Surprise (:

This is an incredible fragrance lost to time. It defies the Chypre class, the Oriental class, and the floral class, so perhaps could be classified as an older Floriental that broke the mold of the time. The top notes are truly divine, the heart is incredible, and the base is a very nice compromise to the supremacy of the first phases of development.

Top: Fruity, floral, unknown. This is not the type of fragrance where you can pick out notes at first. The notes evoke the idea of certain smells, I’d say stonefruit with an emphasis on plum and apricot. However, it’s irrelevant what I can parse out because it is a balanced accord of rich florals of the Joy type and fruity notes of the Colony type. Meaning, there are likely a pineapple ester, general top note aldehydes, and a tenacious peach aldehyde. The result is indescribablely beautiful and my eyes literally rolled back into my head lmao.

Heart: Immediately I am reminded of two fragrances: 1950’s L’Heure Bleue extrait and 2013 Noir Epices. Spicy carnation and natural clove. Fresh herbaceous notes of the cooler and sweeter variety— no green, no bitter, no resin. I didn’t smell eugenol, which is normally all I can smell with a clove note, and I cannot detect too much power notes, so it is an abnormal carnation as well. I suspect this is because they are the absolutes of the flowers without synthetics— only really to touch it up. The blend between the soft and cool iris and herbal notes against the spicy carnation and clove leave this as essentially the BETTERMENT of those legendary fragrances.

Base: Spicy, musky, mossy, and still a tad fruity. This phase comes very late in development and is not a Chypre base. Nor an oriental base. It is itself and nothing else.

If you can get your hands on it for a reasonable price ($300/oz for extrait; $100/oz of other concentrations in my opinion in USD) then do. This is a great. This is on the level of Mitsouko, L’Heure Bleue, and Shalimar.