A tasting menu! Start with Like This (Etat Libre d'Orange), an amazing medley reminiscent of the bucolic Scottish Highlands with fruity whisky, honey-sweet tangerine, and savoury wafts of roasted ginger-spiced pumpkin. It is the scent of home and of comfort, of the Scottish hillside in the lazy springtime, a sweetly spiced fragrance ruptured with unique orange notes. Slow World (Chasing Scents) sinks into this state of being - languorous and calm - it puts the kettle on, so to speak, an olfactory trigger for the evocative scent of hot tea and malt biscuits, wrapped up in your favourite blanket. An effective blend of sandalwood, vanilla, and incense emphasise these comforts, all with a softly edible quality.
For an emphasis on roasted warmth, turn your nose to Corpse Reviver from FZOTIC, which melds the sensation of stickiness with an image of sugar in its many forms: caramel, melting dark chocolate, salty liquorice, dried fruits, vanilla, amaro and whisky oozing on the surface of a glass. It’s a generous after-dinner cocktail, garnished with a scorched sprig of rosemary and orange zest. With a measure of plush and animalic civet in the base, it is exactly how gourmands should be – at the edge of the inedible. Aziyade (Parfum d’Empire) sparkles with its sweep of spice notes balanced with fruits - a delicious frenzy that resembles a Persian feast: pomegranate, candied orange, prunes, and plum, livened with the delicious heat of cinnamon, ginger, cumin, and cardamom. Nearly outrageous, this is centred with a vanilla and amber base.
1969 by Histoires de Parfum begins as a medley of summer fruits - especially a blushing, syrupy, and sun-ripened peach - embraced with roasted coffee, lashing of vanilla, and tempting dark chocolate, with clove as counterpoint. At its heart, this is a floral fragrance dominated with rose and supported by patchouli, a classic pairing that welcomes great variation. Altogether 1969 is a juxtaposition: fruit and earth, fresh yet spicy, clean yet dirty. Magnificent. Tropical fruit punch is the immediate sensation in Imaginary Author's In Love With Everything, a brilliant combination of passionfruit, raspberry, and tropical fruits that recall the giddy delights of a carefree childhood. Pivoting against rose and sandalwood notes, the fragrance is developed and sophisticated.
