Just a week ago, I was lamenting the never-ending wave of pink-colored, pink-smelling, pink-themed fragrances. This one, however, is a very different take on pink. Pink Haze is the newest release from House of Cherry Bomb, the collaboration between New York-based independent perfumers Alexis Karl (of Scent by Alexis) and Maria McElroy (of Aroma M), and this fragrance is designed to evoke "the scent of tree-lined Brooklyn streets, of stone buildings, both old and new, and of the hot metal of subway cars. It is the heady yet ephemeral scent of gardens blooming with lily of the valley, gardenia, lilac and honeysuckle on early summer nights...equal parts classic and new, as is this city we live in." In addition to those four florals, it includes notes of stone, metal and beeswax absolute.
Like House of Cherry Bomb's Cardamom Rose and Tobacco Cognac, Pink Haze cleverly paints an entire scene using relatively few elements. It opens with the stone and metal notes. They are cool and slightly chilly, and surprisingly realistic, evoking rain-damp sidewalks and shady stone stoops. After about twenty minutes, however, the entire tone of the fragrance changes. There's an unexpected shift from mineral to floral notes, as if you had just walked down a cobblestoned alley between towering warehouses and found yourself entering a hidden private garden. The green-tinged lily of the valley and the soapy-powdery lilac are most noticeable, so it must be a spring garden; I think I can also catch a breath of freesia in the mix. The honeysuckle and beeswax emerge later, like a premonition of summer, and add some warmth. Pink Haze has light sillage, and its staying power is somewhat brief for an Eau de Parfum.
New York is, for the most part, a place of granite and steel, of towers and tunnels and bridges. Yet it's also a city of many flowering oases, from "official" public gardens like the West Village's intimate Jefferson Market Garden and the elegant Conservatory Garden in uptown Manhattan to the expansive botanical gardens in the Bronx and Brooklyn to the countless small backyard gardens and community gardens that bloom throughout the five boroughs. Stumbling upon a tiny "pocket park" or a spying a private yard through a gate is one of the everyday pleasures of life in the city, and I don't think anyone has evoked this image for me through perfume before.
Pink Haze is accompanied by a short video that nicely conveys the weirdly glamorous grit of Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood — that is, the area "down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass." Now that Brooklyn has become a national, if not an international, "brand" (check out this 2013 story in The New York Times), it's a good time to acknowledge the artists and businesses that have been operating out of Brooklyn since long before its recent revival. I'm glad that the Cherry Bomb ladies are blowing this olfactory kiss to the place that shelters and inspires them.
House of Cherry Bomb Pink Haze is available as 30 ml Eau de Parfum ($75). For buying information, see House of Cherry Bomb under Perfume Houses.
[Ed. note: Pink Haze is one of a number of indie perfumes developed to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of the Facebook group Peace Love Perfume, founded by Carlos J Powell.]
Sounds very lovely!
It really is pretty… with that unexpected stone note! The floral part reminds me a bit of Diptyque’s Jardin Clos. It’s not your typical EDGY (supposedly edgy, anyway) city-themed scent… it’s more personal, I think.
You know, I saw the press release and didn’t even bother to read it. Pink anything in perfume appeals to me not at all, but I’m a die hard Hello Kitty fan and love some pretty insipid perfumes I won’t actually name. I think that my experience with pink bottles has scarred me. Pink Sugar, Flowerbomb, the whatever I was gifted from Victoria’s Secret that lurks on the back of my shelf…
Thanks to your review I may have to rethink my pink prejudice.
I know — a fragrance with “pink” in the title, but no vanilla, peony, or berry notes?! Who would have thought?
What is a “stone” note? Do stones have an aroma? Or is this a stoner fragrance?
+1. What is a stone note? Wet tarmac after a summer rainstorm I get. Plain old stone I do not get. (I imagine any gourmand would be a stoner fragrance. Or maybe a stoner-teasing fragrance…)
I’m not really the right person to ask about “stoner fragrances,” but I do think stone has a smell — depending on its environment. Have you ever gone into a cave or grotto, or stood by a stone fountain while the water was running? I think it’s the interaction of the cool/damp elements with the stone that give it its smell. When the movie “Perfume” was released, there was a special fragrance coffret to accompany it. There was one scent titled Ermite/Hermit that smelled just like a stone cave. Lush also has one with a cold/wet stone note — I think it’s Smell of Weather Turning.
Agree that there are too many ‘pink’ fragrances, as nice as some of them are. However, am I imagining or are there some new releases that are coming out now with the word ‘white’ or’ blanc’ in the names? Gold was big for a while (maybe it’s a perennial) and Black/noir has had a run — funny how colors/scents go together —
Interesting… I think you’re correct! I remember the Black/Noir run… we thought that would never end!
And now New York races back to the top of my list of places I haven’t been to but want to see :). Both the scent and the picture of the city you paint sounds fab!
It’s a city of extremes (cliched, but true!), and it can be soul-crushing, but it does offer wonderful little surprises just when we need them most!