Joie de Vert

My third sample from Aftelier, I struggled with the first two quite a bit (a fig one and a honey-something one) both of which, esp fig, was very animal-poopy. I love the artsy approach of this perfumer, so I'm still trying a couple more including this one. This was immediately much more tolerable without the stank, but did have a kinda sharp opening I had to work through. I'm getting the herbalness and soft-spicy-ness on the dry down which has a pleasant freshy element with a little bit of projection for a natural. Several days later now, (I use a test plate in a room for all my tests) it's the lightly earthy soft spice with possible oak mossy-ness. No stank, and whiffs can be captured a full week later in the room. My demographic is middle age male with moderate frag experience, and preferring naturals. Will be trying her cocoa one next and last, which I suspect will go well. Then I'll order her rose one at some point, wishing I had ordered that one with the other samples. Was nice to be able to leave a positive report on this one. It's still not something I'd wear, but I'm just grateful the stank isn't there. Has anyone else noticed that female perfumers and perfume lovers tend to enjoy stanky materials more than men tend to? It seems like this has been a theme I've detected over the years of trying various perfumers concoctions (DSH comes to mind) and online reviewers. I'm wondering if that is something that is unique to the female scent experience over males, in a similar way that men seem to enjoy wood-ish materials more than women do. (?) On that latter example, it seems men like Aventus more than women do in general. Aventus to me is very woodsy. Cheers.

Now that my ((hopefully) helpful) explanation of those egregious fire tree oil note errors is out of the way, let me me return to my original intention, which is to discuss Aftelier's intriguing perfume, Joie de Vert, which does indeed contain Australian fire tree oil (Xanthorrhoea preissi). It also purportedly contains an amazing oil of anise-hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), ...which as also become somewhat confused on Fragrantica with True Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis). The opening barrage of Joie de Vert is amazing. Amazingly intriguing from a scent exploration aspect, ..but perhaps only amazingly controversial from a wearable perfume viewpoint. Smelling it blindly, it reminded of some kind of savory quasi-gourmand phantasmogoria. Imagine perhaps, well-salted fried eggs cooked with a LOT of tarragon. That salty, animalic, cooked egg note presumably comes mostly from the fire tree oil, and perhaps oakmoss, ...unless some off-label ambergris got added to the blend. That 'tarragon' overload is of course in actuality, anise-hyssop. However, do not worry (too much), that Chein Andalou-level surreality at the start, soon dies down to a pleasantly moderate, primarily herbal, green-aromatic scent. One both deepened by oakmoss and lightly sweetened with orange blossom. It's something like strolling down an herb-strewn garden path, on a sunny, yet breezy day. Perhaps somewhat obviously, it does all dies down to a subtle skin-scent within an hour, which is often true for all-natural scents, ...so just reapply. Besides, if sustained performance is your main criterion for fragrance selection, you probably aren't likely to be browsing the selections at Aftelier anyway.

First of All: I need to reveal another slough of botanical malaprops listed in Fragrantica's Notes Section. ...and this one might be a record, with no less than five incongruous mistakes entangled together, so bear with me: The Australian Fire Tree Oil used in perfumery (including Joie de Vert, Retsina, Abundance V. 8, etc) comes from a monocot plant called Xanthorrhoea preissii. Unfortunately these five errors would make that impossible to discern on this site. 1. The common name for Xanthorrhoea preissii is Fire tree, not Christmas Tree or Flame Tree. 2. The listed botanical name on Fragrantica is Nuytsia floribunda. This is an entirely different species that IS referred to as Australian Christmas Tree (due to its bloom time). It is NOT used in perfumery. 3. Two of the three provided photos show Delonix regia. Another entirely different species that IS referred to as Flame Tree (due to flower colour). It is NOT used in perfumery. 4.The third provided photo shows Araucaria heterophylla, The Norfolk Island Pine. It is sometimes used as an actual Christmas tree in tropical and subtropical places. As a source of a conifer oil, it IS sometimes used in perfumery, but it is NOT the plant or perfumery material being referred to here. 5. This fifth error, is only apparent if other listing using this note are examined. it seems some conifer oil-based perfumes refer to their conifer scents as Christmas Tree (For examples: Holiday Fir by Lost Tribe, Winslow's by Solstice Scents). This another note entirely. It has become conflated with this one due to the vague and misleading listed name. ...Wow.

This magical beauty reminds me of wild grasses warmed by the summer sun. Now the first spray is strong and somewhat medicinal to me, and I am happy to wait for it to reveal its heart of sweet warm green earth.