Green

Green by Byredo is my favorite of the line. This green floral is said to be inspired by memories of the father of the creator of Byredo, Ben Gorham. Everyone should have such beautiful memories of their father. Green is a blend of what you would expect in green notes which meet in the most unexpected and charming way with a classic French perfume vibe. A kind of sensuous green oriental mash up that makes this a very exciting and vibrant olfactory experience. Pure magic if you ask me. Just a few sprays and you are transported to the south of France in early spring. The top opens with fresh sunny petitgrain and sharp slightly bitter sage. It could be a hillside in Italy or a orange grove in Southern California. Where ever it is you want to be there. Super green and inviting these top notes fade off but never leave the perfume. In the mid notes we get a spring garden with rose blooming in the afternoon and jasmine filling the night with its distinctive lush beauty. The honeysuckle and violet are intertwined into the rose and jasmine creating a cerebral vision of a classic floral perfume. It is glittering but not overly glamorous. The dry down is clean and slightly woody with the arrival of a warm tonka, white scrubbed musk and hard edged but not too bitter almond. This brings in a bit of the barbershop for me and boosts the perfumes masculine edge making it a floral for men that is easy to wear. And on a woman it is stunningly beautiful a perfect example of what the real essence of perfume should be. Without gender and made to be loved. The down side for me is the longevity that I find in all the Byredo perfumes. They seem to last only a few hours on my skin. But the good news for Green is that it is at the top of the spectrum in this respect. It last on my skin from four to six hours. And with me reapplication is not a problem but a fun ritual. I only mention this because for some longevity is an important issue when paying for expensive perfumes. The silage is respectable at about three feet. With the short lifespan it does move toward a skin scent relatively quickly. Having addressed those issues, for me Green is a winner. It is a green fragrance that an oriental lover can embrace, a perfect meeting of city and nature. FOUR GOLD STARS **** (FOR THE STORY BEHIND MY REVIEW CHECK OUT MY BLOG, SCENTS MEMORY)

Since I love most of the Byredo scents, I decided to blind buy a vintage bottle I saw on Ebay. I did not know at all what to expect and my previous experience when blind buying a perfume were not that great. However for 45 euros I thought it was worth taking the risk, worst case I could re-sell the bottle. The bottle was originally 100 ml but has 50 ml juice left. It is the old kind of Byredo bottles without the magnetic function in the cap. Bottle is approx. 0,5 cm lower and at the bottom is a round sticker instead of the usual engraving. Instead there is a B logo engraved at backside. Also the sticker says “Made in Sweden”. Byredo used to produce in Sweden initially but I think they switched to production in France round 2011-2012. So I guess the bottle I got is 6-8 years old. However, the bottle is not from the initial 2008 release because those caps were flat on top and not rounded. All in all it looks very well detailed and I am absolutely sure this is a real Byredo. The first 15-30 minutes are very musky and heavy. Perhaps because the bottle is 6-8 ears old and gone a bit bad? But then it develops into a more soft and round scent. It is very soapy, herbal and clean. Beautiful and kind of masculine. Sage, honeysuckle, petitgrain, almond milk, violet and jasmine. In that order. It lasts for a good 8-10 hours but with a soft silage. It surrounds you like a soft cloud. Now it is February, I ́m very curious to find out how this works during warm months of summer. So happy I have discovered this Byredo but of course sad that it has been discontinued. At the time of launching Byredo back in 2008, 5 scents were released. Green, Rose Noir, Gypsy Water, Pulp and Chembur. Only Green has been discontinued. What a shame. Hopefully they can take it back, I read somewhere that it was the very first Byredo scent created by founder Ben Gorham and inspired by his father. So it should be a classic. In my opinion they could easily discontinue Sunday Cologne and take Green back into the collection.

Green is one of the most unique perfumes I've ever encountered. It's a green gourmand. I smell almonds on my skin for the whole duration of the perfume, which lasts at least 12 hours and projects very nicely the entire time. The almonds are so intense that it actually smells like chocolate on me and reminds me of Covet by Sarah Jessica Parker! It's kind of funny to say that Covet is the inexpensive dupe for this if you can't afford $150+, but they are similar enough that I thought it was worth mentioning. In the first hour or two, I smell lots of green leaves, almonds, and newly bloomed honeysuckle. It's very aromatic. After a couple hours, it starts to smell yummy like powdery Loukhoum with green leaves rather than rose. In the last few hours, I smell much more musk than I would have expected considering it seemed so gourmand for so long. I love musk, so I think this is my favorite phase. Green really captures my interest. It's very quirky. I like it a lot!

This perfume is delicious and sharp. This is extremely green, opens like the good old (pre-reform) Chanel 19 and dries down to Rochas' Femme and the journey from one to the other is wonderful, floral, green, herby with a restrained sweetness that I presume is a white floral. To start off the initial blast is rather masculine (which is a winner for me) with and winds up being very feminine indeed (another tick in the box for me). This has been my first experience of this company's offerings and I have to say I really am impressed. They clearly use very fine ingredients and whilst this perfume is rather subtle, to my nose, in the dry-down and the fact it does sit very close to the skin with limited projection it's lovely and perfect for spring.

My second take on this. I love it even more than before. Don't let the first 5 minutes scare you off, as it does smell like grass and stems. After a little while you're surrounded by light, heavenly flowers. Not too feminine, and not too masculine. It doesn't really smell like citrus at any stage, but retains a soft, soapy (in a very good way) fresh breeze. It even has a creamy tea vibe going on. It's so easy to wear, and really becomes a part of your person. Do yourself a favor and at least try it. They better not reformulate this one, and if it's based on Gorham's memories of his father, who would want to reformulate a fond memory?