I was intrigued by the Series One debut collection from the Six Scents Fragrance Initiative when it was released in 2008, and I purchased Smells Like Teen Spirit (a collaboration between perfumer Mark Buxton and designer duo Preen) and wore it with pleasure for the next year or so. I somehow missed out on Series Two; last fall and winter was a chaotic time for me, so it may have just slipped past me. I’ve been much more aware of Series Three, although I’m not as familiar with the fashion participants this time around; on the other hand, most of the perfumers’ names were familiar to me right away. Two of the of fragrances from this group that piqued my interest, in particular, were Fragrance 4 and Fragrance 5.

Fragrance 4, Ascent (shown above), is a collaboration between fashion designer Rad Hourani and perfumer Christophe Raynaud, with notes of pear, violet leaf, ylang ylang, rose, cedar, leather, incense, powdery musks, tonka bean and benzoin. This fragrance fascinates me because it has evolved differently nearly every time I’ve worn it over the past week. One time, it shifted quickly from greenish violet leaf to powder to dirtied leather and musk, as sequentially as a stop-action film of the sun rising and setting, or — as articulated by Hourani and Raynaud for the “childhood” theme of this series — a transition from infancy to adulthood…

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