As the calendar reaches the end of October I’m looking back over the year to find overall trends. One of the trends I noticed this year is that osmanthus has been part of several amazing perfumes. I have long been a fan of this biphasic bloom which shows its twin nature as apricot and leather. As a perfumer approaches using it a decision is usually made to either go big on both faces or pick one while fading the other. The latest release from Perris Monte Carlo; Absolue D’Osmanthe chooses the latter method.
Gian-Luca Perris
Perris Monte Carlo under the creative direction of Gian-Luca Perris has been all about the deep end of the perfumed pool. Oud, musk and patchouli are the main players for much of the brand. If you didn’t pay attention you wouldn’t notice that there are a few florals. Sig. Perris chooses to treat the florals the same way he treats an oud or patchouli. Up the concentration to a level where you become surrounded by the keynote. It is because of this house style and my love of osmanthus I expected to like Absolue D’Osmanthe.
Perfumer Jean-Michel Santorini chooses to use a set of notes meant to accentuate the leathery nature of osmanthus; particularly by using a couple of specific ingredients to make that happen.
M. Santorini takes his jewel of an osmanthus and presents it right off the bat. If you like the apricot nature make sure to enjoy the first fleeting moments when it makes its appearance. Rapidly M. Santorini adds a dry sandalwood which pulls the osmanthus towards its leather personality. It stays firmly there as tolu balsam helps deepen the effect while subtly modifying it. Over the time on my skin there are some other notes which try and find some traction to allow the apricot to come out and play but jasmine, labdabum, and vanilla don’t prove formidable enough to pull that off. They end up being sweet complements to the leatheriness.
Absolue D’Osmanthe has 12-14 hour longevity and moderate sillage.
The sample I had was for the Eau de Parfum and that is what is reviewed above. There is also an Extract version available but I found that gilded the osmanthus by adding in a set of extra notes which had conflicting impact. I found the simpler EdP to be much more enjoyable. If you’ve been feeling like 2016 has been the year of osmanthus try this one out it adds to an already great year for this floral note.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Perris Monte Carlo.
–Mark Behnke
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