody/musky base and usually has some kind of florals in the middle. This family of perfumes is named for the original Coty, Chypre from 1917. The moss in the base is particularly important, lending it a certain bitterness that is divine. Recent  and controversial restrictions on the use of oak moss and other tree mosses by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) have caused some classic chypre perfumes to be reformulated, much to the distress of perfume fanatics. Somehow, Linda Pilkington has managed to retain that true bitter, wonderful mossiness in Tiare and, as I mentioned in my Woman review, she says she will never reformulate. Thank goodness.

Tiare begins with fresh citrus notes that really lift the perfume. I often get compliments on it in this top phase. Tiare is not a "linear" perfume, it has a progression through different phases of its structure, but all the main elements are there from the beginning. The rich, waxy-petaled tiare, smelling like gardenia and the moss are there behind the citrus at the top but they also take turns at centre stage later, each in their own time. After the citrus fades the tiare/gardenia shines, white and narcotic against a deep green smell, just like the real flower does against its own foliage. The drydown is my favourite part, the moss and wood last forever on my skin and keep me coming back to snuffle my wrist again and again.

I have one, teensy confession though. It pains me to admit this about a perfume I love, but I think I may be anosmic to one of the musks used in Tiare. There is one point in middle of the perfume's progression that I get the feeling I am smelling a hole, a gap, an absence through the middle of the perfume, around which the gardenia seems to peep. It's a strange sensation that goes away later but, nevertheless, Tiare is still my "if I could only have one" perfume.

House: Ormonde Jayne
Nose: Linda Pilkington
Notes:
Top: Mandarin, orange flower and sicilian lime
Heart: Tiare, freesia, water lilies, jasmine, orris and ylang
Base: Cedar, vetiver, sandalwood, patchouli, moss and musk


Photo: troymckaskle

The Smell of Summer

There is a town in north Ontario,
With dreams, comfort, memory to spare
And in my mind
I still need a place to go,
All my changes were there.¹

Today was perfect. The kind of warm, sunny day that seems like a gift in Toronto - clear blue sky, no humidity. A perfect day to sit by the pool with a book, walk the dog down in the green grass between Old Fort York and the railway tracks or get some beer and something to BBQ tonight.

I got to thinking about summer and what I would put into a bottle of my perfect scent-of-summer perfume.

It would have to be focused around the smells of northern Ontario of my childhood. The head, heart and base would all revolve around a note of cool, deep green water with sunlight sparkling on top.

The head would include green foliage and the smell of the little orange jewelweed flowers that grow down by a creek. There would be the tang and creaminess of orangecicles and the wood of their dry, licked sticks.

The heart would be the smell of hot grass and clover, and tall queen anne's lace. Add in a touch of dust from the shoulder of a back-country road and some of the orange day lilies growing in the ditch beside it. There would also be a note of wild raspberry and the leaves of the twisted canes that grow beside the road. I can't forget to add the smell of a cedar dock, warmed by the sun but with damp patches shaped like your back. Notes of warm golden skin weave throughout.

As the drydown begins you would smell notes of sticky pine sap on bark, and dry pine needles. There would be a sense of airy space dappled by sunlight slanting low through tall quiet columns of light and shade like a hushed outdoor catherdral. At the base darkness falls and out comes moss and darker woods with a touch of wood smoke. The perfume ends with more of that minerally lake water from a late-night skinny dip.

Is it out there? Can someone make it for me?

¹ Neil Young, Helpless

Penhaligon's - Amaranthine

Perfume: Amaranthine
House: Penhaligon's
Nose: Bertrand Duchaufour
Notes: Top: Green Tea, White Freesia, Banana Tree Leaf, Coriander Seed Oil, Cardamom Absolute; Middle: Rose, Carnation, Clove Oil, Orange Blossom, Ylang Ylang Oil, Egyptian Jasmine Absolute; Base: Musk, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Condensed Milk, Tonka Bean Absolute.

Lily and dirty Jasmine eat green bananas and condensed milk with silver spoons.

A little background on the name: the Greek amarantos was a mythical flower that never faded. The amaranth family of plants are often purple or gold and Penhaligon's offers Amaranthine in a deluxe bottle of purple glass but to me the colours of this perfume are green with white and creamy pale yellow.

Amaranthine is a sensual bouquet of rich milky tropical flowers with a hint of sweatiness complimented by green leaves and sandalwood. Penhaligon's calls it a "corrupted" floral oriental. It does remind me of a tropical jungle: damp, ripe and sexual in both its rampant growth and decay.

Amaranthine starts with warm spices and green bananas. It sounds a little weird but actually smells wonderful. The middle is where the sexy, tropical flowers take centre stage. The major player in Amaranthine is ylang ylang, a yellow flower from a tropical tree that wikipedia says smell like custard and jasmine. Bertrand Duchaufour says that there is 5% ylang ylang in there. That's probably the note I think of as a lily, with it's feeling of thick fleshiness. Added to this are white florals like jasmine and orange blossom, with their indolic hints of sex, decay and intimate areas of the body. There's a feeling of close skin and warm nights created when you wear Amaranthine.

Beneath the green banana leaves and sexpot flowers are sweet creamy notes of vanilla and condensed milk. Some say this gives Amaranthine a "rice-pudding" feel but for me the sandalwood keeps it from being foody, and makes it just smooth and sexy and comforting. There is a metallic edge though, like eating green bananas and milk with a silver spoon while surrounded by thick, heady flowers.

Amaranthine is a favourite of mine and made me fall in love with Bertrand Duchaufour. I have several of his perfumes now and I'll probably continue to collect whatever he creates. Maybe next week I'll review one of his latest, Nuit de Tubereuse, which many say has a similar feel to Amaranthine, while being completely different.


Painting: Tamara de Lempicka, Printemps

Ormonde Jayne - Ormonde Woman

Perfume: Ormonde Woman
House: Ormonde Jayne
Nose: Linda Pilkington
Notes: Top: Cardamom, coriander and grass oil Heart: Black hemlock, violet and jasmine absolute Base: Vetiver, cedar wood, amber and sandalwood

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.¹

The perfect scent for a rainy day in Canada is Ormonde Jayne's Ormonde Woman. It may be the perfect scent. I never tire of this perfume, it is endlessly mysterious and beautiful.

Ormonde Jayne is a niche perfume house based in London, England. I visited their little jewel-like shop on the Royal Arcade in 2008 and was charmed by the friendly service and then fell in love with the excellent perfumes. OW was my first purchase, but I have 2 others and probably more will join my horde² in the future. One of the best thing about Ormonde Jayne is Linda Pilkington's assertion that her perfumes will never be reformulated or discontinued. So I never have to worry about running out of Ormonde Woman and can spray with abandon!

OW starts with smooth spices and a striking green feel, from the grass oil. The coniferous note of black hemlock is there from the beginning and carries through the whole composition. It overlays quiet florals, like quiet flowers hidden in the shady undergrowth, and merges with the woody notes at the base of the composition. OW is very well blended, the notes don't stand out individually, but weave together seamlessly for the impression of walking in an ancient forest in the green-black shadows of enormous trees.

You might think with the smell of hemlock and grass oil and woods that this would be a masculine fragrance. It would work well on a man too, but it is one of my husband's favourites on me. Ormonde Woman is a feminine mystery "lovely, dark and deep."


^{1 Robert Frost
2} I should post a picture of my horde someday. It's small by perfumista standards, but it's growing.
Painting: Emily Carr, Forest, BC

Creed - Virgin Island Water

Perfume: Virgin Island Water
House: Creed
Nose: Olivier Creed and Erwin Creed
Notes: white bergamot, Jamaican lime, Sicilian mandarin, coconut, Indian jasmine, hibiscus, ylang-ylang, ginger, musk and white rum

Put the lime in the coconut, and call me in the moooooorning

It's the summer solstice and I'm in the mood for a pick-me up summer scent. Virgin Island Water is my beach vacation in a bottle. VIW was created by Oliver and Erwin Creed, 6th and 7th generations respectively of the luxury perfume house Creed. Creed was founded in 1760 by James Henry Creed and has many famous clients. Creed's perfumes aren't cheap, but they are constructed with high quality ingredients.

Like many of my favourites, VIW is green in my mind but this time it's a neon green of lime and fresh coconut husks. The first blast of this scent has strong citrus and coconut notes, both of which I love. But make sure those around you love it too - VIW is a sillage monster for the first couple of hours, so spray carefully.

After the first few minutes, the creamy tropical florals, jasmine and ylang ylang, creep in, like a lei draped around your neck. Underneath everything is the sharp boozy scent of white rum. VIW is a unisex fregrance, and smells absolutely delicious on a man as well.

VIW isn't shy, as I mentioned it's actually a little loud at first, but it's so darn cheerful I don't mind. VIW is a friendly tanned hunk in a Hawaiian shirt bringing me a tall fruity rum drink with an umbrella while I lounge near the brilliant white sand and blue water of my dream beach.


Photo by Celine Nadeau

Diptyque - Philosykos

Perfume: Philosykos
House: Diptyque
Nose: Olivia Giacobetti
Notes: fig leaf, fig, cedar

Cool sappy green twigs, ripe, sweet fig with a hint of creamy coconut milk and smooth dry wood.

Spray this on your arm on a hot day and rest in the shade of a fig tree on a Greek hillside. Philosykos gives me the feeling I've been there. The opening is crisp and green and smells like sticky sap from broken twigs. Then comes the ripe fig, smooth and fresh. Many people smell a hint of coconut in fig, and I smell coconut milk, creamy and sweet in Philosykos. This adds to the summertime feel of the perfume, and the fantasy that I am sitting under a fig tree in Greece, the sun bright as diamonds on the blue water of a faraway bay but where I am everything is shady and cool. The base note is cedar, a dry woody smell, like a smooth pale trunk behind my back.

Luca Turin, in his Perfumes The Guide, calls Philosykos "the first proper fig in perfumery" and gives it 4 stars. Olivia Giacobetti, who did Philosykos, also did Premier Figuier for L'Artisan Parfumeur. I'll write about Premier Figuier another time, it has a lovely floral character and a sandalwood drydown, but Philosykos is my favourite fig perfume.

Photo by Sean Wallis.

Hermès - Un Jardin sur le Nil

Perfume: Un Jardin sur le Nil
House: Hermès
Nose: Jean-Claude Ellena
Notes: Green Mango, Grapefruit, Calamus, Lotus, Sycamore, Frankincense

A refreshing, sheer, pink and green cocktail that cools the summer heat. Perfectly balanced in the reeds between shimmering water and dry wood.

Un Jardin sur le Nil (UJslN) is part of the Hermès Jardin series by the in-house perfumer Jean Claude Ellena. The series is a sort of olfactory travel journal, and UJslN represents Mr. Ellena's memories of Egypt. The story behind the creation of UJslN is the subject of the book The Perfect Scent: A Year in the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, by Chandler Burr.

The photo above perfectly captures this perfume in my mind. UJslN is green and pink. It starts with a bright pink grapefruit, not sweet, but citrusy and refreshing. Next I smell green herbs and the gentle floral-aquatic note of lotus. All of this is full of light, and seems to hover above the skin. Underneath it is a sheer, dry woody base, not heavy, just barely there, like driftwood among the rushes.

Calamus is a type of wetland herb, like the rushes that grow beside the Nile. I don't really smell the green mango or the frankincense, but I suppose the former adds to the green-fruity top and the latter to the dry-wood base.

UJslN is perfectly balanced between the aquatic and the dry, the sweet and the bitter, the floral and the woody. It is my favourite hot weather scent right now. Unlike many citrus-starting colognes, which often don't last long, UJslN lasts all day and into the warm, fragrant evening.


Photo by Cowtools