Undergreen is a new niche brand established by Patrice Cardenoso and Jérôme Bonnet. They debut with two unisex natural fragrances, Black and White, developed by perfumer Fabrice Olivieri.
UNDERGREEN® colors the gap between precious, classical perfumery and the desire for natural pleasures...They have a desire to both respect the traditions of composition and let Nature be an inspiration, magnifying it, using today’s extraction techniques. Their purpose is to give a perfume which is 100% natural, with an elegant touch and modern style.
Black (shown) ~ "A dark, black composition; men will get addicted to it, and women will know how to use it as a weapon of seduction." With notes of black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, licorice, coffee, tonka bean, incense, gaiac wood, birch bark and oud.
White ~ "An all-white clad composition, women will love it, and sophisticated men will adopt it shamelessly." With notes of aldehydes, white mint, coconut, orange blossom, jasmine, ylang-ylang, orris butter, amyris wood, balsam styrax and tuberose.
Undergreen Black and White can be found now at First in Fragrance in Germany or Jovoy in France. Both fragrances are available in 100 ml Eau de Parfum, €135, or in limited edition Elixir de Parfum with atomizer and lacquered box, €300.
(via undergreen.eu)
Natural fragrances with aldehydes? Can you naturally extract aldehydes? I know they do occur in nature but I was under the impression they were usually synthesized.
You can extract them from natural sources, and if you read the press materials carefully, the brand is specifically saying they are not using natural materials in their natural state — they are using molecular fractions, etc. Not at all sure if everyone on earth would consider that “natural perfume”, but there is really no widely-agreed upon definition anyway.
If you want to read more, the website is at undergreen.eu.
Both of these sound great, though the Black definitely has my attention. But I do love a good aldehyd, natural or otherwise, so will definitely sample these if they ever arrive across the pond.
They do sound interesting. But am posting this today as part of a general program of trying to catch up on random new niche brands before 2011 ends, so am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of new product out there. I do wish Michael Edwards did a yearly count that include all niche — I have a feeling there are over 1500 new fragrances this year. (All besides your point, sorry for kvetching)
Is black pepper, the new white pepper?
The new pink pepper, maybe.
Since black pepper makes people sneeze, it seems an odd note to put into a perfume.
I sniffed this over the summer but don’t remember anything about them. Which tells you something, but I am not sure what.
I have to say, though, that the idea of perfume as a “weapon” of seduction appalls me. I’m not sure why seduction should require weapons. But maybe that means I have been doing it all wrong.
LOL — it tells me they are not memorable?
sniffed them over the summer…fingers move faster than brain…
My goodness there are a lot of new niche brands popping up! But why not, eh? Good luck to all of them
White sounds sniff-worthy to me, for sure. Black sounds interesting as well, but I’m getting a bit tired of black pepper featured in fragrances. Am I jaded?
Black gets my attention..the white..would get my attention but mint usually is a distracting note for me.