Next week, Byredo will launch M/Mink Eau de Parfum, a new fragrance made in collaboration with French creative team M/M. The scent was inspired by “Asian ink, a photo of a Japanese calligrapher and a utopian concept drawn on traditional Korean paper, by Mathias Augustyniak”…
Byredo has launched Palermo:
With clacking oars the Phoenicians arrived millennia ago to found their center of ancient exchange. Under golden Roman yoke the port gained gleaming palaces and mosaics…
“He had a good feeling about it. That’s the thing about luck, you feel it or you don’t. This moment, he felt it. He found the morning’s rain had left everything looking greener and a bit sharper, like he was seeing it all for the first time, and he headed off with a spring in his step.”
So reads the promotional text for Trèfle Pur Cologne Absolue, one of the five fragrances recently launched by Atelier Cologne. Trèfle Pur was created by perfumer Jérome Epinette (who also developed Bois Blonds and Oolang Infini for Atelier). Its name translates as “pure clover,” and this fragrance does include a heart note of clover absolute. It starts with a very crisp note of basil, and something tart that reminds me of lime, possibly the effect of the bitter orange mixing with the basil leaves. Things get even leafier in the fragrance’s middle phase, where the namesake clover is paired with violet leaf (not violet flowers, mind you: this definitely isn’t a floral fragrance). There’s also a light layer of patchouli; it’s a dry and root-y patchouli, almost vetiver-like, rather than a damp and earthy patchouli. It’s the part of the fragrance that feels the most typically masculine, but it’s not strong enough to dominate the overall composition…
I tried Byredo Bal d’Afrique soon after Now Smell This posted the announcement of its release: “Byredo has launched Bal d’Afrique, a new fragrance inspired by ‘ Paris of 1920’s, balls of Saint Germain and the style of Josephine Baker ‘….”* In its marketing materials, Byredo mentioned not only Baker but “African…music and dance, excess and euphoria” as inspirations. Thinking of “Paris” and “balls” and La Baker, I put on some Bal d’Afrique and a top hat, took off my clothes, played Josephine’s Le Marchand de Bonheur at high volume and did my own version of the ‘banana dance‘ around my living room. (A rite of spring? A folly? Un rêve? You decide — my cats and neighbors aren’t talking.)
Bal d’Afrique was developed by perfumer Jerome Epinette and contains lemon, neroli, African marigold, cyclamen, vetiver, jasmine, violet, bucchu, cedar, black amber, and musk. Bal d’Afrique’s aromatics dance begins with neroli, lemon, a smidgen of marigold, and a punch of “raw” cedar (aimed at the nostrils, emanating from the armpits). The cyclamen note (I assume) provides a touch of clean “water” to the “sweaty” cedar and leads to Bal d’Afrique’s amber-y, musk-y dry-down. Vetiver “jitters” from one phase of Bal d’Afrique to the next and keeps the composition buoyant…
Living in the Pacific Northwest, I’m surrounded all year by the colors, and scents, of greenery — evergreen trees and shrubs, green lawns (even in January). But there are cold-winter greens (often dark colored, dull, and chilled into scentlessness by frigid temperatures), and then there are spring and early-summer new-growth greens — vivid, dewy fresh and fragrant with zingy juices. Call me sappy — give me springtime and summery greens and lots of them.
I’m a big fan of ‘green’ perfumes: I like sharp and punchy pure-green fragrances (full of leafy, stem-y, grassy notes). I like citrus-y green colognes too; even high-pitched floral-green scents appeal to me. And if a green perfume turns ‘soft’ or ‘wilts’ in the dry-down due to a touch of musk, that’s usually OK — as long as the green notes linger a good while, even in a spectral fashion.
Byredo Green, developed by perfumer Jerôme Epinette, contains sage, petitgrain, jasmine, rose, violet, honeysuckle, vanilla, sweet almond and musk…