Indie natural line Aftelier has launched Bergamoss, a new solid chypre perfume.

Bergamoss features the sumptuous marriage of oakmoss, with its aromas of the wet forest floor, and the bright freshness of bergamot. It harkens back to the substantial and transporting chypres of old. I was after a particular kind of chypre -- one that was both rich and fresh, bright and heavy, sweet and loamy. I chose the particular essences for Bergamoss to merge with each other so completely as to blur seamlessly together. I didn't rely on the traditional diffusiveness of an alcohol-based perfume, but instead wanted the warm texture, solidness, and deep green color to be an intimate and intrinsic part of experiencing the perfume.

Oakmoss, named "oak musk" by Pliny in the first century AD, was described as the white musk of oaks, absorbing the scent of age-old wood and the life force of the oak trees (Profumi di Aprodite, 2007). The soft and powdery coumarin warms and buffs the rough edges off the oakmoss. Antique civet insinuates muskiness seamlessly into the oakmoss and coumarin. Rare flouve absolute, from the flowering tops of a sweet grass in France, is so aromatically complex that one can, over time, keep finding new notes and nuances on the perfume blotter. The flouve contributes sweet and mossy herbaceous tobacco notes, along with powdery rich green notes. Citronellol, a natural isolate from geranium, is like a fresher, lighter, rosier rose. The great affinity of the juicy peach punctuated with the warm, woody spiciness of the nutmeg absolute and the green rosy citronellol combine to create a transparent floral layer at the heart of Bergamoss. The bright opening notes include the fresh elegance of bergamot, boosted slightly by high notes of the wild sweet orange -- with its touch of dirty citrus.

 Additional notes include wild sweet orange and antique civet.

Aftelier Bergamoss is available in a one-quarter ounce sterling silver compact ($240), and in a one-quarter ml sample ($6).

(via press release)

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