The Six Scents – Series One

First, winner of the Rosine Rose Praline and Social Creatures Frankfurt Kitchen sample is:  Lora.  Click on the contact us over on the left and send me your address and I’ll get these in the mail to you. 

Seeing as all of us love so much multiple releases at one time, let’s just do all six of these in one fell swoop. The approach here is a little different.  This is an ongoing collaboration between Symrise, Metaproject and Seven New York.  They will select each year a group of six prominent artists and perfumers to develop a limited edition series of fragrances for a charity.  I’m not sure if this will be the same charity each year, but this year it is going to Designers Against AIDS (DAA), International AIDS Awareness Education Center in Antwerp.  Well, okay! 

Number One Urban Tropicalia – notes of Erogenous Cedar wood,Amber Fond, Lemon, Cassis De Bourgeons, Lime, Green, Apple, Apricot, Jasmine, Tagete, Freesia, Cinnamon, Musk .  This is a really nice fruity perfume, like a more wearable Byredo Pulp.  There’s a hint of tartness in it, but it’s a smooth fruit in the drydown, a little musky.  I’m not getting anything groundbreaking out of this, it’s just very nice and wearable, but at least all of these are $85 for 50 ml.

 Number two Wicken 3000 – notes of Sea Breeze Accord, Bergamot, Water Jasmine, Sheer Musk.  Ozonic hell on the open, but after 30 minutes, it’s moved from that into something not horrible but pretty generic musky jasmine.  Easy enough to wear and pleasant.

Number Three The Spirit of the Wood – notes of Green Grass, Fig Leaves, Cypress, Elemi, Coriander, Cedar wood, Vetiver, Hinoki, White Amber.   This is a GREAT nutty, woody thing.  Pungent wood on the open that settles down to a great nuttiness that I love in my woody scents.  While there’s not a lot of green in it, there’s enough that it keeps it from being a single note feel.  This is the one of the six that I would happily buy and wear.

Number 4 Diagonal – notes of Dill, Black Pepper, Nutmeg, Palisander, Black Tea, Amyris, White Amber, Musk.  Loving the dill, most prominent on the open.  It gives way to that cacaphony of other note oddities.  Tea and Pepper are more front and center in the middle, but you’ve still got that bitterness from the dill that’s incredibly faded, but wafts around.  Rubber, check.  For oddness, of the six, this is my favorite — well, it’s just my favorite of the six anyway because it is odd and interesting.  There’s really nothing else like it, and the oddness doesn’t go over into the unwearable freak category.

Number 5 Illicit Sex – notes of Bergamot, Aldehydic, Pepper, Nutmeg, Rose, Benzoin, Olibanum, Cedarwood, Musk. Wow, tangy pits, how weird is that?  Fascinating and pretty hot actually.  The sweat smell fades into this spicy woody mix with something else?  I’d happily wear this, but would love to put it on a guy.

Number 6 Teen Spirit – notes of Hazelnut Leaf, Rhubarb, Bergamot, Seashore accord, Red Pepper Berry, Rose, Magnolia, Violet wood, Sandalwood, Musk.  An interesting couple of seconds on the open, but that seashore accord takes over then and kind of tamps down everything else — well, actually, it strangles it.  It’s supposed to be an English garden, which is what the notes suggest it should be, but it’s sort of a woody ozone on me and a mash.  Buxton did this?  WTH, Mark.  Okay, well, patience paid off, and that seashore accord rolled back out into the sea leaving a better floral representation, but, again, nothing in it that’s distinguishing or interesting.  It’s a nice floral.

To sum up? There’s some interesting things in here that were well worth doing and sniffing, 3, 4 and 5. The other three are fine and may develop better on other people than on my ozonic accord magnifying skin (at least two of them) and are certainly nice and very wearable.