Once again I am pleased to present my part of a writing collaboration similar to the very successful Outlaw Perfume Project in 2010. This endeavor is also organized by the Natural Perfumer’s Guild and its aim is to showcase new perfumery material available to natural perfumers. New synthetic molecules are constantly being made in laboratories, but when only 100% natural materials are being used, more creativity is needed when trying to make something original. The talented perfumers for this event have made exciting new fragrances using natural and botanical essences that have become available only in recent years, or that have been so rare as to preclude their widespread use. Thanks to the ever-growing network of suppliers outside the mainstream who do not answer to IFRA and the European Union, the artisan perfumers of the world have an even broader palette with which to work. What is especially intriguing is that the perfumers in the Brave New Scents Project were instructed to create fragrances using materials that have become available to them only since the year 2000, with only one exception for anything that was available prior to that year, so they had to make a high quality fragrance and could only use a single older “standard” essence among all the others. How did they fare with this Project Runway© style challenge? Let’s find out!
The list of artisan perfumers for this project is impressive and includes several whose work is new to me. Among that group is Liz Cook of One Seed botanical perfumery in Australia whose entry is called Sweet Water, and it’s definitely something different. Botanical means that no animal-derived products of any kind are used, which can be difficult, but this one rises to the occasion. It is described as a chypre perfume with both green and sweet characteristics, but its building blocks are anything but typical of the genre. Like a good many naturals, it starts out rather strong and has the unmistakable “earthy” scent to it, intense and pungent, but it quickly becomes evident that it’s going in a whole new direction. Basil absolute and lime give it a punch of vivid green with highly aromatic grassy notes including hay, mint, honey and sweet clover absolutes playing underneath, while an almost licorice-like note is pleasing but not overly dominant. (I was a bit skeptical of the mint, but it’s far from the usual “toothpaste” kind that can go so wrong in perfume; it’s a scent of crushed bitter-green leaves like Corsican or Moroccan mint.)This feels like a fragrance of high summer to me, with grasses and herbs drying in the hot sun after an overnight rain; a subtle feeling of damp earth runs through this composition. As it develops the sharper notes and mint gradually give way to a balmy base of a luscious deep and warm quality. Many natural perfumes are faulted for lack of staying power, but I found Sweet Water to not only last well but get better with time. Top shelf botanicals such as a particularly fine tobacco Balkans absolute, amber oil, copaiba balsam, iris butter, and Tonka bean, labdanum and green tea absolutes give the base a depth that stands up very well. (Gentlemen, don’t let the ladies have all of this; it would make a superb masculine scent.)
Another perfumer whose work I first experienced when I was introduced to Notoriety, her submission for the Outlaw Perfume Project, is Jane Cate, owner of A Wing and a Prayer Perfumes. I was delighted to have another opportunity to sample her excellent fragrances. Her entry is named Wild Rose but it’s like no rose perfume I have smelled before and its fragile beauty captivated me immediately. It is a gentle breath of sweetness like smelling a real wild rose when you come across it while walking in the countryside. It is not “rosy” at all in the familiar way most mainstream rose fragrances are, since many of them have either synthetics or ingredients like rose geranium leaf extract, which does smell a lot like roses but it can impart an unpleasant astringency when used in excess. Wild Rose is unadorned, fresh and airy, and if it were an actual flower it would be the kind that you breathe in by flaring your nostrils and opening up your mouth to “taste” the blossom, inhaling every molecule of scent. It is a simple composition with a base of sandalwood, a heart note of wild rose and top notes of yuzu and rosewood. The yuzu and rose notes are quite ephemeral, lasting only a couple of hours on me, although I was able to extend them somewhat by applying unscented moisturizing lotion first to help it hold on to my skin. However, that leaves the rosewood and the especially good quality sandalwood, so this perfume still has a pleasingly soft and rounded milky-rosy quality once the lighter notes are gone and it is enjoyable all the way through. Wear Wild Rose if you need a mood lifter; it’s lighthearted and carefree, just what we all need sometimes.
I had also sampled the work of Elise Pearlstine ofBelly Flowers Botanical Perfumes for theOutlaw Perfume Project, and her entry for this challenge is just as good. It is named Ambre Alchemé, a reference to both the priceless perfumery ingredient ambergris and the ancient practice of alchemy. Those alchemists of old would be amazed indeed if they could see what went into this delectable floral-woody perfume. Such wonders as rare and intensely scented Aglaia and Boronia flower absolutes and unusual essences such as white cognac and tincture of ambergris give it an arresting character. The perfumer calls it a “golden” perfume and indeed it is both luminous and mesmerizing, inviting everyone around to step closer and experience it. I have wondered for years what Boronia flower smelled like; it is an Australian native plant of legendary fragrance, and now I know why it is so highly regarded. This perfume really has presence, with good projection; the honey absolute has a lot to do with that. (I am a fan of honey in perfume; but some people find it unpleasant.) It also lasts well and one early evening application was still very apparent on my skin the next morning. I attribute that to the Opoponax, two kinds of sandalwood, and especially the rare and precious tincture of ambergris, which is treasured for its fixative ability. Ambre Alchemé is what I like to call a grown-up perfume, radiating an aura of power and confidence. When you wear it, you will definitely be noticed and maybe even turn a few heads.
**Please visit Anya’s Garden Perfumes for a chance to win a bottle of Sweet Water or Wild Rose! The other participating sites will be hosting giveaways of the remaining perfumes.**
I will be reviewing other perfumes from this project in future columns soon.
Please note: This is a collaborative event; please visit the Web sites of the other participating writers to read their impressions of all ten perfumes beginning 10/1/2011:
Ça Fleure Bon (Several writers on this site will review all ten perfumes among them)
The perfumers are:
Anya McCoy of Anya’s Garden Perfumes (Project Coordinator & Natural Perfumers Guild President)
Adam Gottschalk of Lord's Jester
Ambrosia Jones of Perfume By Nature
Charna Ethier of Providence Perfume Company
Christi Meshell of House of Matriarch
Elise Pearlstine of Belly Flowers Botanical Perfumes
Jane Cate of A Wing and a Prayer Perfumes
Liz Cook of One Seed
Rohanna Goodwin Smith of Ascent Natural Perfumes
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