I am usually interested when a perfume chooses to push towards the extreme of something. It doesn’t always work. Sometimes it just illuminates why you don’t take things that far. For lovers of those ingredients it can be a nose saturating smorgasbord of pleasure. The brand founded by perfumer Andrea Casotti has been doing that recently. The latest is to see how fruity you can get in The House of Oud Keep Glazed.
Ksenia Penkina
For their latest fragrances Sig. Casotti has been looking for creative directors from other disciplines. For Keep Glazed he asked Vancouver-based cake boss Ksenia Penkina of Canadian Patisserie. If you look at the picture of Ms. Penkina’s cake, above, and compare it to the picture in the header it is not too difficult to see why Sig. Casotti felt he found a kindred spirit. They mentioned they wanted to create a gourmand style perfume which smelled like the patisserie. I don’t think it gets the entire milieu but it sure does find a case full of exotic fruit tarts to emulate.
Andrea Casotti
Sig. Casotti co-creates Keep Glazed with perfumer Cristian Calabro. They make a smart choice to avoid all the typical berries finding a different assortment for Keep Glazed.
It opens with a bright lemon and mango painting. Mango has become one of my favorite perfume fruits. In this case the perfumers take the tropical juiciness of it and allow the lemon to provide a tart contrast. The only thing resembling a berry is their use of strawberry leaf in this top accord. It adds a green veneer to the fruits. Ginger arrives giving a boost to the lemon and mango without overwhelming them. If this is the fruit tart case I’m smelling; the filling underneath the lemon and mango is made of sweet coconut cream. A set of musks with a fruity scent profile add to the fruitiness while also beginning to ground the composition. Some wood finishes Keep Glazed off.
Keep Glazed has 12-14 hour longevity and moderate sillage.
As much as the description above might make you think this is a sillage monster; it is not. It wears quite close. Mrs. C only noticed it on the days I tested it when I sat right next to her. It really is like leaning into the fruit tart case and breathing deep.
Disclosure: this review is based on a sample I purchased.
–Mark Behnke
