Elevated Classics

My collection keeps growing, but I am much more interested in why a perfume earns a place in it than simply adding another bottle.

These five are very different from one another. There is a green floral, a clean rosy musk, a new peach-centered release, an aromatic citrus built around gin, and a darker rose with incense and oakmoss. Some were immediate yeses, while others are perfumes I want more time with.

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Fleurit Fleuriste

PERFUMER: Maud Chabanis
NOTES: Tomato leaf, bergamot, red berries, freesia, neroli, mimosa, hyacinth, woods, musk

I first smelled Fleuriste while getting to know Fleurit and its founder, Lynn King, and this was the perfume I kept going back to. I love green florals, so the tomato leaf, hyacinth, mimosa and neroli combination immediately made sense for me.

What I especially like is that the greenery is as important as the flowers. It has that slightly raw smell of leaves and stems mixed into a bouquet rather than a perfectly polished floral arrangement. This was probably the easiest decision of the five.

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Orencie is much simpler on paper. Lychee, rose and white musk. But simple formulas can be surprisingly difficult to get right because there is nowhere for anything to hide.

The rose is clean and modern, the lychee gives it brightness, and the musk creates a soft, freshly dressed feeling without making the perfume feel overly soapy. I also really like the bottle. Chambre52 worked with Jules Dinand, grandson of Pierre Dinand, on the design, and that connection to one of perfume’s great bottle-design families makes it even more interesting to me.

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Etat Libre d’Orange Let’s Pretend

Let’s Pretend is the newest release among these additions, and peach is one of the things that drew me to it. The opening combines saffron, pink pepper and mandarin before moving into peach, osmanthus and jasmine sambac, with cedar, styrax and benzoin underneath.

The osmanthus is particularly interesting here because it already has naturally fruity, apricot-like and slightly leathery qualities. That keeps the peach from feeling too obvious or sweet. It is fruity, spicy and floral, but still has the slightly unconventional character I expect from Etat Libre d’Orange.

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Liquides Imaginaires Cédrat Tonic

PERFUMER: Julie Noé
NOTES: Grapefruit, lemon, rosemary, London Dry Gin accord, mint, ginger, pink pepper, jasmine, musks, woods, ambrette

I am picky about citrus perfumes because bright citrus by itself rarely holds my attention for very long. Cédrat Tonic has much more going on.

The idea is essentially a gin and tonic in perfume form. Grapefruit, lemon, rosemary and a London Dry Gin accord create the opening, followed by mint, ginger, pink pepper and jasmine. The musks, woods and ambrette underneath give it enough structure that it does not feel like another straightforward summer citrus.

This is exactly the kind of citrus fragrance I enjoy: aromatic, slightly bitter and fresh without being predictable.

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GAMINE 1000g

1000g is the most unusual of the five. Rose and iris are at the center, but Nepal pepper, blue chamomile, lavender, incense, oud and oakmoss take it in a much darker direction.

It is earthy, smoky and quite strong in character. The rose does not dominate in the traditional floral sense because the pepper, incense and oakmoss are just as noticeable. This is also the perfume in this group I need more time with. I do not have to understand a perfume completely on the first wearing to want it in my collection, and sometimes those are the bottles that become the most interesting later.

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Five Very Different Additions

There really is no theme connecting these five, and I like that. Fleuriste satisfies my love of green florals, Orencie is clean and restrained, Let’s Pretend explores peach in a more interesting way, Cédrat Tonic is an aromatic citrus I can actually see myself reaching for, and 1000g takes rose somewhere I do not already have represented twenty times in my collection.

What do you think of my latest additions? And what have you added to your collection lately?