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LUXE TREND 50
SCENTS FOR THE TINDER GENERATION
Long before there were fragrance trends, like gourmand and marine, and perfume wardrobes, there were signature scents. A classic fragrance always invites intimacy and often requires it. Some of the best fragrances require body heat to blossom, hopefully, the heat generated by two bodies. We have become less inclined to stay faithful to one scent, especially since there are endless possibilities to find the next great one. Quite like app-dating. If you are used to swiping to the left, these fragrances might just be the long-term commitment you’ve been hoping for.
Ummagumma by Bruno Fazzolari
Ummagumma is named after Pink Floyd’s fourth album by the same title. The album's title supposedly comes from Cambridge University slang for sex, commonly used by Pink Floyd friend and occasional roadie, Iain "Emo" Moore, who would say "I'm going back to the house for some ummagumma". According to Moore, he made up the term himself.
Bruno Fazzolari is a visual artist who includes his own fragrances in his exhibits to give his art a fourth dimension. Mr. Fazzolari has also been building up a great reputation as a niche, master perfumer. His scents are made in San Francisco by Mr. Fazzolari and a small team (according to the literature that accompanies the fragrances).
Ummagumma is thick and resinous, ambery, sticky, woody, and leathery. Cedar, sandalwood, and labdanum are on constant replay here. These three notes are on repeat ago create an interesting olfactory “rhythm”. This is a fragrance that begs for body heat to reveal its depth.
Ummagumma is not for people who take wearing fragrance lightly. Like the other fragrances in this article, Ummagumma requires commitment, like a faithful lover. Make sure you like this lover a lot! Because of its high concentration, the fragrance has a tendency to imprint itself to the wearer adhering to the body unapologetically.
If you like oriental and mysterious fragrances, especially Tom Ford’s amber-based catalog, consider yourself lucky. Ummagumma might become your latest obsession.
Byredo Rose Noir
Rose Noir is the fragrance/image of a fragile, decaying rose with paper thin, dry and dusty petals. Perhaps this rose has been buried inside a box made of patchouli.
Rose Noir is a dry, evanescent rose scent that is as salty as it is resinous. The fragrance includes top notes of grapefruit, freesia and Turkish rose petals, heart notes of raspberry blossom and Turkish rose absolute and base notes of labdanum, oak moss, and musk. Of all fragrances in this article, this is the most remote and enigmatic, as much as a poet requires distance to let her creativity flourish. The musk is beautifully controlled and not overpowering.
I personally find other fragrances by Byredo rather pedantic. Rose Noir appears to be less studied and more instinctive. A shy lover, who is waiting to be conquered through the mind.
Yatagan de Caron
Introduced in 1976 in a market full of proper men’s scents, Caron’s Yatagan pour Homme is a Jedi of a fragrance. With its top notes of wormwood, artemisia, and petitgrain, Yatagan lives up to its hype of a powerful “Hello, I’m here to devour you.” Caron, one of the top perfumers of the past 100 years, is well known for its classic men’s fragrances, like Pour Un Homme and Caron Vetiver. With Yatagan, Caron ushered orientalist influences to men’s fragrances, a trend that continues to this day, with Oud accords in virtually every man’s scent.
Still considered a classic 40 years after its introduction, Yatagan is a precursor to Tom Ford’s manufactured lust through perfume, while remaining a truly original, and far superior, composition. The originality of its headstrong and often polarizing opening accord makes the dry down even more astonishing, as the fragrance begins to smolder steadily along the skin, conjuring dance parties at La Valbonne in the 1970s.
By the time styrax, leather and labdanum make their appearance a few hours later, you’d better be ready to let them do their part in taking the affair to the next level. This is a perfect fragrance for a maverick, adventurer, Lothario of a man (or woman).
Back to Black, Aphrodisiac by Kilian
I’ve always appreciated a fragrance marketed with a bold claim. This scented Aphrodisiac by Calice Becker is vampish and delicious. Honey and tobacco form the heart of this scent and they are truly luscious together.
Ambergris and citrus notes coexist playfully, like a fragrant inventive ceviche, and the honeyed sweetness that lingers is absolutely lickable.
Wear it with black satin, go to dinner, and make yourself the dessert. You’re welcome.