We begin with freshness: an intense, high-pitched citric sharpness that is perfectly green and brilliant, showcasing a virtue unique to the citrus family - perky refreshment. I have encountered few citrus perfumes that do just what Verveine d’Eugene (Heeley) does, which concentrates tangy brightness to a single point, where floral-herbal lemon verbena melds with the bittersweet skin of pomelo, furthered with rhubarb - a subtle stroke of genius that doubles down the bucolic and naturalistic feeling of the fragrance. It returns us to nature while ensuring we rise high above the clouds.
Tabac Vert (Rouge Perfumery) operates among a herbal spiciness, drawing its strength from spicy florals and the driest wood and tobacco notes. It is at once restrained yet ornamental, its skeleton a chypre made up of cedarwood and vetiver. It insists upon an enduring and uncompromisable freshness through and through, which is sharp and unapologetically herbal. This is thanks to carnation - a floral note which is unmistakably warm yet delicate, with prominent pepper and clove nuances. This naturally pairs with tobacco materials, with all of its green, floral, crinkly-dry and vegetal complexities, resting on an ambery and coumarinic base.
Leathery ambers are a mainstay for me, but none have stood the test of time as Ambre Russe. A fragrance I have savoured for over a decade, I continue to find charm and surprises in its legible and precise formula. I enjoy the dry booziness of vodka and golden Champagne, lending oily texture and effervescence respectively - its ebullience set against the somewhat stern complex of smoked black tea out from the samovar, incense smoke, ambergris, and sweet and dry coriander seed. A luminescence through pillowy smoke. This is an amber of the last Russian tsars, a heady celebration where imperial military men are clad in their leather boots and partygoers are dressed in their finest fur coats and evening dress.
Under My Skin (Francesca Bianchi) reflects my love for amber resin and balsamic materials, here front and centre. This is a leather perfume, but less an animal than it is a precious skin - the engulf of an embrace - achieved through a very fine dose of melting iris butter, doubled with both peru and tolu balsams. Castoreum adds darkness to this leathery body, with a definite carnal aspect. Wearing Under My Skin is to experience several perfumes over the course of wear - developing as it merges with the wearer.
The pleasure of Ummagumma (FZOTIC) is its singular intensity, concentrating tonka bean, cocoa, labdanum, and tobacco into a decadent paste - worked through a body of spices, incense, and woods. An altogether distinctive sort of hedonism, Ummagumma displays clever and technical design that maintains a series of olfactory contradictions that arrest one’s attention long into wear. It is smoky yet clean, rich yet refreshing and dry, dense but fluid. This fragrance achieves the essential feat of any great gourmand - it is gourmand by accident; an incidental consequence of its notes.
Incense Rose (Tauer) engages in a similar play of contradictions and contrasts, leaning on a remarkable chypric form in order to do so. It hypercharges a rose note, its fizzy opening conjoined with an enlivening blend of cardamon and clementine, so the scent begins to rise to the highest heights of the atmosphere, a vertiginous ascent that kisses sweetly scented heaven until it plunges rapidly into a cradle of dark gothic notes of incense, patchouli, and castoreum. Light and dark form an outrageous contrast, the sheer intensity of its initial blinding brightness brutally set against umbrous darkness. Tauer understands what’s capable of a rose-patchouli chypre, and then makes it extravagant!
