Monday 22 March 2010

The Perfumista Challenge - results. Part III.

The third specimen is again from Mark, with the provisory name of Myrrh Cologne.
Which it is, there are citruses, there's myrrh... and now let me digress.

The other day, I met one of my perfumista friends downtown and for some reason, we went through the courtyard of the National Library. We went past the library annex and at a certain point, the smell of forest materialized. We both inhaled and started sniffing in an attemt to locate the wearer of that perfume... to find out that the teeny tiny garden was alive with gardeners who were raking the mulch there, mulch made of pine bark chippings. I pondered whether there is a perfume that smells like a forest, wet soil, mushrooms and such, and neither me nor Jerry were able to come up with anything that smells of mushroom. Maybe Demeter Fragrance Library or someone out there has one such, I don't know.

Back to Myrrh Cologne. It has a definite mushroom undertone. Heap of freshly cut wild mushrooms (think of Boletus sp.) with lemon. It contains ginger, though. Ginger seems to be a bit of chameleon to me, sometimes it smells like chocolate, sometimes like whoknowswhat... and there is indeed something mushroomy about it, which came to stand out in this fragrance. Or it's the contrast between musky base and aldehydes? I don't know.
Funnily enough, although myrrh can be smelled for a while after application, this is not a fragrance that would evolve around myrrh. Nor would I say that it's a typical cologne, the musky base renders it a bit heavy for something that could be used in large amounts in summer..
I'm of two minds here. If it were me, I'd rework it in two directions: get rid of that mushroomy undertone, cut the musks and leave citruses, aldehydes and myrrh, adding more myrrh. And, to the contrary, add musks, a touch of some warmer spices or woods, get rid of lemons and aldehydes to create a deeper forest fragrance. At this point, Myrrh Cologne is rather bizarre, it's not as if two distinct perfumes were layered as in Mark's previously reviewed All the Things (You Wanted), in this case, the two perfumes I sense in the blend would better be separated.
But I might be wrong - for me, early spring is not the right time for citrusy fragrances, I'd need a bit more sun.

2 comments:

  1. CB I Hate Perfume Wild Hunt is a dead ringer for the forest , and I love it . Try it...

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  2. Thanks for the review.
    The sample that I sent to you was a couple of versions ago. Since then I have, indeed, lightened the musk (used a little ambrettolide instead of animalid, which I thought was a good idea at the time, no idea why LOL) I also reduced the cedarwood somewhat as that was causing some scratchiness.
    Actually, after your comments, I might try Atlas cedar in place of the Viginia cedar as it is warmer and a little spicier. Thanks!

    I wear this a lot myself and find it easy wearing here in Adelaide where it is still pretty hot and humid this time of year.

    Mark

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