Saint Rémy

This smells like Saint Nicholas (Pre-Santa, Horse drawn sleigh) drinking mulled wine from a wooden cask, traveling by sleigh in a snow storm. Stand out: Juniper, Cedar and Ginger with a spicy pepper Beautiful, cold and very complex. I'm in love with this House.

Why I keep doing this to myself? I see iris and juniper and I buy without considering the rest! I know I have to stay away from strong leathers, there is no chance in hell I am gonna wear them... but I like them so much on mens! I was hoping, in truth, for something that had the same allure of my dear old favorite, dandy like The Dreamer by Versace but with a modern twist. The celestail clean iris and the fresh melody of the juniper are almost the same, even better...I was hoping to replace that tobacco note with a moden and light suede leather and vetiver. It was not an apt connection perhaps but oh this iris...a kind of almost surreal and otherwordly iris is present in this one! Saint Remy is a unisex (leaning more masculine) fragrance where a meeting between paradisiac iris + juniper and leather + vetiver takes place. I imagine it on a men with medium lenght hair, parted on the side, well waxed but still soft, of that consistency in which you can still gently pass your fingers in...a kind of greek beauty about his facial structure...oh help, this would be amazing on a men, since the type of leather present from the opening is raw and clashes with the purity of this special iris...forget the classic waxy Dior Homme iris, this is that kind of clean, ethereal and immaterial iris, a white iris indeed. The contrast makes this very interesting and alluring...I could not resist my imagination and bought a decant (only 11 ml). The brand says it is inspired by a Van Gogh painting named "Iris", he made it during one of his dark period when he was unwell and "recovering" in an asylum in Saint Remy. To me the inspiration is clear, no gimmick which makes me respect this perfume even more. You can clearly feel the battle between chaos and peace to which the brand refers, the contrast in the perfume between something classical and pure coexisting with something dark and multiform. It opens strong on the leather, the kind that its so raw it almost smells like a "conceria" which is the italian word to describe an artisan lab where leather is worked. It has animalic touches, just a hint of animal fur/skin but not dirty, and it smells a bit like ash and asphalt. It reminded me of the kind of leather in Zara Full Moon Over the Desert, another one with iris that I kinda imposed on myself! But here it is much much more refined and high end, and less ashy. In the opening just a little light touch of iris and fresh juniper berries peecks through, for a flash of light but the scent remains so gloomy...bergamot is like a thunderbolt of light in the rain...too little to have some resemblance of calm. But if you wait.. oh man if you wait... hope comes in the form of the most celestial, light and aromatic iris, well blended with juniper for freshness and light, now you can really smell them! The juniper has something of fresh balsamic with a gum quality and an etherial texture, it is "windy" in a sense....like a cool breeze coming from Paradise, fresh and scented like a perly powder! I guess you could really call this a white iris, it is so light, airy, it seems wet and dewy, it is powdery but much aromatic and it smells candid and immaculate. The contrast is more then between clean and dirty, it is truly between calm and chaotic as they said. The pink pepper and ginger are not spicy to my nose but give to the iris and juniper duo a nice kick with a more cool edge. How much I love this iris...If we were in a fairy tale and the cursed sleeping princess had to be awaken by a potion made with her prince lover tears then it would smell like this mix of iris and juniper! Like the essence of pure love....the only thing that can save her. On my skin this blend alternates with the raw leather, sometimes coexisting sometimes fighting a little...in the middle the leather becomes more smooth, still not suede like I would have prefered but it gets more bearable. There is a touch of magnolia that brings me back in the celsetial realm, it is a very airy kind of floraly essence and a little honeyed like the linden blossom can be, much delicate, its smell is so serene and solar that it fades the edges of the dark leather. A light touch of amber is also present. The opening of the scent is tenacious and the middle fase lingers for many hours...you can feel in the middle a bit of the base, specially the earthy and dusty vetiver but for the proper dry down and for something creamy you will have to wait a lot. Little by little the leather is replaced by a strong vetiver which too has some ashy undertone, and a soil facet, very earthy. Proper closing is given by a creamy blend of cedar and sandalwood, plus a quite timid tonka with some aromatic iris still lingering. At this point there is just calm and warmth. You can still smell a bit of struggle, or contrats if you will...this time between the strong vetiver and the much mellow woods and in any case there is no proper, strong sweetness. From what I understand this should be a 25% edp concentration and on my skin it behaves as such. Lasting power is outstanding, nine to ten hours on my female skin, projection is strong for the first hours then it fades in to moderate but I noticed it changes for the better if you overspray. I am wearing it for an entire week so I tested only in a summer climate but I think this should be gorgeous in a cool spring night. I enjoyed this scent very much, even if strong leather is not my element. I think to someone this may appear as just a fresh take on irisy leather instead I think it is unique, it has a sort of x factor! It can be compared to Irish Leather by Memo, I have a sample of that one but I find this more classy and refined...more unisex and etherial. The style is the same but this is much more light because iris has a central role. It is also similar to two fragrances by perfumer Jordi Fernandez which are Full Moon Over the Desert by Zara and Walk on the Wild Side by Orlov, I know them both, the first has a more material, solid iris and it is more sweet and masculine, more heavy with the evernyl, the second is more spicy, much more sweet and feminine but similar in style. I find Saint Remy much more louminous and light then all of them but most importantly I find it graceful which is not the first thing it comes to my mind about the others (that too I like). As for Dior Homme, they are both leathery iris but totally different in every element. I now want to try Sugardaddy and Linen by the same brand, and I also need their Angel Dust! Lord help my finances!

There's an interesting tension here between smooth and harsh, clean and earthy, creamy and scratchy. The opening is very fresh and bitter-green, mostly juniper and bergamot with a juicy rooty ginger. The overall effect reminds me of the piney earthiness of biting into an overgrown carrot. When the harshest of the terpenes fade, I get a faint whiff of sterile, powdery florals. A cool and aloof iris note joins in. Juniper hands the baton to a scratchy cedar, while vetiver continues the earthy theme started by the ginger. A leather note makes itself known, but this is not a refined and warm leather-and-vetiver combination as in Bel Ami. Here, the vetiver is cold and unfriendly, the leather harsh and green. But the iris soothes the worst of the sting, and a creamy soapiness scrubs away at the rough edges. The drydown is both earthy and clean, as if I used warm water and a bar of French soap to lather up after digging around in the cold woods. I like it.

I didn't immediately fall for the first sprays, in the middle of a much too hot summer, but I'm actually liking it more and more. Something very masculine from the 90s, at the beginning of the gentle light for men. Almost a touch of the softness of a Miyake. Honeysuckle? Vetiver? Ginger and pink pepper, yes. And then leathery-fruity, later, while remaining perfectly balanced. Strings drawn here and there, rising and falling, all discretion and harmonization. The light lemon cedar is still very much alive in the drydown, where the note often disappears into the musk and is swallowed up by the rest. It's simple and classic, yet aromatic and powerful, sensual to the point of losing its concentration. Very interesting in this register, even if it was only a matter of time before I totally ignored it.

I agree with @gvq’s review. I think the effect is intentional, using a stark contrast between harsh and smooth, green and earthy versus floral and creamy. It feels like two sides challenging each other to a game of tennis, with you watching the ball go back and forth. It’s a beautiful perfume, though I wish the opening were less harsh. Overall, it’s a fresh scent that works well for summer, and I’m curious to see how it might unfold in the cooler months of winter or autumn. Could be interesting. For me, it’s a like rather than a love.