L'Indigène

Okay, so I’ll admit I was initially a little confused by what I was smelling here. I was expecting a bright, herbaceous fougère, something immediately uplifting. But instead I was met with a thick, unctuous, brooding surprise, dripping with warm, syrupy, coffee-like notes. Any remaining space filled with cumin, resins, and a heavy dose of immortelle. This goes on for a while and leaves you scratching your head for the fougère within. I mean it’s there, but not in any barbershop type familiarity you might be accustomed. Then half an hour in... oh my god. It taps you on the shoulder and takes both your knees out at the same time. It’s soft yet powerful all at once; dusty, sweet, and powdery one moment, then sharp and resinous the next. It dances between amber and fougère, never missing a step, elegantly and delicately revealing layer after layer of contrasting spice and sweetness. Reading back over this, I can’t help but feel the words don’t quite capture what I’m experiencing. So I’ll finish just by saying, what a bloody great perfume!

A soulful fougere-amber. The opening is cumin-forward, warm and spicy-aromatic, blending lavender, sweet citrus, and an overdose of Berber Armoise (wormwood) over a beautiful cedarwood base. The development is speedy but gradual, like a release of tension from the muscles, herbaceous mugwort and and an uplifting myrrh note lulling you into L'Indigène's soothing, gentle embrace. The animalic presence of hyrax is smoothly incorporated into the powdery, dusty landscape: the soft astringency of tea, the honey and leather of immortelle, a lingering vetiver note that never turns sharp or sour. Nothing is competing, everything is precisely elegant and delicately handled. With a long, steady drydown that is both calming and resolutely grounded by the immortelle, this is opposite of a beast mode fragrance, although it leaves a lovely trail. For a 100% natural perfume, longevity is great.

The scent of fresh ginger and cumin reminds me of the smells of African markets, especially Morocco and Nigeria A spicy, herbal, citrusy fragrance for the elderly