Inflorescence

Byredo Parfums Inflorescence I like when designers take something great from the past, and give it a new twist. One of my favorite websites is a blog called “new dress a day”. Every day, this talented and creative seamstress takes a one dollar dress from the thrift store and redesigns it into a current fashion, with all the before, during, and after photos. All of the things she’s created so far have been beautiful, unique, and creative, all on the tiniest budget. It’s proof that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to produce something great - the trick is to start with a great idea, find something with potential, to have enough vision to see something new in something old day after day, and to have the skills to pull it off – both technically and aesthetically. The downside is that if your creation clings too hard to the past, it’s going to be hard to revision it in the present and breathe new life into it. The same could be said for this fragrance. Inflorescence was a blind test for me and my first ever test of a Byredo perfume. I wore it today because of the name alone. I am wearing a dress with an embroidered floral print; so I wanted a fragrance with a strong floral heart, and the name, Inflorescence, seemed to fit. I had no idea what a treat I was in for! This reminds me so much of my beloved Lauren by Ralph Lauren, which has a heart of freshly picked and green mixed flowers against a background of greenery. That fragrance is what began my obsession with green bouquets where I spent quite a bit of time exploring fragrances like Calyx and Chanel No. 19. I absolutely love the pairing of green notes with freshly picked flowers. Byredo has taken this same idea – a freshly picked bouquet, paired it down to just a few flowers and amped them up, and put the green notes center stage. I would say that this is more of a bouquet of greenery with a few simple but strong flowers in focus. On my skin, the green is so fresh and vivid and just slightly herbal. On the first testing, I would have sworn that it had fresh cilantro and celery notes. Later, it dries down to a rather loud and clear bouquet of super green and slightly damp lilies of the valley softened by vivid pink and coral roses. It’s absolutely lovely and a very modern twist on an old classic. Thank you, Byredo.

“Inflorescence” starts off as a beautifully sparkling green and white floral. Underneath there is a medium current of good lemon reminiscent of Chanel „Cristalle Eau Verte“. After the sparkle is gone around 2-3 hours in, it turns into an expensive lemonade fragrance (think of Sprite or Mitsuya Cider but high-quality), that leans female, but not in a coquettish way. Also, you do get a defined undercurrent of white florals - could be jasmine but not sure - that I find exceptionally lovely. When I had to wash off the fragrance after roughly 6 hours, it was still moderately strong. “Inflorescence” is an exciting fragrance - ageless, elegant, refreshing, interesting, yet wearable. It’s a beautiful summer scent for female (or somewhat gender-nonconforming) professionals. To be honest, the only reason I will not buy it is the price. Where I live it’s about €330.- for 100ml and this much it is not worth to me quality-wise. Firstly, because with „Cristalle Eau Verte“ Chanel offers a great-yet-cheaper alternative and secondly, because I keep on thinking I could get a Frederic Malle for that same money. Of course, this is just my personal set of limits, but for me to pay over €300.- for 100ml (or less) of a juice, it must be overwhelming, not just very good. However, if the price point does not concern you, do consider Byredo’s “Inflorescence”. TL;DR: Well-blended sparkling white lemonade 🍋

Walking down a city lane today I caught a piercing whiff of this on a cool young thing striding out in a worldproof sound bubble. Almost wondered if it was Diorissimo, though it seemed more lemony. More like Envy. Straight to the shop then, to follow up. So for me it's been a totally addictive mix of fresh crushed stems, citrus and less-sweet flowers such as Lily of the Valley/Daphne perhaps, followed later with a dry/creamy combination that is quite strange, like freshly saddle-soaped tack spread with pulverised gardenias. There's a magnolia tree in my garden, but that lemony peppery scent wasn't there. Rather the citrus was directly clean and zesty. People tend not to like powerful citrus. There can never be too much for me, if nothing else jars. The creamy sweet/acid note seems the one jarring element to this. It's the thing I've always recoiled from in fragrances like LouLou and Poême. Never have chased down precisely what it is. If anyone could enlighten me I'd be grateful. Still, the absolute delight of the opening notes has me hooked and the leathery dry down is interesting, so this one is under serious consideration.

My first Byredo and by no means is it my last. Inflorescence is a lush, sharp green fragrance, I do pull out LOTV and some magnolia, but the scent is predominantly grassy and very botanical to my nose. Theres also something which gives off a citrussy undertone in this as well, its also very, very strong! 3 spritzes MAX and everyone around me could smell it, but despite it being so nuclear on my skin, its also quite inoffensive at the same time and smells very summery, it conjures up images of wearing white linen trousers and a white t-shirt and running through a wooded meadow of wild flowers and green grass Longevity is decent on my skin, I can get 7 hours out of 3 spritzes, but by 2hrs it does become quite close to skin, but throughout wear I will get little wafts of it from time to time, its really quite lovely! Overall, I'd say this is a unisex scent to my nose, it doesn't really seem to fall into either vein of being masculine or feminine smelling, it just smells good and is for people that want to smell good and feel like they're running through said wooded meadow, I love it!

Since I usually can't stand lily of the valley or freesia, it's bizarre that I love this fragrance. I guess the combination of those two scents together erases their individual unpleasantness to my nose. I think this is beautiful! It's uplifting, easy to wear, crowd-pleasing, me-pleasing, unique, and feminine. It costs more than I would like to pay, but doesn't everything? Whenever my husband like any fragrance of mine, at all, he claims, "Oooo - smells like orange blossom." (It doesn't matter if it smells like road tar, if he likes it, it's "orange blossom".) When he smelled Inflorescence, he said, "Mmmm - I LOVE it when you wear orange blossom!" In this case, I get what he means. The orange blossom we're used to in California (as well as the jasmine) has a airy, sweet quality that is prevalent in this perfume. As I said before, I don't get freesia or lily of the valley...so I'm happy to call it orange blossom if that's what suits it. I read a review below that compares this to Jo Malone Orange Blossom, and I absolutely agree!