Slow Dance

Byredo often doesn’t get the respect it deserves from fragrance aficionados, perhaps because this house doesn’t target the expectations of those partial to French perfumery. Byredo is a niche house with a hard to pigeonhole line up from barely perceptible fragrances to true room filling beasts, from simple one or two note affairs to complex, overwhelmingly dense formulations. There’s a plethora of fragrance profiles that should have one or two tickling most anyone’s nose while the rest . . . perhaps not. Being niche, they take chances. Slow Dance is opoponax mainly, followed by cognac and vanilla. It’s mostly linear with violet and geranium giving some sparkle in the opening—but you can read the note list for yourself. When I first sprayed it, I thought “This reminds me of Amouage Interlude Man, but better.” As a whole, it’s more approachable than Interlude Man, as if IM went to a finishing school that turned it from being the class bully into a well-mannered star quarterback. Compared to Interlude, Slow Dance has less incense bite, a bit less vanilla, all tied together a bit better by the cognac. Like Interlude, it lasts all day. Unlike Interlude, its manageable sillage won’t clear the room or induce headaches. To me, it smells a bit like the hundred-year-old violin I played as a kid, full of rosin, aging shellack, and a bit of blood, sweat and tears shed after hours struggling to make difficult passages sound virtuosic. I highly recommend you sample some now! (BTW, my factory filled sample of Slow Dance was labeled and boxed as Bal d’Afrique. After sampling a few times, I bought a bottle of Bal d’Afrique, sprayed it a home and said, “Something's not right!” I took the Bal d’Afrique to the store the next day, taking my sample, explaining they didn’t smell the same. The SA said, “That’s because your sample is Slow Dance, but mislabeled.” He sprayed from his on-floor sample bottles to demonstrate the differences, then showed some other SAs the mis-labeled sample and said, “I wonder how many others bought Bal d’Afrique thinking they were getting Slow Dance.”)

This one is really interesting, I was exploring the Byredo line for the first time but I was specifically looking for a floral perfume, so I kept smelling the florals they have, none of which truly stood out to me, but I was having an enjoyable conversation about perfume with the salesperson and was there for over an hour. I liked La Tulipe, it wasn’t anything mind blowing but I figured it could be a nice everyday scent and I was half thinking I’ll get it, until the salesperson suggested something completely different from what I was looking for and sprayed slow dance on a blotter, and it was an INSTANT LOVE and I was certain that’s what I’ll get within just a few seconds from smelling it lol. It is definitely unique, and evokes a certain feeling of warmth within me that I cannot put into words. The notes are relatively minimal yet they speak volumes with such beautiful harmonious complexity: the sweetness of the oppoponax greets you and is there to stay, almost mouthwatering, balanced with the resinous warmth of the labdanum and a faint green nuance of the geranium, earthy backbone of patchouli, and creamy vanilla singing in the background waiting for its turn to sing louder as the wear time goes on, while a soft kiss of violet gives just the right vintage touch that evokes a feeling of familiarity and longing for another time. A beautifully and uniquely composed scent profile that always gets me taking long deep breaths when I wear it, grounding and warming for the soul. It is very rare for me to so deeply fall in love with a scent upon the first sniff and I’m so grateful for that salesperson for spraying it on that blotter! A couple lessons to learn from this experience: don't settle for a scent you’re not completely in love with, keep looking, and don’t limit yourself to a certain expected outcome, simply enjoying the process and keeping an open mind to trying something completely different could lead you to what you didn’t even know you needed 😇

When I read the reviews, it seems to be a polarising bottle. I really love it, because the start is deliciously boozy from cognac and opoponax without beeing too much at all. It is a pleasant opening. When it settles down, the opening notes calm down but do not dissapear. All the top, middle and base notes are very well blended into a smooth, gentle, violet coloured ensemble (in the sense of giving this scent a colour), which for me leans on the feminine side. Normally I don ́t like geranium alone, but here it balances out the sweetness and makes it interesting by becoming a sweet flowery note itself. It can be worn at work, in day and night time. Perfekt for going out in the night. More for cooler or cold days. No need to take more than 2 or max. 3 sprays, it is long lasting on my skin, is noticable around me, still smelling it on the skin after a day and a night. It ́s sweet, but not fully gourmand. It is not cloying, if applied with moderation (!), but if you overspray, the geranium will suffocate you and others. I smell a dry boozy sweetness from cognac, no vanilla in a typical dessert way at all. I can ́t smell earthy patchouli or straight vanilla nor strong incense in a separated way. Everything is mixed together and makes the whole composition very special, delicious and absolutely unique.

This is a genius, understated, and unpretentious fragrance that--for me--is hard to categorize. It has what we would identify as traditionally feminine and masculine elements, but it does not ever linger on one or the other for too long. It is a fragrance that requires patience and time to appreciate. Slow Dance's opening is paradoxically FAST in making itself felt: a big shot of cognac-drowned fruits, and a menthol cigarette lingering in the background. This lasts for 15 minutes at most, and while the top notes come out very quickly they do not ever fully fade away--a sure sign of a well-blended perfume and truly representative of a slow dance. Within the first hour the cognac melts into a powdery vanilla (dry and creamy) and the floral heart carries the opoponax forward with it creating something reminiscent of a bowl of fruit (or is it a vase of flowers) left out for a day or two too long. The incense and patchouli emerge fully after 3-4 hours and seem to remain at the very edge of the scent, like a very woody, very earthy frame to this powdery, floral, boozy picture. I get an impression of oakmoss and cedar, but that is likely just my own memory trying to make this perfume more familiar.

This is my first Byredo fragrance - I've been to the stores to test the fragrances multiple times but I've never really found any that really stood out to me. I'd blind bought this on a massive clearance discount because I was being impulsive and have a soft spot for discontinued fragrances. I also figured that I'd probably like the opoponax/labdanum/patchouli combination and was right on the money with that. The opening was very similar to Olibanum's Opoponax but about an hour in, warmed up with body heat, the lactonic violet and incense started coming through and it went from a, "huh, this smells alright" to "woah, this is gorgeous!" In its dry down, there's a warm booziness that is actually really reminiscent of engaging in a slow dance with someone you're interested in. It's a moment where you're giddy about being embraced but are also full of uncertainties as to how the rest of the night is about to unfold. I think the most interesting part for me is that it also reminds me of the smoke machine that they use in events. It's a strange, specific nostalgia but I definitely enjoy this fragrance!